Newsletter
2008
Institute for Biblical Research www.ibr-bbr.org
Greetings from Dr.
Lee McDonald, President of IBR
Dear
Colleagues – I trust that your summer has gone well and that you were both
enriched by your experiences and grew in your discipline. Several of our members
have contacted me over the summer and their travels have taken them around the
globe lecturing, researching, producing documentaries on the life of Jesus (a
further report this weekend!), and a host of other activities. The list of
member publications continues to grow impressively.
As
you can see from our program this weekend, we have excellent presentations on
issues highly relevant to the church and the academy. Again this year, we will
have brief reports from our host publishers. Refreshments this year are
provided by Baker Academic, and Jim Kinney will speak just prior to our
refreshment time on Friday evening. On Saturday a.m. both Dan Reid (IVP) and
Stan Gundry (Zondervan) will present briefly during
the business session. We are delighted with the support of these publishers and
the encouragement they give us to put out research in print—and not to forget
the marvelous refreshments we have received from them for several years now.
You
are encouraged to look on the web for the minutes of our Board of Directors
meetings. Besides our meetings in person at the annual meeting (Friday and
Saturday afternoon), we meet via teleconferencing twice through the year. Your
officers are indicated in this newsletter and on the web; they are available to
you for questions, concerns, and ideas on how we can expand our mission and
influence evangelical scholarship. New initiatives are underway toward greater fulfilment of our mission; watch for these in this
newsletter and online.
(continued on page two)
Program for IBR 2008
Friday Evening (7 PM – 11 PM; Room 304
CC)
7:00 Devotions:
Clay Ham, Lincoln Christian College & Seminary
7:15 Annual
Lecture: Joel Green, Fuller Theological Seminary, “What Then Shall We Do?” Luke-Acts as a Conversionist
Narrative
8:15 Formal
Response: Everett Ferguson, Abilene Christian University
8:30 Response
from the floor
8:45 Reception
hosted by Baker Academic
Saturday
Morning (8:30 AM – 12:15 PM; Room 311 CC)
8:30 Devotions:
Douglas Green, Westminster Theological Seminary
8:40 Business
Meeting
9:05 Old
Testament Paper: Sandra Richter, Asbury Theological Seminary, Environmental Law in Deuteronomy
9:50 New
Testament Paper: Douglas Moo, Wheaton College, Creation and New Creation
10:35 Break
10:55 Formal
Responses: Gordon McConville, University of
Gloucestershire; Craig Keener, Palmer Seminary; Richard Wright, Gordon College
11:30 General
Discussion
12:15 Adjournment
7:30 AM – 8:30
AM; Room 304 CC
Guest Preacher
Dr. Darrell Bock
Liturgist: Dr. Darian Lockett
How to become an
IBR Member
Membership applications are available at
Top Pull-Down
Menu: Journals—BBR—IBR Membership). Questions can be directed to
Lynn Cohick, IBR Secretary Lynn.H.Cohick@wheaton.edu
Membership Benefits
Membership Levels:
Fellow, Associate, Senior Fellow and Friend
Member Profile Database
The
login/password database enables members to update their own contact information
and post their recent publications. Access to the secure, password protected
environment provides updated information throughout the year.
Log
in to www.ibr-bbr.org and click on the
“Login” link in the upper left corner. To receive a password, click on “I
forgot my login,” enter your email address and a password will be emailed to
you.
Membership renewal at www.eisenbrauns.com
Paypal options make it easy!
(President’s Message continued)
This
year several more new colleagues will be joining the IBR and there is room for
more! If you are aware of any evangelical scholars who would be good candidates
for membership in the IBR, please do not hesitate to recommend them to us
through Lynn Cohick, Secretary of the IBR (Lynn.H.Cohick@wheaton.edu). Our
growth over past years is continual and we wish to remain an open community of
evangelical scholarship. Do speak to your colleagues and invite them (bring them!)
to our meetings.
On
a personal note, I have retired from the presidency of Acadia Divinity College
and enjoyed a sabbatical year at Princeton Theological Seminary over the last
academic year, researching and teaching on canon formation. My wife and I have
now moved to Mesa, Arizona where I am teaching some classes for Fuller
Theological Seminary’s extension program in Phoenix and I am also the “scholar
in residence” for the American Baptist Churches in Arizona, So.
Blessings,
and I look forward to speaking with you this weekend.
Lee
The Institute for Biblical Research: Fostering Evangelical
Scholarship
IBR has,
for over thirty years, offered to evangelical biblical scholars and Ph.D.
students a venue for creative, reflective, and serious biblical scholarship.
Its members are specialists in Old and New Testament and ancillary disciplines
who seek to foster excellence in the pursuit of Biblical Studies in a faith
environment.
The
achievement of this goal is sought primarily by organizing annual conferences,
conducting seminars and workshops, and by sponsoring academic publications in
the various fields of biblical research. The Bulletin of Biblical Research was first published in 1991, and the BBR Supplement Series began in 2007.
Welcome
to the annual conference; check out our web site for further information and
history, and consider becoming a member with us!
IBR Website
BBR/BBR Sup Update by Rick Hess,
The
Bulletin for Biblical Research has
announced plans to move to four issues per year in place of the current two
issues. Both the quality and quantity of the work being published by the BBR justify this change and pave the way
for an enhanced academic profile of the journal and its parent organization,
the IBR.
The
Bulletin for Biblical Research Supplement Series has published its
second volume, War in the Bible and
Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century, edited by Richard S. Hess and Elmer
A. Martens. The book appeared in March and includes a collection of essays on
this timely subject by a unique group of scholars: theologians (D. R. Heimbach, G. H. Stassen, M. Volf),
biblical specialists (M. D. Carrol, R. Hess, E.
Martens), and British and American military ethicists and personnel (I. G. C. Durie, T. Pfaff). The third volume, Critical Issues in Early Israelite
Historiography, edited by Rick Hess, Gerald Klingbeil,
and Paul J. Ray. Jr., is expected in the
autumn.
Special
thanks are due to our publisher Eisenbrauns for
undertaking this additional work and continuing to produce elegant and accurate
books and journals. The BBR Sup Series welcome submissions. Monograph titles
and abstracts may be sent to the editor at rick@densem.edu.
Web News by Ted Hildebrandt,
Numerous
changes have been initiated on the www.ibr-bbr.org
website this year. We changed our name to www.ibr-bbr.org
thanks to the suggestion of Rick Hess. A huge effort was made last summer to
scan and put the BBR up online and that project is still in process. The 2004
issues are up, and 2005.1 was available by late
summer. We also placed Brent Sandy’s “Prophecy and Apocalyptic Bibliography
Supplement” up online in an attempt to add substantial content to the site.
We
are considering new ways to utilize this site. My son Zach continues to work on
a search engine which will allow full text searching and browsing of the BBR
online texts. Lissa Wray Beal suggested a blog built off the abstracts of the
papers presented at IBR annual meetings. We continue to look for substantial
biblical studies content that can be added to beef up our site. Lynn Cohick has shared her dream “that we get some interested
colleges from the Majority world able to post ideas or papers on our site.” A
network of contributors and vettors must be organized
but the idea is worthy and doable. Others have suggested putting online
dissertations of members that may not have been published etc. Many of these
ideas are to be discussed at the board meetings. Your input is valued and if
you have any ideas for our web site please feel free to submit them to me at ted.hildebrandt@gordon.edu.
IBR 2008
Board of Directors
Lee Martin McDonald, President
President Emeritus, Acadia Divinity College
Daniel I. Block, Past President
Wheaton College
Lynn Cohick, Secretary
Wheaton College
Jeffrey A. D. Weima, Treasurer
Calvin Theological Seminary
Daniel Hawk, Program Chair
Ashland Theological Seminary
Board Members at Large
Richard S. Hess, Editor, BBR
Denver Theological Seminary
Lissa M. Wray Beal, Editor,
Newsletter
Providence Theological Seminary
Brent Strawn, Nominations
Candler School of Theology
Andy Johnson, Nominations Chair
Michael Holmes, Membership
Bethel College
Ross Wagner, Program
Princeton Theological Seminary
Ted Hildebrandt, Web-site
Gordon College
Michelle Lee-Barnwell, Worship,
Chair
Talbot School of Theology
Kent Yinger, Convention Coordinator (Non-voting member)
George Fox Evangelical Seminary
Successful Sabbaticals: How-To’s from IBR Members by Lissa M. Wray Beal, Newsletter Editor
Sabbatical
breaks can beckon like an oasis and IBR has many scholars who are anticipating
and planning their first sabbatical; others look forward to their 2nd or
3rd period of concentrated research and writing. How does one best
plan a 6 or 12 month sabbatical? What practices help one “be there” in that
hiatus away from regular routines? How does one successfully reenter the rush
of teaching once the sabbatical is over? A number of our IBR members took the
time to share their insights; we hope their experiences help your next sabbatical.
Choosing a project is a crucial
element of a successful sabbatical. Ed Neufeld recently completed his first
sabbatical, and selected four smaller projects of personal interest that arose
out of his teaching. Others focus on one larger project; Gus Konkel’s first sabbatical topic grew out of his
dissertation while his second was a contracted commentary project. Selecting a
project that is do-able within the time allotted appears to be a challenge for
many in their first sabbatical; a chapter or article may be reasonable for a
half sabbatical. Important limitations are continuing ministry or institutional
commitments, spending time with family and friends, and practical
considerations such as travel and adjustment time. R & R was approached
very differently: some took a month off right away before the demands of the
project took over; others worked full weeks and took periodic mini-breaks with
family or on their own. Lynn Cohick began her
sabbatical with a student trip with her college but then worked consistently
through the remainder of the time at a slower pace that enabled more time for
personal reflection and family-focused activities.
“At home or abroad” was an option for many with
funding coming from scholarships as well as personal budgeting. For others,
family and/or ministry considerations made relocation impossible; in such cases
periodic visits to good libraries was sufficient. Rick Hess found relocation
unnecessary; local libraries, interlibrary loans and internet resources were
sufficient.
Collegial connections looked different for each
individual. Some maintained weekly visits to their institution with lunch shared
over enjoyable and stimulating conversations. Others found lasting friendships
at centers such as Tyndale House. Most were unavailable to students for the
duration, focusing instead on personal refreshment, research, and writing.
“Re-entry” tactics included meeting with one’s
department head or dean, preparing oneself mentally
for the transition to busy, high-energy semestral
work, and valuable sabbatical-assessment during a personal retreat. All agreed
that the lasting benefit of the sabbatical was the slower pace that allowed
rest and reflection, the satisfaction of projects completed or enroute to publication, and the change of pace and/or
place. One pearl of wisdom that those preparing for their first (or 5th!)
sabbatical might remember was summed up by Lynn Cohick:
“the busy schedule will be there when the sabbatical is over so. . . enjoy the
space, and take time to do serious, slow thinking.” Rather than viewing the
sabbatical as merely a means to publication, also consider the sabbatical as a
time of formation and celebration in Christ!
Plan to
attend IBR 2009
In New
Orleans
Theme:
Biblical
Commentary and Theological Interpretation
Friday, November 20
Annual Lecture by
Tremper Longman, Westmont College
Saturday, November 21
Papers by
Craig
Bartholomew, Redeemer University College
John
Christopher Thomas, Church of God
Theological Seminary
Sunday, November 22
Worship Service