Start of the new Wintersemester in Tübingen

News from Tübingen:

by Dennis Lindsay

As the “Winter Semester” kicks off the new academic year for the University of Tübingen, activities are coming into full swing at the Institute for the Study of Christian Origins.  The English-German Colloquium for New Testament, jointly sponsored with the Protestant faculty of the University, dates back to the early 1960’s and is one of the hallmarks of our Institute.  Meeting weekly throughout the academic year, the Colloquium serves as an academic crucible where theological scholars, both students and established professionals, can share their latest research projects, receive critique and feedback, and advance insight and understanding in a wide variety of areas related to New Testament studies.  The opening session this October was attended by scholars from Egypt, Romania, and America, in addition to the German participants—both in-person and via Zoom—and we have a robust lineup of presenters and presentations for this semester.  Our first presenter was Mark Hoover, a doctoral student in Tübingen, who completed undergraduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania and earned his M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary.  One of Mark’s areas of research interest is in Syrian and Ethiopian Christianity, and his paper for the colloquium addressed the topic of the “Two-Law” hermeneutic (i.e., the principle that the Old Testament Torah was comprised of “good laws” and “bad laws”) in the writings of third century Syrian Christians.