The Logos Academic Blog
A good Biblical theologian is a faithful theologian. Whether or not you recognize it, everyone is a theologian of sorts. We all have thoughts about God whether a Christian, an atheist, a Buddhist, or a Muslim. Everyone speaks words about God. Our concern then with being good Biblical theologians lies within the idea of faithfulness. [Read more…]
What makes a good scholar-theologian? Here are seven things: [Read more…]
A good biblical scholar is a sane biblical scholar. What I mean by that is, a good biblical scholar takes time for themselves and does not focus on their research every waking moment of the day; you have to have balance. If you don’t do this, you’ll (figuratively) go insane. [Read more…]
A good biblical scholar is one who approaches the text with a genuine openness to being corrected by it. [Read more…]
As a junior scholar, I don’t consider myself either a good Bible scholar or theologian (yet!) so I can only offer my own expectations based on my encounters with others. I’ve organized these into six key areas: [Read more…]
I had the great pleasure recently of reading Jamie Davies’ Paul Among the Apocalypses?: An Evaluation of the “Apocalyptic Paul” in the Context of Jewish and Christian Apocalyptic Literature, his contribution to T&T Clark’s Library of New Testament Studies monograph series. Jamie and I sat down for a conversation about Paul, the meaning of “apocalyptic,” and how the church stands to benefit from recent scholarship on the issue. [Read more…]
I have always appreciated reading and listening to those scholars who have both a command over the relevant, classical languages and a direct knowledge of the primary sources in their disciplines. [Read more…]
Jacob Neusner. Photo courtesy of Noam Neusner.
We had the great honor of interviewing Noam Neusner recently about his experiences growing up as the son of the most prolific author and scholar in history, Jacob Neusner. Noam offers here some sound advice and fascinating insight that every one of us should take to heart in our journey as scholars, parents, and friends. [Read more…]
Although I am presently working as a local pastor, and not doing as much scholarly work right now, I learned a lot from my time at the University of Edinburgh during my PhD. As I reflect back on scholars and peers that I respect and consider what led to successes and failures in my own scholarship, I can offer four qualities that I believe make someone a good Biblical Scholar or Theologian.
A good theologian knows what they are doing and why they are doing it, asking the vocational questions of what it means to be a theologian and what it means to do their task well. A good theologian keeps these questions close at hand, since they clarify what it means to be a theologian in one’s own setting. [Read more…]