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The Logos Academic Blog

Don’t Call it “Retro”: Retrieval Theologians are Looking Back to Move Forward

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by Kevin J. Vanhoozer  | Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

There’s a word for describing the latest cultural fad of bringing back styles, fashions, or designs from the recent past: “retro.” Vinyl records are popular once again despite the superior digital technology. Retro restaurants stake their business on the appeal to a new generation of, say, self-consciously identifying with everything 1980s. As sociocultural commentators point out, however, such retro homage is “half-longing, half-ironic.”1 [Read more…]

Katie Marcar on “What Makes a good Biblical Scholar or Theologian?”

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A good biblical scholar is discerning. This discernment is exercised at key points in the research process. First, a good scholar chooses worthwhile research projects to invest time in. Time is a limited commodity, so choosing the right project is paramount. [Read more…]

Academic Jobs in Biblical Studies and Theology: Jan 15-20, 2018

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This week the University of Vienna announced up to 30 professorship posts to be filled, and Maynooth College near Dublin has 2 posts in Theology on offer. Other job adverts are live from Ohio to Canada, Minnesota to the UK.  [Read more…]

Nicholas Perrin on “What makes a good Biblical Scholar or Theologian?”

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The key element to any theologian’s lasting success is the ability to approach their task with the wonder and awe of a beginner.  Humble curiosity is the lifeblood of all our teaching, research, and writing. Without it we slowly die — and worse, take our audiences down to the pit with us.

~Nicholas Perrin, Franklin S. Dyrness Professor of Biblical Studies, Wheaton College

A Strategic Approach to Reading Background Texts of the New Testament

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While many NT scholars may know a whole lot about Matthew–Revelation, many lack the ability to pick up and read Josephus and Clement in the original Greek, or Seneca and Cicero in Latin. This reveals not just a severe lack of language ability, but, more importantly, a lack of familiarity with the ideas and historical contexts of Early Jewish, Greco-Roman, and Early Christian authors and texts.

My belief (and I’m not alone in this) is that, as a NT and Early Christian scholar, I must do more than be mindful of the vast body of literature outside the NT; I actually have to read it. [Read more…]