Abstracts and Handouts

FRIDAY, MARCH 13

6:30–8:00 pm

Keynote Lecture   Driscoll Hall – Rm134

Respondents: Andre Price (United Lutheran Seminary) and Leslie Virnelson (United Lutheran Seminary)

Abstract: 

SATURDAY, MARCH 14

8:30–9:30 am

Major Paper Presentation   Bartley Hall – PWC Auditorium

Mark S. Smith (Princeton Theological Seminary)
"Double Selves and Genres: The Case of Psalms 42-43"

Abstract:

9:30–11:00 am

Paper Session1   Bartley Hall – PWC Auditorium

• Helen Buckwalter (University of Virgina)
  "A Weeping God: The Theological Development of Divine Mourning in MT
  and LXX Jeremiah"
  Abstract:
  
  
• MaryKristel Nwuba, D.M.M. (Pontifex University)
  "Unveiling the Mystery of the Divine Name: YHWH in the Heart of Israel's Covenant and Worship"
  Abstract:

11:15–12:45 pm

Paper Session 2   Bartley Hall – PWC Auditorium

• Jon Ahn (Howard University)
  "How Late is the Book of Numbers: Chapters 16-17 Are Telling"
  Abstract: Past critical scholars have reviewed and even made mention of the manufactured Judean myth of Numbers 13-14 (Spy narratives) as seminal and even the Mitte (Dennis Olson). In more recent years, however, Numbers 16-17 have taken the book by storm. That is, identifying the late authorships and redactions (Reinhard Achenbach, Echkart Otto, Thomas Dozeman, Jaeyoung Jeon, Katharina Pyschny, and others) of theocracy-minded Zadokite priests or broadly Levitical scribes that shaped the units and ultimately the entire book. (Numbers 11-12 are important backgrounds.) Within Num 16-17, there are three redactioned  stories that are truly telling; that is, on dating how late the composite text(s) really is/are. They are Korah's call for "proto-democracy" (reframing rebellion), the story of the seventy or seventy two (most important), and the desire to eat meat/quail (the Book of Daniel). These independent units all have Hellenism or Hellenistic literary motifs.    
  
  
• Christopher Moriconi (The Catholic University of America)
  "Sir 15:11–20 andSir 22:27(33)–23:6: A Comparative and Reception Exegetical Study"
  Abstract: Ben Sira’s œuvre is not a pastiche of unrelated doctrines, but unsystematic lecture notes that can be elaborated and organized. This presentation concludes that interpreting Ben Sira requires intertextual analysis. It will study how Sir 15:11–20 relates to Sir 22:27(33)–23:6 and contributes to the understanding of free will in Ben Sira. If Sir 15:11–20 develops a positive outlook on humanity’s capability of exercising free will, Sir 22:27(33)–23:6 advances the discussion by stressing that humanity needs God’s protection so that the destructive potentiality of his freedom does not lead him into sin (Sir 23:3) and death (Sir 15:17). The impulse to connect passages from Ben Sira’s corpus is not a recent development but rather forms a part of patristic exegesis as well. 
  In Augustine’s De gratia et libero arbitrio 16.32, he elaborates on the directive to pray for those who are unable to adhere to the commandments by relating Sir 15:16(17) to Sir 22:27(33)–23:6. Augustine asks, “Why would the sage teach about human free will and the need for God’s assistance through prayer in Sir 22:27(33)–23:6, if the human will could choose the good without God’s grace?” Rather, reading these texts together demonstrates the effectiveness of this approach to combat faulty readings of Ben Sira’s teaching. Augustine’s contribution is to show that Sir 15:11–20 cannot be read through the lens of Pelagianism, which teaches that humanity can choose the good without the assistance of God’s grace. Augustine accomplishes this through his intertextual method of interpreting Sir 15:11–20 in conjunction with Sir 22:27(33)–23:6. Although Ben Sira would not formulate the doctrine of grace as Augustine has, the bishop of Hippo’s teaching is a natural outgrowth of Ben Sira’s especially when Sir 15:16(17) is related to Sir 22:27(33)–23:6.

1:45–2:45 pm

Major Paper Presentation   Bartley Hall – PWC Auditorium

2:45–4:15 pm

Paper Session 3   Bartley Hall – PWC Auditorium

• Paul Danove (Villanova University)
  "Jesus’s Procedure for Deducing What Is/Is Not Permitted (ἔξεστιν) in the Gospel of Mark"
  Abstract: This paper develops the Marcan Jesus’s procedure for determining what is/is not permitted (ἔξεστιν). The introductory discussion establishes that, within the Gospel of Mark, ‘be permitted’ references actions that the statements of commandments in the Scriptures either require or prohibit. The discussion then specifies the procedures for determining what the commandments do/do not permit implicit in the statements of John the Baptist, the Pharisees and other authorities, and Jesus. Examination of the remaining contexts referencing the commandments further clarifies Jesus’s procedure. The discussion concludes with a consideration of the manner in which disciples may apply Jesus’s procedure in their own determination of what commandments do/do not permit.
  
  
• Kim Gunter (Villanova University)
  “Demons, Dogs and a Daughter – How a Slave Woman Defied the Rules to Corner Jesus into Healing Her Child”
  Abstract:

4:30–6:00 pm

Paper Session 4   Bartley Hall – PWC Auditorium

• Lisa Deak (Villanova University)
  “God's Impartiality”
  Abstract:
  
  
• James Garcia (Villanova University)
  “Two Swords: The Gospels in Just War Theory”
  Abstract:

7:30–8:30 pm

Keynote Lecture   Bartley Hall – PWC Auditorium