The University of Oxford Centre for Reception
History will be hosting a seminar series
on 'The Bible in Art, Music and Literature' in
November 2006. Further details can be obtained from their
website
Rachel Nicholls kindly offers her stimulating
paper on Wirkungsgeschichte, Is
Wirkungsgeschichte ( or Reception History) a kind of intellectual
Parkour (or Freerunning)?
Reviews are beginning
to arrive of the first books published. We have also had signinficat
endorsements from scholars anticipating
the series' continuing development. Read some samples here.
Authors and editors met at San Antonio and shared recent developments
as well as concerns. David Gunn (Judges) and Scott Langston (Exodus)
both talked about the joys, trials and tribulations involved in
recently finishing their work. A report of the meeting is available
here.
Mary Callaway (Jeremiah) delivered
a paper at the History
of Interpretation session entitled 'What's the Use of Reception
History?' that offered some very helpful and stimulating thoughts
on the distinctive
nature
of Wirkungsgeschichte. You can download
her paper here.
John Sawyer and Chris Rowland were invited by Ulrich Luz to talk
to the EKK authors about Wirkungsgeschichte (WG)
and the BBC series at their biennial meeting in Germany, 21-3 March
2004. Here are the two papers that were circulated to the authors
and a summary of the discussion (Microsoft Word format—to
request another format, please email Eric
Christianson):
John Sawyer: The
Role of Reception Theory, Reader-Response Criticism
and/or Impact History in the Study of the Bible:
Definition and Evaluation
Chris Rowland: A
pragmatic approach to Wirkungsgeschichte: reflections
on the Blackwell Bible Commentary series and on the
writing of its commentary on the Apocalypse
Summary of
the discussion after papers by Sawyer and Rowland.
The first books of the series have now been published. They are:
John, by Mark Edwards and Revelation,
by Christopher Rowland and Judith L. Kovacs.
For a look at the design and a sample of text
of the Revelation volume, click
here.
I recently received a very
enthusiastic email from series editor John Sawyer.
So, in his words: 'This e-mail was prompted by
the discovery in the Perugia University library
of a reference book I had not seen: Biblia
gentium by Giancarlo Rinaldi (Rome, 1989).
It is in English as well as Italian and describes
itself as "A first contribution towards
an index of biblical quotations, references and
allusions made by Greek and Latin heathen writers
of the Roman imperial times." It contains
Greek and Latin texts with translations into
Italian and English plus introductory material
in Italian and English. So it is a wonderful
list of examples of the impact of the Bible on
the outside world, arranged according to scriptural
order.'
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