Happy New Year this 2015!

Everyone, blessings to you and your family this New Year's Eve! I can't believe how fast 2014 rolled in and rolled out. It was a little over a year ago in December 2013 that I started the Paul Redux blog and had no idea how it would evolve or whether I would continue with it. Except for the final exam crunch this past month, for the most part, I have been able to keep with my modest goal of one post per week and even produced my first video production with the Klyne Snodgrass interview.

The Year of the Ram 2015

    If you have any suggestions on topics or issues you would like me to address in Pauline studies, let me know and I would be happy to get to them some time in 2015. Become a subscriber and post a reply to this post to submit suggestions. 

    Otherwise,  many many thanks to all who have visited, stumbled upon, anonymously subscribed, and regularly read this blog! (with a special shout-out to my current and past students... you're the reason why I started this in the first place). Happy 2015! 

Video Interview with Klyne Snodgrass

Today I had the privilege to interview Klyne Snodgrass, the Paul W. Brandel Professor of New Testament Studies, on the 3rd floor of Nyvall Hall, in an office he has occupied for four decades, where many a conversation has taken place. It was truly a joy to do this and to celebrate with a mentor, colleague, and dear friend a lifetime of faithful service to North Park Theological Seminary and the Evangelical Covenant Church. 

Nyvall Hall with its steeple in the background
from the Johnson Center on the North Park University campus

The questions I asked of Klyne were as follows (with the time stamp): 

1. How did you feel to have received a Festschrift in your honor? (0:33)
2. How does a scholar and pastor "do theology for the church"? (2:14)
3. What kind of scholar and teacher have you tried to be? (3:34)
4. What legacy and challenge do you leave with us (= the seminary and the church)? (5:17)
5. What has been the greatest joy and greatest struggle of your vocation? (6:48)
6. What are your immediate and long-term plans, vocationally and personally? (8:51)
7. Any last words you would like to share with us, and especially to your family? (10:49)

The entire interview is a lean 13:20 minutes long. Feel free to watch the video below or click the youtube link where it is posted. 

   I hope you will all be blessed as much as I was from hearing Klyne's testimony and words of exhortation. 

Post-script: I have to confess it was more work than than I thought to pull off the video interview, especially with the media equipment at hand (= Logitech HD 615 videocam; lapel mic, laptop). Many thanks to Zach Martinez, my teaching assistant, for his help in doing the camera work. He did a fantastic job. Production was all done by myself using Audicity software to improve the audio, and Microsoft Movie Maker to edit the video, add music and captions, and the like. Fun to do, but I'm not sure if I can make a career from this. MJL

A Festschrift for Klyne Snodgrass Honoring 40 Years of 'Doing Theology for the Church'

It's been a while since my last post (and many apologies for the delay!) but as soon as I got back from SBL-San Diego, I ran into the notorious 100-yard dash to final exams: wrapping up lectures, grading last-minute papers and assignments, writing the final exams, giving the final exams, and now... sigh... grading the final exams. But I hope to get back to my weekly posting once I turn in the grades (and then Christmas... but wait a minute! what happened to Advent? I missed it?)
   But for this post, I wanted to give a shout-out to the recently published Festschrift dedicated to a colleague (and in many ways also a mentor) at North Park Theological Seminary: Dr. Klyne Snodgrass, the Paul W. Brandel Professor of New Testament Studies. The collection of essays celebrates Klyne's 70th birthday. 

   The book was announced first as a genuine surprise back in May 2014 at North Park's graduation ceremony. NPU wrote a nice article celebrating Klyne's 40-year ministry of teaching, scholarship, and discipleship of the next generation of Christian leaders for the church, and Klyne's family flew in from different parts of the U.S.A. to surprise him when a framed photo of the Festschrift cover was presented to him. 
   At the Friday night session of IBR (= the Institute of Biblical Research) in San Diego, we handed Klyne the first printed copy of the Festschrift hot off the press from Covenant Publications and Wipf & Stock. Here is a photo of Klyne at IBR surrounded by colleagues and friends, including myself: 

Presentation of a Festschrift to Dr. Klyne Snodgrass on the occasion of
his 70th Birthday at IBR in San Diego (Nov. 21, 2014)

Now for the details about the book, entitled: Doing Theology for the Church: Essays in Honor of Klyne Snodgrass (2014). The book is divided into 5 sections (17 essays total), all featuring the varied interests and areas of research of Klyne: I. Gospel and Parables, II. Paul, III. OT in the New (= Inner-Biblical Intepretation), IV. Women and Ministry, and V. Identity. The list of contributors include colleagues at North Park, former students now either in doctoral programs or teaching as professors themselves, and an international array of friends who have interacted with Klyne's work and known him personally for years, including: N.T. Wright, Darrell Bock, Richard Longenecker, Jan du Rand, John Painter, Scot McKnight, Robert Hubbard, Jr., Robert Johnston, James Bruckner, Paul Koptak, Stephen Chester, Jay Phelan, Max Lee, Rebekah Eklund, Jo Ann Deasy, Hauna Ondrey, and Ekaterina Kozlova, with a comprehensive bibliography compiled by Stephen Spencer. Here is a preview of the table of contents (below): 

Table of Contents (click photo to zoom)

   It was edited by a former student of Klyne and NP alumnus, Dr. Rebekah Eklund, currently an Assistant Professor of New Testament at Loyola University Maryland, and Dr. Jay Phelan, Senior Professor of Theological Studies at North Park Theological Seminary. Dr. Paul Koptak, the Paul and Bernice Brandel Professor of Communication and Biblical Interpretation at North Park, also did much editing work for the volume with the fantastic staff and team at Covenant Publications led by managing editor Jane Swanson-Nystrom. The book is co-published by Covenant Publications and Wipf & Stock. You can purchase a copy at the W&S website or on amazon. 
   I will be doing something adventurous next week: I will be video-interviewing Klyne (disclaimer: using very modest equipment with the help of my TA) and posting that interview here on this blog. I will ask him for his response about receiving the Festschrift as well as to reflect on his past 40 years of scholarship, teaching, and ministry for the church. So more to come and stay tuned!