Monday, June 19, 2017

(Get Woke) Resources for Matthew

As I gear up for teaching Matthew's Gospel in week-long intensive format, I must choose a few articles for pre-class reading. I generally like to assign introductory material that is available online. In doing so, at least two factors are paramount: (1) my students need articles that are legitimately meant for first-year seminarians; (2) it makes things easier on all involved if my students can get this pre-reading done without the purchase of a textbook. (I do assign books but I don't like to assign them for pre-reading.) In addition to these two primary factors, I prefer authors with an eye to social impact. My students (by default) are practical and "woke" seeking to be more so. From time to time, I encounter the rare soul who loves the material for the sake of the material. Usually, however, my seminarians are serving communities in poverty (regardless of race, some outside North America) and not strangers to the many challenges associated with poverty. So if I can, I try to include resources that are relevant (or provide a foundation for socially informed discussion).

Here are three articles I'm using for my Matthew intensive:

William Loader, "The Gospel of Matthew An Introduction for Preachers"
http://wwwstaff.murdoch.edu.au/~loader/matt.html

Jerome H. Neyrey, S.J., "Honoring the Dishonored: The Cultural Edge of Jesus' Beatitudes"
http://www3.nd.edu/~jneyrey1/loss.html

Mary Kay Dobrovolny, "Who Controls the Resources? Economics and Justice in Matt 20:1-15" http://web.archive.org/web/20040917020747/http://www.sbl-site.org/PDF/Dobrovolny_Matthew.pdf

Hat tip to the always useful NTGateway for pointing me in the right direction! The article by Loader serves as a brief, general introduction. It charts a few key themes in Matthew by focusing on the first five chapters. The article by Neyrey contextualizes one of these themes by focusing on what is arguably Matthew's most famous passage. Finally, I've selected a paper presentation by Dobrovolny. Admittedly, this paper is not meant for first-year seminarians. But I think it is just the right amount of challenging once the first two articles have been digested.

Are there other resources that would fit my interests and specifically focused on Matthew? I would love to hear suggestions. Remember, they must be accessible for first-year seminarians, available online, and socially aware.

-anthony

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