Like last year, I moved from one completely different world to another, in a matter of a few days. From the desperation of the streets of Ethiopia, where I was earlier in November, I spent the last few days in the meeting rooms of the Marriott Marquis, a luxury hotel in San Francisco, participating in theological meetings. But as I experience each year, these meetings have there own desperation—for some relevance.
There are some bright thinkers in this society for sure, and I am encouraged to see careful scholarship done in areas from Philosophy to Theology, from Hebrew to Greek studies. Still, I read through the program handbook, and I find it challenging to choose papers that I believe speak to the average congregant in the pew. But then, most are not written to them (but who some of these papers are written to remains a mystery to me). So here, as is my annual practice, are those papers receiving the “The Top Ten Most Irrelevant Awards”*, those papers that seem, at least on the surface of the title, to be neither here nor there.
1-Implications of the Toledoths Regarding ANE Influence on Genesis
2-Jesus ‘Minus Triplex’ Reexamined: A Proposal for ‘Munus Monoplex’ or the One Unified Role of Jesus
3-Solving the Euthyphro Dilemma and Defending Theistic Ethics
4-‘Dionysus will soon enough be the judge of our claims to wisdom!’: Nietzsche as the Sublime Muse of Moral Decision-Making
5-Why are (Some) Platonists so Insouciant?
6-Epistematic Euccatastrophy: The Favorable Turn of the Evidence”
7-On the Impossibility of Omnimalevolence: Plantinga on Tooley’s New Evidential Argument from Evil
8-The Dignity of Damnation
9-Discourse Type, Slot Machines, and the Hebrew Bible
10-A Farewell to Arms: The Rhetoric of Arms and the Death of Goliath
Honorable Mention:
From the Beach Boys to Surfer’s Chapel: A Theology of California Surf Culture
Athletic Imagery in John? ‘Just Do It’ with Nike and Stephanos
The great news is that these, and nearly all 500 others are available for purchase, including my somewhat relevant paper, “What Corporate, Political, and Pastoral Leadership Can Learn from One Another” (a paper I am sure someone has identified on another post as lacking the intellectual muscle to be considered for a theological society meeting). You can also find it under articles written on my blog site. Until next year…
*I am not making any of these up
Dustin Bagby
i always enjoy this list! Thanks.
Nicholas
Jared – 19Haha I honestly don’t teunrsdand how you know this stuff! God has soo blessed you with wisdom! Don’t get used to it! Continue to thank God!For me – conversation matters. Somehow I’ve excluded myself and in result grown a negative self conscious. So when people I look up to sit down and take 10 minutes to hear what I’m going through it means soo much to me!! Here’s the problem: I feel bad seeking advice/mentoring from others (including books) because I feel like I should only be taught by God.It’s really hard though because on the other hand I do seek approval and acknowledgement from those I look up to so it’s kind of a battle.Two extremes.Two things this young generation needs: 1) To be taught their approval comes from God (only seek His approval) (which admittedly is hard for me to even type out) and 2) Personal mentors – each child of this upcoming generation needs a personal one-on-one mentor.Advice for me? To get out of this bind?
Gustus
because it is a completely dffnereit world, a completely new set of values, etc than that in which you were taught to live.In Matt 18 Jesus tells us that unless we become like a child and START AGAIN (learning how to live in this new world), we will never make it.How many people actually do this? I would say we’re talking points of percents here.If you have been taught to be a mechanic all your life, and you get a new job as a gardener, you have to forget everything you knew about how you did everything, and relearn again how to everything. A completely dffnereit lifestyle, dependent on the provision of nature, instead of broken cars.People just dont understand how radical the change is, needs to be, and how they need to humbly forget, and learn. I dont care if you are 950 000 years old. the day you get saved you are a knew born baby, and everything you thought you knew about life, everything you valued, everything you did and how you did it now has to change.(hehe, preaching on this on sunday )
Josselia
I think you are right to preach about this Mark. It’s right and prpoer for you to share within the fellowship what you have been doing through your sabbatical and where and what you feel the lord has been sharing with you and how He has been shaping you through this time. Being an example to the flock as a pastor means that you also have to share your own troubles and victories within the context of Biblical living; taking the masks off your own life will help the congregation to do likewise. Through your knowledge and helping the congregation to know about your position within the narrative story of the church, it will help them and you to know their own position within the narrative story of the church and therefore build on a greater sense of the collective purpose of the church in Gods greater scheme of things within your community.