ELCM 4th Bishop

My colleague, Dr Solomon Rajah, has been elected the 4th Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Malaysia on November 1, 2008. He will officially take office in 2010. Solomon is also the Director of Institute of World Religions.

Congratulations, Solomon. Our prayers are with you and your family. We will surely miss you in STM come 2010. We wish you all the best.

Biblical Studies Carnival XXXV

The Biblical Studies Carnival XXXV is now published at Duane Smith's blog. Check out what biblical scholars have been blogging about for the past month. It makes very interesting read - and I picked up a few interesting blog posts that I would otherwise have missed.

Top 50 Biblioblog

Ever wonder who made it to the Top 50 Biblioblog? Check this out:

The first ever Biblioblog Top 50 for October 2008. You may be surprised to see who made it to the list.

It is interesting to note that no Asians made it to the list. Well, OT Story may be written by a Korean but he is based in the US.

How My Office Will Look Like Soon...

I may not be a vicar, but I think my office is going to look like this soon......

Credits: Cartoonchurch.com

Happy Reformation Day

Today reminds me of my visit to the Reformation Monument in Geneva during the Christmas season 2007. What happened in 1517 on this day changed not only the course of church history but human history as well.

"I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God. Amen." Martin Luther.

"I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess." Martin Luther.

Happy Reformation Day.

NT Position at Augustana College

AUGUSTANA COLLEGE invites applications for a full-time tenure track appointment in New Testament to begin with the 2009-2010 academic year. The successful candidate will be familiar with the historical, cultural, literary and theological dimensions of the New Testament texts, as well as the history of their interpretation within Christianity.

Normal teaching load is two or three sections per trimester (seven sections per year total);four of these will be contributions to the college’s Christian Traditions requirement.

The successful applicant must have completed the requirement for a Ph.D. in New Testament prior to the beginning of the 2009-2010 academic year.

Augustana College is a selective liberal arts college of 2,500 students, most of whom live in residence halls on a wooded 115-acre campus.

Rock Island, Illinois is one of the Quad-Cities of Illinois and Iowa, a diverse metropolitan area on the Mississippi River with 400,000 residents.

Augustana College is an equal opportunity employer and actively encourages applications from women and persons of diverse ethnic backgrounds. We do not discriminate based on age, race, color, ethnic origin, gender, sexual orientation, disability or creed. Details about Augustana, our expectation of the faculty, the selection process, and the Quad Cities are all available at the Faculty Search website; http://www.augustanafaculty.org/.

Send a letter of application, curriculum vita, graduate transcript, statement of teaching philosophy, sample of scholarly work, and three letters of recommendation to:

Search #118-09

RE/New Testament Cmte.,

C/O Dr. Jeff Abernathy,

Dean of the College,

Augustana College,

639 – 38th Street,

Rock Island, Illinois 61201.

Questions may be directed to the chair of the department, Ritva Williams, at RitvaWilliams@augustana.edu.

Further information about the Religion program may be found at http://www.augustana.edu/x808.xml.

Review of applications will begin December 1, 2008.

Snippets of Life of a Faculty Member in Seminary During the Long Vacation

The long year end vacation has officially started last week. The seminary campus is rather quiet now, except for a handful of thesis writing and postgraduate students who stay back during the vacation to utilise the library for their research.


But what about the faculty? The general perception among the students is that during the long vacation, the lecturers are very free. But is this true?

Let's have some snippets of my life in the seminary for this week:

Monday, 27 October
The nation celebrated Deepavali, so it was a public holiday. But I returned to the office to work on my preparation for the upcoming Doctor of Ministry module on 'Advanced Hermeneutics and Homiletics' that I will be co-teaching with my colleague in March 2009, but details of which would be given out to the candidates at the DMin orientation to be held on November 3. So I needed to get ready the course outline, bibliography and the reader to be distributed to the students during the orientation next week. In the night, a group of students came to my office to chill out and had some 'ciku and coffee/tea' party.

Tuesday, 28 October
A group of us spent the entire morning in a meeting finalising the details of the Southeast Asia Edinburgh 2010 Missions Conference to be hosted by STM in June 2009. From the afternoon right up to the night, I continued to work on the Doctor of Ministry module and compiled the reader to be distributed next week. A student volunteered to help me make copies of the articles to be included in the DMin reader, whose timely assistance was greatly appreciated.

Wednesday, 29 October
Continued to work on the Doctor of Ministry module right up to the afternoon. Finally completed it, and arranged for the 1000-page reader to be photocopied. Then in the evening, I graded a paper submitted by one of my postgraduate Master of Theology students. In between these tasks, I reviewed several new applications for our next academic year intake. In the midst of busyness, I still managed to have lunch with one of our students. It was good to catch up with him.

Thursday, 30 October
Today will be another packed day. I will be conducting an oral comprehensive examination for one of our Master of Theology students, followed by a series of interviews with four potential Doctor of Ministry and Master of Theology applicants. Then I will be rushing back home to Kuala Lumpur in the evening to take my mother to her doctor's appointment.

Friday, 31 October
I will be on leave today - not to have a break but to take my father to his doctor's appointment. This will be another long day of waiting in the hospital. The good news is that I will have some time to catch up with my reading in the waiting room.

Saturday, 1 November
It will be back to work in the church office....I will be dead by Saturday night. Good thing I do not have anymore Sunday preaching engagements until December.

Is there any free time for me?

Thoughts about Giving

Credits: nakedpastor.com

I have learned in my personal Christian journey and ministry in church that this is so true - just so true. Why can't we share and give freely? Why can't I share and give freely too?

Scripture's Doctrine and Theology's Bible

A new book edited by Markus Bockmuehl and Alan Torrance titled Scripture's Doctrine and Theology's Bible: How the New Testament Shapes Christian Dogmatics is now published by Baker Academic.

In recent years, we have witnessed a growing interest (not to mention a growing body of literature) in the intersection of biblical studies and theology. According to the publisher, this book is a result of "an illuminating symposium held at the University of St. Andrews that assembled a group of world-class biblical and systematic theologians to answer this fundamental question: To what extent, and on what grounds, does the New Testament shape and prescribe Christian theology?"

"As the contributors explore this question, they address the specific way in which the New Testament does or should shape dogmatics. Part 1 deals with how the Bible informs particular aspects of Christian doctrine and praxis. Part 2 examines how the New Testament has shaped influential theologians of the past century. Part 3 moves from analysis to synthesis, drawing a vision for the New Testament's normative role in forming theology and ethics. Here is engaging dialogue for scholars in both biblical studies and theology as well as their students."

The list of Contributors is without doubt impressive:

Markus Bockmuehl (University of Oxford)
James Carleton Paget (University of Cambridge)
R. W. L. Moberly (University of Durham)
Jan Muis (University of Utrecht)
Oliver O'Donovan (University of Edinburgh)
Alan J. Torrance (University of St. Andrews)
Kevin J. Vanhoozer (Trinity Evangelical Divinity School)
Benedict Thomas Viviano, OP (University of Fribourg)
J. Ross Wagner (Princeton Theological Seminary)
Bernd Wannenwetsch (University of Oxford)
John Webster (University of Aberdeen)
N. T. Wright (Bishop of Durham)

For Table of Contents, the Introductory Chapter by Markus Bockmuehl and the first chapter on The Septuagint and the “Search for the Christian Bible” by J. Ross Wagner, please click here.

Looks like this book will make it to my personal library soon...

Antidote to Gossip??

Living in a seminary community can be an enriching experience, but it can also be a rather frustrating one, particularly when unfounded gossips spread - and they can really spread like wildfire and, at time, can hardly be contained - especially when they have something to do human relationships.

Perhaps the carton may be a good antidote to gossip? So are we game for another version of STM Handbook?