Pisteuomen - πιστευομεν - T. Michael W. Halcomb

Today has been an especially fruitful day. On the smaller side of these great things, I got an email from Pittsburgh Theological Journal telling me about one of my reviews they had just published; I had no idea they were going to as it’s been a while since I’ve heard from them. Moving on…in other news...our son crawled for the first time today :) That was fun to see. On the more magnitdunious side of these great things, I’ve received a ton of phone calls and emails today regarding Korah, some being from very passionate and significant people! Through these conversations, I found out that yesterday’s “Tweet for Korah: The SHOE Campaign” has virtually been tripled and maybe even multiplied 5 or 6 times!!! How did this happen? Well, we raised $300 on our own which is enough to buy somewhere around 50 pairs of shoes. Dave McIlrath, who is one of HelpKorah’s Awareness Team members and owner of the Ethiopia Guest Home (where I stayed when I was there a month ago), called me. He inform...

When I first started my blog about a year and a half ago, I would occasionally Google my name or my website's name to see if it could be found. It was a great thing when, eventually, both were listed in the #1 spot. Well, yesterday, while I was doing research in Atla / Ebsco's scholarly database, I thought "what the heck" and typed in "Halcomb." To my surprise, 3 entries related to me popped up (even though my number of publications currently ranges somewhere in the double-digits). Regardless, I guess I'm on the scholarly map now (at least in another medium) which is quite cool. I imagine that in a few years I'll not be so impressed by it but yesterday, I admit, I was surprised. Click the photo to see the bibliographic information regarding the entries. If you have access to Atla / Ebsco, you can actually download one of the reviews!

One of my book reviews has shown up in the latest ATR . Here's the info: Reviewed by T. Michael W. Halcomb in ATR /91:1 (150-51). Jesus: The Village Psychiatrist . By Donald Capps. Louisville, KY.: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008. 192 pp. $19.95 (paper).

In addition to a couple of recent posts where I've mentioned books I'm currently reviewing for journals, here are a couple more, each of which deals with hermeneutics: 1) Henry A. Virkler's Hermeneutics: Principles and Processes of Interpretation , and 2) Daniel J. Treier's Introducing Theological Interpretation of Scripture: Recovering a Christian Practice . I'm looking forward to getting into these books and am wholly expecting to find some thought-provoking and challenging material. If you've read either of these, feel free to share some of your thoughts here.

Achtemeir, Paul J. Jesus and the Miracle Tradition . Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2008. Pp. 255. Jesus and the Miracle Tradition , one of P.J. Achtemeier’s latest books is a great contribution to the field of biblical studies. The book, nearly 220 pages in length, is a fresh and timely piece of exegetical work. The point of the book, according to Achtemeier is not to question whether Jesus really performed the miracles, how they happened or whether Jesus was a magician of sorts. Instead, Achtemeier presupposes that they happened and that Jesus did them; this allows him to move past old disputes and on to another, and perhaps, more important issue/queestion: What did the miracles mean? Of course, when asking what the miracles meant, one is really asking how the Gospel writers made them mean, interpreted and understood them or what meaning they infused them with. While I find the whole “community” behind the text approach lacking to a good degree and while I am not convinced that there were mira...

Horsley, Richard A. Performing the Gospel: Orality, Memory, and Mark . Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2006. Pp. 239, and Shiner, Whitney. Proclaiming the Gospel: First-Century Performance of Mark . New York, NY: TPI/Continuum, 2003. Pp. 214. In this post, I am going to offer a brief review of two books that shared similar foci: Whitney Shiner’s Proclaiming the Gospel and Richard Horsely’s Performing the Gospel . Probably, of the two, Shiner’s title is the most accurate. In his work, he deals with performance in the ancient world and its myriad elements. However, in each chapter, he ties that in with Mark’s Gospel. For example, in the 9 main chapters, he deals with: Oral Performance, Types of Performances, Emotion, Delivery, Memorization, Gesture/Movement, The Audience, Applause Lines and Including the Audience. Shiner applies each of these to Mark’s work in a creative and detailed manner. That makes this book not only a good resource for Markan studies but also research in ancient th...

Anderson, Janice Capel. Mark & Method: New Approaches in Biblical Studies , 2nd ed. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2008. Pp. 288. Honestly, I cannot sing enough praises for the second edition of Mark & Method . Edited by Janice Capel Anderson and Stephen D. Moore, this work is first rate. A compilation of scholarly essays, this tome makes an excellent textbook for students of Mark’s Gospel. In fact, I would recommend this book before any others when it comes to getting a firm, introductory grasp on Mark. Imbued with a lengthy list of impressive contributors, this work contains 8 chapters that plummet the depths of hermeneutical issues, perspectives and approaches to the Gospel According to Mark. After a nice, concise history of the interpretation of Mk. in the first chapter, the next seven chapters illustrate the ways in which various hermeneutical methods illumine the text in various ways. The chapters’ titles are: Narrative Criticism, Reader-Response Criticism, Deconstructi...

LaHaye, Tim and Jenkins, Jerry B. The Jesus Chronicles: Mark’s Story . New York, NY: G. P. Putnam’s & Sons, 2008. Pp. 308. As one whose scholarly interests are assuredly Markan, I must admit, the new novel by LaHaye and Jenkins, Mark’s Story , is neither incredibly scholarly or novel. In fact, the Left Behind Guys, in this new addition to “The Jesus Chronicles” series, left me very unimpressed. For starters, one-third of the book is, word-for-word, the Gospel According to Mark plus 1 and 2 Peter, all of which they suggest Mark wrote. Reproducing these sections of Scripture in the book was just unnecessary. Secondly, the story takes a fundamentalistic, narrow approach to reconstructing the man Mark’s life (e.g. maximalism to the max). Now, I realize this is a novel and that as with all novels, some liberties must be taken. However, these two seem to push full steam ahead on every maximalist coal they can find; nothing is ever critically questioned (for a good critique of this view, ...

Craffert, Pieter. The Life of a Galilean Shaman: Jesus of Nazareth in Anthropological-Historical Perspective . Minneapolis, MN: Cascade, 2007. Pp. 451. A recent addition to the "Matrix: The Bible in Mediterranean Context series", Pieter Craffert’s The Life of a Galilean Shaman , is quite a thought provoking read. While the main title is indicative of the work’s content, it may well be the case that the subtitle is even more explanatory: Jesus of Nazareth in Anthropological-Historical Perspective . Craffert uses the label “Anthropological-Historical” in contrast to the typical historical positivism that undergirds most commentaries and biblical studies. Craffert sums up his approach: “Against the notion that historians can recreate the past, anthropological historiography admits against a naïve realism that there is no one-to-one referentiality (or representation of reality)” (14). To put it more bluntly, Craffert believes that re-creating the past is never objective (e.g. the...

Thanks to Blogger’s new “set and publish” tool (you can set a post to publish, just like an alarm clock and it does), I’ll be able to post while I take a week away from the computer. So, starting tomorrow, I will begin “Pisteuomen Book Review Week”. Each day, Monday through Friday, Pisteuomen will contain a book review. Here are the books to be reviewed and the days on which the reviews will be posted: Monday : Craffert, Pieter. The Life of a Galilean Shaman: Jesus of Nazareth in Anthropological-Historical Perspective . Minneapolis, MN: Cascade, 2007. Pp. 451. Tuesday : LaHaye, Tim and Jenkins, Jerry B. The Jesus Chronicles: Mark’s Story . New York, NY: G. P. Putnam’s & Sons, 2008. Pp. 308. Wednesday : Anderson, Janice Capel. Mark & Method: New Approaches in Biblical Studies , 2nd ed. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2008. Pp. 288. Thursday : Horsley, Richard A. Performing the Gospel: Orality, Memory, and Mark . Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2006. Pp. 239, and Shiner, Whitne...

Anyone who explores theo and biblio blogs will quickly notice that there is a growing trend among bloggers: the recieving and reviewing of free books. In my opinion, this is a great thing! Publishing companies have taken note of the usefulness and popularity of blogs and have become quite open to sending out complimentary copies for review. It's a two-way street: The company gets advertising and the blogger gets free literature. But there is more to it than meets they eye. So, if you are a blogger who wants to get some free books (actually, they're not exactly "free" because you do have to review them, but they do arrive cost free), here are some thoughts: 1. You should be keeping stats on your blog. What I mean is that you need to know how many readers per day, week, month and year you're getting. Providing this statistic to the publisher is, in my opinion, critical. Until you get a decent readership (I personally would consider 50 readers per day, decent), you m...