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News and Coming Events
Day Conference on Paul
A day conference on Paul will be held in Melbourne in May, sponsored by the Australian Catholic University and the Melbourne College of Divinity—
Paul: Then and Now
A Day Conference Exploring Aspects of Paul’s Life and Thought.
The keynote paper is entitled: “Paul, Reciprocity and the Modern Myth of the Pure Gift.” It will be delivered by John Barclay, Lightfoot Professor of Divinity at the University of Durham, UK.
Other Papers are:
“Paul and Apocalyptic—What is At Stake?: Considering the Implications of Douglas Campbell’s The Deliverance of God,” by Sean Winter, Professor of New Testament at the Uniting Church Theological College (United Faculty of Theology and Melbourne College of Divinity).
“Paul and the Death of Jesus,” by James McLaren, Associate Professor and Reader in the School of Theology, Australian Catholic University.
It will be held on Friday, 28 May 2010, from 10.30 am to 4.30 pm at the Centre for Theology and Ministry, 1 Morrison Close, Parkville 3052. The cost is $30.00 (includes lunch and afternoon tea). To register please contact FBS member Sean Winter at sean.winter@ctm.uca.edu.au.
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2010 FBS Executive Members
The members of the FBS Executive for 2010 were elected at the 2009 Annual General Meeting—President: Merrill Kitchen; Vice-President: Anne Elvey; Secretary: Catherine Playoust; Treasurer: Brian Incigneri; Committee Members: Merryl Blair, David Sim; ABR Book Review Editor: Mary Coloe; ABR Editors: Anne Gardner, Jamie McLaren.
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2009 Annual General Meeting
The Annual General Meeting of FBS for 2009 was held on Thursday, 5 November, 2009 at Queen’s College. It was well attended. The paper was given by the outgoing President, Dr Brian Boyle of Catholic Theological College: “The role of the nasi (prince) in Ezekiel’s vision of the new temple in Ezekiel 40–48.” Animated and enriching discussion followed.
The dates of symposiums during 2010 are: 29 April, 27 May, 16 September and 4 November (AGM).
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Next Sydney FBS Meeting
The next meeting of NSW members of FBS will be held in Sydney on Friday, 13 November. The talk will be by Dr Jim Harrison from the Wesley Institute, the topic being: “The Brothers as the ‘Glory of Christ’ (2 Cor 8:23): Paul’s Doxa Terminology in Its Ancient Benefaction Context.” A synopsis is provided below.
Once again the venue is Moore Theological College, in the T.C. Hammond Common Room at 16 Carillon Avenue, opposite the Maples (the Women’s College residence). Lunch will be at 1.00 pm, with the talk commencing at 2.00 pm. If you would like the College to provide lunch for you, please tell Andrew Shead (Andrew.Shead@moore.edu.au) by Monday, 9 November. The cost will be $7.50. If you prefer, you may also bring your own lunch to eat with us.
Regardless of lunch, you are asked to please let Ian Young know if you intend to come (ian.young@usyd.edu.au).
Synopsis of the Talk:
Studies on Paul’s doxa terminology in the Corinthian epistles have either focused on the apostle’s allusion to the Moses “glory” tradition in 2 Corinthians 3:4–4:6 or on how the diverse “glory” traditions of the LXX and Second Temple Judaism informed his Christology (1 Cor 2:8). However, Paul’s description of the brothers accompanying the Jerusalem collection as the “doxa of Christ” (2 Cor 8:23) has commanded little attention. Where the phrase has been discussed, it has been understood against the backdrop of the Isaianic “servant” songs (Isa 42, 49, 52–53) and prophecy (60, 62). Alternatively, the text is explained contextually in terms of the brothers promoting Christ’s glory (2 Cor 3:18; 8:19). This talk proposes that the honorific inscriptions, Dio Chrysostom’s Rhodian oration, and the imperial context of “glory” allow us to appreciate better why Paul described his colleagues as the “doxa of Christ.” In employing the phrase, Paul works within the honorific rhetorical conventions, but upends their eulogistic rationale and imperial focus.
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Subscription Rates for 2010 ABR Unchanged
Subscription rates for the 2010 issue of Australian Biblical Review will remain the same as for the 2009 issue—the fourth year at the same level. FBS membership fees will also remain unchanged for 2010 ($28.00/$18.00). ABR subscription and postage rates can be found at the ABR Home Page.
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2009 Australian Biblical Review Mailed Out to Subscribers
The 2009 issue of Australian Biblical Review (Volume 57) was mailed out to members and subscribers on 2 October. This issue contains 13 book reviews and the following articles:
“Holiness Has a Shape”: The Place of the Altar in Ezekiel’s Visionary Plan of Sacral Space (Ezekiel 43:1–12, 13–17, 18–27)
By Brian Boyle
Writing the Prophetic Word: The Production of the Books of Jeremiah
By John Hill
The Genre and Setting of Psalm 45
By James M. Trotter
A Typology for Discipleship: The Narrative Function of Paidion in Matthew’s Story of Jesus
By John Aranda Cabrido
A Note on Method in Historical Jesus Studies
By James S McLaren
The Index of Issues and the Index of Authors (containing articles in ABR from 1950–2009) have been updated to include these articles. The full review of 14 book reviews can be read online in our Book Reviews pages.
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Report on September Symposium
The September symposium of the Fellowship for Biblical Studies was held on Thursday, 24 September, 2009 at Queen’s College. The paper was presented by Dr Dinh Anh Nhue Nguyen ofm conv, and was entitled, “An Evolution of Wisdom Teaching at Home? Comparing the Parental Discourses in Proverbs 23:15–28 and 2:1–22.”
Anh Nhue is a recent graduate from the Gregorian University. He teaches at Catholic Theological College and also at St Bonaventure in Rome. He proposed that the two proverbs show a development from a family teaching (father to son) to a more sophisticated theological teaching, where it is God who gives wisdom, and pointed out other developments evident in the later Proverbs 2 text. There were a number of excellent questions from members, and good discussion followed.
The remaining meeting in Melbourne planned for 2009 will be the Annual General Meeting on Thursday, 5 November (with the Presidential Address by Brian Boyle), and will be again held at Queen’s College.
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Full Text of 2009 ABR Book Reviews Now Online
The full text of all 14 book reviews to be published in the forthcoming 2009 issue of Australian Biblical Review are now online on this web site. In addition, there is one book review that will not be printed in this year’s issue (a book by John Thompson), but is printed in full online here. Just go to Index of Book Reviews.
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ABR Postage Rates Increase
Australia Post has once again increased the postage rates for overseas letters by AUD 0.15. This brings the cost of posting a copy of Australian Biblical Review up to AUD 4.35 (Asia/Pacific) and AUD 6.30 (Rest of World). Postage rates for Australian subscribers remains unchanged at AUD 1.65. Current subscription and postage rates for ABR can always be found at the ABR Home Page.
The 2009 issue of ABR will be published in October, and the subscription rate remains unchanged from the 2008 issue. The 2010 issue of ABR will also have the same subscription rates as 2009.
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Growth in Sydney Membership; Sydney Coordinator Appointed
There has been a considerable growth recently of new members in Sydney, with much interest in there being meetings of biblical scholars in that city. In the past, there had been FBS meetings in Sydney, and they are now being revived.
The Executive has accordingly appointed Dr Ian Young as Coordinator of FBS events in NSW (especially Sydney). The Executive is grateful to Ian for taking on this role, to Ian and his colleague Yael Avrahami in Sydney for encouraging new people to join, and to Anne Gardner for discussing the idea with them last year. His contact details are:
Dr Ian Young
Department of Hebrew, Biblical and Jewish Studies
School of Languages and Cultures
University of Sydney NSW 2006
Email: ian.young@usyd.edu.au
The first meeting of Sydney FBS members will be:
Date: Friday, 19 June
Time: 1.00 pm for lunch, meeting from 2.00 pm
Venue: Moore College, TC Hammond Common Room
Speaker: Dr Andrew Shead, Moore Theological College
Topic: The Dimensions of Faithfulness: Jeremiah LXX as a Translation
To attend, please contact Ian as soon as possible for further details about lunch arrangements.
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Catherine Playoust Delivers First Paper for 2009
Catherine Playoust delivered a paper entitled, “Heavenly Ascent in Early Christianity” at the first symposium for 2009 at Queen’s College on 16 April. Her paper actually covered themes of both ascent and descent in the scriptures and the apocrypha. Spirited discussion followed. Brendan Byrne thanked Catherine for her excellent and thought-provoking paper.
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New Book by New Member Dr Ian Elmer
 New member of the Fellowship, Dr Ian J. Elmer, Lecturer in Biblical Studies, St Paul’s Theological College, Australian Catholic University, Brisbane, has had a new book published: Paul, Jerusalem and the Judaisers: The Galatian Crisis in Its Broadest Historical Context(Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2009).
For a synopsis of the book, see the publisher’s summary. Ian argues that the crisis that gave rise to the Letter to the Galatians arose in the dispute between the Hellenists and the Judaisers in Jerusalem.
Ian contributed an article, I, Tertius: Secretary or Co-author of Romans, in the 2008 issue of Australian Biblical Review.
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Review of Book by Francis J. Moloney; Review by Mary Coloe
 A review by Stephen Witetschek of the book by FBS member Francis J. Moloney, The Living Voice of the Gospels (Peabody: Hendrickson, 2006) is now available at the Review of Biblical Literature web site.
FBS member Mary Coloe has also written a new review for RBL of the book by Margaret Barker, Temple Themes in Christian Worship (London: T & T Clark, 2007).
Mary’s review can be read here.
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Member Achievements
In addition to the achievements by FBS members already mentioned on this news page, the following members made noteworthy book contributions during 2008:
- Alan H. Cadwallader, Beyond the Word of a Woman: Recovering the Bodies of the Syrophoenician Women (Adelaide: ATF Press, 2008).
 Brendan Byrne, A Costly Freedom: A Theological Reading of Mark’s Gospel (Strathfield, NSW: St Pauls Publications, 2008)- Francis J. Moloney, The Life of Jesus in Icons: From the ‘Bible to Tbilisi’ (Louisville: Liturgical Press, 2008)
- Antony F. Campbell: God and Bible: Exploring Stories from Genesis to Job (Mahwah, N.J.: Paulist, 2008) and The Whisper of Spirit: A Believable God Today (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2008).
- James S McLaren (ed.), Judaism in Transition, 175 BCE—150 CE: Christian and Jewish Perspectives (Melbourne: Council of Christians and Jews Victoria, 2008), containing articles (among others) by James S. McLaren, “Jewish Literature of the Period,” David C. Sim, “Torah in Transition,” James S McLaren, “Worship: A Shared Treasure,” John S. Levi, “Hopes and Expectations about the Future,” Raymond Apple, “Chronological Table.”
- David Runia and Gregory E Sterling, The Studia Philonica Annual: Studies in Hellenistic Judaism. Volume XIX (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2007)
- David Sim and Boris Repschinski (eds), Matthew and His Christian Contemporaries. Library of New Testament Studies 333. (London: T & T Clark, 2008)
- Catherine Playoust and Ellen Bradshaw Aitken, ”The Leaping Child: Imagining the Unborn in Early Christian Literature,” in Imagining the Fetus: The Unborn in Myth, Religion, and Culture (eds: Vanessa R. Sasson and Jane Marie Law; AAR Cultural Criticism Series; New York: Oxford University Press, 2009) 157–183.
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Annual General Meeting
The Annual General Meeting of FBS was held at Queen’s College on 6 November 2008. The Presidential Address was delivered by Dr Brian Boyle: Holiness Has A Shape: The Place of the Altar in Ezekiel’s Visionary Plan of Sacral Space. The second part of Dr Boyle’s work on Ezekiel will be delivered at the 2009 Annual General Meeting, as he has been re-elected as president.
Catherine Playoust is now the new FBS Secretary. ABR editors and other Executive members are unchanged. Catherine McCahill stays on as a member of the Executive.
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Associate Professorships
Congratulations to Dr Mary Coloe and Dr David Sim for their recent promotion to Associate Professor at the Australian Catholic University (Melbourne, St Patrick Campus).
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Tribute to Professor Eric Osborn
With the death on 11 May 2007 of the Rev. Professor Eric Osborn, Australia has lost an outstanding scholar.
Eric will be remembered, above all, for his passionate commitment to scholarship, especially to patristic studies, but also to the formation of an educated ministry. Few scholars can claim to have had no fewer than eight books published by Cambridge University Press. Eric could:
- The Philosophy of Clement of Alexandria (1957)
- Justin Martyr (1973)
- Ethical Patterns in Early Christian Thought (1976)
- The Beginning of Christian Philosophy (1981)
- The Emergence of Christian Theology (1993)
- Tertullian, First Theologian of the West (1997)
- Irenaeus of Lyons (2001)
- Clement of Alexandria (2005)
Eric had been an active member of the Fellowship for Biblical Studies for fifty years and contributed dozens of articles and scores of book reviews to Australian Biblical Review — far more than anyone else (see the ABR Author Index for his 19 articles, commencing in 1960).
He is survived by his wife of more than sixty years, Lorna, two sons and their wives, grandchildren and greatgrandchildren. As one who was Eric’s colleague for twenty-three years, I recall, with gratitude, many stimulating conversations with him, and also his genuine delight in the successes of his colleagues. Eric Osborn, ave atque vale!
Contributed by Nigel Watson
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The FBS Web Site
Welcome to the web site for the Fellowship for Biblical Studies which is designed to make the work of the Fellowship more visible to the public, particularly the Fellowship’s biblical journal, Australian Biblical Review — a journal that is now over 50 years old.
Visitors to the FBS site can peruse the Table of Contents of any issue of ABR, and read the book reviews from recent issue. The site contains the complete index of all articles that have been published in ABR since 1951, together with an index of the authors of all those articles.
Keep watching this page for news, or check out the Updates Page to see recent changes to the site.
Suggestions about the content of the site are welcome. Please email the Site Administrator, Brian Incigneri.
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