Book of the Year

I think the contest is already over. The best and most significant "theology for the undergraduate or the educated general reader" book of 2008 is N.T. Wright's Surprised by Hope.

It will be required in my Theology classes from now on.

Snowed Out!, plus Church Theology Seminar

My lecture in Columbus has turned into a casualty of the 20+ inches of snow that fell there Friday / Saturday. They've canceled tonight, and moved me back a week.

I'm supposed to lecture there for six weeks, four of which I have completed. I was originally scheduled to be finished on Palm Sunday. But #1 now I will need to do one more lecture, probably on the Sunday after Easter (they won't want me to lecture on Easter Sunday evening, will they?). And #2, I'm having a hard time cutting 25 lectures down to 12. I'm behind schedule, is what I'm saying.

This has been my outline, two 45-minute lectures per week:

1. How to read the Bible
2. Why theology matters
3. Creation
4. Fall
5. Abraham, covenant
   
6. The covenant unfolds (the rest of the OT)
7. Jesus & the gospels, pt 1
8. Jesus & the gospels, pt 2
9. Paul, pt 1
10. Paul, pt 2
11. Rest of the NT, pt 1
    
12. Rest of the NT, pt 2

But lecture # 6 ALWAYS goes long, so only finished #7 last week. And then tonight, I was going to do lecture #8, and it would have taken the full two hours.

Which means that the FEWEST number of lectures would be 14, or 13 (if for the last lecture(s) I ignore everything but eschatology and can cover that completely in 45 minutes. HA!)

How can I shorten the thing? Probably the longest weekend seminar (Friday - Sunday) that I could do would be 12 45-minute lectures. Anything more would by physically and practically difficult.

I can probably combine the first two lectures, and shorten #6.

What am I going to do? I have too much material. It's crazy to think that I, in 90 minutes, can adequately describe Jesus' theology, or Paul's theology, even on an "educated layperson" level.

Snowed Out?

I'm scheduled to go to Columbus tomorrow night, for week 5 of my six week series of seminars on Biblical Theology at East Pointe Christian Church. But we've caught the east edge of the Blizzard of 08--three good inches of snow in Grayson, with ice underneath. And Columbus got hit MUCH harder than we did.

So I'm worried that I may not be making the trip tomorrow.

I really enjoy that church, and those people, and giving those lectures, and making that trip. And I LOVE teaching theology.

Ok, Yeah, . . .

I've been working most of the day today on my lecture / session for tomorrow night; in case you haven't heard, I've been teaching my Theology 420 class on Sunday nights at East Pointe CC in Columbus.

The class consists of 12 sessions, 50 minutes in length. Now: my theology class has 25 lectures, 70 minutes each. So in order to get the lectures together, I have to shrink my class materials greatly.

I have really enjoyed the people at East Pointe; it's a fun group, they're interested in learning and expanding / sharpening their tools for reading the Bible.

But it was a lot of work today. I have over 200 PowerPoint slides devoted to the theology of Jesus and the Gospels ALONE. I've cut that down to 60 slides, and I probably won't get more than 45 done in two hours tomorrow.

I've also re-ordered some things; I think that the new order will work well in the classroom, as well.

Sunday, 24 February 2008

For the last few weeks, I've been driving up from Grayson (Kentucky) to Columbus (Ohio) every Sunday afternoon. The purpose of the trips is to teach my theology class at East Pointe Christian Church.

It's been a blast. I really enjoy the people there, and theology is my favorite thing to teach. The trip is a little over 2.5 hours, which is enough to unwind but not too much, and the scenery is nice.

How do I approach theology? A lot of storytelling; a lot of reading texts and asking, "Why does he do this?" and "What does THAT mean?" and "Does this teach us something about relating to God?", etc. Here's an example:

Genesis 15: Abraham has been walking with God for 25 years. God comes to Abe and says, "It's me, Abraham, the one who protects and takes care of you." And Abraham says, "Gee, God, that's nice. But I don't have a kid yet, and I'm starting to get old. Don't you think it's time?"

And God takes Abe out and shows him the stars: "That's how many children you're going to have." And "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness."

Then I ask:

• What does it mean "Abe believed God"? Does that = Abe decided that God was telling him the truth? Or is there something deeper there, some kind of surrender or commitment beyond agreeing on a cognitive / intellectual level?
• What does it mean that God credited something to Abraham as righteousness? What is God determining or promising to do?

Then I continue:

So Abraham entrusts himself to God, but he wants something more. So he asks: How do I know this promise is true? And God has him bring out animals and cut them in half, and lay the halves so that there's a path between them. This is an ancient covenant ceremony; you and the person you're entering the covenant with walk together between the halves of the animals. The point: if YOU break the covenant, they can cut you in half. And if THEY break the covenant, you can cut them in half.

Only Abraham doesn't walk between the halves. God walks through alone.

Then I ask: What's the point? Why does God walk through and Abe doesn't?

Etc., etc. Stories lead to theology. It's not about propositions, it's about the Redemptive Acts of God.

And Who Is Perry L. Stepp, Ph.D.?

• Husband of 22 years to Elizabeth, father of Kayla Josh Anna.
• Christian, Conservative, Deadhead, (Dallas) Cowboy fan
• Dean of the Sack School of Bible and Ministry, Kentucky Christian University
• Associate Professor, New Testament and Theology
• Contributor to the scholarly NT studies blog, Pastoralepistles.com
  
• Author of two scholarly monographs and the forthcoming Reading Paul's Letters to Individuals in the Reading the New Testament series from Smyth & Helwys
• Coffee drinker
• Deadhead (5-8-77 Cornell, YO!)
  
• Eternal juvenile

Repost: Who / What is Theophilus Punk?

The name, "Theophilus Punk": it's a conflation of several plays on words.

When I was in Bible College (Dallas Christian College) back in the early 1980's, I wanted to get together a group of freaks like myself to play improvised heavy-metal-acid-jazz music--imagine REM meets Black Sabbath meets Grateful Dead meets In a Silent Way-era Miles Davis, and I wanted to call the band Theophilus Punk. Of course, WANTING to form a band is a lot different than FORMING a band, so it never happened.

Anyway: the plays on words: The first, of course, is a play on the name of legendary jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk. Monk was the lyrical anarchist of bebop piano, who wrote such classics as " 'Round Midnight," "Straight, No Chaser," and "Blue Monk."

The second is a play on the name "Theophilus." Theophilus, which is an ancient Greek name meaning "lover of God," was the patron who supported the early Christian biographer Luke while he wrote the gospel and the book of Acts which we now have in the New Testament.

As for the "punk" part--well, you can probably figure it out on your own. I had a wide and deep rebellious streak when younger, and--though I've repented of all that and become wise and respectable--I still have a little edginess in my character.