On The Anniversary of James Barr’s Death

It was the 14th of October, 2006 (it doesn’t seem like it has been that long) that James Barr, one of the most brilliant Old Testament scholars of our day (or any day) died.    Academically speaking, he’s my grandpa.  Both of my major Professors in Seminary, Sam Balentine and John Durham, studied with Barr at Oxford.

All those who knew Professor Barr were forever changed by the encounter.  May his name continue to be a blessing and his work an influence.

And if you haven’t yet, you need to get a copy of his collected essays, nicely titled ‘Bible and Interpretation‘.  You’ll learn a LOT.

And if it’s out of your price range, ask your library to get it.

A Group Blog on Theology at Oxford

If philosophical theology is your cup of tea, they’re serving it up hot at Oriel Theology.  Take a look.

On The Birth Anniversary of Herman Ridderbos

Which just happens to be today, a post on the Logos Blog.  It includes this delightfully worded, Oxford comma laden paragraph-

Ridderbos has been praised for his insightful work by many outstanding scholars. And he has been excoriated by others, who fail to grasp, I think, his overarching purpose and who instead focus on what they deem shortcomings. In other words, they wish Ridderbos to mirror their views instead of allowing him his own voice. A voice, it has to be said, which is very much worth hearing.

On this Monday of Advent…

“While kings of the earth lord it over their subjects, the divine King joined our ranks; while earthly monarchs demand subservience, God’s Son became a slave; while the rulers of this age attempt to defy mortality, the ruler of the heavens took on human flesh. The sceptre of Advent was a rod of affliction.” — Dr Justin K. Hardin, Tutor in New Testament*

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*2012 Advent Devotional, Wycliff Hall, Oxford.  You can download the Advent Devotional, for free, here.  It has entries not just for the Sunday’s of Advent but for each day.  And it’s fantastic.

Congrats to Our Friends at Oxford and Cambridge, Imperial and UCL

Those four British schools took four of the 6 top places in worldwide University rankings in a study just released and reported by the BBC–

Cambridge – top last year – was second in the QS World University Rankings, which are based on a number of areas.  UCL, Oxford and Imperial took fourth, fifth and sixth places respectively, with the US’s Massachusetts Institute of Technology top and Harvard third.

Really, congratulations to all.  That’s really quite an impressive achievement.

Society for Reformation Studies Annual Meeting

Radicals, Dissenters & Non-Conformists in the Reformation

The 19th Annual Conference of the Society for Reformation Studies
Westminster College, Cambridge April 11-13, 2012

Keynote Speakers: Prof. Gerald Hobbs (Vancouver), Dr Sarah Mortimer (Oxford) and Prof. Bernard Roussel (Sorbonne)

The Judaeo-Christian tradition has consistently lauded its prophets over its priests and kings, and has often equated sanctity with stubborn refusal to conform.  Little wonder that the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries saw a proliferation of dissent.  Indeed, the Protestant Reformation itself can be regarded as the most successful act of religious disobedience in Christian history.  Like all revolutions, however, the Reformation soon established its own norms and authorities, which were challenged equally swiftly in their turn by those eager to reform the Reformation. Reformation and radicalism are therefore inextricably linked, and an appropriate theme for our 19th annual conference.

We invite papers (25 minutes maximum) addressing different aspects of this rich and varied theme.  What common features does Reformation radicalism evince? Can patterns of dissent be detected across temporal and geographical boundaries?  What biblical hermeneutic, view of church history, or social vision motivated individual radicals?  Was the contribution of women radicals as great as is sometimes supposed?  How did magisterial reformers reconcile their attitude to radicals with their own status as radicals in the eyes of Catholics?

These and many other questions are raised by the theme of Radicals, Dissenters and Non-Conformists in the Reformation.

Leading us in the consideration of these issues will be Gerald Hobbs (Vancouver) who will speak on “Resistance to the Reformed Quest for Conformity in Biblical Interpretation,” Sarah Mortimer (Oxford), who will consider “Socininianism: radical heterodoxy and conservative politics?” and Bernard Roussel (Sorbonne), who will discuss “Reformation at the risk of ‘non-conformity’, France 1557-1572”.

As always, papers which reflect the current work of participants, regardless of their relevance to the theme, are very welcome.

Contact: For information on submitting a paper proposal and/or attending the conference please email Dr Aaron Clay Denlinger (a.c.denlinger@abdn.ac.uk) or Dr Charlotte Methuen (charlotte.methuen@glasgow.ac.uk).

Booking form: (currently in pdf only) can be downloaded here.

Via.

A New Blog (To Me) – Timothy Michael Law

Timothy Michael Law is a post doc at Oxford and he’s blogging here.  He’s got some good thoughts and he does have one small fault which I’ll point out:  he’s an ageist.

That is, his blogroll consists of people he describes as ‘Young Scholars You Should Read’ which I naturally take to mean ‘leave the old geezers aside because they have nothing to say worth hearing’.  Now, to be fair, I might be overly sensitive about my age since I passed 50 but there you have it.

If you don’t mind reading prejudiced ageists, give T.M. a look.

Remembering James Barr

It was the 14th of October, 2006 (has it already been 5 years???!!!) that James Barr, one of the most brilliant Old Testament scholars of our day (or any day) died.  That November at SBL his wonderful wife stood in a session dedicated to his memory and told us such wonderful things.

Academically speaking, he’s my grandpa.  Both of my major Professors in Seminary, Sam Balentine and John Durham studied with Barr at Oxford.

A couple of years later, in March (2008) at the Southeast Region of the SBL there was a session devoted to his work as well and once again his wife was there and shared.  We had – afterwards – a very fine chat together.  She’s as wonderful a person as he was.

All those who knew Professor Barr were forever changed by the encounter.  May his name continue to be a blessing and his work an influence.

Fun Times in Britain

Stephen tells us

Something is afoot in Oxford. The Christians are fighting back. To herald the ‘Reasonable Faith Tour‘ with William Lane Craig, Oxford’s buses are carrying the slogan: There’s Probably No Dawkins. Now Stop Worrying and Enjoy Oct 25th at the Sheldonian Theatre.  The advertising campaign follows Richard Dawkins’ refusal to debate the existence of God with philosopher William Lane Craig as he visits the UK this month. He has an open invitation to debate Professor Craig at Oxford’s Sheldonian Theatre on 25th October.

Fun times indeed.