Open Access and Peer Review

Several months ago I wrote a post about open access scholarship in which I expressed a general appreciation for the movement. I also expressed the concern that oversight (peer review, basically) is an important aspect that needs to be retained to guarantee minimal levels of quality. What I am really advocating for is greater access, without reducing oversight; how that can happen, I do not know.

I recently came across a couple examples of the lack of oversight that I think are really illustrative, because one is a fringe theory that shouldn't see the light of day, and the other is a potentially important work of scholarship.

First for the fringe theory, which Larry Hurtado calls a zombie, one of those ideas that just won't die no matter how many times you kill it. Apparently, there is another resurgence of the assertion that Jesus did not exist; not that Jesus isn't God, but that there was no historical individual from Nazareth called Jesus, who was executed by Rome.

The reason I bring it up here is because of Dale Allison's blog interview, in which he addresses the same matter:

One more observation on the recent resurgence of the mythical point of view [that Jesus does not exist]. It may be driven in part by the internet. In the past, most of the gatekeepers of the discipline—acquisitions editors—wouldn't have been interested in the topic. The internet, for better and worse, has changed this. It's now possible for a movement to make itself felt independently of the big publishers.

I think he is right. Internet aside, it would be very difficult for these types of theories to gain much traction, as they would not pass muster with editors and peer-review.

The second example I would like to point out is a blog post on ASOR by Brian Colless titled,
The Lost Link: The Alphabet in the Hands of the Early Israelites. In

Kh. Qeiyafa Ostracon. Wikimedia

his post, Colless argues that the seemingly haphazard orientation of letters in very early inscriptions, such as the Khirbet Qeiyafa Ostracon, actually convey the vowel sounds. For example, an aleph with a reclining orientation would have a different sound than one that is inverted.
I think, if Colless' assertion is accurate, that this is an extremely important observation. But in a blog post, even a post on ASOR, I am not sure what to make of it. Had this appeared in a peer-reviewed journal, I could have more confidence in it, knowing that some scholars in paleography had looked it over. I do not have the expertise in this area to critically evaluate Colless' argument. Further, I wonder why Colless did not put forward his idea by submitting it to one of ASOR's publications rather than the blog. Perhaps he put his idea out in this format as a way of time-stamping his findings?

Isaac M. Alderman
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Diversity, Atheism and Theism

Christopher Hitchens, Wikimedia

While looking for decent evangelical twitter feeds, I checked out Christian Post. There I found a two-part response (Part 1 & Part 2) by Wallace Henley to John Hagee's recommendation that atheists leave the country (“Planes are leaving every hour on the hour. Get on one...").

Henley writes to atheists, "Please don't go, because you teach us much." He then gives seven reasons, which are presumably some are those things that atheists can teach Christians.

• The light is seen best against the backdrop of night. 
• Hope gleams most brilliantly in the morass of despair. 
• The appreciation for infinite transcendent lift is never felt more urgently than when we feel the imprisonment of the finite immanent. 
  
• Faith is understood most profoundly in contrast to the futility of mere reason. 
• Positive affirmation is best appreciated as the counterpoint to perpetual negation. 
• Love shines brightest in the gloom of hate. 
• A symphony is never lovelier than when it first arises from the cacophony of the warm-up. 

To summarize, 'Thank you, atheists, for reminding us that belief is superior to unbelief and making us feel good about ourselves."

Henley intersperses his explanation with quotes ("Thank you, non-theists, for inspiring us to think about the contrast," and "Thank you, atheists, for reminding us of the reality of true Transcendence by showing us the counterfeit.") He also peppers the article with biblical passages, such as Isaiah 9:2:

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness—on them light has shined.

And, of course, he must include Psalm 14:1, "Fools say in their hearts, 'There is no God.'"

While I wholeheartedly join him in rebuffing John Hagee, who tends to make grand pronouncements that can be ranked by the number of communities they offend, I find Henley's response to be just as tone-deaf. Firstly, Henley's use of scripture is not really that applicable to contemporary atheism. Whatever can be said about ancient atheism, whatever the Psalmist was referring to, it wasn't the likes of Christopher Hitchens.  Secondly, the author's reasons for wanting atheists to stay represents a skewed understanding of the value of diversity. While it is obvious that theists and atheists have a huge, fundamental difference in worldview, the benefit of their interaction should not be measured in how much your own beliefs are affirmed.

Fr. Donal McIlraith’s Everybody’s Apocalypse: Updated

http://americamagazine.org/content/good-word/fr-donal-mcilraith%E2%80%99s-everybody%E2%80%99s-apocalypse

English: The Navarra Beatus (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I had heard many rumors about Columban Fr. Donal McIlraith’s book on the Revelation of John, Everybody’s Apocalypse: A Reflection Guide (published 1995) long before I had seen it or laid hands on it.  Other Catholic biblical scholars, most of whom had studied at the Gregorian University in Rome or at the Pontifical Biblical Institute, including Fr. Scott Carl of the St. Paul Seminary, knew of the little book and spoke highly of it. There was one little problem with the book: it was difficult to find or purchase. In this day of easy access to books – when I see a novel I want on amazon.com, with one click it is on my Kindle – this was that rarity, a hard to find book!

On November 10, 2013, however, I found an e-mail in my inbox from my retired colleague Fr. David Smith, a New Testament scholar himself, saying that Fr. Donal would be celebrating Mass that night in Minneapolis. The problem was that Nov. 10 is my birthday and I could not make it to the Mass due to other plans. I e-mailed David and asked him to ask Fr. Donal how to acquire a copy of his book. I thought nothing more about it – I did not hear back one way or another – but about two weeks later, I looked in my office mailbox and there was a copy of Everybody’s Apocalypse: A Reflection Guide, with a short note from Fr. Donal.

I was excited, but did not have time to read it until now. Here is what I can tell you about the book and its origin. Fr. Donal teaches in Suva, Fiji at the Pacific Regional Seminary and also at Pacific Regional College and Corpus Christi Training College. He once taught at my university, the University of St. Thomas (five years in the 70s-80s), which is why he was in town in November celebrating Mass and visiting old friends, but has been in Fiji since 1989.  There are benefits to being in Fiji, even if book distribution is not one of them, since Fr. Donal told me it was 93 F (32/33 C) on the weekend, whereas it is -11 F (-24C) today in St. Paul. (I think if John had been exiled in Minnesota and not Patmos, hell would be frozen lakes and not lakes of fire.)

The book is only 124 pages, which includes five appendices and a short bibliography. The content of the book initially appeared as articles for the Fijian Catholic newspaper Contact and then later was published in the Tongan Catholic newspaper Taumu’a Leilei. The book is a compilation of these articles and is published by the Pacific Regional Seminary (ISBN: 982-342-001-7). Fr. Donal studied the apocalypse under Fr. Ugo Vanni, SJ at the Gregorian University and at the Pontifical Biblical Institute. His doctoral thesis, supervised by Vanni, was on the Covenantal/ Nuptial reality in the Apocalypse (which itself is being revised as a book).

The book is published in Fiji and makes its way to the US and elsewhere every now and then, but it is not available broadly. Other Catholic biblical scholars have touted the book to publishers, but one major publisher felt it was too technical and would not sell. But if this little book is too technical, it is hard to see what book on the apocalypse could be published for a broad audience and what a “less technical” book on the apocalypse would look like. This book has no footnotes and carries its deep learning lightly, expressing insights into the apocalyptic genre, the Greek language, and 1^st century Roman life without bogging readers down in minutiae of scholarship.

The reality is that apocalyptic language is complex, mysterious, confusing and difficult. As Fr. Donal writes, “it is good to be puzzled by the symbols. They are supposed to be puzzling. They are supposed to make us stop and think – and pray” (35). A bit later he picks up this theme, saying, “the task of understanding each symbol and seeing its relationship to the entirety of the symbols of this book is a difficult task to which the Church of each age is called. This discernment process should be carried out at various levels. Such a process would then assist the Church to evaluate the age in which it lives in the light of the Gospel” (37). If this literate guide, or others like it, are not available to people in the pews, they will find their information elsewhere, because people are attracted to John’s Revelation, and many untrustworthy sources are readily available on the internet.

Fr. Donal’s book, written for regional newspapers, is not overly technical, but it is careful and precise, in an attempt as he says “to make this puzzling part of the Scriptures more accessible to people as requested by Vatican II (Dei verbum 5)” (v). The book is accessible for readers who want to understand the Revelation of John from an expert because it covers all of the bases an expert must cover but does it without all of the scholarly apparatus which can bog non-specialists down. It has, appropriately, seven chapters, but each chapter is divided into numerous subsections based on the text of Revelation. So, for instance, Chapter One, covering the Vision of Christ in 1:4-20, has five subsections covering six pages. Each subsection has the appropriate biblical text and then comment, with two or three questions at the end for further reflection. 

The text is also accompanied by (black and white) reproductions of illustrations from the Abbott Beatus’ (d. 798 A.D.) commentary on the Apocalypse. (Fr. Donal told me that “a Fijian translation is almost ready for printing and that will be in full color.”) There are also 13 “information boxes” spread throughout the short book, which deal with topics such as authorship, symbols, early Roman emperors, etc. This is a terrific way to deal with essential historical data without bogging the text down. As I said earlier, the book also has five appendices which cover symbols in more depth, ways of interpreting the apocalypse, the numeric value of ancient alphabets (gematria), the relationship of apocalyptic thought to prophetic thought, and OT references in the Apocalypse. I want to mention the OT reference appendix briefly because the Apocalypse of John does not cite the OT at all, but it is generally accepted that the text is drenched in the OT with over 800 allusions to various OT texts. Fr. Donal supplies OT allusions, based on Ugo Vanni, SJ’s work in Italian, in the hundreds, listing the possible OT allusions by chapter and verse in his appendix. What a terrific aid and guide this is for any reader, beginning or expert, for when John is read with the OT many “obscure” passages jump to life.

Fr. Donal also does a terrific job of weighing the various means of interpreting this text, not just in an appendix, but in his actual commentary. He gives proper weight to the historical dimension of John’s text, accurately interpreting it in the context of 1^st century Rome, but he does not ignore the future dimension of apocalyptic thought (the whole text, as he stresses, is about the risen Lord and the return of the Lord sometime in the future) or the current dimension (Jesus is Lord now and much of the Revelation of John has liturgical context and liturgical meaning). The whole book is a sober examination, by an expert, of a fascinating book, but “sober” should not be interpreted as “boring.” Fr. Donal rescues Revelation from its wilder interpretations, or from those who would sideline it as too strange or odd, and restores it to its rightful place in the canon because of his focus on the Risen Lord at the center of his study. 

I recommend this little book, and I will be writing more on the apocalypse in the weeks ahead, and encourage you to find a copy. I will even try to help you with that process. I will continue to encourage Fr. Donal to find a publisher that can distribute the book more widely – perhaps even an e-book would be a good means to get wide circulation quickly - but in the meantime he says, “as regards getting copies, I have plenty here in Fiji and am happy to ship them to people who are interested.”  I have not yet asked him if I can supply you with his e-mail, but if he says yes, you will find it in an update to this post. In the meantime, he does indeed teach at Pacific Regional Seminary in Fiji!

Update: Fr. Donal is happy to have you contact him via e-mail if you would like to purchase a book: dmcilraithssc@hotmail.com. 

John W. Martens

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This entry is cross-posted at America Magazine The Good Word

The Letter of Paul to the Galatians Online Commentary (3)

English: Map of the Letters of Galatia (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In the first entry in the Bible Junkies Online Commentary on Galatians, I discussed introductory matters concerning the founding of the churches to the Galatians, the situation when Paul wrote to them, when the letter might have been written and the type of letters which Paul wrote, based on the common Greco-Roman letters of his day. In the second post, I considered the basic content and breakdown of a Pauline letter. I noted the major sections of the formal letter structure and, in the context of each section, outlined the theological and ethical (as well as other) concerns of Paul, including some Greek words which will be examined more fully as we continue with the commentary.

In this, the third entry, I will look at the salutation, which is long for Paul’s corpus (only Romans 1:1-7 is longer) and briefly comment on the lack of a Thanksgiving, the only letter of Paul’s which does not have one.

4. Paul’s Letter to the Galatians  

a) Salutation (1:1-5): 

1 Paul an apostle—sent neither by human commission nor from human authorities, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— 2 and all the members of God's family who are with me, To the churches of Galatia: 3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to set us free from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. (NRSV)

The salutation to the Galatians is one of Paul’s longest and most in-depth openings. There is a simple reason for this: Paul is at pains to defend himself and his apostleship and he comes out swinging rhetorically. He begins by announcing his apostleship and then shielding this apostleship from attack by claiming that he is “sent neither by human commission nor from human authorities” (1:1). The Greek is even more powerful, I think, than the English translation, as Paul states simply that he is an apostle “not from (any) human (ouk ap’ anthrôpôn) nor through a human (oude di’ anthrôpou).” Paul is an apostle through the divine calling of Jesus Christ and God. From the start, that is, Paul stakes his claim, which is under attack in this letter, that he is an apostle. Even though he was not chosen by the earthly Christ, Paul says he was chosen by the risen Christ.

It is also clear that Paul is defending himself and his ministry not that of his co-workers. He indicates no co-author in this letter – this is Paul’s fight – though he is not alone (1:2). Paul mentions after his initial defense of his apostleship “all the brothers (and sisters) with me” (adelphoi, which technically is “brothers,” but Paul worked with many women also, so even though all of his co-authors are male, it is best to keep open that his co-workers here could include women). The fact that Paul is with others is important to stress because Paul is sometimes still portrayed as a sort of “lone apostle,” a gun slinging apostle moving from town to town, Clint Eastwood-like, trying to leave his past behind him as he saunters into yet another one-donkey town, preaching a Gospel he himself concocted. In fact, Paul is a man of the Church and he works well, if intensely and single-mindedly, with others.

Paul addresses this letter to the churches, plural, of Galatia, though he does not, as with many of his letters, name them “beloved by God” (e.g., Romans 1:7) or call on them to be “holy” (e.g., 1 Corinthians 1:2). The unadorned address might just be that or it might be evidence of his frustration with the churches in Galatia. I believe it is a purposeful omission indicating Paul’s irritation with the behavior of the Galatian churches.

The simplicity of the address to the churches is matched by the long grace of the salutation, which is unusual for Paul (1:3). Compare the grace here for instance to that in 1 Thessalonians 1:1 (“grace to you and peace”); while Galatians has “grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,” Paul goes on to describe the salvific nature of Jesus Christ’s actions in the salutation. Paul designates Jesus as the one “who gave himself for our sins to set us free from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father” (1:4). This is an important statement for the entire letter, for in it Paul is establishing the significance of his apostolic call – it came from the one who “gave himself for our sins” - but even more he is establishing the need to focus on Christ alone, through God the father, as the source of salvation for all, the one who “set us free from the present evil age.” Whatever Paul’s bona fides as an apostle, his authority rests on the call of Jesus Christ, who is the savior of all and “to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen” (1:5). Paul must work to establish his authority, but he is constantly at pains to stress that any authority he has is from God, not his own doing (or anyone else’s).

b) Thanksgiving (?):

For those familiar with the Greco-Roman letter format or Paul’s letters in general, it is a shock that no Thanksgiving appears in this letter, the only letter of Paul’s in which it is lacking.  Again, I think that Paul is so upset with the churches in Galatia that he would prefer not to offer a Thanksgiving, though it is possible that he just wants to get down to theological business. It does not make a lot of sense, however, to omit the Thanksgiving unless Paul has been so offended by the Galatians that he cannot muster the desire to offer them recognition for the good they have done or the manner in which they have lived the Christian life. Paul wants to get to work because he cannot offer any thanks on their behalf, which gives us a profound sense of how frustrated he is with the churches in Galatia.    

Next entry, we examine the opening of the body of the letter when Paul jumps straight into the theological fray.

John W. Martens

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This entry is cross-posted at America Magazine The Good Word