rejected

A few months back I submitted an article to JBL for possible publication. It got rejected. I guess I'll go back to the drawing board. The editors at JBL were nice enough to send me me their critical notes. So I'm going to take their suggestions rewrite the paper and submit it to Biblica.

University of Alberta Looks at Erasing God from Graduation Ceremony

University of Alberta Looks at Erasing God from Graduation Ceremony
By Thaddeus M. Baklinski
EDMONTON, October 27, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The University of Alberta's Atheists and Agnostics (A &A) society wants to take God off the program when students line up in caps and gowns to get their degrees this.
Traditionally the chancellor's speech to the new graduates urges them to use their knowledge for "the glory of God and the honour of your country."
Ian Bushfield, head of the university's A & A association, objects to this and has petitioned the University of Alberta to remove the reference to God in the traditional convocation speech.
Bushfield said the reference is outdated and not reflective of recent national surveys that found about 35 per cent of Canadians under 25 do not believe in a God.
"What they are doing is basically implying that everyone who graduates from the university should be doing certain things with their degree, and this kind of charge requires a belief in something up to one-third of campus might not have," Bushfield told the Calgary Herald on Friday.
"We want an inclusive convocation where everyone feels welcome and able to participate," said Bushfield in a Canadian Press report.
"A lot of schools have moved away from these references. We want to have our school match what the University of Toronto and University of Calgary have already done."
In 2006 a student atheist group at the University of Toronto, the Toronto Secular Alliance, said they were “disgusted” at having to listen to words like “Eternal God” at a public ceremony and campaigned to have all elements of prayer removed from the convocation ceremonies at the University.
Stephen DeSousa, head of U of T public affairs, told the National Post that the prayer used at graduation had been part of the convocation tradition since the university began in 1827.
Today, an executive committee of the U of A General Faculties Council will convene to hear arguments for and against removing the reference to God, with professors, support staff and Christian groups on campus expected to make presentations.
The committee is then expected to make a recommendation on Nov. 3 to the Council who will vote on the issue, but not in time to make any changes to the November convocation.
Andrew Chan, of the group Christians in Action Bible Study, said it's OK if the line is softened, but he believes the religious theme should remain part of convocation.
"From my standpoint, the line has historical value because the U of A was founded on Christian beliefs," Chan said in the Calgary Herald report. "Taking that out would take out a part of the university's history."
To contact the U of A with your concern:
University of Alberta President Indira SamarasekeraOffice of the PresidentPhone: 780-492-3212Email: president@ualberta.caUniversity of AlbertaEdmonton, AlbertaCanada T6G 2H1

Lost in Space

Alright, lets get an update on where everybody is located and what they are doing. I am in Mission, BC (a creepy little town an hour outside Vancouver) waiting to get my UK Visa so we can move to Cambridge. We have an interview on September 9th, then we are supposed to send the stuff away, and then sit and wait some more. All I know is I'm supposed to be there October 1st, but the chances of that happening are slim getting slimmer. Also, we had booked out flights on Zoom, which is now defunct. So, besides all that, life is a bowl of cherries.

Codex Sinaiticus

Well it is finally coming on-line. Codex Sinaiticus, a very early copy of the New Testament, will release Psalms (It has some OT books too) and the book of Mark this Thursday. The rest of the books will follow. Conspicuously absent in this codex is the last chapter of Mark I believe. I want to check it out.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/07/21/online.bible.ap/index.html

Here is a short reflection paper I wrote on the subject.

Mark

Paper for possible publication

I just submitted my first article for publication in an academic journal. I have spent a lot of time lately turning chapter 4 of my M.A. thesis in a single coherent article. I had my wife, and then a professional proofreader (one of the advantages of working for a publishing company) read it over. It's called "The Economic Significance of the Temple Incident for Mark’s First-Century
Community: Mark 11:11,15-19."

I'm pretty nervous. I just sent to to James Vanderkam today. He is the editor of Journal of Biblical Literature. JBL is a big time journal and I'm not sure if this will be good enough but i have 2 friends published in JBL so why not. I'm submitting to JBL because i wrote it using the SBL style guide and it would be a pain to change it into the format for Biblica. I guess if they reject it, I'll try Biblica next.

Text and Canon

I have an interview at Tyndale House tomorrow regarding issues of "text and canon." I've found it difficult to read older authors discussing canon issues, because their terminology seems to be different from mine (and I think others). Zahn believed the NT was canonical by the end of the first century because it was used in the worship and church fathers quoted it; Harnack believed the NT was canonical by the end of the second century because church fathers were now using the quotation formula: "it is written" (gegraptai); Sundberg aptly distinguished between Scripture and canon by describing Scripture as the authoritative text of a community while canon was an exclusive list of these texts. Therefore, he considers the NT canonical in the 4th century, based on Athanasius' Easter letter, the Muratorian canon, and the councils.