Online Redefined?

I had the following conversation with someone a few months ago, discovering that a simple word like "online" can mean different thing to different people.

Me: I am asking this on behalf of someone who would like to sign up for a class. You mentioned that I can sign up online. But I don't seem to be able to do it.

A: You can sign up the class online - just go to our website

Me: But I have checked the website, there is no facility for me to sign up online.

A: Yes, you can do it online. Try again.

Me: But I have just checked it again - your website doesn't have that option.

A: Yes, we do. Aiyah - you don't know how to do it online ah. Let me explain. First, go online to our website. Download the form which is in PDF into your computer. Then you print out the form and fill it the details. After that, you fax the form to me. So simple.

Me: .............

Kingdom, Power and Truth: God and Caesar Then and Now: Lecture by NT Wright

I am late in getting this out - the fulltext of NT Wright's first lecture as Professor at St Andrews has been posted by David Larsen.

Please click here to read Professor Wright's lecture on Kingdom, Power and Truth: God and Caesar Then and Now.

New Journal: Journal for the Study of Paul and His Letters

Michael Bird announces that a new journal that he edits will be published soon. Called the Journal for the Study of Paul and His Letters, this journal will be published twice a year. The inaugural issue is expected to be released in spring 2011.

A sample issue and the introductory essay by Bird can be found by clicking here.

Further details of the journal can be found at the publisher's site by clicking here.

Position: NT Lecturer, Durham University

Durham University announces a search for Lecturer in New Testament for its Theology and Religious Studies Department.

According to the announcement, the "current post arises from the retirement of Dr William Telford, Senior Lecturer in New Testament, and applications are welcome from those with research expertise in any area of New Testament studies."

"Those who currently teach in the area include Professor John Barclay, Professor Francis Watson, and Dr Lutz Doering, while many other staff in the Department have cross-disciplinary research interests that relate to the New Testament. There is a weekly research seminar in New Testament, at which papers are presented by leading scholars from the UK and abroad as well as by members of staff and research postgraduates."

"The successful applicant will be expected to teach modules in New Testament at undergraduate and taught postgraduate levels, to supervise postgraduate research, to undertake outstanding research leading to publications of international significance, and to play a full part in the life of the department."

Closing date for the application: 12 November 2010.

STM 28th Graduation Service

The Death of Margaret Thrall

Another sad news. Many of the giants of biblical studies in the UK has passed on in the past few years. Today, I received news from the BNTS list that the Revd. Dr. Margaret E. Thrall has passed away at a home for the elderly on the island of Anglesey in North Wales.

"Dr. Margaret Thrall was the first doctoral student of Professor C.F.D. Moule at Cambridge University, and, between 1962 and 1996, she had a distinguished career in the School of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Wales, Bangor. She was associate editor of New Testament Studies, and Editor of the SNTS monograph series (1991-6). She published numerous books and articles during her career, including Greek Particles in the New Testament: Linguistic and Exegetical Studies (1962) and her magisterial two-volume commentary on 2 Corinthians in the International Critical Commentary series (1994, 2000). In recognition of Dr. Thrall’s significant contribution to Pauline scholarship, she was awarded the Burkitt Medal for Biblical Studies by the British Academy in 1997 and a Festschrift to mark her seventy-fifth birthday was published in 2003.

Dr. Thrall’s first monograph was The Ordination of Women to the Priesthood (1958), and in 1997 she was among the first women to be ordained to the priesthood in the Church in Wales. She was a member of the Church in Wales Doctrine Commission (1983-92) and served as Canon Theologian at Bangor Cathedral (1994-7).

Margaret Thrall’s funeral was held on Monday, 11 October in Bangor Cathedral."

Dr Thrall's commentary on 2 Corinthians in the ICC series was very instrumental in my doctoral research. May her soul rest in peace.

Spiritual Formation Seminar by Dr Alex Tang

Petaling Jaya Evangelical Free Church is pleased to announce a Spiritual Formation Seminar to be conducted by Dr Alex Tang.

Date: October 9, 2010
Time: 9.30am-4.30pm
Registration Fees: RM20 (incl notes, lunch and tea breaks)

Please call the church to register before Oct 7: +60 (3) 7957 4341

For a map to the venue, please click here.

Some reflections....

Sometimes we think that people left a particular church and move on to another because they have issues with themselves. But we forget that they left precisely because of us who are pastors or leaders. Sometimes people left not because of the things we do. They left because of the things we fail to do.

5 Annoying Questions My Fellow Malaysians Ask

There are many things I like being a Malaysian. But there are many things I particularly dislike about Malaysians, especially in the way questions are being thrown at me.

Let me just highlight 5 questions that are most frequently asked that I find rather annoying and tasteless, to say the least.

1) What is your salary like?

2) Why are you still single? Do you want me to recommend someone for you?

3) How much is your house worth now? Wah...that means you are very rich!

4) How much did you pay for this or that?

5) How much royalty did you receive for your book? Since your book is so expensive, you must be very rich, right or not?

What are some of the questions you have been asked frequently by your fellow Malaysians that you think would make it to the Most Annoying Questions My Fellow Malaysians Ask?

Review of my Book in JSNT 32/5 (2010)

Below is a very generous review of my book, as published in the Journal for the Study of the New Testament 32/5 (August 2010): 97.

‘The Sufferings of Christ are Abundant in us’: A Narrative Dynamics Investigation of Paul’s Sufferings in 2 Corinthians
Kar Yong Lim
LNTS 399; London: T&T Clark, 2009, 978-0-567-10728-2, £65.00, xvi + 240 hb
Reviewed by Grant Macaskill

Kar Yong Lim seeks to bring recent scholarship on Pauline narrative dynamics, generally focused on Romans and Galatians, to bear on 2 Corinthians, and specifically on the theme of suffering that runs through the letter. After surveying the history of research on the theme, the author notes that such research has often focused on individual sections of the text in isolation from the wider letter and has, rather surprisingly, neglected both the scriptural background to these texts and the narrative of the cross in relation to them. His own study, therefore, seeks to address this by examining all of the major passages on suffering in 2 Corinthians, and the mainstream historical research on these, in conversation with studies of narrative dynamics elsewhere in the Pauline corpus.

The result is a rewarding study of 2 Corinthians. Often, the author offers insights that are only subtly different from those offered by other scholars, but the integration of these into the wider context (and, indeed, into the broad sweep of Pauline theology) makes for a satisfying study. Significantly, the adoption of a narrative dynamics approach does not displace meticulous attention to traditional historical spadework, resulting in a well-rounded study that ought to feature prominently in future discussion of the passages in question.