This year’s Society of Biblical Literature meeting was special for me as I completed my second (and final) three-year term as a member of Council. The last six years have been eventful, to say the least. In that time there have been debates (and complaints) about having to print our own name tags, location of meetings, ending regional meetings, the impact of COVID, the reponse(s) to the October 7th attacks, labor issues, and, not least, the transition to a new Executive Director. It has also been a very busy time for me personally.
My tenure with Council, after serving two terms on the SBL Finance Committee, overlapped with my arriving at the University of Kentucky to build a new honors college, then two years as interim dean of Arts & Sciences (where I had to reconcile a $7.5M deficit), back to honors, COVID (or course), and just the regular vicissitudes of life.
It was all worth it.
It was also very challenging. Probably the most difficult were the deliberations and decisions regarding whether or not, then how, to respond to the October 7th attacks. I will not rehearse or rehash that here, rather I will comment on the deep grief and sincerity that all members of Council shared as we wrestled with whether we ought to respond and if so how. The ramifications of the events, and our response, will continue for years to come. Again, what was always present was the care and compassion for one another in our scholarly community. I hope that does not get lost.
We also wrestled with questions of the dwindling size of our field, opportunities for employment, the size and scope of our conference (2024 saw a return to nearly 2019 levels of participation and, barring unforeseen circumstances, I expect Boston in 2025 to be beyond that, with over 8,000 attendees), and working towards ensuring a community of diversity, inclusivity, and mutual respect.
This latter point often engendered the most reflection for me. SBL, which is nearing its 150th anniversary, is a broad Society, not simply for those who view the Bible as sacred Scripture, but for scholars of all sorts and perspectives. The view of the Society’s position among our most vocal members is often that it should be purely critical and the positions of so-called “confessing scholars” is often denigrated, implicitly and, far too often in my view, explicitly. In my nearly 30 years in SBL I have heard more than one comment to the effect of, “That is not biblical scholarship that is theology.” The implication being, theology is not scholarship. Nonsense. Theology can be every bit as rigorous as any other academic discipline while “biblical scholarship” can be self-serving and facile. We should not denigrate, rather we should elevate, calling one another to high standards of scholarship and behavior.
I do not know the statistics, but a significant amount of SBL’s membership, I would wager far more than half, is made up of people who are either employed by religious-based institutions or are personally committed to a religious community. To denigrate such scholars is to ostracize our friends and colleagues. It is also a very “north western” perspective.
While I have served on Council, which is now quite diverse in representation, including in nationality, we have sought to bear in mind that our membership can be found across the globe. Many of the social, cultural, and political issues that we most often hear about are localized to the United States and Europe (and mostly just the US). We must remember that our membership is very broad and includes a wide range of perspectives on all sorts of issues. We must also remember that our Society’s Mission is to “foster Academic Scholarship in biblical studies and cognate areas across global boundaries.” The focus must be on ensuring the continued success of and support “Academic Scholarship” not on gate-keeping who can engage in such scholarship.
I believe SBL has done that very well, not just during the last six years, but throughout my time as a member of the Society. It is not a given and the debates and discussions, often passionate, are a sign of our health and strength. I am confident in the future of our Society, even as I recognize that the humanities are being challenged in higher education by financial pressures. Our Mission will continue even as the complexion of our community, the number of college and university positions, and size of our graduate programs will all ebb and flow. Such is the nature of the world.
“The wind blows to the south
and goes around to the north;
round and round goes the wind,
and on its circuits the wind returns.”
Long may the wind blow.
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