Current Papers and Projects

Current Papers    

• The Historical Plausibility of John's Passion Chronology: A Reconsideration.  Paper delivered at AAR/SBL Meeting in 2007, San Diego, CA.  Forthcoming in John, Jesus and History, Volume 2 (SBL Press)
   
• The Our Father and Third Person Imperatives.  Paper delivered at annual Catholic Biblical Association Meeting, Fordham University, 2008.
   
• Intertextuality and the Relationship Between John and the Synoptics. (pdf format) A paper to be read at the Annual Meeting of the SBL in Denver, 2001.  I explore various ways of thinking about intertextuality, suggest a more Bakhtinian approach, and try to imagine how that might modify the way we think of gospel relationships.
   
• Luke as Dialogue with Previous Gospels: From Bauckham to Bakhtin.  This was given at a Southeastern Regional SBL meeting in 1999.   I argue in this paper that Luke would understand his audience to have known Mark, and thus certain selected passages in Luke should be read as a dialogue with Mark, not in isolation from Mark.

• The Influence of John on Luke's Passion:  Toward a Theory of Intergospel Dialogue. This paper was presented at a conference on the Priority of John at Salzburg, Austria.  I argue that Luke's Passion story, with the example given of the trial before Pilate, shows influence from the Fourth Gospel.

• The Western Non-Interpolations, Again.  This paper was given at the SBL meeting in Boston, 1999.  I argue for the originality of the longer readings in Luke chapter 24, based on the probability that certain groups in the early church would have been likely to remove them because they sounded Johannine.

• The Rhetoric of Gospel Re-writing.  This paper also was given at the SBL meeting in Boston, 1999.  This is a paper which addresses the logic of gospel audiences.  Specifically, if the gospels were broadly distributed, then later gospels must have been written with an assumption that the audience would already know of the previous gospels. 

• Luke's Rewriting of the Sermon on the Mount. (pdf format)   This paper is prepared for the Synoptic Gospel section of the SBL meeting this fall (2000) in Nashville.  I argue that Luke's compositional strategy makes good sense of him knowing and using Matthew's Sermon on the Mount.  Thus it is not necessary to maintain that Luke and Matthew were independent.

• The Temple Incident: An Integral Element in the Fourth Gospel's Narrative.  This paper is a recent preparation for a collected series of articles on John.  I am trying to make sense of John's portrayal of the Temple Incident within the logic of the Fourth Gospel.

• The Contribution to the Temple Cleansing by the Fourth Gospel.  This paper is one I read at the SBL in 1992.  I explore the use of John - especially the Temple "Cleansing" - as a possible independent source for the understanding the historical Jesus.
  
  
• False Dichotomies in Gospel Studies. (pdf format) This paper was a breakfast address for Restoration Quarterly at the SBL meeting in 2001.  I try to explore helpful ways to mediate between competing approaches to gospel studies.
  
  
• The Four Gospels in Canonical Perspective. (pdf format)  This is a paper for an upcoming volume of Leaven.  The volume is dedicated to the role that the canon plays, or should play, in scriptural interpretation.  I focus on the four gospel canon, and in particular argue that the fact of this canon and well as the way it came to be accepted should give room for scholars to explore various critical methodologies. Published in Leaven 12:20-28 (2004).
  
  
• Sexual Sin as a Demonstration of Disunity: 1 Corinthians 5 in Context. (pdf format) This is a paper I read at the Pepperdine Lectures in Spring of 2001. Published in Leaven magazine, 9:116-122 (2001).
   
• Current Approaches to Johannine Priority. (pdf. format)  This is a paper I read at the Stone-Campbell Journal Conference in St. Louis in March, 2003.  Published in Stone-Campbell Journal 7 (2004): 73-100.
   
• Interactive Rhetoric in Matthew: An Exploration of Audience Knowledge Competency.  This is a paper I summarized at the 2003 Annual AAR/SBL Meeting in Atlanta, in the Synoptic Gospels section.  It was a "mind experiment" to test some of the implications of Bauckham's thesis in Gospels for All Christians.
   
• A Time to Tell: The Narrative Use of Time in the Gospels.  This is a paper I read at the 2003 Annual AAR/SBL meeting in Atlanta, in the Biblical Criticism section.  It is a beginning of a more significant study I am undertaking on the use of time in all four gospels.
   
• Historical and Adventure Time in Luke.  A paper read at the AAR/SBL meeting in Philadelphia. Part of my ongoing series on narrative time in the gospels.
   
• Transforming Word Commentary -- chapter on John.

Book Reviews

• Jesus Christ in History and Scripture.  A Poetic and Sectarian Perspective. Edgar McKnight.  Mercer University Press, 1999. Interpretation 55 (2001): 86-88
• Jesus as a Figure in History. Mark Allan Powell.  Interpretation 53 (1999): 309.
• What is John?  Vols. I and II. Edited by Fernando Segovia.  SBL, 1996 and 1998. Restoration Quarterly 42 (2000): 246-47.
• The Gospels for All Christians.   Rethinking Gospel Audiences.  Richard Bauckham. Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1998.  Restoration Quarterly 43 (2001): 54-56.
• Politics and Rhetoric in the Corinthian Epistles.  L. L. Welborn.   Mercer University Press, 1997. In Review of Biblical Literature On-Line, 3/15/1998.
• The Sign of Jonah Reconsidered: A Study of Its Meaning in the Gospel Traditions. Simon Chow. Almqvist & Wiksell, 1995.  In Review of Biblical Literature On-Line, 1/15/98.
• Die Reaktion des Volkes auf Jesus: Eine redaktionskritische Untersuchung zu den synoptischen Evangelien.  Martin Meiser. BZNW #96.  De Gruyter, 1998.  In  Review of Biblical Literature On-Line, 6/26/2000.
• The History of the Synoptic Tradition.  David L. Dungan.  Anchor Bible Reference Library.  Doubleday, 1999.  In Restoration Quarterly 45 (2003): 271-274.
• Truth on Trial.  Andrew T. Lincoln.  Hendrickson Publishers, 2001. In Restoration Quarterly 45 (2003): 126-128.
• Rethinking the Synoptic Problem. Edited by David Alan Black and David R. Beck.  Baker Academic, 2001.  In Review of Biblical Literature On-Line, 12/2002.
• Studying the Synoptic Gospels:  Origin and Interpretation.  2nd edition. Robert H. Stein.  Baker Academic, 2001.  In Review of Biblical Literature On-Line, 2/8/2003.
• Matthew and Empire: Initial Explorations. Warren Carter.  Trinity Press International, 2001. In Review of Biblical Literature On-line, 6/16/2003.
• John's Apologetic Christology. James McGrath.  Cambridge University Press, 2001. Review of Biblical Literature On-line, 6/21/2003.
• The Synoptic Problem. Mark Goodacre.  Sheffield Academic Press, 2001. Review of Biblical Literature On-Line, 5/2004.
• The Westminster Dictionary of New Testament & Early Christian Literature & Rhetoric. David E. Aune. Westminster John Knox Press, 2003. Review of Biblical Literature On-Line, 8/15/2004.
• Symbolism in the Fourth Gospel: Meaning, Mystery and Community.  2nd ed.  Craig Koester.  Augsburg Fortress, 2003.  Review of Biblical Literature On-Line.
• Not the Righteous But Sinners: M. M. Bakhtin's Theory of Aesthetics and the Problem of Reader-Character Interaction in Matthew's Gospel. John A. Barnet.  JSNTS 246.  T & T Clark, 2003.  Expository Times 116, number 3(2004): 100-101.
• How the Bible Came to Be: Exploring the Narrative and the Message.  John W. Miller. Paulist Press, 2004. Catholic Biblical Quarterly 67 (2005): 152-154.
• Dialogue and Drama: Elements of Greek Tragedy in the Fourth Gospel. Jo-Ann A. Brant.  Hendrikson Publishers, 2004.  Review of Biblical Literature On-line.
• A Mystical Portrait of Jesus. Demetrius R. Dumm.  The Liturgical Press, 2001.  Review of Biblical Literature On-line.

Short Courses (Not yet ready for prime time)

• The Gospel of Luke. (First Christian Church, Winter 2000)
  • Part One: The Beginning of Luke

Sermons and Lectures

• Walk Worthy of Your Vocation.  Baccalaureate Sermon, Milligan College, Summer 2000.
• In Praise of Academic Excellence.  Address at the 2002 Dean's List Ceremony. 
• Power Point of Humanities final lecture,  What is Man That Thou are Mindful of Him:  
• Comments to the faculty at the 2003 Fall Faculty Retreat, Our Goal is Quality Christian Education.
• Freedom to Think: The Importance of the Liberal Arts.  Published in Milligan Magazine.
• Observations of a Traveler.  Speech given to the Restoration Forum XXI, at Emmanuel School of Religion and Milligan College, October 2003. Published in One Body 21 (2004): 4-7, 22-23.
   

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