News from Tübingen

by Beth Langstaff

SYMPOSIUM, 1-3 October 2018 / “The Lord’s Prayer / Das Vaterunser”

We are preparing for the next Symposium to be held in Tübingen in October. The symposium will focus on the Lord’s Prayer in the context of Judaism, the New Testament, and early Christianity. As in 2014, the symposium is being organized and sponsored by Prof. Michael Tilly (Tübingen), Prof. Loren Stuckenbruck (Munich) and Beth Langstaff (Institute). Once again, we have invited speakers from other regions of the world (e.g. Eastern Europe, North America, Israel, South Africa) and from a variety of religious traditions (Protestant, Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Jewish). A sample of speakers and topics…

Ronald E. Heine, Northwest Christian University, Professor Emeritus of Bible and Theology, (USA): “Ask for the Great Things: Origen’s understanding of the Lord’s Prayer”
Dennis Lindsay, Northwest Christian University, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Professor of Biblical Studies, (USA): “Pistis and Prayer in the New Testament”
Rodney Werline, Barton College, Professor of Religion and Philosophy, (USA): “Redactions of the Lord’s Prayer and Ideals of Piety in Second Temple Judaism”
Cana Werman, Professor Dept. of Jewish History, (Israel): “The Lord’s Prayer in the Context of First Century Judaism”
Judith H. Newman from the University of Toronto will be giving an evening lecture on “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread”: Teaching and Time in the Lord’s Prayer”.

Other speakers include: Wilfried Eisele, Kasper Bro Larsen, Hermann Lichtenberger, Ulrich Mell, Tobias Nicklas, Konstantin Nikolapoulos, Karl-Heinrich Ostermeyer, Gerd Steyn, Benjamin G. Wold.
 

News from Tübingen

Jan./Feb., 2018

by Beth Langstaff

Here is Tübingen, the winter semester is almost at an end. In the New Testament Colloquium, we have had a very good series of speakers and papers. In December, Prof James Aitken from the University of Cambridge, on a return visit to Tübingen and to the Colloquium, read a paper on "Rewriting Homer in the Greek version of Sirach". Among other topics, the discussion took up the intriguing question: to what extent does a translator also function as an author? The book of Sirach, also known as Ecclesiasticus, is part of the Apocrypha; in content, it is similar to the book of Proverbs, and it was known and used in early Christian circles.

Prof. Aitken

In the Theological English class, we have been reading texts by theologians from the Global South, from Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Some years ago, renowned Kenyan theologian and Anglican priest, John Mbiti, issued a challenge to Christians in the West: “Theologians from the new (or younger) churches have made their pilgrimages to the theological learning of the older churches. We had no alternative. We have eaten theology with you; we have drunk theology with you; we have dreamed theology with you. But it has all been one-sided; it has all been, in a sense, your theology...We know you theologically. The question is, do you know us theologically? Would you like to know us theologically?” It has been exciting and often uncomfortable, even convicting, to read theological texts written by Christian men and women in different parts of the world: in South Korea, Peru, Ghana, Brazil, China, Nigeria, Thailand, and Papua New Guinea. This week, we are reading the "Kairos Document", a theological critique of the apartheid system in South Africa, written in the midst of crisis in 1985.
 

News from Tübingen

by Beth Langstaff

One of the guests here at the Institute in October was Yuriy Mark. Yuriy graduated from TCMI in 1997, the first ever graduate from Ukraine. One of his professors at Haus Edelweiss was former Institute director Ronald Heine, who travelled to Heiligenkreuz to teach History of Doctrine.

After graduation, Yuriy together with a number of colleagues started a bible college (Tavriski Christian Institute) back in Ukraine. In 2011, he began to sense the need for further education; after praying and searching, he entered the Doctor of Ministry programme at Acadia University in Nova Scotia, Canada. He is researching the topic of reconciliation between Christian communities in the Middle East, exploring how remembering and commemorating the victims of violence on all sides of a conflict might create the space for understanding and forgiveness between Christians. He spent a week here at the Institute, making use of various University libraries to collect material for his research project.

We were also very pleased to see an old friend, Beth Jarvis, who now lives in Valparaiso, Indiana, and to meet two of her fellow travellers, Donnah Wilson, from Atlanta, and Kip Lines, from Indianapolis, who is the new Executive Director of CMF International. Beth, Donnah and Kip were on their way to Freiburg, where Globalscope recently launched a new campus ministry.

News from Tübingen

Foto: Friedhelm Albrecht/Universität Tübingen

By Beth Langstaff

During the semester break, we have been busy planning the next International Symposium, which will be held here in Tübingen at the beginning of October 2018.  We are excited to announce the topic:  "The Lord's Prayer:  Origins, Significance, and Reception" / "Das Vaterunser:  Ursprünge, Bedeutung und Wirkungsgeschichte."  Fourteen scholars from around the world will be discussing the Lord's Prayer, asking and addressing questions such as:  How should we read the Lord's Prayer as the centre of the Sermon on the Mount?  What is the relationship between prayer and faith in the New Testament?  What did early Christians such as Origen teach about the Lord's Prayer?  Does God tempt anyone?  We'll be introducing the speakers in the following issues of The Word and The World.

The Lord's Prayer is found in two of the four gospels, in Matthew 6:9-13, in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, and a shorter form with slightly different wording in Luke 11:2-4.  Another version is found in the early Christian summary of teaching and church order known as the Didache:  

"Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name,

your kingdom come,

your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread,

and forgive us our debt, as we also forgive our debtors;

and do not lead us into temptation,

but deliver us from the evil one; for yours is the power and the glory forever." 

(translation by Michael W. Holmes, The Apostolic Fathers, 3rd. ed.)

 

The Didache urges its readers to pray like this three times a day — not a bad habit!

SBL in Berlin

NEWS FROM TÜBINGEN: SBL in Berlin

This year, the International Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature was held at the Humboldt University in Berlin, in the second week of August. I was able to attend and to take part in the Catholic Epistles section of the meeting, which focused on the reception history of the Epistle of James in the Reformation. I was able to read a paper I had written during my research semester last year, on "The Second Battle of James," exploring debates concerning James in the middle of the sixteenth century. These Reformation debates help explain why the Epistle of James has often been dismissed or disregarded in Protestant circles (you have no doubt heard Luther's notorious description of James as a "strawy epistle"/“stråwin Epistel”!); and sixteenth-century exegetes raised questions which still occupy commentators on James: who was James? Was he an apostle--and, if so, why doesn't he identify himself as such? Which audience did James have in view? At the same time, Protestant exegetes (Luther included) cited and valued the Epistle of James; Calvin, for example, encouraged Christians to read and cherish this letter, holding it to be of benefit to all areas of the Christian life.

Scott Caulley, former director of the Institute, now Associate Professor at Kentucky Christian University, also read a paper (on the priesthood of all believers) in I Peter in the same Catholic Epistles session; it was great to see him again.