Tuesday, January 31, 2012

"Not critical enough" (Barth)

"What the theology and biblical scholarship of the next decades must accomplish is a single flow of what modernity's theology separated as dogmatic reflection, exegesis, and speculation" (Robert Jenson, Canon and Creed, 121)
And I couldn't agree more! Much exegetical work produced by New Testament scholars often lacks the crucial follow-through. It can make plenty of comments about socio-historical contingencies, and the grammar and syntax of a given text, but so often falls short of thinking through what they claim the text is talking about. This is one key reason why Campbell's Deliverance of God is ahead of the rest in that field, and why the bibilcal exegete cannot duck systematics. As Barth saw years ago, the historical-critical scholars are not critical enough!

Friday, January 20, 2012

Well, no poem

Yep. And to be honest, my creativity dried up shortly after writing my last post. Plus, I only sobered up after Christmas and New Year this morning. So I changed my "About Me" instead.
I did some book binging over Christmas. Here are some of them for you to salivate over:


Gotta say, the Kronen and Reiten book is great fun.

Is that all? Not quite. Spending time in Tübingen means spending money, too.


Most of the were second hand, I hasten to add. Oh yes, I forgot this baby:


A very interesting article by Landmesser to kick this beauty off.

If all this wasn't enough, I also got Murray Rae's History and Hermeneutics from Anja (there is a free chapter from this online, here). There is some mind-bending powerful stuff for NT specialists like me in this. 

So I spent most of the rest of my holiday time reading! Wonderful!