Always nice to see old friends and see people who have helped form my thinking, both positively and negatively. Same old feelings:
- Wow, look at all these books!
- Most of these books are pointless.
- Not another commentary series!
- Down with the foundationalist, (Calvino-)-evangelical hegemony (my reaction to the Zondervan booth).
- Popular doesn't correlate to truth at all--it might even work the other way around.
- The people at logos are darn clever (they gave free Greek NTs to everyone here and let us know that it's also free to download into logos software) and have a nice life.
- The most prominent scholars here know too much. They see way too many connections between unrelated things.
- The budding scholars are grasping at straws to present something worthwhile so that they can get a job. Half or more are about to face a rude awakening: Everyone is glad to take your money and to give you a degree. No one is waiting to give you a job.
- Truth for its own sake is perfectly legitimate, but in most seminary and college settings should only take up a small percentage of learning time. At SBL, the vast majority of stuff falls in the category of "truth for its own sake."
- I only want to write things that are valuable in some context.
- I believe there is a small percentage of very valuable things to get from coming here--you have to look for it.
- I'm tired.
5 comments:
"Everyone is glad to take your money and to give you a degree. No one is waiting to give you a job"
Wow :)
FWIW, I'm pretty sure Grant Osborne is an Arminian. If not an "Arminian," I'm almost positive he's not a Calvinist. In fact, Osborne was instrumental in Scot McKnight leaving Calvinism in the dust.
On another note, I'm quite surprised that books written by Moo & Osborne, both conservative evangelicals, are in demand at SBL. Perhaps at ETS, but SBL? Really?
Regarding SBL, I went last year and will probably never go back. I didn't see much value at all. Butt-kissing from all the students (as you alluded to), a "who's who" mentality from the lesser known members in awe of a few guys who have published something, and pontificating about a bunch of BS by most scholars. About 99% of it has no relevance to the church. Maybe ETS is different, but I have my doubts. Even if it were, the "inerrancy" thing rules me out. Oh well
I modified it ;-)
You tell the truth when you are tired - very nice
;-)
... so beware, I'm skewing things when I'm awake ;-)
... ok, I skew things both when I'm tired and awake.
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