Jesus against the Scribal Elite Youtube Videos—Chris Keith

 

Baker Academic has now loaded onto Youtube several videos that we shot last November about my new book, Jesus against the Scribal Elite.  I've included one below and at the end of it are links to three or so others.  Some discuss the overall aims of the book, some its classroom usage, and some its methodology.  Thanks to Baker Academic, and especially Jeremy Wells, for doing this.  It's one of many reasons that I love working with them. 

 

 

Jesusology and a Suffering God - Le Donne

In my first semester at United Theological Seminary (this Fall) I will be teaching a classed titled “The New Testament and Suffering.” It is a topic that has fascinated me for some time. Suffering is everywhere in the biblical story. Whether we’re talking of exile, remembrance, lament, crucifixion, final judgment, or future hope, suffering is central. Strange then that much of my religious experience has involved masking or marginalizing this element of the human experience. I have learned well from my fellow Christians how to avoid talk of suffering and to give every testimony a bright, Jesusy silver lining. For this reason and others I am looking forward to developing a more “Christian” way to think about God, the Bible, and suffering in conversation with my students.

One of the books I will be assigning is Terence Fretheim’s The Suffering of God: An Old Testament Perspective. (Tip of the hat to Brad Anderson for recommending this book to me several years ago.) This may seem an odd choice for a New Testament class, but it was the first book that came to mind when I decided to teach it. Fretheim’s portrait of a suffering God tied to a suffering people has become crucial to my thinking on this topic. In preparation, I picked up this book again recently. Here is an excerpt from the first pages:

Expositus Kickstarter—Chris Keith

Friend of the Jesus Blog Joshua Mann has a Kickstarter campaign going for an online resource he's created called Expositus, which aims to be a digital platform for the Humanities.

If you'd like to support it, you can find the site here.  Below is a bit from the site explaining its purpose:

"Humans need the humanities--subjects like history, literature, religion, and philosophy that are at the heart of culture, the soul of human existence.
With a platform for discussion and resources designed for both scholar and learner, Expositus prospers a community that, together, can help advance and share our knowledge of the humanities.
You can see the live concept at Expositus.org."

The Quest for the Real Jesus (Brill 2013) and . . . GIVEAWAY!—Chris Keith

I've just finished writing a review of The Quest for the Real Jesus (ed. Jan van der Watt) for JTS.  I'll provide the link in due course but wanted to share some thoughts now.  Overall the book was a very insightful and enjoyable read on the relationship between historical Jesus research and New Testament theology.  I especially liked the format.  The first essay is Michael Wolter's main lecture from the 2011 Radbound Prestige Lectures at Radbound University Nijmegen, where the volume's editor, Jan van der Watt, serves as Professor of New Testament.  The rest of the essays are from NT scholars, NT theologians, and systematic theologians.  They all respond in one way or another to Wolter's initial essay, so the reader feels like s/he's listening in on their conversation.  The contributors are Cilliers Breytenbach, R. Alan Culpepper, James D. G. Dunn, Craig A. Evans, Christopher M. Hays, Martin Laube, Michael Licona, Robert Morgan, and Notger Slenczka.

I'll copy here a short section from the review, which describes Wolter's proposal:

The book’s emphasis on the theological contours of historical Jesus research begins in Wolter’s opening essay.  Wolter situates his discussion as a mediating position between the opinion of Reimarus, who believed that the historical Jesus behind the Gospels was historically accessible and theologically significant in contrast to the Christ of faith, and Kähler, who believed the historical Jesus behind the Gospels was historically inaccessible and theologically insignificant, since theological significance resided solely in the Christ of faith.  Wolter proposes instead a third path.  After providing a catalogue for the different approaches to Jesus in critical enquiry (“historical Jesus,” “Jesus Christ,” “earthly Christ,” “Jesus Christ remembered,” “Jesus from Nazareth,” “Jesus’ self-interpretation,” and “the real Jesus”), Wolter argues that “the real Jesus,” which he defines as “an ontic reality beyond the images that people have been making of him since the time he lived” (12), “definitely exists” but that “we cannot really say anything about him” because any perception is “contaminated with particular interpretations” (13).  Wolter proceeds, however, to argue that the theologian, as opposed to the non-theological historian, can go further in his or her knowledge since “the real Jesus” is Jesus as he is known and vindicated by God.  Wolter sees this vindication in the resurrection of Jesus and visionary experiences in the early Church, whereby God affirmed “Jesus’ self-interpretation.”  Wolter concludes, therefore, that for the theological historian, historical Jesus questions must ultimately “be answered by the self-interpretation of Jesus” (17). 

As far as I can tell, none of the respondents bought 100% into Wolter's proposal.  All of them praised aspects of it and some were very critical.  One of the most interesting things was to see which scholars chose to address the specific question of whether there is a categorical difference in doing historical Jesus research from a theological perspective, and which scholars chose not to address it.  For me, the two highlights of the volume overall were Christopher M. Hays's and Robert Morgan's essays.  Hays argues for a Gadamerian Wirkungsgeschichte approach to historical Jesus studies, where the differences between theological and non-theological approaches to historical Jesus research essentially amount to how, and to what extent, a researcher engages with Jesus' history of effects.  I'm still thinking on whether Wolter's conversation is one that, at the end of the day, we can really have.  But Hays convinced me that if it is to be had, it must look something like he proposes.  I do wish Hays had given some more attention to the significance of a Gadamerian approach for non-theological Jesus research, though.  Morgan's essay outlines how confessional Jesus researchers can incorporate the results of historical criticism into faith-images of Jesus.  It's a very interesting article, though its explicit definition of historical Jesus research as "subordinate" to Christian theology, and arguments for incorporating historical Jesus research "piecemeal" into an image of Jesus as a means to "safeguard" that image, were more than a little concerning to me.  In my mind, the problem is not a faith or non-faith perspective but rather whether that position is determinative for the scholar doing historical work.  For the sake of honesty in the discussion, or at least its appearance, one must preserve a place for the believing Jesus scholar who is convinced that he or she must follow the evidence wherever it leads.  What is abundantly clear in the volume, however, is that the question of the relevance of historical Jesus research for New Testament theology and Christian faith is nowhere near a consensus.

Now, for those of you who have really only been reading this because of the word "giveaway" in the title of the post . . .  I happen to have an extra copy of the book and I'm going to give it away.  You know the rules.  You can enter to win by commenting below, sharing this post on any and all social media and leaving a comment, signing up to follow the blog and leaving a comment, or . . . for the wild card, telling us your 80s or 90s music guilty pleasure.  Mine is probably the Bangles.

Hurtado on Oral Fixation in New Testament Studies—Chris Keith

Readers of the Jesus Blog who are interested in orality, textuality, scribality, etc., as it relates to the Gospels will want to make sure to read Larry Hurtado's article in the new issue of New Testament Studies:  "Oral Fixation and New Testament Studies? 'Orality', 'Performance' and Reading Texts in Early Christianity."  I saw an early version of the article and have been waiting for it to land.  Hurtado's main targets are advocates of so-called "performance criticism" in New Testament studies, who argue that, basically, when early Christians "read" texts they, in reality, performed them from memory.  That is, they did not actually read manuscripts.  David Rhoads is probably the most vocal leader of this group of scholars, whom I know well as the current co-Chair of the Bible in Ancient and Modern Media session, where many of them are active.  These are good scholars, but I've for some time not been convinced of this claim that all or most reading of texts in early Christianity was actually oral performance.  (My presentation at the 2014 Evil in Second Temple Judaism and Early Christianity conference, and essay in the forthcoming published proceedings, was/is a critical engagement with Richard Horsley's work on this point.)  Hurtado's arguments are, to my mind, convincing.  I'll add further that I recently served as the "faculty opponent" for Dan Nässelqvist's PhD defense at at the University of Lund, where he was supervised by Samuel Byrskog.  Dan's (successful) PhD includes probably the most thorough study on the role of the lector in the first two centuries of early Christianity to date.  Like Hurtado, he argues thoroughly that when early Christians "read" texts, they actually did read manuscripts, not perform them orally.

My Newest Publication Arrived Today - Le Donne

Arrived in the mail today:

-anthony

Tragedy at Seattle Pacific University—Chris Keith

Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected by the tragedy at Seattle Pacific University.

50% Discount for Grad Students from Baylor University Press

Graduate students can get 50% off of everything on Baylor University Press' backlist if they sign up with the following link.

Go to http://baylorpr.es/1hXvixQ and fill out the form. Be sure to use your “.edu” email address.

The discount code for the promotion will then be sent to you on June 14 and applies only to backlist books.

Start shopping at www.baylorpress.com.

Durham #1

More props to my alma mater:

http://www.theguardian.com/education/ng-interactive/2014/jun/03/university-guide-2015-league-table-for-religious-studies-and-theology

-anthony

JC at the Jesus and Brian Conference--Chris Keith

Oh goodness.  This just in from Richard Burridge:

JOHN CLEESE AT JESUS AND BRIAN

We can now announce that John Cleese will be our after dinner speaker for the Jesus and Brian conference on 21 June. The cost is £65 for a superb dinner and a talk from John Cleese in the beautiful environment of Inner Temple. You do not need to attend the conference itself as TRS staff or student, but day tickets are available for £32.50. On Friday night 20 June Python Terry Jones will also be joining us for conversation with Richard Burridge, and on Sunday 22 June there will be a discussion with the film editor, Julian Doyle, author of The Life of Christ/Brian. Tickets available till June 13. The link is: http://estore.kcl.ac.uk/browse/extra_info.asp?compid=1&modid=1&prodid=870

Congratulations to Stewart Penwell!--Chris Keith

Congratulations to my PhD student, Stewart Penwell, for passing his confirmation panel at St Mary's University, Twickenham with flying colors!  Stewart is writing a very promising PhD on the usage of ethnic slurs in the Gospel of John.

Jesus and Brian

This isn't your last chance to be cool, but the door is closing:

http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/trs/events/jandb/index.aspx

-anthony

Quarterly Quote of the Month about Jesus for this Week

"Jesus knew there was a place for everything. It is not necessary everyone's place to come to Australia."

        ~Tony Abbott