the homilia of a budding NT scholar

I know I am a bit late in announcing a conference on St Paul's Journey into Philosophy with Stephen E. Fowl, Paul J. Griffiths, J. Louis Martyn, P. Travis Kroeker, Douglas Harink, Chris K. Huebner, Mark Reasoner, Gordon Zerbe, Jens Zimmerman and others.

"Recently there has been a renewed interest in the writings of St. Paul by continental philosophers. This conference will explore aspects of that appropriation, in particular by Giorgio Agamben, Alain Badiou, Jacob Taubes and Slavoj Zizek, as well as their precursors, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Walter Benjamin, and others."

The conference will be held at the Vancouver School of Theology and at Carey Theological College on the beautiful campus of the University of British Columbia, overlooking English Bay and the city of Vancouver.

For further details on the conference, schedule, speakers, papers and plenaries, please visit the conference website by clicking here.

Sunday, 4 May 2008

Solitude Retreat at Fraser's Hill

I will be hitting the road shortly. This time I am heading to Fraser's Hill for a personal solitude retreat. I badly needed this couple of days to rest and recharge for the months ahead, to reflect and reassess my ministry, and also to weigh carefully a couple of important decisions that I need to make that would have considerable bearings on my ministry.

I will be staying at the recently refurbished Pekan Bungalow that has a spectacular view over the golf course. The cool fresh air at the hill would be a great welcome for me, as we have been experiencing exceptionally hot weather for the past few days, with temperature soaring above 36 degrees.

After coming back from Fraser's, I will be hitting the road again. This time, together with three of my colleagues from seminary, we will be visiting some churches in the East Coast states of Kelantan and Pahang. More updates on this later.

Saturday, 3 May 2008

Biblical Studies Carnival 29 by Jim West

Dr Jim West has posted the Biblical Studies Carnival 29 at his website. Be sure to check it out for some of the latest happenings in the blogging world of biblical studies in April 2008.

My posting on the Romans Symposium with Robert Jewett made it to the list under "Conferences."

Thanks, Jim, for the great work done.

Friday, 2 May 2008

Is Seminary All about This ?

Does the above aptly describe what happens in a theological seminary?

Bibleworks Classroom Tip #16

The folks at Bibleworks has just released another Classroom Tip:

Tip 1.16 Using the Graphical Search Engine: Part 2

The Graphical Search Engine is a powerful, though sometimes overlooked, search tool. This Classroom Tip builds upon Tip 1.12 and explores more of the useful search features you can use to enhance your classroom teaching and preparation. In this Classroom Tip we will use the Graphical Search Engine to find different ways that an adjective can relate to a noun when an article is present in the relationship.

The following searches only find the most common classroom definitions of the adjective positions based upon word order. Because there are exceptions to the constructions, not every hit is valid, and not every valid hit will be found by these searches. But these search hits will be a good start for showing samples to your students, and these searches will show some of the searches possible using the Graphical Search Engine (GSE). Included under each search is a link to a GSE search query file that you can use in the GSE for your own searches....

Click here to read the entire tip.

Thursday, 1 May 2008

Last Minute Sunday Sermon

I have just received a phone call from the church office today, informing me that due to family emergency, my Senior Pastor will not be able to preach this Sunday. So yours truly would have to take the pulpit.

Oh dear....What to preach....?? Looks like 2 Tim 4:2, "Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season..." is not a reality in my life at the moment....

Let's pray that the sermon this Sunday will be relevant for the church - else it would be like the following cartoon!

Review of Biblical Literature April 30, 2008

The following new reviews have been added to the Review of Biblical Literature:
Martin Beck and Ulrike Schorn, eds.
Auf dem Weg zur Endgestalt von Genesis bis II Regum: Festschrift Hans-Christoph Schmitt zum 65. Geburtstag
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5946
Reviewed by Klaas Spronk

Beate Ego and Helmut Merkel, eds.
Religiöses Lernen in der biblischen, frühjüdischen und früjchristlichen Überlieferung
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6030
Reviewed by Wilhelm Pratscher

Eldon Jay Epp
Junia: The First Woman Apostle
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=4958
Reviewed by Nancy Calvert-Koyzis

Alice Hunt
Missing Priests: The Zadokites in Tradition and History
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5958
Reviewed by Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer

Lenka Karfíková, Scott Douglass, and Johannes Zachhuber, eds.
Gregory of Nyssa: Contra Eunomium II: An English Version with Supporting Studies, Proceedings of the 10th International Colloqium on Gregory of Nyssa (Olomouc, September 15-18, 2004)
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5876
Reviewed by Mark Weedman

Ivan Shing Chung Kwong
The Word Order of the Gospel of Luke: Its Foregrounded Messages
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5903
Reviewed by Steven Runge

Adriane B. Leveen
Memory and Tradition in the Book of Numbers
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6153
Reviewed by Thomas B. Dozeman

Morwenna Ludlow
Gregory of Nyssa, Ancient and (Post)modern
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6173
Reviewed by Ilaria Ramelli
Reviewed by Kevin D. Hill

Philip L. Mayo"Those Who Call Themselves Jews": The Church and Judaism in the Apocalypse of John
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5405
Reviewed by Jack T. Sanders

W. David Nelson, ed. and trans.
Mekhilta De-Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5861
Reviewed by Steven D. Sacks

Christoph Nihan
From Priestly Torah to Pentateuch: A Study in the Composition of the Book of Leviticus
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6341
Reviewed by Eckart Otto

Armand Puig i Tàrrech, ed.
Imatge de Déu (Catalan)
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5771
Reviewed by Philippe Guillaume

William M. Schniedewind and Joel H. Hunt
A Primer on Ugaritic Language, Culture, and Literature
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5978
Reviewed by Robert D. Holmstedt

John Howard Schütz
Paul and the Anatomy of Apostolic Authority
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6082
Reviewed by Graydon F. Snyder

Tommy Wasserman
The Epistle of Jude: Its Text and Transmission
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5824
Reviewed by Stephen D. Patton

Fundraising for STM Scholarships: PJ Youth Chamber Orchestra

If you long for an evening of good music, why not plan to visit STM and enjoy A Musical Splendour with the PJ Youth Chamber Orchestra. This year, the PJYCO is doing the concert as part of our fundraising project for STM scholarships for needy students. Your support is greatly appreciated.

Tickets available at RM30.

Date of performance: June 22, 2008

Time: 7.00pm

Venue: Multi Purpose Hall, STM

For further information, please click here.

The Devil's Beatitudes

It's coming to the end of the semester at the seminary. Stress level is high. Deadlines are looming near. Exams are coming soon. Thesis writing students are wondering why they never start working on their thesis earlier. So perhaps it is a good time to take a short break, and enjoy some humour, one that I received from my colleague.

The Devil's Beatitudes

If the devil were to write his Beatitudes, they would probably go something like this:

Blessed are those Christians who are TOO TIRED, TOO BUSY, too distracted to spend time with their fellow Christians in Church -
for they are my best workers and candidates to backslide.

Blessed are those Christians who WAIT TO BE ASKED and EXPECT TO BE THANKED -
for I can use them to slow things down.

Blessed are those Christians who are TOUCHY; with a bit of luck they may STOP GOING TO CHURCH and get others to quit -
they are my missionaries.

Blessed are those Christians who are VERY RELIGIOUS but GET ON EVERYONE'S nerves -
they are my most effective stumbling blocks.

Blessed are those Christians who are TROUBLEMAKERS -
they are my best wrecking crew.

Blessed are the COMPLAINERS -
they are my best discouragers. I'm all ears to them.

Blessed are those Christians who have NO TIME TO PRAY -
they are easy prey for me.

Blessed are they who are bored with the minister's mannerisms and mistakes -
for they get nothing out of his sermons.

Blessed is the church member who expects to be invited to his own church -
for he is a part of the problem instead of the solution.

Blessed are they who gossip -
for they shall cause strife and divisions that pleases me.

Blessed are they who are easily offended -
for they will soon get angry and quit.

Blessed are they who do not give their offering to carry on God's work -
for they are my helpers.

Blessed is he who professes to love God but hates his brother and sister -
for he shall be with me forever.

Blessed are YOU when you read this and THINK IT IS ABOUT OTHER people and not yourself -
I've got you!