Welcome to September and the new academic year...what happened to the Summer!
I managed to break my toe on holiday! Very painful, although my wife said it was just an issue with my male pain threshold! Me and the doctor managed to sort out why my body wasn't acting properly and I feel much more energised and ready for this academic year. Although, hopefully, this Autumn I will be on sabbatical and so it is even better that I have some energy for that!
At the end of last week it was the British New Testament Conference - see the various abstracts and programme here. It as a great conference this year with some really splendid papers. Since it was in Sheffield, I commuted in which meant that I missed some of the more social aspects, but did mean I had a nice bed (mine!) and could take some time out with the family on Friday afternoon! Apparently the conference accommodation wasn't something to write home about anyway!
It was quite a busy conference for me - I delivered a paper (Intertextuality) in the Hermeneutics session - see later post. I was also chairing the Johannine Literature seminar. We had some great papers in this seminar and even managed some late alterations which meant Peter Williams could come along and have a discussion with us re. his main paper on Friday evening. Sadly, my co-chair for the seminars, Susan Miller, had to return to Glasgow for a family bereavement. It was a pity she wasn't there since she had done lots of the organising during the year. Fortunately, Wendy Sproston-North, the former co-chair, was able to step in when I was off in the Hermeneutics session deliverying my paper.
The main talks were good - Graham Stanton battled sound problems and on overheated room to deliver his paper - although I wasn't too sure I got where he ended up! Peter Williams delivered a tour de force on the Prologue's manuscript history on Friday. And Maurice Casey delivered a magisterial paper on THE Solution to the Son of Man Problem - vintage Casey!
Lots of books, lots of people to chat to - a good conference. I will try and blog on each of the main papers and also some of the seminar papers as well over the next day or so.
One thing I did notice was the increasing number of people from theological colleges and independent scholars coming to the Conference - it seems to be growing all the time. This is good and shows the health of New Testament Studies in the UK - or the democratization and popularizing of the conference. If it is the latter - does this mean the the conference's academic clout is lessened or increased?
I have made a resolution to blog more regularly on NT issues - my usual beginning of the academic year resolution. I hope I keep to it this year!
Pete
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