EAST TEXAS BAPTIST UNIVERSITY
New Testament Theology ( RLGN 533 0 )
Fall 20 1 6
R. Warren Johnson, Ph.D.
Professor of Religion
Office: Scarborough Hall 210
Phone: 903-923-2182
Email:
Office Hours:
COURSE DESCRIPTION
A study of the major theological themes of the New Testament. The focus of the course will be on the exegesis of critical New Testament texts as the basis for New Testament Theology. Attention will be given to the question of the theological coherence of the New Testament canon. Prerequisite: Graduate Student Status or Permission of the MAR Program Director .
INTEGRATING FAITH AND LEARNING
The text of the Bible is the foundational document of the Christian faith; therefore, knowledge of and commitment to genuine Christian faith require a thorough encounter with the biblical text. This encounter involves recognition of the roles of both faith commitments and of thoughtful reflection. The Bible contains summonses to faith: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:5, NRSV); “Believe in God, believe also in me” (John 14:1, NRSV). The Bible also presents the reader with invitations to reasoned discourse: “Come now, let us argue it out, says the Lord” (Isaiah 1:18, NRSV); “Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15, NRSV).
In this course we will be studying the text of the Bible, with particular attention paid to theological themes in the New Testament. This study will acknowledge and appreciate the status of the biblical text as the theological reflection of a faith community and as the inspired word of God. Simultaneously, we will engage in thoughtful examination of the social, historical and cultural backgrounds, literary structure, and vocabulary of the biblical text. Recognizing the value and importance of all approaches to the study of the Bible, we will be engaging in the integration of faith and learning as we pursue the objective of comprehending the biblical message.
Statement of Philosophy for Graduate Education
The nature of graduate education is to foster an environment with the student as an active participant in the learning process as leader, researcher, and practitioner. Significant time is spent on the review of the literature of the discipline. The activities of the course are writing intensive, engage the biblical text more closely and thoroughly than is typical in an undergraduate course, require careful, detailed analysis of diverse and conflicting interpretations, incorporate reflective thought on the part of the student, include an increased expectation of independent research, and necessitate a search for additional resources to bring to class to inform discussion. At their discretion students may work in collaborative groups to complete the course goals and objectives, but each student must be prepared to participate personally in seminar discussions and presentations
ACADEMIC I ntegrity
Academic integrity is an essential component of an authentic educational experience. A genuine education involves more than the objective course content; education in general (and Christian higher education in particular) has as a goal the development of the whole person. In order for the student to develop an identity as a person of integrity, academic integrity must be maintained. Academic integrity includes
i. faithful attendance in class and at other academic activities,
ii. completion of academic assignments on or before the specified deadlines, and
iii. refusal to engage in any form of academic dishonesty.
Students enrolled at East Texas Baptist University are expected to conduct themselves in accordance with the highest standards of academic honesty and integrity avoiding all forms of cheating, illicit possession of examinations or examination materials, unwarranted access to instructor’s solutions’ manuals, plagiarism, forgery, collusion and submissions of the same assignment to multiple courses. Students are not allowed to recycle student work without permission of the faculty member teaching the course. Students must ask permission before submitting the work since it will likely be detected by plagiarism detection programs. If the student does not inform the instructor or ask permission before the assignment is due and submitted, the instructor may treat this as an academic integrity offense (i.e., self-plagiarism).
Prior to completing any formal assignment in this course you will be required to sign the following academic integrity statement (the Academic Integrity Statement is available online).
ACADEMIC Integrity ACKNOWLEDGEMENT FORM
PLEASE SIGN AND RETURN WITH ENROLLMENT PPLICATION
Sc The Religion Department is committed to providing students a high-quality education, a sense of ethics, and a responsible spiritual and social consciousness. The Religion Department Academic Integrity Acknowledgement Form is an integral component in this process. As a requirement for this course, all students must affirm, by their signature, their commitment to integrity, honesty, and honor related to all submitted assignments.
Honor Code
By affixing my signature below, I hereby affirm that all assignments submitted for this course will be totally my own work. I will not plagiarize, copy, cheat, etc. I also swear that I will not allow anyone access to my work and thus will not allow anyone to plagiarize, copy, or cheat from my work.
By affixing my signature below, I submit myself to any and all penalties associated with the acts of plagiarism, copying, and cheating.
Academic dishonesty, including (a) cheating on any exam, quiz, or other assignment and (b) plagiarism of a written assignment will result, at a minimum, in the student or students involved receiving grade of “0” on the particular assignment. If the professor determines that the violation is severe, the student or students involved will receive a Final Grade of “F” for the course. In any case, the incident will be reported to the relevant University authorities, including the office of the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs. If the student believes that he or she has been accused wrongfully and/or punished wrongfully for an alleged incident of academic dishonesty, that student may appeal any punitive action to the Dean of the School of Christian Studies or to the Vice President for Academic Affairs.
Any student who is uncertain of what constitutes plagiarism should contact the professor and/or consult a reference, such as
You plagiarize when, intentionally or not, you use someone else’s words or ideas but fail to credit that person. You plagiarize even when you do credit the author but use his exact words without so indicating with quotation marks or block indentation. You also plagiarize when you use words so close to those in your source, that if you placed your work next to the source, you would see that you could not have written what you did without the source at your elbow. When accused of plagiarism, some writers claim I must have somehow memorized the passage. When I wrote it, I certainly thought it was my own. That excuse convinces very few.
You also plagiarize when you use someone else’s ideas and you do not credit that person.
It is trickier to define plagiarism when you summarize and paraphrase. They are not the same, but they blend so seamlessly that you may not even be aware that you are drifting from summary into paraphrase, then across the line into plagiarism. No matter what your intention, close paraphrase may count as plagiarism, even when you cite the source.[1]
TEXTBOOK S
Required:
The Bible (Old Testament and New Testament; any modern translation [i.e., published in the last 30 years])
Beilby, James K. and Paul Rhodes Eddy, eds. Justification: Five Views. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2011. [ISBN 978-0-8308-3944-5]
Piper, John. The Future of Justification: A Response to N. T. Wright. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2007. [ISBN 978-1-58134-964-1]
Wright, N.T. Justification: God’s Plan and Paul’s Vision. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2009. [ISBN 978-0-8308-3863-9 hardback; 9780830851393 paperback]
_______. The Paul Debate: Critical Questions for Understanding the Apostle. Waco: Baylor University Press, 2015. [ISBN 978-1-4813-0417-7]
ON LINE RESOURCES
The New Testament Gateway page (ateway.com) will lead you to a wide variety of generally useful online resources on the New Testament. While online materials vary greatly in terms of reliability, the websites accessible through the New Testament Gateway have been evaluated by New Testament scholars and have been determined to be reasonably trustworthy sources.
Another website that provides access to a wealth of credible, current scholarship on biblical topics is the Bible Odyssey site, which is sponsored by the Society of Biblical Literature (leodyssey.org/). This site includes valuable material for both the Old Testament and the New Testament studies.
The N. T. Wright Page (rightpage.com/) is a valuable resource for materials relating to the extensive New Testament scholarship of N. T. Wright.
As a counterpoint to N. T. Wright, materials from John Piper are available at iringgod.org/
When using older scholarly sources, be aware that some of the content is dated (i.e., out of date, now recognized as inaccurate based on more recent scholarship); a cautious scholar will attempt to confirm the information by referring to more recent studies. For example, a useful, though dated, source for studying Paul is Saint Paul the Traveler and the Roman Citizen, by William Mitchell Ramsay (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1907; l.org/ccel/ramsay/paul_roman.xiii.html). Ramsay’s insights are valuable, though should be compared with more recent studies of the topics he addressed.
One category of extremely valuable websites for the study of the New Testament is the group of websites containing relevant primary source materials. The most recent critical text of the New Testament (the Nestle-Aland 28th Edition [NA28]) is available at the following official website: tle-aland.com/en/read-na28-online/. The most useful online collection of Greco-Roman literature is the Perseus Digital Library (seus.tufts.edu/hopper/collection?collection=Perseus:collection:Greco-Roman), which includes both original language texts and English translations. The Perseus collection also includes photographs of physical artifacts (seus.tufts.edu/hopper/artifactBrowser). English translations of early Christian documents (e.g., Apostolic Fathers) are accessible through the Early Christian Writings website (lychristianwritings.com/index.html) and through the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (l.org/). Documents from the Nag Hammadi collection (containing primarily Gnostic texts) are available in English translation through the Nag Hammadi Library website (sis.org/naghamm/nhlalpha.html). One recently rediscovered text, the Gospel of Judas, is accessible through the website of the National Geographic Society (English text ionalgeographic.com/lostgospel/pdf/GospelofJudas.pdf; Coptic text ionalgeographic.com/lostgospel/_pdf/CopticGospelOfJudas.pdf)
Another useful online resource is the Biblical Archaeology Society online archive (archive.org/bswbBrowse.asp), which is available through the ETBU library website. This site will be most useful when considering the contexts (physical, geographical, historical, cultural, social, economic, etc.) in which the New Testament writers and the earliest Christians lived. Other similarly valuable websites include the following:
American Schools of Oriental Research
r.org/
Biblical Archaeology
arch.com/
The Corinth Computer Project
.upenn.edu/introduction.html
VROMA (Virtual Roma)
ma.org/
Athenian Agora Excavations
the.gr/
Corinth Excavation Digital Resources sa.edu.gr/index.php/excavationcorinth/
One requirement of graduate education is that you become familiar with current research in the academic discipline. Much of this research is available only in the form of journal articles. You will find the ETBU library resources to be valuable means of identifying and accessing peer-reviewed, scholarly journals in the field of biblical studies. One of the most useful resources is the ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials, which can be accessed through the ETBU library webpage at u.edu/az.php.
You may discover other relevant online resources, but you should be extremely cautious in using materials found online. The quality of these materials is extremely variable, so you should exercise your critical thinking skills when using these sources.
STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES
The student will:
SLO 1. compare and contrast perspectives on major issues in New Testament theology [Analysis],
SLO 2. formulate and defend their own positions on major theological themes in the New Testament [Synthesis], and
SLO 3. assess the significance of the various perspectives on major theological themes in the life of the church and in the lives of believers [Evaluation].
COURSE REQUIREMENTS /ASSIGNMENTS
A. Reading [SLO 1, 2] —Prior to each class session, each student will complete the relevant reading assignments as indicated in the Course Schedule. Students should also search online resources in order to be prepared for class discussion. Evaluation of the reading will be based on the student’s participation in class discussion.
When the Course Schedule identifies readings from a required textbook, students are to complete that reading assignment prior to class. NOTE: Each student should be prepared to present an oral summary and/or analysis of the readings assigned for each class session. The student(s) to present summaries/analyses will be determined during the class session for which the reading is assigned (i.e., with no prior notice).
B. Engagement with Professional Literature [SLO 1]—Students may complete this course requirement in one of two ways:
1 . Attend the 2016 Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, November 19-22, 2016 [the weekend before Thanksgiving], in San Antonio, Texas. Details concerning the meeting are available at
-site.org/meetings/AnnualMeeting.aspx
This meeting primary meeting of biblical studies scholars and is attended by scholars from many nations.
During this conference, attend at least three presentations of papers relevant to New Testament Theology, preferably papers that address issues related to the topic of justification. Discuss these papers orally with the professor (either during the conference or after returning to campus) or submit written summaries of these papers (100 - 250 words each), identifying the hypothesis of the paper and the argument presented in support of that hypothesis.
2. During the semester, read at least eight (8) journal articles in peer-reviewed professional journals addressing issues related to the topic of justification. Submit written summaries of these journal articles (100 - 250 words each), identifying the hypothesis of the paper and the argument presented in support of that hypothesis.
Written summaries of conference papers or journal article abstracts are due on the dates indicated in the Course Schedule (below). All summaries/abstracts are to be submitted through www.turnitin.com.
Evaluation of this assignment will employ the relevant rubric presented below. Your completed assignment must include a self-evaluation using th e relevant rubric, provided additionally in a file on Blackboard.
C. Discussion Boards [SLO 1, 2 ]—Students will participate in the online discussion boards as described in the Course Schedule (fellow). Discussion boards will be hosted on Blackboard. Evaluation of this assignment will employ the relevant rubric presented below. Your completed assignment must include a self-evaluation using th e relevant rubric, provided additionally in a file on Blackboard.