Nicknames

Giving lecturers nicknames is one of the favourite pastimes and perhaps one of the most creative activities of the students in STM. I must confess I am not innocent of this, as I did give some of my professors some very creative and unique nicknames as well. If you are curious enough in wanting to know what nicknames I give to William Mounce, Moises Silva, Gregory Beale, Peter Kuzmic, and Haddon Robbinson, you have to ask me privately!!

Now that I am on the receiving end, I often wonder what nicknames students in the seminary give me. Some of the students are a bit discreet - the nicknames they give are always "quietly" uttered behind my back - and they are all convinced that I do not know some of these. But some of the students are bold enough to publicise them in the blogsphere and elsewhere.

This is just a sample of the list of names/descriptions/adjectives/titles I "earned" in the past few months since I begin teaching at STM:

• slave driver - this title is deliberately mentioned in a blog with the hope that I will read it! And I have the proof for this!
• paper doll - you got to know the context out of which this name is given.
• cute - I won't tell you where I find this. However, no extra credit for the person who gives me this name! You got to try harder (hint hint...I like chocolate).
• teruk - one of the most common descriptions given to me.
• teruk-ly funny - huh? what is this??
• genius - how nice! But this does not earn whoever that gives me this title any extra credit in the the exams or papers.
• incorrigible - well, you can find this expression everywhere in the comments.
• Apostle Lim - I am not going to tell you where I find this!
• weird sense of imagination and humor - huh?
• blooming NT scholar - well, technically not given by a student but a friend.
• Batman in Infinite Crisis - not really a nickname, but it's a title that I am honoured to be tagged by a friend.

I think we better stop somewhere, else something like what is happening below might come true for me!!



Cartoons credit: Reverendfun.com

SBL Annual Meeting 2007 Online Programme Book

The Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting 2007 Online Programme Book is now available. There are some very interesting sessions this year. Wish I could be there!

Which Year Are You?

I have not been feeling too well for the past couple of days. So I decided to pay the doctor a visit. I went to one of the STM panel doctors.

When the doctor saw me, he asked, "Which year are you in STM?"

"First year," I replied

"Oh, first year. That's good."

"First year as a lecturer, not a student."

The doctor was taken aback for a while....

How Does A Biblical Scholar...? The Struggle to Give A Public Lecture

I have been invited to give a 20-minute lecture on "Was Jesus Political?" from a New Testament perspective for the OHSMI Inaugural Dialogue to be held on September 15, 2007. I think the biggest struggle for me is how should I organise the lecture? At what level I should be giving the lecture - should it be more intellectual or devotional? How can I strike a balance?

I guess it all depends on the crowd that would be coming. If OHSMI dialogue is "designed for good scholarship towards effective discipleship," then I am tempted to do something more scholarly and intellectual. Perhaps there might be a group of people that might appreciate this approach. But again, being a public dialogue, the audience might be mixed and I am also concerned that perhaps some of the crowd may not fully appreciate or understand some of the issued addressed and where I am coming from - and the picture of Jesus that I will paint may differ significantly from one that they are used to - the Saviour of the world - and this may cause uneasiness among some of them.

I guess at the back of my mind, the question I have is this: Can Jesus, in the words of Scot McKnight, "be understood if he is described exclusively, or even primarily, in the category of a spiritual master, or as one who was primarily concerned with the inner religious life and its disciplines for the individual"? Is there a place in our faith for a "political" Jesus instead of merely a "spiritual" Jesus?

The struggle of a budding NT scholar in giving a public lecture.....Hope I survive!

Pete Williams Succeeds Bruce Winter as Warden of Tyndale House

As a alumnus of Tyndale House, Cambridge (I spent several months in Tyndale's excellent library while working on my Ph.D. in the UK), I am so glad that Pete William is now succeeding Bruce Winter as the Warden of Tyndale House.

Justin Taylor recently interviewed Pete on his new role as Warden. Read the interview and be encouraged by Pete's vision for Tyndale which is reproduced below:

"I believe that Tyndale House exists to develop evangelical biblical scholars and evangelical biblical scholarship. I would like, quite simply, for Tyndale to play its part in increasing the number of bright, humble, sane, passionate, evangelical scholars who are deeply learned and contribute to the church and to the articulation of the faith in a wider culture.

"More specifically, I’d like to see confessional scholarship clearly outstripping non-confessional scholarship in its quality and rigor. We should want evangelical scholars to be trained to a higher standard than other scholars. If others decide that one Masters degree is enough before the PhD, maybe we should require two (for instance, one in each Testament). It would be great to have the resources to be able to fund young scholars to study to a higher standard. I would also love to be in a position for us to have more post-doctoral research fellows (we currently have three) and to take on major publication projects such as a large-scale treatment of the NT canon, which is proving such fertile ground for contemporary myth-makers. Perhaps we could be involved in setting up more University appointments, not just in Cambridge, but also in other Universities in the UK."

I share Tony's wish to see biblical scholars of high calibre and a resource centre similar to Tyndale House in South-East Asia. Will this happen? If so, when?

OHMSI Dialogue: Was Jesus Political?

Do come and support yours truly for the Inaugural Dialogue during the official launch of OHMSI .

Date: September 15, 2007

Time: 10.00 am - 12.30pm

Venue: Petaling Jaya Gospel Hall, Jalan Gasing

You may register for the Inaugural Dialogue by clicking here.

Bring the Whole Bible to Chapel!

As I was rushing out my office for the chapel this morning, I quickly grabbed my NA-27 along.

But when I stepped into the chapel, I realised that this could be a mistake as our Rabbi would be preaching. True enough, he preached from Psalm 56:8. But on the brighter side, modern technology saved the day - the text was flashed on the projector.

The moral of the story: Bring the "whole" Bible to chapel next time! Or, better still, just don't bring it, count on modern technology!

1,000km in 4 days!

Over the Merdeka weekend, I clocked almost 1,000km on the road. On Friday morning, I drove from KL to Rompin to speak at the St. Mary's Cathedral Fellowship camp, and then back to Seremban the following day. Then on Sunday, I hit the road again together with two of my colleagues from church. This time, it was down south to historic Melaka to speak at the Malacca Evangelical Free Church, with the help from my colleagues who did a skit for me.

But we had a good break in Melaka. We decided to say a night and savoured some of the Melaka goodies....

Now it's back to work at the seminary. It was tiring, but yet a fulfilling weekend, despite all the hours spent on the road! The real joy is to see people responding to the exposition of the scriptures.

University of Manchester Scholarships

SCHOOL OF LANGUAGES, LINGUISTICS AND CULTURES/SCHOOL OF ARTS, HISTORIES AND CULTURES, University of Manchester (England)

Two Full PhD Studentships in Ancient Jewish Literature

Applications are invited for two PhD Studentships, funded by the AHRC as part of the project Typology of Anonymous and Pseudepigraphic Jewish Literature in Antiquity, c. 200 BCE to c. 700 CE at Manchester University. Applicants should hold a first-class or good upper second-class degree (or equivalent) in a relevant discipline, and have completed/are completing a Masters degree (or equivalent).

One PhD will address questions regarding the genre, coherence and argument in a rabbinic text, the other in a non-rabbinic Jewish text. The supervisors are Prof. A. Samely and Prof. P. S. Alexander, respectively.

Details of the PhD projects are available from: http://www.llc.manchester.ac.uk/postgraduate/funding/

The AHRC covers fees and subsistence (the latter at c. £12,600 p.a.) for 3 years. For full grants (fees plus maintenance) there is a prior 3-year UK residence requirement, the details of which are in the AHRC Guide: http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/apply/postgrad/doctoral_awards_scheme.asp. Candidates not eligible for full grants may apply for fees-only awards.

The closing date is 30 September 2007 (successful candidates to register from January 2008).

Informal inquiries and applications should be addressed to:

Prof. A. Samely

School of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures

University of Manchester

Oxford Road

M13 9PL

United Kingdom

Email: alex.samely@manchester.ac.uk

Sitiawan Roadshow - The Legacy of John Sung 5

The church that became our gathering point during our Sitiawan Roadshow a couple of weeks ago (for earlier posts, see parts 1, 2, 3, and 4) was the Pioneer Chinese Methodist Church. This is an historical site not only for the Christians but also for the founding of the city of Sitiawan.

In 1903, about more than 350 Christian Foochows arrived Sitiawan from China. Led by Rev Ling Ching Mi, this group that arrived was the Chinese Colonial Government’s second population transplant experiment in the Malay peninsula, following the success of a similar scheme in Sibu, Sarawak in 1901.

Rev Ling became the first pastor of the Pioneer Methodist Church. Today, Pioneer Methodist Church is a majestic building built in the shape of a cross. Originally built in 1904, the church was burnt down in 1906 and rebuilt in 1907. Near the church is the grave of Rev Ling.

The church also experienced a mighty revival as a result of the preaching and visits of John Sung in the 1930s. If one were to talk to the elderly church members, many would still fondly remember John Sung and the revival that took place then. There were many interesting testimonies of conversions and transformed lives. (photo to the left: The team from STM that visited Sitiawan, standing in front of Pioneer Chinese Methodist Church).

Countless Chinese in Sitiawan were converted and revived through the ministry of John Sung and they subsequently played a significant role in the growth of Christianity in Sitiawan and beyond the city. This is perhaps the biggest legacy of John Sung in Sitiawan.

Where is the John Sung of today? Where is he?