Conversational Theology

Want to employ me? Know someone else who might want to employ me? I’m looking for some part-time work to supplement the PhD funds from September.

What I think I can do:
• teach the bible
• teach Hebrew and Greek
• teach biblical studies
• administration type stuff

What I need:
• access to a good theological library nearby
• ideally also access to a community of biblical scholars
• around £6000 (either in salary or accommodation/bills)
• experience in women’s ministry OR
• experience in teaching Hebrew or biblical studies

What I’m not interested in doing:
• youth and/or children’s work

What I’d really like:
• to be living near(ish) to my family and friends

Please get in touch (email or leave a comment) if you have any ideas.

I read a novel by this title a few years ago.  I really enjoyed it and then was slightly disappointed to find out it was a Richard and Judy recommendation.  Oh, well.

Keeping secrets is hard.  Sometimes it’s hard because the secret is so exciting and you just want everyone to be able to celebrate it with you.  Sometimes it’s hard because you feel that your status would somehow be enhanced if you could show off this insider knowledge.  It’s hard to bite your lip and refrain from stepping in and settling an argument or correcting an error.

But sometimes it’s just hard because the secret is painful and burdensome and you really want the comfort of sharing it with people you love and trust.  I don’t know that I am exactly keeping secrets at the moment, but there are a lot of things on my mind that I don’t talk about with most people for a variety of reasons.  And I’m finding that increasingly hard.  All of them are things that I can talk about with some people, though I can’t think of anyone I would talk to about all of them.  Except the Lord.  And even then it’s hard to find the right words.

So, if you know a secret, please don’t tell me.  Not right now, anyway.

For those who are interested in such things, I’m taking four courses this semester:  O.T. Theology, The Book of Psalms, History of Interpretation, and the NT Reading Course.

For O.T. Theology, I’m writing a critical evaluation of Walter Brueggemann which will also be a class presentation.  I have to write another proper paper which I think may be something on the relation of the Old and New Testaments in the formation of O.T. Theology.

I’m very much enjoying the Psalms class – it’s fun to get back to some translation and detailed analysis of texts.  I’m going to write a paper on ‘People as Plants in the Psalter’, looking at the various metaphors of tree, vine, grass etc.  I have a suspicion that this may also have something to say in the ‘Shape and Shaping’ of the Psalter debate.  The paper is supposed to include exegetical work on one psalm too.

History of Interpretation is a compulsory seminar class.  This is the one for which I’m writing about John Lightfoot. Much rather him than, say, Schleiermacher or Barth.

The NT Reading Course is about half done.  I’ve finished ‘General Introduction’ which includes all the historical and literary background issues, and things like text and canon.  Now I’m onto ‘Special Introduction’ and at the moment I’m reading James Dunn’s ‘The Partings of The Ways’ on the split between Judaism and Christianity.

In my spare time, I’m teaching 3 hours of Greek a week.  I’ll be very glad to get to December!