Didaktikos: A New Journal for Bible and Theology Teachers

[Normally I try not to make my blog sound like advertising, but since Didaktikos is a great resource for those interested in making a career out of theological studies, I figured it's worth mentioning]

For all full-time and part-time teachers out there, broadly connected with biblical and theological studies, I'd like to make you aware of the brand-new journal, Didaktikos. Billing itself as a "journal of theological education," Didaktikos is packed full with insightful articles on such topics as teaching bible and theology, what it means to be a theology teacher, developing future Christian leaders, etc. The editor is Douglas Estes, who plays an important role at Logos (Faithlife/Lexham press). Many of those featured in Didaktikos, as well as those on the editorial board, are all-stars in their field, including Karen H. Jobes, Grant Osborne, Mark L. Strauss, Edith M. Humphrey, and Darrell Bock.

The best news is, the journal is free to professors! Simply sign up for Logos' "Academic Status," which is free in of itself and includes a discount to Logos products and a free subscription to Didaktikos.

The journal began last year; the latest issue includes such articles as "Teaching and Virtue" (Douglas Estes), "Cultivating Leaders in the Arab World" (Elie Haddad), and "Explore New Avenues for Popular-Level Publishing" (Chad Hall). In addition, this issue features a segment on "Currents: Trajectories in Theological Education," while the main feature is an interview with Edith M. Humphrey (Pittsburgh Theological Seminary) on "The Professing Life."

On a side note, Didaktikos is published by Faithlife, which runs Logos Bible Software. Since BibleWorks is sadly going out of business, both Logos and Accordance are offering "cross-over" packages to help those who own BibleWorks. This also means that instead of the "Big Three" of Bible software, we now have the "Big Two" (both of which have their strengths--I use both!)

Choosing a textbook for a brand new "General Epistles" class

For a two-week block at the end of September/beginning of October, I have the privilege of teaching BI 429 "Introduction and Theology of the General Epistles" (minus Hebrews). This is the first time ever Baptist College of Ministry has offered the class (it's not even in our official catalog yet), and will be an upper-level class consisting of a mid-sized research paper and some other smaller projects.

I'm immensely excited for various reasons, not least because the class will naturally include 1 Peter. Also, the general epistles are the "generally neglected" portion of the canon (when was the last time you heard a sermon on Jude, 2 Peter, or 2-3 John?) However, until just yesterday I didn't have the time to choose a textbook. Good books covering all the General Epistles are vary rare, and in the end my choices boiled down to two books: Karen Jobes Letters to the Churches or Brandon Crowe's The Message of the General Epistles in the History of Redemption.

While both books are worthy of purchase, and while Crowe has an easy-going, accessible style, I nevertheless had to go with Jobes for a couple reasons. First of all, Jobes' book is a true introduction. Whereas Crowe mostly covers theological themes, Jobes covers that and everything else (this means, however, that Crowe would be good supplementary reading at the undergrad level). Secondly, Jobes offers the reader a better introduction to the scholarly literature out there, which is what I want for my upper-level college students. Also, Jobes' book has pictures! (Any NT textbook is better with pictures! Best example of this is Burge/Cohick/Green's The New Testament in Antiquity).

One other minor note: since he teaches at Westminster, Crowe's Reformed theology does play a major role in his book. This means that it's simultaneously slightly less desirable for a Dispensational classroom but obviously an easy choice for a a Reformed one. Also, I do have to admit that Crowe's writing style is very accessible, even for non-college students, and might make a good choice for a church Bible study (even a non-Reformed Baptist church could benefit from it).

My specialty is first Peter, and I've blogged about it before, but let me quickly mention what I consider the top commentaries on 1 Peter:
1. Confessional:
Karen Jobes, Baker Exegetical--best, period, end of story.
Wayne Grudem, Tyndale--would be my pick for undergrad or a church Bible study on 1 Peter
Douglas Harink, Brazos theological--very provocative and practical!
Ben Witherington, Socio-Rhetorical--Witherington is always a good read for literary and sociological background
2. Broadly academic
Paul Achtemeier, Hermeneia--This is considered by scholarship at large to be the best ever.
John Elliott, Anchor Bible--I prefer Elliott slightly to Achtemeier, partially because I've bought into most of his argument re.: the background of the recipients.
Leonhard Goppelt, Kritisch-exegetischer--This is the foreign-language commentary to own.
Reinhard Feldmeier, Theologischer Handkommentar--A bit more accessible than Goppelt.

Resources for Studying and Teaching Biblical Hebrew (by a Greek specialist)

The Lord has a sense of irony! After 5 years in doctoral studies focusing on Greek under one of the premiere NT Greek scholars in America (in my humble, biased, and totally correct opinion), one of the first things I was asked to teach at Baptist College of Ministry was Biblical Hebrew. It has been a fantastic and very rewarding experience, yet I sincerely wish that I had not neglected my Hebrew during my years at Southeastern. Despite the fact that I had a solid array of credits in Hebrew (and also took Aramaic), nevertheless I let it slide (though, in my defense, I did read through the Septuagint during those years). Let this be a lesson to you, potential doctorates! You never know where or what you'll be teaching, so retain at least basic competency in all areas of your field. Hopefully, I've learned my lesson and now try to incorporate a little Hebrew a day into my personal Bible study (along with my English, Greek, and German Bibles).

The old cliche is true: you really haven't learned a subject until you have to each it. A lot of things have started clicking with me now, including the discourse structure of Hebrew narrative (and its stark contrast with Hebrew poetry, with the relative lack of conjunctions in the latter); in addition, I've begun to engage more with the scholarly literature and more technical issues (e.g., is the "preterist" the third tense along with perfect and imperfect?)

For  our first semester textbook (in addition to the Stuttgartensia Hebrew Bible, Holladay's lexicon, etc.), we used Pratico and Van Pelt's Basics of Biblical Hebrew along with the accompanying workbook. I almost went with Allen Ross' Introducing Biblical Hebrew, but felt that Pratico/Van Pelt was more user-friendly to beginners. 

For second semester, the required textbooks were Arnold and Choi's handy A Guide to Biblical Hebrew Syntax and Chisholm's excellent and very practical From Exegesis to Exposition: A Practical Guide to Using Biblical Hebrew [Waltke and O'Conner's syntax is still the modern standard, of course, but way too expensive in my opinion for a textbook; our library has it, fortunately].

In addition, in my own personal study and lecture prep, I have grown very fond of C. John Collins' work. His Genesis 1-4: A Linguistic, Literary, and Theological Commentary is absolutely fantastic and just what I needed to challenge me both exegetically and theologically. For class, I made my students read both C. John Collins' article "A Syntactical Note on Genesis 3:15: Is the Woman's Seed Singular or Plural?" in Tyndale Bulletin vol. 48 (1997), as well as the necessary supplementary article by T. Desmond Alexander, "Further Observations on the Term 'Seed' in Genesis," the very next issue. Alexander deals with some texts that Collins did not cover, but I agree with the overall point of both of them (I would state, however, that in order for Genesis 3:15 to refer to the Messiah, it's not necessary to demonstrate that every occurrence of a singular pronoun in reference to zerah necessarily refers to a single person--only that the substantial majority do). Finally, I have worked through (with a bit more difficulty), Anson F. Rainey's influential article on "The Ancient Hebrew Prefix Conjugation in the Light of Amarnah Canaanite," Hebrew Studies (1997), a very influential article (viewable for free on JSTOR, though downloading a pdf is a bit expensive).

Finally, for a little bit of fun. If you haven't yet listened to Josh Tyra's famous "I am the very model of a Biblical Philologist," then click here, and you're welcome (warning: it's only funny if you like Hebrew or are familiar with Gilbert and Sullivan).

Priorities of a new Bible professor

Beginning August 1^st, 2014, I have officially been the brand new professor of Biblical Studies at Baptist College of Ministry in Menomonee Falls, WI, for which I thank the Lord. Fortunately, I do not actually teach a class until late September (a 9-week block), but at that point I will be teaching Jewish History (junior-level college), Beginning Biblical Hebrew (seminary) and Composition and Rhetoric (college freshman level class, focusing on research and writing). [A Bible college prof has to be flexible J All this is somewhat ironic since I’m a New Testament guy, but I’m just happy to be teaching the Bible! All these will be fun classes, but I’m really, really looking forward to Hermeneutics, which I’ve been promised for Spring 2014]

Already, since moving up here, my father and I have attended an multiple-school faculty summit and presented papers, and I have also submitted said paper to a journal for publication (first time in about 3 years I’ve submitted a paper; we’ll see what comes of it). Here, however, are my priorities now that I’m preparing to teach: first tier, second tier, and third tier

First Tier Responsibilities: Those directly related to classes and the church

1.     My very first action as professor, which occurred technically before I was officially staff, was to choose a textbook for Beginning Biblical Hebrew (I went with Pratico/Van Pelt’s Basics of Biblical Hebrew after consulting with some esteemed Hebrew teachers). This was important because, although I made some minor changes to Jewish History, adding the Zondervan Bible Atlas (but still kept last year’s textbook, Merrill’s Kingdom of Priests), in Hebrew I was making some more substantial changes.

2.     Begin putting together syllabi: Jewish History has been a huge priority here, because laying out the class schedule and content is less intuitive than working off of the textbook in Beginning Biblical Hebrew. Also, the textbook does not go as far as AD 70, which is where the class is supposed to go. I’ve also begun putting together new syllabi for Hebrew and Comp/Rhetoric, but Jewish History definitely takes priority.

3.     Begin personal research for classes: once again, Jewish History takes priority here, since I’m starting from scratch; Hebrew will be fairly easy to construct a syllabus, figure out the content (although starting next week I intend to start my own program of Hebrew review; I’ve already started daily readings out of my Hebrew OT). For Jewish History, I’ve purchased a number of books at my own expense, especially benefitting from John Sailhamer’s short but handy Old Testament History and also Rooker/Merrill/Grisanti’s OT Intro The World and the Word, also K. A. Kitchen’s On the Reliability of the Old Testament.

4.     Become integrated with my local church: while this should be a high priority for any professor, it’s especially important for me since BCM is a ministry of a local church. As an employee of the college, I am also an employee of the church. I am looking forward to being plugged in to ministry here and contributing to the overall mission.

Second Tier Responsibilities: Personal Research, part 1; thinking of Spring ‘14

1.     I am extremely grateful that by this point my book is done, in the final stages of production, and I look ahead to my next publishing endeavors. First of all, though, I really, really need to get back into Theological German so I am going to try to start a nightly program of studying German and reading the German Bible. This is essential if I want to continue contributing to Biblical scholarship.

2.     Next two articles, next book: at this point I’ve started laying the groundwork for two more articles, ideally (and maybe naively) that I hope to finish by the end of the year and submit to publications. My next book has also started to coalesce in my mind, but it will be a simpler, less-academic and more practical book for which I have already started doing research.

3.     Looking ahead to next semester: I already have ideas for Hermeneutics. I need to start formulating what I want to do with that and the other classes.

4.     By the way, a really important note: in the fantastic book Those Who Can, Teach: Teaching as a Christian Vocation, ed. Porter, there’s an essay in there called “From Doctoral Program to Classroom” by Steven Studebaker which talks about how, even when you’re not teaching classes that necessarily tied directly in with your dissertation, you can still benefit from researching for those classes (both by broadening your horizons and figuring out how they can tie in with your research goals).

Third Tier Responsibilities: Personal Research, part 2

1.     Once I start fulfilling my other responsibilities and goals at a satisfactory clip, I can start to think of my next truly academic book (hint: something to do with Peter again . . .)

2.     And, I also have some other articles that I want to get off the carrier, at least, though they may be shot down by the SAM missiles of peer-review, but enough with this silly analogy, full-afterburners ahead!

And, always a 1^st-tier, 2^nd-tier, and 3^rd-tier responsibility simultaneously, be thanking the Lord that I’m actually in such a position to be blogging on this topic as a teacher!

Pedagogical book alert (Those Who Can, Teach, ed. by Porter) and some other academic resources

Since it looks more and more like I’ll have the privilege of finally teaching full-time, I have started giving more attention to the art of pedagogy. As a result, I am pleased to direct the reader to the fantastic book Those Who Can, Teach: Teaching as Christian Vocation, edited by Stanley Porter with contributions by various members of the faculty at McMaster Divinity College (Eugene, Oreg.: Pickwick, 2013). Click here for the Amazon link.

This book is a treasure trove of essays which cover everything from syllabus creation to lesson-planning, all within the context of Christian higher education. Here’s some of the highlights so far (I’m halfway through the book):

The first chapter by Stanley Porter covers “Developing a Philosophy of Education.” Now, as far as pure writing style, Porter is not my favorite author (though he’s essential for any student of NT Greek and linguistics), and this essay is not exactly the easiest to read in the world. Having said that, content-wise it is fantastic, and I learned a lot from it. Porter covers the various views of education (both historically and philosophically), the weaknesses and strengths of each, and how a Christian educator should go about interacting with his or her students. Especially significant is Porter’s statement near the end, drawing on the work of Gilbert Ryle, that “The ability to teach oneself and think for oneself is what distinguishes education from merely training” (p. 36).

My favorite chapter so far, however, is Mark J. Boda on “Designing and Evaluating Learning Experiences for Courses.” This essay alone is, in my humble but correct opinion, worth the price of the book. This essay is very much student-centric, in that it is designed to help teachers meet the needs of the student. Boda discusses such topics as consistency in grading (p. 68—“I have found that the more time I spend reflecting on why and how I evaluate students’ assignments and communicating clearly the evaluation I give to my students, the less problems I encounter with students over grading”), how to grade, etc. The section at the end on “Best Practices” is fantastic, especially his discussion on professor feedback on papers. One of my pet peeve is papers I received with a grade but no feedback, or unhelpful feedback. In one of my doctoral integrative seminars, I got an assignment back with the remark, “Not bad, but not great either,” at which point I wanted to scream, “Then show me how to do ‘great’!” In my opinion, feedback on assignments is part of teaching, and I hope to emulate Boda’s excellent advice.

Here’s a list of all the essays in the book, for those interested, as well as a link to the Amazon site for the book (click here):

1.    Stanley Porter, “Developing a Philosophy of Education”

2.    Michael P. Knowles, “Pedagogy and Course Objectives”

3.    Mark J. Boda, “Designing and Evaluating Learning Experiences for Courses”

4.    Cynthia Long Westfall, “Developing a Syllabus”

5.    Lee Beach, “Sculpting a Lesson: The Art of Preparing a Classroom Learning Experience”

6.    Lois K. Fuller Dow, “Teaching Introductory New Testament Greek”

7.    Paul Evans: “Teaching Biblical Hebrew; Practical Strategies for Introductory Courses”

8.    Wendy J. Porter, “Leading Intentional Theological Reflection in the Classroom: The Merging of Mind and Heart”

9.    Steven M. Studebaker, “From Doctoral Program to Classroom”

10.                  Gordon L. Heath, “The Upside-Down Professor: The Professor in a Christian Institution”

11.                  Phil C. Zylla, “Spirituality of Teaching and Theological Integration”

And while we’re discussing Christian pedagogy, let me also mention my friend Thomas Hudgins’ new book (a revision of his dissertation) Luke 6:40 and the Theme of Likeness Education in the New Testament (click here for the Amazon.com link).

Finally, for budding young scholars, click here for an excellent discussion of how to get your papers published. Almost all of what Dr. Kirsten Bell discusses here is both common-sensical yet nonetheless excellent advice for Bible and theology doctoral students, except for the part of nominating reviewers for your article (which I don’t think is an option in any of the Biblical/theological journals I’ve ever submitted a paper to). Her discussion about the need to actually be familiar with a journal before submitting a paper is especially key. Also, for good measure, here's a great article by Dr. Joli Jensen on "The Road to Scholarly Writing Utopia," full of more sound wisdom about motivation and time management (click here for the article).