Fear and Psalm 23; children-at-risk in the Wisdom books; and more open access journals

Welcome to my newsletter, ‘Bible, Mission, and More’, where I share what’s on my mind as I teach, research, and write on the Bible and mission, children-at-risk in the Bible and contemporary society, Psalms and Wisdom Literature, and a range of other topics. I teach at All Nations Christian College in the UK, though views are my own. You may also like to check out my Bible and Mission website.

Each Tuesday I’ll share something I’ve read, something I’ve written or recorded, something on learning and teaching, and a quote to reflect on.

Something read – Ellen Davis on fear in Psalm 23

On a Monday morning at All Nations the community gathers for ‘kick off’, a time to start the week together with some singing, a short message from the Bible by a staff member, and then notices for the week ahead.

I try to do a message once a term and this week I spoke on ‘The Lord is my shepherd’ from Psalm 23. One of the writers I return to most is Ellen Davis (see, for example posts here and here) and in my preparation I came across a sermon of hers at Wycliffe College at the University of Toronto. In ‘Psalm 23: The Story’ Davis explores the way this well-known song addresses different kinds of fear we have within us: fear of floundering, fear of isolation, and fear of humiliation. She picks up on the kingly language of shepherd and also how the psalm calls us to fortitude, as well as to comfort.

Davis speaks of a time she was required to read the psalm as part of a retreat while at seminary. She had dismissed this as too easy, too familiar. She admits, ‘I might have given a passable linguistic analysis of the Hebrew text of the psalm but I had no idea why it is in the Bible, how it might speak a word of hope and guidance even a life-changing word as it has done for others no more likely than I.’

This sermon is a wonderful example of Davis’ close reading of the nuances of the text and her way of drawing out its deep relevance for the contemporary reading community. I found looking at the psalm through the lens of ‘fear’ to be a really refreshing (and sobering) way in.

Do check out her sermon, which you can watch here: Ellen Davis - Psalm 23 sermon

Something written – Children-at-risk in the Bible (3) Wisdom books

In April I will be teaching an online intensive on ‘Vulnerable Children: Biblical and Theological Perspectives’. Each day on the module we focus on a particular section of the Bible, looking at how children feature in it and how this can shape our understanding and practice of ministry to, for, with, and by children-at-risk.

In the run-up to this I am doing a series of posts highlighting some of the ways vulnerable children feature in different parts of Scripture. Previous posts were on children-at-risk in the Pentateuch and children-at-risk in the Historical Books. This week we’ll look at the Wisdom books.

The are two main themes we look at in the session on Proverbs. First, we look at the theme of gang violence in chapters 1 and 4. This is an underexplored topic but I find it notable that the first passage after the initial opening of the book is addressed to young people who are tempted to join gangs for supposed belonging, security, and fast money. Although not much is written on this from a UK perspective, I’ve particularly appreciated treatments of these texts by scholars writing in Nigerian contexts (such as ‘I loved to be included’ (Proverbs 1:8–19): The Church and Tiv Christian Youth Development by Favour C. Uroko and Solomon Enobong).

We then move on to the corporal punishments texts like 13:24; 19:18; 22:15; 23:13-14; 29:15; 29:17. How are we to interpret these texts that appear to be allowing for, and even requiring physical discipline as part of parenting? To be sure it is a complex topic but our aim is to help students identify the issues involved in interpreting texts like these and reflect on how they relate to contemporary concerns. I find the work of William Webb particularly interesting on this; especially his book, Corporal Punishment in the Bible: A Redemptive-Movement for Troubling Texts.

Moving on to Job, we review different texts within the book that feature the orphan/fatherless, especially chs. 24; 29; and 31. As part of my doctoral work on a missional reading of Job I did a chapter on issues of poverty and injustice, so I draw on some of that material to explore how the book issues a variety of challenges on behalf of the poor and marginalised. We talk about Challenging God; Challenging the friends; Challenging the wicked; Challenging the self; and Challenging the world.

Learning and teaching – Directory of Open Access Journals

Is this the best of times and the worst of times for journal access? On the one hand, the price of journal subscriptions has made it very expensive to get access some titles, especially print versions. (See Rob Bradshaw’s article Loss of Print Journals from Academic Libraries which raises some important issues).

On the other hand there have never been so many freely available resources, including academic journals. I’ve mentioned Rob’s Missiology on the Web site before, which is well-worth checking out (along with its related sites).

One useful resource is the Directory of Open Access Journals. A search for ‘Missiology’, for example, brings up four titles:

• Missionalia: Southern African Journal of Missiology - Published by Stellenbosch University in South Africa

• Annales Missiologici Posnanienses - Published by Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan in Poland

• Ecclesial Futures - Published by Radboud University Press in Netherlands

• Norsk Tidsskrift for Misjonsvitenskap - Norwegian Journal of Missiology

A search for ‘theology’ or ‘biblical studies’ yields many more results. One thing I noticed is that it seems to include a lot of journals published outside of North America and Western Europe, and in languages other than English.

Quote – Ellen Davis on a question for Lent

‘So this is the question for us now: What acts of fortitude does the sovereign reality of God require of me in this time, in my situation? That is a worthy question to occupy us this Lent and this hour as we come to this table. Not for solace only but also for strength; not for pardon only but also for renewal. May God grant us the courage to ask, and the fortitude to listen for the answer God has to give.’
(from ‘The Story: Psalm 23’, see above)

Thanks for joining the journey and see you next week,

Tim