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theLAB

The Logos Academic Blog

How Can You Make Logos Even More Helpful for Academic Work?

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by J. David Stark, PhD

Logos is an incredibly useful tool straight out of the box (or off the website). But as with any tool, it can take some time to get to know it well and use it better.

As an academic user, you’re also coming to Logos from a specific angle. Your context uniquely shapes how you want to use the tool. And as with any craft, you can produce better results by learning to use your tools better.

So, I’d like to share 12 ways that you can make Logos even more helpful for your academic work.

And if you read through to the end, there’ll be an additional free resource pack for you too.

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Why Verbal Aspect Improves Preaching, Part 3: Case Study

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By Donald C. McIntyre

See also Part 1 and Part 2.

A Case Study in Matthew 2:1–12

There are forty-seven verbal forms in this pericope; all but 10 verbal forms are perfective aspect. Of those ten forms that are not perfective, one is stative, two are future, and the remaining six are imperfect or present tense. Porters method combines the aspect found in the tense of the verbs with associated elements that are attached to the mood. Applying his theory will begin with the most basic argument of his theory, that imperfective aspect is “defined foreground” information, and then proceed to his views on the perfect tense, where he finds the aspect to be stative, and “well defined foreground information” for discourse purposes. The analysis will end with a discussion of Porter on mood before explaining the future tense, since Porter does not give the future tense an aspect but leaves it as a mood of expectation. It should be noted that since the aorist is “main line” to the discourse, the aorist tense verbs should be seen as the basic plot structure, which is slowed down by the foregrounding devices.

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Lockdown Diaries: Andy Byers, St John’s College, Durham University

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In the first half of my scholarly vocation during the pandemic I was occupied with the rushed development new competencies in learning and teaching technologies. And, of course, there was Zoom: meetings, seminars, tutorials, and more. With four children, there was the managing of both educational and recreational activities.

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Lockdown Diary: Grace Emmett, King’s College London

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This year has been strange for all of us and unnerving in its constant uncertainty. I spent the majority of 2020 writing up my PhD thesis, which I submitted at the beginning of November. The process of writing up certainly did not pan out in the way I imagined with minimal library access and hardly any face-to-face interaction with my colleagues.

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Read, Write, Run, Pray: A Scholar’s Approach to 2021

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Photo: Tavis Bohlinger

The New Year began for those of us in the UK with a new lockdown fresh out of the gates. We are like toddlers struggling up the steps to the top of a slide only to arrive at a higher, scarier ascent. Where did the slide go?

On Monday morning, friends of mine returned to work (both online and in the office), only to be told that same evening that they could not leave their homes, nor could their children go to school the next day (after 2 weeks of Christmas break). For us scholars and pastors, finding time to study is never easy, but the pandemic makes it nearly impossible.

2021 begins on a low.

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Lockdown Diary: Prof John Barclay, Durham University

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Life in lockdown is exhausting. Planning, organising, and administering online teaching is sapping all the mental energy and time at the moment, while teaching is less rewarding than usual, without significant face-to-face interaction. (God so loved the world, that he did not Zoom us …).

Also the drama, frustration and anxiety caused by the news takes up so much mental and emotional space, that it is hard to think clearly and well. The result is that there is, for me at least, very little reading/research and no extended writing taking place at all.

On the plus side, the online world allows international interaction across continents without the hassle, pollution, and expense of travel. But if this goes on long, we will find ourselves with less and less to say to each other, and unable to make meaningful new scholarly relationships. An online conference is not a patch on the real thing!

John M. G. Barclay is the Lightfoot Professor of Divinity at Durham University.

Key Resources for NT Scholarship: A Starter List

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Image: © Tavis Bohlinger

by Prof Steve Walton

This list is aimed at providing a starter list for useful journal, book series, sources of book reviews, and online sources for journal articles. It’s not the last word, but hopefully it’s a useful guide into the forest of secondary literature in New Testament studies.1

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Get the Most Out of Your Research Trip: Advice for First-Time Archive Researchers

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Library of Congress, Washington, DC

Ryan Griffith  | Indianapolis Theological Seminary

Although library archives are most often the domain of historians and other students of the humanities, research interests will take seminary faculty into the archives from time to time. Even biblical scholarship can unexpectedly require archival research—whether to investigate a rare manuscript or to access a theologian’s unpublished correspondence. Whatever the occasion, digging around in university archives can be an inspiring experience. If you don’t plan well, however, it will be inefficient and frustrating—particularly if you are traveling to a university far away from home.

A measure of advance planning will make a research trip more enjoyable and productive—and potentially save you or your students from having to make a costly trip to a distant archive more than once. Unfortunately, graduate-level research courses sometimes neglect practical guidance on archival research. If you teach and supervise graduate (especially doctoral) students, consider including a guide to archival research as part of your regular instruction.1

Here are some tips for getting the most out of a research trip.

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a priori: Gideon Sam’s Work on Destitution and Hunger in Luke

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A Priori is a new series on the theLAB in which we put three simple questions to scholars undertaking important research in biblical studies, theology, ethics, and more. We seek out the authors who may be poised for future renown at this early stage in their career, whose mission is the church, whose vocation is research. This week we hear from Gideon Sam and his work on destitution and hunger in the Gospel of Luke.

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