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Gathercole at Lanier Theological Library

University of Cambridge professor, Simon Gathercole, is soon to give his second lecture at Lanier Theological Library.  On May 7, 2016 from 7.00 to 9.00 pm Simon will offer a lecture entitled:

“The Journeys of Jesus and Jewish Geography”

The Gospels in the New Testament contain a remarkable amount of geographical information, especially in the quantity of references to areas, towns and villages that Jesus (and John the Baptist) visited. Are these genuine or fictitious?  Some Jesus skeptics have doubted the existence of places like Nazareth and Capernaum.  Even many New Testament scholars are unaware of the evidence for Gospel sites. Strikingly, however, a huge proportion of the place-names in the Gospels are paralleled in Jewish literature outside the New Testament, even down to some of the small villages.  This illustrated lecture will examine the historical evidence, some already known, some presented for the first time, for the places in the Gospel.  It will show how this evidence has clear implications for the reliability of the Gospel narratives.Simon Gathercole

The lecture is free and open to the public.  Click here for more information and to register.

If you have never been to the Lanier Theological Library or the Stone Chapel, you are in for a treat.  Mike Bird calls it “DisneyLand” for scholars.  Mark and Becky Lanier have done a wonderful job building these classic structures , collecting some of the world’s best books and artifacts, staffing the library, presenting lectures, and hosting events.  Scholars, teachers, and leaders come from all around the world to see this place. Charles Mickey is director of the library and coordinates all these events. He has a cracker-jack staff who do everything you can imagine to make these events successful.

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The Earliest Christologies

 

I received a copy of James L. Papandrea’s book, The Earliest Christologies: Five Images of Christ in the Postapostolic Age (InterVarsity Press, 2016).  I had read and reviewed the book prior to publication so this is my “thank you” copy from the publisher. Earliest Christologies by Papandrea

Papandrea is an associate professor of church history at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary at Northwestern University.  He has written other books on the Church Fathers and Trinitarian theology.

The second century (AD or CE, if you prefer) was a crucial period for what would become the Christian Church.  A great deal is thought out, worked out, argued out about key issues like: What books do we read as Scripture?  How do we relate to the Jews and other religions?  How do we live out our distinctive calling?  Who was Jesus  . . . really?

It is this last question which occupies Papandrea’s attention for 127 pages.  Was the Christ a man who was temporarily inhabited by the divine?  Was he a spirit that only appeared to be flesh?  Was he the enfleshing of the divine Logos?  Was he a righteous man adopted by God for a special purpose?

In short, Papandrea has taken a complex and daunting set of texts from long ago and helped his readers sort out the language, concepts, and images.   By its length and scope it is an introduction so it is on a shelf everyone can reach.  Papandrea describes five views of Jesus in this period: Angel adoptionism, Spirit adoptionism, Docetism, Hybrid Gnosticism, and Logos Christology.  Each idea was current among a sizeable group of Jesus people in the second century and, in some cases, beyond.  But ultimately the Church would land on one option to answer the perennial question: “Who do you say that I [Jesus] am?”  The only reason you haven’t probably heard some of these other options is because they were deemed insufficient, wrong, and heretical.  So, over time, they died out.  Ironically, vestiges of these approaches to Jesus remain in “orthodox” Christianity, but that’s another post.

The next time I teach this period and topic, I will be using The Earliest Christologies by James Papandrea.

Here is a link to the book on Amazon: The Earliest Christologies. 

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Paul as Human . . . as Missionary

I’m thinking and writing about Paul again.  I can’t seem to get away from that fellow.  I came across a great post by my friend, Mike Bird.  Here is a link:

Ed Sanders on Paul as Human and Missionary

 

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Society of Biblical Literature Southwest Region

Bill Bellinger (Baylor University) and I were on the nominating committee for the Society of Biblical Literature Southwest organization this spring.   We elected a new slate of officers.  They have various duties that come together primarily during the next meeting which will be next March (2017) in Dallas.

Here are the officers:

President, David Moessner (Texas Christian University)

President Elect, Todd Still (Baylor University)

Vice President, Mark Hamilton (Abilene Christian University)

Old Testament Program Chair, James Nogalski (Baylor University)

New Testament Program Chair, Jason Maston (Houston Baptist University)

Congratulations to our new officers.  Thanks for your willingness to serve.

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Michael Bird on the Apocalyptic Paul

Mike BirdRecently, my friend Michael Bird (Ridley College Melbourne) was in Houston and lectured at the Lanier Theological Library.  His topic had to do with whether the apocalyptic Paul could be understood within the framework of what some scholars call “salvation history.” Mike did a good job with the lecture.  He’s always witty and relevant.  Here is a link to the video:

 

http://www.laniertheologicallibrary.org/videos/