Jonathan Edward's works online

Since 1953 Yale university has been publishing the works of the great American theologian Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758). Yale received a donation of Edward's papers in 1901. The publishing program was completed in 2007 with 26 beautifully presented volumes. However there are still numerous unpublished manuscripts. Now the centre has opened a beta trial version of Edwards' works online. Incredibly they plan to make available all Edwards' works, including the previously unpublished papers, as well as lots of secondary literature. It really is worth having a look at what is available already on the site, which includes all Edwards' major works. This will be a wonderful resources for scholarship as well as browsing.

The picture is of Edward's house in Stockbridge where he lived as a missionary to the Indians after leaving Northampton.

Information Night - Marriage: Why Bother?

Last night we discovered marriage is definitely worth bothering with - and so is PTC!

Wednesday night 20th August was Information Night 2008, and about 50 men and women came to hear an "Introduction to the PTC" and a sample lecture from John McClean titled "Marriage Why Bother?"

John 'talked up' the value of Ethics as a theological discipline, (as the place where our theology is brought down from the abstract to the real lives Christians live.) Then in his paper 'Marriage Why Bother?', John presented an overview of his own method in Ethics, as well as a demonstration of it in a compelling defence of marriage as foundational to society.

During the night we also heard about the ministry of PTC, with up dates on the latest news (e.g. the new M.A. Units and Ministry Training for Women being offered in 2009.) Along with that we enjoyed singing, prayers and interviews with students.

As I promoted info night 2008 this year I boldly promised great things from John McClean's lecture and so I was rather relieved when he lived up to all my (and our) expectations. I thought I would finish this post with some of the ideas he presented in his sample lecture:

• Marriage is indeed foundational in our human communities and human experience.
• Marriage is not for sex. Instead, sex is for marriage.
• Marriage is the norm in the Old Testament - but something radical happens with the arrival of Jesus. In the New Testament, whilst marriage is still very good and important, singleness becomes an important vocation too.
• In the eschaton, the goal of human marriage will finally be reached when we enjoy union with the bridegroom, gathered together around Jesus Christ as his perfect bride.
• Whilst we wait for that day, our singleness and our marriages are important gifts from God to be enjoyed as his servants.

So there it is - while we wait for the return of Christ we should definitely keep on 'bothering '.

Ministry Training for Women Launch

On Friday night we launched our new Ministry Training for Women program. It was a great night and the Knox Room was full with about 80 people from a lot of different churches. People obviously think that MTW will meet a need for flexible, ministry focussed training. MTW  will integrate with any of your awards so we're encouraging women to supplement the MTW material with Biblical and Theological subjects as well as other ministry units. Some women will find that MTW is enough at present and take it as a stand alone. Here is a picture of the crowd enjoying supper and of Carmelina interviewing Fiona Wright.

Information Night - Marriage: Why Bother?

Info night at PTC is next Wednesday night!

John McClean will be speaking at the free public lecture on ‘Marriage: Why bother?’ This will be a great way to help the people in your church to defend their belief in marriage in the market place of ideas.

It’s also a great way to put theological training on the agenda for your church’s emerging leaders.

Open night is a night to explore options for training at PTC, and to hear a lecture which will have practical value for Christians living today.

Information Night
Presbyterian Theological Centre
Wednesday 20 August 2008
7:30-9:30pm

If you have any questions, please phone or email me at the college.

I hope we see you there,

Psalm 23

John McClean asked (in a comment on my recent Carnival posting with reference to David Clines’ recent SBL paper) if I would post on Psalm 23. There is not a lot in how I exegete the Psalm that is original to me, but I have taken on board some of the work of scholars such as D. N. Freedman and Michael Barré and John Kselmann (I’ll chase up the references if anyone wants them). I don’t see the Psalm as an extended metaphor about sheep. The only faint “watermark” relating to sheep I see is in the word shepherd, which is such a commonplace ANE term for a king or leader that it has virtually lost all its sheepness in this sort of a context. There may be some double entendres going on with the grass and water, though this language is primarily picking up on exodus language, and applying what in the tradition was the experience of Israel in the wilderness to the individual psalmist. This avoids the awkward shift to the table imagery of v. 5. (We are surely not to think of people being portrayed as sheep who are being portrayed as people!)
Most or all of the expressions of the Psalm are taken from the book of Exodus, or other passages (e.g. Ps. 78:19) which reflect on the exodus experience of God’s people. The “green pastures” is Exodus 15 language for the “abode” God led his people to, etc.
Where I might build on the work of others a bit is in locating the sentiments of the exodus theology in a Biblical-theological trajectory which offers the prospect of eternal security.

Latest Biblical Studies Carnival

John Hobbins is hosting the Biblical Studies Carnival this month - a roundup of recent blogs on matters of interest to biblical scholars and students. This one is helpfully subdivided into three sections and contains lots of useful information and comment, some of which I may find time to get back and comment on later: (1) Rock Hard Rockin’ Scholarship based on Primary Sources; (2) Controversies; and (3) Posts on Specific Texts.

Covenant Theology & McGowan

All this week Andrew McGowan has been teaching an MA subject on "Scottish Covenant Theology". He has been working through a century a day and today will come to the 20th century. At the end of the course he is going to outline his ideas for the future of covenant theology and I know he has suggestions about reformulating it.

During the week he has been able to explore all sorts of issues in the history of the Presbyterian churches in Scotland. Yesterday he shared with the class a complicated chart of all the schisms and reunions since 1560!

It has been great for students to hear about all this history from someone who lives among it and who brings a careful evangelical assessment to it all. There have been about 30 students doing the course. The intensive is a hard form for everyone and I'm sure Andrew and the students will be exhausted by the end of today.