Source: http://seanthebaptist.typepad.com/sean_the_baptist/in_the_news/
Timestamp: 2018-09-19 07:32:14
Document Index: 604905924

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Sean the Baptist (in the UCA): In the News
A New University of Divinity in Australia
The following notice appeared today in the Victorian Government Gazette:
APPROVAL FOR THE MELBOURNE COLLEGE OF DIVINITY TO OPERATE AS A SPECIALISED UNIVERSITY
1. Authority : This notice is issued pursuant to section 4.3.30(1) of the Education and Training Reform
Melbourne College of Divinity means the Melbourne College of Divinity continued as a body corporate under the Melbourne College of Divinity Act 1910.
3. Approval of institution to operate as a University
Pursuant to section 4.3.30(1) of the Education and Training Reform Act 2006, the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority (VRQA) approves the Melbourne College of Divinity to operate as a specialised university under the specialised title of ‘MCD University of Divinity’.
4. Period of approval:The approval herein remains in force for 5 years commencing on 1 January 2012.
The common seal of the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority was hereunto affixed on the 25th day of August 2011 as authorized by it pursuant to section 4.2.1(3) of the Education and Training Reform Act 2006.
What this means is that, subject to the veto of the Victorian Parliament, what was formerly the Melbourne College of Divinity has been given permission to operate as a Specialist University within the Australian Higher Education System. Like RMIT University, the new name is made up of the familiar acronymn, but the lack of a specific mention of the word 'Melbourne' indicates that this development aims to secure the national and international profile of the new University. The history and background to this important decision is outlined well by Andrew McGowan here.
If you didn't know already, I teach for a College, within an ecumenical teaching institution within what will now be a University. This is a historic day for the MCD, and all associated with the application for Specialist University status are to be congratulated on securing this outcome.
Posted at 02:44 PM in In the News, Theological Education | Permalink | Comments (1)
Death of C. K. Barrett
This news from Jimmy Dunn, via Steve Walton
You will be saddened to hear that Kingsley Barrett, my predecessor, died last night (6.30 pm, 26.08.11) - aged 94. He was the greatest UK commentator on NT texts since J. B. Lightfoot, and much loved by a wide range of Methodist chapels to which he ministered for about 60 years. He will be much missed, but his commentaries will live on for many years, providing information and insight to future generations of students of the NT.
This is sad news. Barrett's commentary on John was one of the first books I bought on entering Bristol Baptist College in 1986 (see Jim's post here for a characteristically elegaic meditation on the importance of this work). I still remember carrying it back from the SPCK bookshop on Park Street along with a copy of Kümmel's NT Introduction.
Posted at 05:10 PM in In the News, NT Stuff | Permalink | Comments (2)
A New Role: Editor of Pacifica
Today I received formal notification that I have been appointed as the new editor of the Australasian theological journal, Pacifica, commencing in 2011. I am delighted to have the opportunity to take on this role, following in the impressive footsteps of Brendan Byrne SJ who has occupied it for 12 years. Pacifica is one of the, if not the, most significant theological journal published in Australia (it has recently been awarded an 'A' rating in the Excellence in Research in Australia journal rankings thus placing it alongside such other journals as Journal for the Study of the New Testament, Novum Testamentum, Modern Theology and the International Journal of Systematic Theology.)
So, in due course, I will be on the look out for articles of the very best quality to sustain and enhance the reputation of Pacifica. And there is a job to be done in making sure that theological research in Australasia reaches the widest possible international scholarly audience. Watch this space for more details.
Posted at 07:24 PM in In the News | Permalink | Comments (12) | TrackBack (0)
IPad...IThinkNot
Even the opening joke was nerdy: Moses, tablet, commandments etc etc. And Apple launches in my opinion get more and more ridiculous as time goes on: far too many 'incredible...astounding...unbelievables'. But much more serious is the fact that they have decided to make their new Tablet computer a beefed up IPhone rather than a keyboardless MacBook. This means, among other things, being entirely locked into the App Store for applications. In other words, its fine for playing, but not for working. Time will tell if it becomes the new Cube. I can't wait for Charlie Brooker's review.
Initial review here, but read the comments as well for a more critical appraisal. Oh, and I speak as a Mac user of 11 years, typing on a MacBook Pro with an IPhone in my pocket.
Posted at 09:53 AM in In the News, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)
I know that a number of Australian and UCA friends now read this blog from time to time. So for them, and for others, here is a typically honest Christmas Greeting from Al Macrae, President of the Uniting Church in Australia (and a mate).
Posted at 08:20 PM in In the News | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
A New New Testament Tutor at Northern Baptist Learning Community
Excellent news comes via the Northern Baptist Learning Community website:
New Tutor in New Testament Studies
We are absolutely delighted to announce that we have appointed a new full-time Tutor in New Testament Studies to the Staff Team of NBLC and to the wider teaching community of Luther King House.
He is Revd Jonathan Tallon, an anglican, currently Priest in Charge in the Parish of Cadishead on the edge of Manchester in the direction of Liverpool.
The Appointing Group were unanimously thrilled in making this appointment. Jonathan presented himself as a person who will bring freshness and real strength to our staff team. He is an experienced minister, who has served in a variety of challenging contexts, very much committed to mission and ministry. He has excellent academic and teaching skills, currently working on his PhD in the University of Manchester, and already very much involved on the regional teaching programme of the SNWTP in which we share.
Jonathan will take up the appointment on 1st November 2009, beginning teaching in earnest in the second semester.
Please rejoice with us in this appointment, praying for Jonathan and his family as they begin to negotiate a demanding move.
Richard Kidd and Anne Phillips
(Co-Principals of NBLC)
Posted at 10:29 PM in In the News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
The world of New Testament scholarship has lost another of its key figures in Graham Stanton who died last week after a long illness (thanks to Mark and Mike for the news). I never really knew Professor Stanton, although somewhere I still have a letter from him after I had made an enquiry about postgraduate study at King's College. For me his outstanding works are the collected essays on Matthew in A Gospel for a New People and those gathered in the more recent Jesus and Gospel. The opening essay in the latter volume is the best available treatment of the background and usage of εὐαγγέλιον in the New Testament. He was working on the Galatians commentary for the ICC series, and we will have to wait to see whether that volume can be issued under his name. Professor Stanton was also instrumental in establishing the British New Testament Society (formerly Conference) along with Jimmy Dunn. He always struck me as an incredibly humble and kind man, whose scholarship (as with many of his predecessors in the Lady Margaret Chair at Cambridge) was best expressed in careful and judicious essays that will still be consulted in generations to come.
Posted at 04:45 PM in In the News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Martin Hengel: An Appreciation
One of the great things about the blog world is that news like this comes through so quickly. Thanks to Jim and Doug for passing on news of Martin Hengel's death on Thursday at the age of 82.
Hengel was an early and profound influence on me. In my early years of NT study, when historical study raised questions that seemed (wrongly as it turned out) to threaten faith, his work on the early church and christology showed me that the one might actually shed light on the other. In a weird way, and in contrast to the usual throwaway perceptions about the kind of teutonic scholarship that Hengel's work epitomized, I found the density of his work unbelievably exciting. I pored over those foonotes, chased down some of the references, wondered why he seemd to get so cross with F. C. Baur. I used to put the books down (and mention here should be made of SCM Press under John Bowden who issued English translations - a ministry that, alas, has fallen by the wayside) thinking "How can anyone know that much?!" a thought quickly followed by "I want to know that much!". Hengel for me at that time was a giant, whose work provided my orientation to the Judaism of Jesus' world (I read him before I read Sanders) and who showed me ways in which my unreflective evangelical convictions about Jesus might in some way be a legitimate expression of aspects of the biblical witness that he so carefully traced. Anyone who wants to really get a grip on the whole notion of the foolishness of Christian proclamation could do a lot worse than read Crucifixion.
As time has gone on, I read him less. My own views changed, not least on the relation of history to faith. The work on John was ingenious, but the question of who wrote the gospel was, by the 3rd year of my undergraduate studies, the least interesting question. I continued to buy the books on Paul especially, but they sometimes seemed to lack the thrilling quality of the earlier work (co-authorship became more common for Hengel). But on my shelves I keep with pride my copies of Judaism and Hellenism (the wonderful 2 volume hardback: Volume 1 = 314 pages of text; Volume 2 = 335 pages of notes, bibliography and indices - how wonderful), The Zealots, and those SCM paperback compilations that I picked up for £5 in the SCM sale: The Cross of the Son of God; Between Jesus and Paul; Acts and the History of Earliest Christianity. Last year I had the privilege of reviewing Volume IV of his laughably titled Kleine Schriften which reconnected me with much of this earlier work, but now in his native tongue. That reminds me to mention that his other great legacy will be the WUNT series in which so much of his own recent work was published, but which has done so much to preserve a tradition of scholarship that, with all its weaknesses, nevertheless shapes our discipline and keeps me humble whenever I begin to think that I know anything.
Tübingen has lost a great Neutestamentler. If God writes footnotes, then at least Hengel will be on hand to add a judicious classical reference or two, probably from memory. Requiescat in pacem.
Update: futher tributes from Nick Norelli, Fred Sanders, Theoblog, Henry Nguyen, Brandon
Posted at 09:50 AM in In the News | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Guardian Series: How to Believe
I I came across this series from the Guardian this afternoon. I list below all the entries thus far because different readers might be attracted to different contributions, but I have been looking at Simon Critchley's summary of Heidegger, and very good it is to. It is notable that the Guardian sees fit to include the author of Luke-Acts alongside Hobbes, Nietzsche et al. I would have thought there was a good argument for a series on Paul - anyone want to commission me?
Simon Critchley: Heidegger's Being and Time
Being and Time, part 3: Being-in-the-world
Being and Time, part 4: Thrown into this world
Mary Midgley: Hobbes's Leviathan
Hobbes's Leviathan, part 1: Strange selves
Hobbes's Leviathan, Part 2: Freedom and Desolation
Hobbes's Leviathan, Part 3: What is selfishness?
Hobbes's Leviathan, part 4: Selling total freedom
Hobbes's Leviathan, part 5: The end of individualism
Hobbes's Leviathan, part 6: Responses to readers
Hobbes's Leviathan, part 7: His idea of war
Hobbes, part 8: Can we Ride the Leviathan?
Julian Baggini: Hume on religion
Hume on religion, part 8: What did he believe?
Jane Williams: Acts of the Apostles
Acts of the Apostles, part 1: A band of brothers
Acts of the Apostles, part 2: Who is Luke?
Acts of the Apostles, part 3: An ideal church?
Acts of the Apostles, part 4: The story of Paul
Acts of the Apostles: Response to comments
Acts of the Apostles, part 5: Christianity on the road
Acts of the Apostles, part 6: The gentile mission
Acts of the Apostles, part 7: The Acts of the Holy Spirit
Acts of the Apostles, part 8: Echoing down the ages
Giles Fraser: On the Genealogy of Morals
Posted at 03:43 PM in In the News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
News via Jim at Living Wittily of the death of William Placher. Jim more than adequately points out Placher's strengths as a theologian.
Posted at 09:33 PM in In the News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)