Buswell Bulletin: Journal Articles – April 2022

Buswell Bulletin

Apr 19

Covenant’s librarians keep an eye on the new journal issues coming into the library and then each month we highlight recent articles and reviews that strike us as interesting and/or important to the scholarly conversation. (Inclusion on this list is not an endorsement.)

Linked items marked “Open Access” are accessible to anyone. Otherwise, a Covenant library account may be required for access. Alumni may access items marked “Alumni Access Available” by visiting the Alumni Portal and selecting the identified resource on the library resources page.

Proverbs in Recent Research

Alice Ogden Bellis
Currents in Biblical Research 20, no. 2 (February 2022): 133–64.

Abstract:

This article briefly surveys major commentaries and monographs, as well as significant articles, on the book of Proverbs. The broader genre of wisdom literature, of which Proverbs is a key component, has been undergoing intense scrutiny. The question was whether there is a wisdom genre at all and if so how should it be defined. 2011–2020 was a period of intense research during which a paradigm shift was in progress. Other issues include structure and rhetorical features, divine retribution, and theology more broadly, moral self-development, pedagogy, corporal punishment, and economic and social justice. Non-western and indigenous readings and research from a gender-sensitive perspective have continued to be significant.

Alumni Access Available: SAGE Journals

Why Did Paul Cite Habakkuk 2:4b?

Timothy H. Lim
The Expository Times 133, no. 6 (March 2022): 225–32

Abstract:

One of the most perplexing uses of the Old Testament in the New is Paul’s quotation of ‘the one who is righteous will live by faith’ to support his view that: divine righteousness is revealed through faith (Rom 1:17); no one is justified before God by the law (Gal 3:11); and no one is justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ (Gal 2:16). Why did Paul quote Hab 2:4b, since this half-verse is not ostensibly about judgment and salvation? In this article, I show that Paul’s selection is explicable when it is realized that there was a Jewish tradition, as reflected in Pesher Habakkuk (1QpHab), which interpreted righteousness and living by faith as salvation for the righteous and judgment for the wicked.

Alumni Access Available: SAGE Journals

Two Hundred People Left Our Small Church

Benjamin Vrbicek
CT Pastors (blog), Christianity Today, March 14, 2022

The author summarizes the results of a phone survey of previous members and attendees at his church who had left in the past several years. Reasons included, among others, relocation, doctrinal issues, and personal conflict. He then presents some takeaways and action items for pastors and elders derived from this exercise.

From the article:

In seven years, our church—in terms of net attendance—has grown from around 150 to 350. But in the same amount of time, our church has lost as many as have stayed. The losses never occur rapidly, as though a levee burst, but more as a steady trickle or slow leak. …
How does a pastor keep his heart from growing cynical when, over 350 weeks of pastoring the same church, I have lost an average of one person each week? And why are these congregants leaving our church anyway? What role might I play, even unintentionally, in sending sheep to what they perceive to be greener pastures?

Open Access

Desiring a Kingdom: The Clinical Implications of James K. A. Smith’s Theological Anthropology

Brad D. Strawn
Journal of Psychology & Theology 50, no. 1 (Spring 2022): 73-82.

This is one article in a special issue of the journal on “Theologians for Psychologists.” Other theologians featured in the issue include Stanley Hauerwas, Walter Brueggemann, Miroslav Volf, Jürgen Moltmann, Renita Weems, and John Paul II.

Abstract:

This article will engage in theology-directed integration. It will do so by first examining the theological anthropology of philosopher theologian James K. A. Smith. Smith presents a philosophical/theological anthropology of humans as embodied creatures embedded within cultural practices/liturgies. These liturgies implicitly shape and form the telos of human desire and contain ethics of ultimacy (e.g., image of the good life). In other words, liturgies shape the telos of one’s desire/love and what one ultimately worships. Liturgies are not neutral but aim one toward desiring a particular kingdom. Finally, the import of this theology will be explored as it relates to the clinical integrative practice of psychotherapy.

Alumni Access Available: SAGE Journals

“What’s a Good Measure of That Outcome?” Resources to Find Existing and Psychometrically-Sound Measures

Sara J. Finney, Gabriel R. Gilmore, & Sarah Alahmadi
Research & Practice in Assessment 16, no. 2 (2021)

Abstract:

When engaging in outcomes assessment, higher education professionals (i.e., faculty, student affairs educators) are expected to gather reliable data and make valid inferences. Decisions about how to measure student learning and development outcomes impact inferences about the achievement of outcomes and determination of improvement efforts. Professionals may search for existing outcome measures due to lack of experience in the challenging instrument development process and/or the time required to construct a high-quality measure. To support professionals in their search, we created a tool that describes relevant repositories of measures. Given most professionals lack training in psychometrics, we purposefully categorized these repositories by the level of guidance they provide when selecting a measure. That is, in addition to identifying an existing measure and summarizing the measure’s psychometric properties, some repositories provide an evaluation of the measure’s quality. This resource facilitates the collection of high-quality data that informs valid inferences about student outcomes.

Open Access

The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is: A History, A Philosophy, A Warning

Justin E.H. Smith, interview by Julien Crockett
Los Angeles Review of Books, March 22, 2022

Editor Julien Crockett interviews Justin E.H. Smith, author of The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is and Professor of Philosophy in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Paris. In his work, Smith traces the philosophical origins of the Internet as far back as Leibniz in the 17th century.

From the introductory summary:

The internet has lost its way and taken society with it. Since the mid-2010s, we hear warnings of “dis/misinformation.” We hear about the loss of trust in our institutions and the need to reinvent them for the internet age. In short, we are living in a “crisis moment” — one ironically experienced by many of us while stuck at home.
Many have diagnosed these symptoms and proposed policy solutions, but few have done the hard work of rummaging around in the internet’s history to find the roots of the problems — and almost none have taken a truly long view. In The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is, Justin E. H. Smith, a philosopher and historian of science, argues that we’ve been much too narrow-minded in our understanding of the internet. In presenting a longue durée history, he challenges our assumptions about what the internet is and what we’re doing when we’re on it. Only by understanding the internet’s long history — by understanding the circumstances in which the internet’s many parts were conceived — can we, he claims, take back control of our lives and shape the internet in a way more conducive to human flourishing.

With much heated debate within the PCA currently taking place online through social media and blogs, Smith’s assessment of social media discussion is striking:

Because of the noxious and exploitative traps through which much of our experiences of the internet are mediated — like social media in particular — we tend to think of that as the paradigm of internet usage. You could also ask, however, of social media … are you really conversing? Are you really debating? And I think the answer is, almost always, no. What’s happening on social media is rather a simulation of discussion and debate. Or, as I like to put it, Twitter is a debate-themed video game, in the same way that, say, Grand Theft Auto is a stolen-car-chase-themed video game. … any number of things are just as real on the internet as doing them in flesh and blood. But the great exception to that, I would argue, is social media, where it’s more like a false suffocation or a perversion of the thing it pretends to be.

Open Access

Let the Nations Sing Hallelujah: The Influence of the Egyptian Hallel on the Citation of Psalm 117 OG in Mark 12:10–11.

Josiah D. Hall (M.Div. 2018)
Journal of Biblical Literature 141, no. 1 (2022): 137–156.

Abstract:

Mark 12:10–11 cites Ps 117:22–23 OG (118:22–23 MT) to conclude the parable of the tenants, which frames the gospel's second half. The citation from one of the most frequently cited psalms in the New Testament reinforces the parable's interpretation and thus plays an important role in the Markan narrative. Many interpreters conclude that the citation's impact on the parable comes only from the citation's self-contained imagery or, at most, the imagery's function in a psalm praising God for vindicating God's servant. In contrast, I contend that the psalm's place in the Egyptian Hallel, a collection that played an important liturgical function at multiple Jewish festivals, contributes to how early Christ-followers could have construed the psalm and thus understood its use in Mark. Specifically, I argue that, if the portrait of the nations in the Hallel, especially in Ps 116 OG, shapes how one understands Ps 117, then the citation of Ps 117 in Mark serves to confirm an interpretation of the “others” to whom the vineyard is given as a mixed community of gentiles who have forsaken their idolatry, along with the faithful from Israel, united by their response to Jesus.

Alumni Access Available: Atla Religion Database