Upcoming Houston Area Theological Events

There are number of upcoming events that you may want to be aware of. First, on September 8, 2012 Simon Gathercole will present a lecture on the nature of the apocryphal Gospels in comparison with the canonical Gospels at the Lanier Theological Library. There's an extensive reading list for the event.

1. Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospel as Eyewitness Testimony. By Richard Bauckham (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006). Bauckham's thesis is that the Gospel narratives are based on eyewitness testimony, and should be considered much earlier and stable than critical scholars have assumed. Besides literary and historical evidence to the eyewitness testimony, Bauckham treats memory, oral transmission, and the role of testimony in ancient historiography.
2. Dethroning Jesus: Exposing Popular Culture's Quest to Unseat the Biblical Christ. By Darrell L. Bock and Daniel B. Wallace (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2007). Bock and Wallace investigate significant claims that are made in the larger academic community that separate what they call 'Jesusanity' from Christianity. Bock and Wallace do a great job responding to the these attempts to separate the Christ of faith from the Jesus of history and address the Baur's thesis that Christianity involved several alternative Christianities and evolved into orthodox
3. The Gospel of Judas: Rewriting Early Christianity. By Simon Gathercole (Oxford: OUP, 2007). I just picked up Gathercole's work. It looks like a more detailed study of the Gospel of Thomas with a chapter including a translation and commentary. Gathercole addresses the message of the Gospel, but within the context of the discussion of the alternative Christianities model that we discussed above.
4. Who Chose the Gospels? Probing the Great Gospel Conspiracy. By C. E. Hill (Oxford: OUP, 2010). Again, I was just made aware of Hill's work through the conference and just picked it up. Hill investigates the early church traditions on the canonicity of the four canonical Gospels and the history surrounding the determination of the four Gospels.

The last time that I visited the event page, it looked like it was filling up. I would recommend reserving your space as soon as you can.

Second, Grace Reformed Baptist Church is hosting Dan Wallace on September 14-15, 2012 as a part of the 2012 John Bunyan Theology and Church History Conference. Dan will be discussing the reliability of the New Testament.

It looks like Dan will be a part of a larger conference in Dallas at Watermark Community Church on September 29, 2012. Other speakers will be William Lane Craig, Greg Koukl, John Stonestreet, Frank Turek, Todd Wagner, and Ravi Zacharias.

Surviving Seminary: How to Read

Seminary Spoiler Alert: You will read a lot when you come to seminary. Like any graduate program reading plays a critical part of seminary. Students underestimate this necessity--everyone can read, right? But the ability to read well, and efficiently, can save you time in your coursework and many sleepless nights. Solomon says that the making of books there is no end; most seminary professors really try to put that statement to the test.

Historically, Christianity has always been a bookish religion centered around the Old and New Testament and the writings of the church fathers. Proclamation has always been a critical piece. Even Genesis indicates that God spoke the world into existence. Whether it is the Bible, an ancient sermon, a technical commentary being able to consume and comprehend large amounts of material will always be important for Christian workers. Our main job is understanding the Bible and communicating it to the world around us.

If you peruse the Dallas Theological Seminary schedule you'll see that most classes require students to read about three books roughly 200+ pages. An average course will have about 1,000 pages, which will be about 70 pages a week. This will vary upward or downward depending on the class or the week. This doesn't include reading you'll need to do for papers or projects. 

Here are some tips:

First, Tim Ferriss gives some good advice on how to increase the speed of your reading through the PX Project. Essentially speed readers have three goals: 1. decrease the number of fixations (or times that your eyes fix on a word) that you have on a line; 2. minimize back skipping or re-reading; and 3. increasing your peripheral vision so that you can read multiple words at a time. Essentially the best way to increase the speed of reading is to minimize the times that you have to reread a passage. When you begin this, you will want to monitor your speed to insure that it is increasing. I still monitor how fast I’m reading by checking how many pages per hour that I read. Standard speed reading classes will help students with reading strategies to increase the speed. 

Second, refuse to approach books in a standard manner, by beginning with page 1. The goal is to understand what the author is trying to say. A good author will summarize his argument at strategic parts of the book. Reading these points first can help you understand the entire book. Look for the thesis that the author is trying to make and note how he or she argues the case. Generally this will be in the introduction or conclusion of a chapter. This top-down approach is much more efficient than a chronological approach that most readers take. Even though professors may expect you to read the book in its entirety, to better comprehend a book you focusing on the thesis will help you read the rest of the author’s argument with more efficiency.

Third, find the best time of the day to read. Take time when you are the most alert to read. Keep a list of what you need (or would like to read) and keep at it. Don’t wait until a due date. This will keep your reading list manageable. If you find something that will be helpful for a paper then make a note and come back to it during that reserved reading time. Be consistent and make it a habit.

Fourth, take good notes that you can retrieve later. A good summary of a book will keep me from having to re-read a book. It also helps me retrieve old information when I need it for a different paper or class. Good notes will help you not only in later classes, but later in ministry when you need to put together a lesson or sermon.

Reading is a cognitive activity. Like anything else, to increase your effectiveness, you have to practice. The best way to do this is to take a reading class or to find some exercises that will help increase your speed. Periodically check the speed at which you are reading. I will generally monitor how much time I spend reading a book by reading or monitor how many pages that I'm reading per hour.