A quick entry before grading...
I had a pretty good week. I was in Philadelphia for the annual Society of Biblical Literature convention. I guess about 10,000 folk including the American Academy of Religion. I gave two presentations for the newly constituted Hebrews Consultation, which was delightful.
SBL (as we call it) is always a little discouraging to me and yet it usually drives me to write something or another. For all my writing, I haven't published too much yet on the doctoral level. This crowd doesn't talk for the lower shelf. One suggestion I gave to the Hebrews steering committee aimed at holding attention met with puzzled looks in deference to a full half hour of reading where a person could develop the full flow of their thought. I suggested we break the half hour of the three presenters into three ten minute segments where the contrasting methods could be seen side by side on each particular aspect. Perhaps they were right not to do this.
In another conversation in which I mentioned the benefits of humor in the classroom, another professor suggested that humor didn't go as far on the graduate level. All of these things are probably true.
So as always, I come back thinking, what book shall I write, what proposals should I make. I already had some ideas :) But I do not currently have any hard core contracts.
On the other hand, my Philo book sold really well at the convention exhibit hall. And I had greater name recognition this year than ever. I know it doesn't mean anything really, but the politics of knowledge make you seem more important when you're sitting next to someone who teaches at Yale and who's written a classic commentary on Hebrews.
It's always possible that one year I'll come back and chuck it all. I'm certainly pretty tired.
But not this year...
Thanks to God for all His blessings this year!
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7 comments:
Ken, you have the capacity to write complex academic work that would block average people from ever capturing what you are saying restricting your thinking to several handfuls of scholars like you were just with. This would make you feel so much smarter and everybody else feel so much dumber and it might gain you a glorious entrance into the top level of the elite club of smart people who talk to each other in academic rhymes and riddles.... but it would remove you from explaining deep things to average people and that would be a great loss for many of us. I hope you’ll continue on the path of bilingual academics–speaking to the academically elite in one language and to the ordinary person in your other voice. that way I can understand at least half of your writing.
In my dreams, I write in both worlds--and we both know that the communicators win most of the time with most of the people. This can happen even at elite universities where a doctoral level communicator gets the promotion while the genius obscurantist doesn't.
But in the spirit of "we know it doesn't matter," it irritates me that I haven't proven myself in the halls of SBL. I know I haven't produced anything yet to hold attention and it irks me--again, fully knowing that it means nothing of any real merit. It's just personal. I know I'm not there yet with my work--my drive is to prove that I can be, to get my "I'm good enough; I'm smart enough; and dog gone it, people like me" SBL badge :)
And if not, life will continue...
Couldn't have said it any better than Dr. Drury. Thank you for taking me along in the journey of scholarship, rather than just leaving me behind to pursue academic honors.
But I understand your desire to have "the badge" from others. We all have that desire to some degree. I am hoping my time spent with you in and out of the classroom will someday propel me to even be at such a conference listening in, let alone hold merit in the eyes of those around me. In the Spirit of Thanksgiving, thank you.
I'm not exactly sure what to write here; since I won't pretend to make you feel better about yourself when it comes to the SBL--but I thought I would say thank you for your willingness to be honest and inquisitive, and to share those with your students. Thank you for starting me down the road of pursuing truth. But I guess that's not really what I wanted to say here, even though I did--you're just all around a terrific guy.
Thanks all. I'd feel a lot better even if I finally would submit my dissertation for publication. I've been working on this a little on the side and probably will send it off just after the semester's over.
James, forgetting exactly when Barclay wrote, this example is something scholars should always keep in mind. It seems to me that Barclay is a good example of a devotional scholar who mingled (probably without even fully knowing it) advanced knowledge of the original context with the drive to read these texts as Christian Scripture. The "control" of the words as Scripture always dominated his interpretations, and these meanings don't go out of date. On the other hand, the critical theories of his day are now considered vastly outdated, worthless curiosities you wouldn't put in your bibliography for the most part. Much (although I wouldn't say all) of the SBL presentation fare is of the latter sort, like an elaborate breakdown of Hebrews 1:1-14 as a massive chiasm.
Before I went up, the presenter after me noted that he was a little antsy about how many questions the audience was asking. My remark was, "I suspect there were a lot of questions about those papers to be asked." :) ... not of course about mine, whose truth was immediately self-evident :)
Ken, thanks for sharing this process...for the record, your names is being thrown around on Princeton's campus. Your book on Hebrews is required reading for many students (but I'm sure you already knew that).
As far as humor at the graduate level...I don't know what that guy was talking about. I've found in my graduate classes that the students are so tense they are just looking for a reason to laugh and let off a little tension. Which explains why a prof. can make a teeny-tiny joke and be met with uproarious laughter...the laughing isn't from students who are trying to kiss up to the professor, it's students who deep inside are saying, "I'm going crazy with all of this reading/posturing/quizzing/writing/ impressing, etc. Please, please give me a reason to laugh...I'll take whatever you've got."
Humor goes far on the graduate level...it's just that the bar has been significantly lowered.
Mandy
Ken! You're a genius to everyone else around you even if you don't know it. I agree with Mandy, humor in the class room is always appreciated. Some of my favorite profs at Duke are those that can make a joke out of the Cappodician Fathers. Plus, your Greek songs are the only thing that will get me through next semester's class on the book of Hebrews.
p.s. I'll make sure I cite your book in any paper I write for that class, that is of course if it isn't required reading already (and if it isn't, it probably should be.).
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