Mike Gorman and John Poirier on Theological Interpretation

This is a post that is based on a series of exchanges between Mike Gorman and John Poirier on a previous blog post of mine.  Mike’s and John’s comments about Theological Intepretation are interesting for many reasons, one of which because they are representative of dominant views in modern hermeneutics and both capture their positions with verve [...]

Winter Book Picks

The holiday time is a wonderful season for sipping hot mochas, playing in the snow, watching Elf and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and…stocking up on lots of books!  This year I have been blessed many times over by generous friends, relatives, and journals that are willing to give a poor student some very expensive books [...]

Interested in NT PhD – update planned

My most popular post is “Interested in a NT PHD” (see page link above); as it is nearing 4,000 hits, I am thinking of doing a significant revision, update, and expansion.  Hopefully it will also now include how to actually survive the PhD process, to suceed in paper presenting and article writing, and also to navigate [...]

Thoughts and Advice on Choosing a Thesis Monograph Series

At a departmental function this weekend I had a nice chat with a scholar I trust.  I asked him which monograph series he encourages his own doctoral students to publish in.  He had recommended specifically Walter de Gruyter and Mohr Siebeck.  I had asked him why he did not mention the UK publishers.  He commented [...]

Common Mistakes in Theological Research #6: The Us Versus Them Problem

Every thesis has an argument.  In order to argue something “new” or “original” you need to know what has been argued before and where you can go with your own research.  There is a certain kind of thesis, a very common one, which is largely a negative argument: Professor So-and-so’s theory on X in respect [...]

M. Gorman Responds to Theological Interpretation Questions

On a previous post of mine where I brought up Michael Gorman’s explanation and thoughts concerning Theological Interpretation, the man himself wrote a comment in reply to some of the questions and critiques in the comments section.  You can read it HERE (see comment #6)

Common Mistakes in Theological Research #5: The Weak Cumulative Argument

A very common mistake that researchers make is what I call the ‘weak cumulative argument’.  This involves some thesis: ‘NT author X is referring to issue E whenever he brings up words/concepts A, B, C, or D’.  This often happens in studies that are intertextually-driven.  The problem here is that often the author can find [...]

Michael Gorman on Theological Interpretation

If you attended SBL this year, you may have noticed the numerous sessions on the subject Theological Interpretation of Scripture.  These sessions, some of which I attended, were very popular and rooms were filled to the brim.
The interest in this topic is certainly there, but there is much confusion as to what exactly it is, [...]

Common Mistakes in Theological Research #4: If I Only Had a Brain…

Our fourth ‘common mistake’ in theological research has to do with how we place an author (Paul, Luke, Matthew, John) in their own setting.  In an attempt to understand a particular NT author, many scholars scour contemporary writings (whether Jewish or Greco-Roman) to discern the influences on that NT writer.
We must be cautious, though, of [...]

Common Mistakes in Theological Research #3: Its All in Your Head…

The third post in this series focuses on the problem of written work that lacks the simplicity and clarity to communicate well to the intended audience. In a sense, the writer probably thought it all made sense because he or she has been thinking about this work for a long time. What is [...]