Saturday, November 20, 2010

SBL Day 1 (2010)

I'm not counting yesterday.  What a long day!  I'm going to crash after writing this.

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:

Justin J. said...

"Everyone is glad to take your money and to give you a degree. No one is waiting to give you a job"

Wow :)

Unknown said...

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

Ken Schenck said...

I modified it ;-)

Bob MacDonald said...

You tell the truth when you are tired - very nice

Ken Schenck said...

;-)

... so beware, I'm skewing things when I'm awake ;-)

... ok, I skew things both when I'm tired and awake.