Will Start to Blog Again... I Think!

Illustration Credit: Gemma Correll (public domain)

Well, the photo says it all. As the Spring 2017 semester comes to a close:

When giving finals, I was the early bird (who schedules finals at 8am? especially Greek!)

When grading finals, I was the night owl (why do students upload papers after midnight?)

When submitting the final grades, I slouch over as the permanently exhausted pigeon (there is no rest for the faithful!) 

But PTL!, I'm done. Now I can start my research summer, put this crazy semester behind me (and it was nuts... can I retire before North Park does another 10-year ATS accreditation report?), and hopefully get back into blogging again. I will start off slow and find a regular rhythm later to talk about the most random things concerning Paul, early Christianity, and the church today. Glad summer is here! MJL

Reading the Bible Interculturally

I wanted to give a quick post about the latest issue of the Covenant Quarterly that has, with volume 73, no. 2, officially turned digital (the last print issue was 73, no. 1). Articles are freely available on the journal website (here). This latest issue is dedicated to the task of reading the Bible interculturally. I wrote the first article, and it was not an easy one to compose. 
   Many evangelicals are wary of contextualized readings of Scripture because of the dangers of "eisegesis," or reading into the text ideas or concepts that are foreign to the Bible. But I have argued that an appreciation of how Asian American, African American, Latino/a American, and other ethnic groups interpret the biblical text actually does the opposite: it acts as a mirror to our own presuppositions and biases, and it provides needed tools for exegesis and hermeneutics. Check out the issue by following the links above to the PDF copies of the articles. Below is a snapshot of the contributors and articles titles. 

Covenant Quarterly 73, no. 2 (2015)
dedicated to the topic of Reading the Bible Interculturally (RBI)

One more note: I'm thrilled that past students of mine, Nilwona Nowlin and Erik Borggren, have authored two of the articles in this issue. It is also a thrill to have Dr. Bruce Fields from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School contribute his fine plenary paper for the journal, originally read at North Park's Eaton-Jones Memorial Lectureship last Spring 2015. Kudos also belong to Hauna Ondrey, an assistant professor of church history at North Park, for her fine editorial work. Enjoy!