postmodernbible

Day by Day

One of my colleagues has asked me whether I know of any resources on the sense of the quotidian in biblical studies/scripture.  You know, that sense of picking up your cross daily.  Interestingly, of course, that phrase only occurs in the Lukan version and not in Mark or Matthew.  Indeed, it seems to be a reflection of the move to the present imperatives as opposed to the previous aorist imperatives (so Bock et al.).

Does anyone know of any direction in which I may point my colleague...?

Pete

Exams

Over the next two days, we have our semester 1 exams here at Cliff - scared students for some reason or other.  Just imagine sitting in that room with frantic scribblings happening all around and so much work left behind in my study!!!

I am going to take Yvan Bourquin's book on Mark's Gospel with me as company - it's a great book which I am just finishing reviewing (Marc, une theologie de la fragilite) - full of daft non-sequiturs and postmodern paradoxes.  He argues, basically, that Mark's presentation of the Gospel promotes a theology of paradox and grace delivered to an implicit reader who is prone to looking on the more negative side of life.  A Gospel for the Manically Depressed?  It sounds a bit postmodern to me - and to Bourquin but that doesn't seem to matter!  There is some great literary theory stuff exploring theorists like Genette and Eco and so on - very similar in that respect to my approach to John.  Interestingly Bourquin also focusses on the beginning (and the end) of Mark's Gospel as interpretative key -  giving the context within which the rest of the book needs to be read.

The only problem is that it is all in French.  Now that's OK - I can read French - just.  In fact, because it is using the same works which I tend to have a grasp of already, that makes it a bit easier.  But the guy keeps on translating everything - you get this bit of Wolfgang Iser translated into lovely French.  Strange...I do love what the French language can do to literary theory - it sounds much more philosophical in French somehow...

Better get on with it...

By the way - this is not the same Yvan Bourquin.  This guy does biomedical robotics somewhere in Switzerland and has the same name...but he does look like a postmodern kind of person who could write about the theology of fragility in Mark - doesn't he? 

Google couldn't find a picture of Yvan the Theologian.  Although it could find a picture of Ivor the Engine...of blessed memory!

Have a good day

Pete

Two of my colleagues here at Cliff have been publishing recently..

Most recent is Stephen Skuce's book on multifaith relations in Ireland, The Faiths of Ireland. The book is published by Columba Press and is available from them here for €14.99 or in sterling from here!

David Firth seems to have brought out his own mini-library this year with three books and contributions to others. David is presently writing a commentary on 2 Samuel, and has become general editor for the Tyndale Old Testament Commentary series. David's recently released books are:

Hear, O Lord: A Spirituality of the Psalms (Calver: Cliff College Publishing, 2005), £9.99 - available from our bookshop.

Surrendering Retribution in the Psalms: Responses to Violence in the Individual Complaints (Milton Keynes: Paternoster, 2005), £19.99 - again available from our bookshop or from here or from here!

Interpreting the Psalms: Issues and Approaches (ed. with Philip S. Johnston) (Leicester: Paternoster, 2005), £16.99 - again available from our bookshop or, the American edition with a different cover from here or from here!

All much cheaper than mine! 

Of which I noted James Crossley mentioned on his blog - Peter Head then added a comment about the strangeness of having to mention the term "a sequential reading" - well, read the book.  I wish more commentators actually did it.  In fact sequential readings of Biblical texts are few and far between...

Pete

Comments

Just a couple of quick points...

I know that the book is going to cost £65.00 a copy - at least you get free delivery with amazon!  Unfortunately not a penny of the £65.00 is coming in my direction.  It's my first book - it's a thesis in book form - what do you expect?  I understand that if they sell out of the first edition (which is not many!) then they are going to put it out in a paperback form at a much reduced cost.  Of course there is going to be the little hitch of managing to sell all the first edition first!  Tell your local libraries to buy a copy!

One thing I am not sure is whether continuum/T&T are selling it in the states as well - I assume they will...

Secondly, one of my students who reads the blog (you know who you are) and who has read the Da Vinci review in its full form, has suggested that I must be the Simon Cowell of British Methodism. Now he sees that as a compliment.  I am not so sure how!  I asked whether I had been acerbic or vitriolic in marking his work - apparently he said I hadn't.  Do I really put people down like Simon does?  Now I need therapy!

Pete

Well...

Hello world...

I am alive...

I promise to blog more...

I am marking some MA assignments and then trying to read today...

However, i got sidetracked by an email from my editor and decided to look on Amazon - and lo and behold, I found myself there!!!  Look here

I realise that for lots of people, this is nothing special, but I have to say that seeing something I have worked at for over a decade actually listed as something people can buy is amazingly brilliant!

Back to marking...

Have you read "Shadow of the Wind"?  Strange but immensely gripping book!

Epworth Review eventually (after two years!) have rejected my Da Vinci Code review on the grounds that it does not fit the tone of their journal!  Apparently I was too critical - even vitriolic - and the fact that it was well-researched seemed to be a problem too.  The question is, do I stick with my passionate refutation of the book as literature and as theology and as new testament/church history interpretation, or do I remove the passion and provide them with a bland alternative...dunno...

Pete