February, 2009:

THON Pictures

THON ended this past Sunday with the students having raised $7.49 million (yes million) this year alone! I will be editing (I hope) my podcast this weekend, but in the meantime the pictures are up. As a refresher, THON is the largest student philanthropy in the world and raises its funds for fighting pediatric cancer and aiding those children and families afflicted. The student participants dance for 46 hours straight (really!) and over the course of the two days the THON kids and families come by and the athletic teams and bands show up to offer support.

A THON kid being fitted with a PSU basketball uni!

Is-ought the Bible to be systematic?

Feb 26th, 2009

by Christian Brady.

7 comments

In class this passed Tuesday in which we were discussing Samuel and the rise of the monarchy a very sharp student asked why/how God could “regret” having made Saul king since God was all-knowing (1 Sam. 15:10 and 1 Sam. 2:3 respectively). I gave my usual, admittedly overly-simplified comment, that this is precisely why I do not hold much to systematic theology because the Bible is not systematic. That led to the student writing this excellent blog post respectfully taking me to task! (I strongly urge you to read his post.) So I feel I should respond to a few of his points.¹

First we have his adequate definition of systematic theology:

which is basically the attempt to arrange religious truths in a self-consistent whole (or so my pocket dictionary claims).

The student then stated that my argument against trying to form a self-consistent reading of these texts falls afoul of a fallacy.

However, much to my surprise, some have argued against this sort of systematic interpretation, claiming that the text itself is not a systematic text, hence it is fundamentally wrongheaded to attempt a systematic interpretation of it. Unfortunately I don’t find this line of argument to be very convincing. It’s true that the Bible is not a systematic text, but this is not an ARGUMENT for why the bible should not be systematically interpreted, but instead commits an Is-Ought fallacy (sometimes referred to as Hume’s Guillotine) by illicitly moving from an ‘IS’ claim to an ‘OUGHT’ claim.

Now I admit that this is the first time I have come across the “Is-Ought problem” so I had to study up a bit on this. His argument is that my argument stating that the Bible is not “systematic” (by which I mean necessarily coherent or internally consistent) therefore we should not (ought not) try and build a systematic reading of the text fails because I am going from a descriptive statement to a prescriptive one. I don’t think I will argue with that, certainly that is what I am doing, but I would reject that such a move is a “fallacy.” For reasons I hope I can articulate. (more…)

Oh, and I should point out that this student is a philosophy major and has a very solid grasp of his discipline. Philosophy, formally, is not something that I can claim great knowledge of and this is important, as you shall see. [↩]

Hallelu-hoot!

Feb 26th, 2009

by Christian Brady.

No comments yet

Vladimir-nabokov “It is a short walk from the hallelujah to the hoot.”
-Vladimir Nabokov

SBL International Meeting – Hebrew Bible and Dead Sea Scrolls

Feb 25th, 2009

by Christian Brady.

2 comments

This is very tempting, but I wonder how many folks will have the funds to go.

2009 International Meeting
Celebrating the Centenary of
Pontifical Biblical Institute

Pontifical Gregorian University
Rome, Italy

30 June – 4 July, 2009

This morning I received the program for The Hebrew Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls. It looks like a great group of sessions.

The Hebrew Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls
International Meeting of the SBL, Rome, June 30th-July 4th 2009
Organized by Armin Lange (University of Vienna) and Kristin De Troyer (University of St.
Andrews)

The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Textual History of the Hebrew Bible
Talks

Emanuel Tov (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Textual History of the Masoretic Text

Kristin De Troyer (University of St. Andrews): Looking at Bathsheba with Text Critical Eyes

Julio Trebolle Barrera (Universidad Complutense de Madrid): The History of the Biblical Text: Implications for Other Fields of Study

Chelica Hiltunen (University of Oxford), An Examination of the Supposed pre-Samaritan Texts from Qumran

Paneldiscussion

Russ Fuller (University of San Diego)

Arie van der Kooij (Leiden University)

Eugene Ulrich (University of Notre Dame)

The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Understanding of Biblical Books I
Talks

Steven Fassberg (Hebrew University of Jerusalem): The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Language of Jewish Scriptures

Michaela Bauks (University of Koblenz-Landau): Knowledge, Nakedness, Shame, and Eternal Life in the Primeval History of the Hebrew Bible and in Selected Texts from the Qumran Library

Karin Finsterbusch (University of Koblenz-Landau): The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Deutoronomistic School

Eckart Otto (Ludwig-Maximilians Universität Munich): Did the Temple Scroll Substitute or Supplement the Torah?

Esther Chazon (Hebrew University of Jerusalem): Looking Back: What the Dead Sea Scrolls can Teach us about Biblical Prayer

Mika Pajunen (University of Helsinki): The Textual Connection between 4Q380 Fragment 1 and Psalm 106

The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Understanding of Biblical Books II
Talks

Armin Lange (University of Vienna): “When You Die Your Remembrance Will Flower Forever” (4Q416 2 iii 7): Qohelet 1:11 in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls

John Collins (Yale University): The Book Daniel in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls, commited

Bennie H. Reynolds (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill): Symbolic and Non-Symbolic Visions of the Book of Daniel in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls

Panel discussion

Ida Fröhlich (Pazmany Petr University)

Thomas Römer (University of Lausanne)

Raija Sollamo (University of Helsinki)

Ancient Interpretations of Jewish Scriptures in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls
Talks

Michael Segal (Hebrew University of Jerusalem): Forms and Techniques in Rewritten Biblical Texts from the Dead Sea Scrolls

Matthias Weigold (University of Vienna): Jewish Commentaries in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls

Sarah Pearce (University of Southampton): The Interpretation of Jewish Scripture in Philo and the Dead Sea Scrolls: a Comparative Perspective

Sarianna Metso (University of Toronto), The Reception of Leviticus in the Dead Sea Scrolls

Panel discussion

Esther Eshel (Bar Ilan University)

Florentino Garcia Martinez (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven)

Zlatko Plese (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

Living Jewish Law in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls
Talks

Lawrence H. Schiffman (New York University): The Temple Scroll and the Torah Vered Noam (Tel Aviv University): Expounding the Torah in the DSS and Rabbinic Literature

Christof Batsch (Séminaire Qoumrân de Paris et Université Lille 3): Legal vocabulary at Qumran

Marcus Tso (Carey Theological College), The Use of Scriptural Traditions at Qumran for the Construction of Ethics

Panel discussion

Philip Alexander (University of Manchester)

Lutz Doering (King’s College – Lon)

Alexander Samely (University of Manchester)

Ancient Jewish History in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls
Talks

Hanan Eshel (Bar Ilan University), New Discoveries on the Bar Kokhba Revolt from Refuge Caves in the Judean Desert

Jutta Jokiranta (University of Helsinki), The Sociology of Jewish Life in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls

Cecilia Wassen (Uppsala University), The Dead Sea Scrolls on Jewish Women

Paneldiscussion

Lester Grabbe (University of Hull)

Tal Ilan (Freie Universität Berlin)

Jodi Magness (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

The Dead Sea Scrolls and Ancient Judaism
Talks

Henryk Drawnel (The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin), The Initial Narrative of the Visions of Amram and its Literary Characteristics

Paul Heger (University of Toronto), 1 Enoch – Complementary or Alternative to Mosaic Torah?

Hanna Tervanotko (University of Helsinki / University of Vienna), ”You Shall See”Rebecca’s Farewell Address in 4Q364 3 II, 1-6

Hanne von Weissenberg (University of Helsinki), The Book of the Twelve at Qumran and the Canonical Process

Blog review and (semi-) hidden identity

Feb 22nd, 2009

by Christian Brady.

2 comments

Anna Blanch of Goannatree is doing a review of the Top 100 Theology blogs listed by Christiancolleges.com. I was honored to be in their list and that Anna reviewed my blog. My marks were even pretty good!

Making the Grade:
Scope – A-
Quality – B+

She does, however, point out that I do not mention my name in the About section. I have just changed that and realize it is a vestige from when I began this blog nearly 4 years ago. It was initially a semi-anonymous blog; those who knew my monicker, and many do since I have used “Targuman” as my online nome de plume for over 12 years now, would know that I was the author of the blog. Very quickly, however, I realized that anything I had to say I wanted to take responsibilty and credit for so anonymity was quickly set aside.

FWIW that is why I was not too terribly surprised (but still against) facebook’s terms of service. I assume that anything I put up on the internet may and most likely will be taken or made freely available. For example, I was not too surprised (and a bit pleased!) when my picture of Old Main on Penn State’s campus showed up in the iPhone app Backgrounds. The image is on flickr with Creative Commons, but they should have given me credit…

So responding to Anna’s comments, I have added a sentence about myself. Apparently I also write too much about my family, but they are so darn great how can I not?!