NT Gateway Weblog

Today's Church Times carries the following review:
 
Karen King, What is Gnosticism (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003)
Review by W. H. C. Frend
 
The on-line version of the review itself just ends with the single word "Professor", but it appears to be by W. H. C. Frend.  He has mixed feelings:

Her detailed and carefully argued work will provoke discussion, even though her main thesis fails. As early as the 170s, Celsus describes how some Christian dissenting groups called themselves “Gnostics” ( Contra Celsum v.61). Hence the term must stand. None the less, the author has moved the debate on. She will take her place with other great scholars who have tried to solve the problem, “What is Gnosticism?”

This is a book I had better add to my Reading List  (Amazon.com link); also worth reading on this topic is Michael Allen Williams, Rethinking "Gnosticism" (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999).

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Pete Philips of Cliff College writes to let me know of his new blog:
 
postmodernbible
 
I notice that AKMA is already reading and commenting on this blog (e.g. here).  Pete's blog is in the AKMA style, covering a full range of topics of interest to the author, with personal and family news too. 

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The SBL Annual Meeting (November 20-23 2004, San Antonio, Texas) programme is now available on-line:
 
2004 Annual Meeting: Preliminary Program Book

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Blogger has introduced some more changes, several of them quite useful.  There are keyboard shortcuts for editing posts, something I find very useful -- one does not want to keep stopping typing to go to the mouse.  The facility for changing time and date is brought up front on to the main editing page, also useful.   The major change, though, is a choice between a kind of WYSIWYG editor and a straight HTML editor.  The previous blogger combined elements of both and I am guessing that I will find it much easier to have the choice between the two, WYSIWYG by default and Edit HTML when it refuses to do what I want it to do.  My only qualms about the introduction of WYSIWYG is that, like many WYSIWYGs, it will probably result in the generation of some horrid coding.  What was good about the old interface was that it encouraged everyone to have some basic grasp of bits of HTML, however limited.

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On Deinde, Paul Nikkel notes this extraordinary new story from Arutz Sheva:
 
Permits Received for Biblical Theme Resort

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News of this book from Blackwell's, courtesy of Jamie O'Brien (click the links for further information and sample chapters):

Revelation: The Apocalypse to Jesus Christ
Judith L. Kovacs and Christopher Rowland (University of Virginia and Queen's College, Oxford)

"Judith Kovacs and Christopher Rowland give us something new -- an in-depth analysis that emphasizes the reception history of the Apocalypse, its significance for later theology, literature, and art. The result is an eye-opening book that will dramatically change how readers understand the last book of the Bible and its role in Western history. This is a rich and fascinating work." Bernard McGinn, Divinity School, University of Chicago

This ground-breaking commentary on The Revelation to John (the Apocalypse) reveals its far-reaching influence on society and culture, and its impact on the church through the ages.

• Looks at interpretations of the Apocalypse by theologians, ranging from Augustine to late twentieth century liberation theologians


• Considers the book's effects on writers, artists, musicians, political figures, visionaries, and others, including Dante, Hildegard of Bingen, Milton, Newton, the English Civil war radicals, Turner, Blake, Handel, and Franz Schmidt


• Provides access to material not readily available elsewhere
  Will appeal to students and scholars across a wide range of disciplines, as well as to general readers

Browse sample pages here (PDF).

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There is a new issue of the Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus out: Vol. 2 No. 2 (June 2004). Thanks to Sean du Toit in Comments for alerting me to this. I am particularly looking forward to reading the exchange between Watts and Segal. Hyperlinks below take you to the abstracts for each article:

Editorial Foreword
Robert L. Webb

The Case of the Proselytizing Pharisees?—Matthew 23.15
Michael F. Bird

The Semitic Background to Repentance in the Teaching of John the Baptist and Jesus
James G. Crossley

Jesus as Power Tactician
Donald Capps

‘How I Stopped Worrying about Mel Gibson and Learned to Love the Quest for the Historical Jesus’: A Review of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ
Alan F. Segal

‘Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall…’: A Review of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ
Rikk Watts

Being Dispassionate about The Passion of the Christ: A Response to Rikk Watts’s Review
Alan F. Segal

A Matter of Horizons, The Passion Through the Looking Glass: A Response to Alan F. Segal’s Review
Rikk Watts

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Reading Lincoln Blumell's review of N. Clayton Croy's The Mutilation of Mark's Gospel, a book I have still not got round to reading, prompted me to update the link to Croy's homepage on Scholars: C.

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Amazon.com have have added a pre-publication review of Jesus and Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. It's taken from Publishers Weekly:

Is Mel Gibson's The Passion "pious pornography" or devotional artistry? The lead-off essays in this collection, by popular Jesus researcher John Dominic Crossan and British New Testament scholar Mark Goodacre, will remind readers that on this question, as with nearly everything connected with Jesus of Nazareth, scholars can be depended upon to disagree. For Crossan, The Passion presents a "vision of a savage God" animated by anti-Semitism (Jesus and his disciples are never shown wearing yarmulkes, whereas the Jewish leaders are). For Goodacre, the film can be seen as "an extraordinarily powerful vision" in which the anti-Semitic tendencies of Gibson's sources have been muted (Gibson presents the sympathetic figure of Simon as a Jew, though some traditional sources have identified him as a pagan). Unfortunately, the remaining essays in this book, by an even-handed assortment of scholars, rarely equal Crossan's and Goodacre's incisive arguments. Nearly all the writers concur on a few points: Gibson adds and subtracts freely from the gospel texts, and depends heavily on the 19th-century mystic Catherine Emmerich. Ultimately, they say, his work must be judged as art, not history. But these nuggets of insight are obscured by pedantic writing and wooden interpretations that rarely do justice to Gibson's own passionate, provocative filmmaking.

I haven't seen the full manuscript yet so can't comment on this rather mixed review, though naturally I can't help feeling a little pleased to see "incisive arguments" next to my name!

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It is good to see Bible and Interpretation site's Breaking News section is back again after a short break. One of the stories it links to is Ekklesia's Gibson Film Based More on Mysticism than the Gospels. This is a misleading title since it refers to John Dominic Crossan's claim that The Passion of the Christ is largely based on Anne Catherine Emmerich's work, not on "mysticism", whatever that might mean. The Ekklesia report is picked up from the press release I blogged the other day, a press release that gave prominence to Crossan's chapter in the book.

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Another big crop from the Review of Biblical Literature:

Arzt-Grabner, Peter
Philemon: Papyrologische Koimmentare zum Neuen Testament: Band 1
Reviewed by Thomas J. Kraus

Blasi, Anthony J., Jean Duhaime, and Paul-Andr¨¦ Turcotte, eds.
Handbook of Early Christianity: Social Science Approaches
Reviewed by Ronald R. Clark

Blasi, Anthony J., Jean Duhaime, and Paul-Andr¨¦ Turcotte, eds.
The Elder and the Overseer: One Office in the Early Church
Reviewed by Richard M. Edwards

Carter, Warren
Pontius Pilate: Portraits of a Roman Governor
Reviewed by Lance Richey

Collins, Raymond F.
I & II Timothy and Titus: A Commentary
Reviewed by Daniel C. Arichea, Jr.

Croy, N. Clayton
The Mutilation of Mark's Gospel
Reviewed by Lincoln Blumell

France, R. T.
The Gospel of Mark
Reviewed by Steve Patton

Jackson, Glenna
'Have Mercy on Me': The Story of the Canaanite Woman in Matthew 15.21-28
Reviewed by PD Dr. Luzia Sutter Rehmann

Lee, John A. L.
A History of New Testament Lexicography
Reviewed by Tobias Nicklas

Maccoby, Hyam
Jesus the Pharisee
Reviewed by Michele Murray

Mathewson, David
A New Heaven and a New Earth: The Meaning and Function of the Old Testament in Revelation 21.1-22.5
Reviewed by Thomas Hieke

Mathewson, David
A New Heaven and a New Earth: The Meaning and Function of the Old Testament in Revelation 21.1-22.5
Reviewed by James P. Sweeney

McRay, John
Paul: His Life and Teachings
Reviewed by James P. Sweeney

Merkle, Benjamin L.
The Elder and the Overseer: One Office in the Early Church
Reviewed by Ronald R. Clark

Merkle, Benjamin L.
The Elder and the Overseer: One Office in the Early Church
Reviewed by Richard M. Edwards

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