After some time away, I’m working in the Pastorals again. Here’s a rather disjointed series of thoughts on what I’m doing.
The time away: last spring, I was named the Dean of the Sack School of Bible and Ministry at Kentucky Christian University, the school where I’ve taught for five years. Administration has left me with almost no time to write, especially since our Youth and Family Ministries professor left without warning in June.
Writing again: my doktorvater, Charles Talbert, has invited me to finish the commentary on the Pastorals and Philemon in the Smyth and Helwys Reading the New Testament series. This particular volume, which will be published under the title Reading Paul’s Letters to Individuals, has a checkered past. Several NT scholars have had the contract at one time or another. I’ll be completing work that Hulit Gloer was not able to finish due to health reasons.
My deadline: 4 July, which is growing nearer every day.
How it’s going: I made the mistake, when I first started writing, of trying to tackle Philemon first. But I don’t know Philemon as well as I know the PE, so I’ve gotten a bit bogged down. So I’ve started writing on the PE again.
Little projects that make up the big project:
- In April, I’ll be presenting a paper at the Stone Campbell Journal conference, at Cincinnati Christian University. The paper will deal with 1 Timothy 2.
- The commentary will build on the reading of the PE from my monograph, Leadership Succession, and on the papers that I’ve read at SBL in Philadelphia (a narrative reading of the PE, using Aristotle’s Poetics as my primary lens) and Washington.
- In the commentary, I will treat the letters in the order Titus – 1 Timothy – 2 Timothy – Philemon.