Category Archives: Community

Global Evangelical Theology—CETA Conference and Call for Papers

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The Canadian Evangelical Theological Association (CETA) will hold their next Fall theology conference in Toronto, on October 3, 2015.

Every year since 2012 CETA has been co-sponsoring a Fall theology conference with a different theological institution, in order to promote serious theological reflection between younger and more established scholars in the broad area of theology (including biblical studies, dogmatics, history, ethics, ministry, etc.), for the sake of the Canadian church.

Previously, the CETA Fall conference has been co-sponsored with McMaster Divinity College (2012), Northeastern Seminary (2013), and Wycliffe College in connection with the Institute for Christian Studies (2014).

This year, the CETA Fall conference will be co-sponsored with Tyndale University College and Seminary, the largest theological school in Canada, on their new Bayview campus.

Registration is available online at the Tyndale website.

Because the Call for Papers went out a bit late this year, the CETA executive have extended the deadline for paper proposals until July 25.

The keynote speaker will be Dr. Las Newman, president of the Caribbean Graduate School of Theology, in Kingston, Jamaica. Dr. Newman holds a PhD in church history from the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies. He is an alumnus of Tyndale, and received an honorary doctorate from his alma mater in 2013.

The theme for the Fall CETA conference will be Global Evangelical Theology. Papers that attempt to make a connection to this theme are especially encouraged.

Lest you think that the advertised theme excludes your idea for a paper, Global Evangelical Theology is being interpreted as widely as possible. In other words, proposals do not need to explicitly address theology in specific geographical regions. Rather, the conference is soliciting proposals for papers (which could be in any theological discipline) that are of relevance for the worldwide church.

I myself proposed a paper on Genesis 2-3 (I think that’s of global significance).

The Call for Papers, with information about word length, where to send proposals, etc., can be downloaded here.

Graduate students, post-docs, and pre-tenured faculty are invited to submit finished papers by September 15 for the Jack and Phyllis Middleton Award for Excellence in Bible and Theology. Full rules for the theology award may be found on the CETA website.

Power, Inequality, and Reconciliation in the Church

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In about a week (June 16, 2015) Northeastern Seminary will be having their annual one-day summer Conference on Ministry. This year the topic is Power, Inequality, and Reconciliation in the Church, and the speaker is Dr. Christena Cleveland.

The conference is intended to explore how God’s people can respond to the forces of division, especially in a world that is saturated with inequality along social, economic, and political lines.

Christena Cleveland is a social psychologist, author, and speaker with a hopeful passion for overcoming cultural divisions in groups. She has just been appointed Associate Professor of the Practice of Reconciliation and Director of the Center for Reconciliation at Duke University’s Divinity School.

She is the author of Disunity in Christ: Uncovering the Hidden Forces that Keep Us Apart (IVP, 2013), which won a 2013 Leadership Journal Book Award.

The one-day conference is part of a Doctor of Ministry course that Dr. Cleveland will be teaching throughout the week at Northeastern Seminary. The conference is meant to allow a wider audience to gain the benefit of her expertise while she is on campus.

More details about the conference, including a schedule and registration details, can be found on the Northeastern Seminary website.

Click here to watch a video clip of Dr. Cleveland talking about the topic of her book.

Esau McCaulley was Dynamite! Report on the Rochester Preaching Conference

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I just came from presenting with Rev. Esau McCaulley (doctoral candidate in New Testament at the University of St. Andrews) at the annual Preaching Conference of the Rochester Consortium of Theological Schools, held at St. Bernard’s School of Theology and Ministry (May 21, 2015). We had a great time, with lots of discussion, both in the Q&A after each talk and during lunch with the attendees.

My presentation on Matthew’s use of the Old Testament in the infancy narratives had considerable overlap with his presentation on Paul’s understanding of the Law in Galatians 3:10-14.

Just as I addressed Matthew’s use of four Old Testament quotations, Rev. McCaulley addressed Paul’s use of four OT passages in the Galatians text. In both presentations we argued that the New Testament writer in question (Matthew/ Paul) was reading the OT texts in context with significant discernment.

Further, we both focused on how the broader biblical narrative of Israel’s crisis/exile and coming Messianic resolution framed the argument of the New Testament text. And in both cases we addressed the communal and socio-political implications of the text relevant for preaching.

It looked like we had collaborated on our presentations, but we hadn’t. This just shows that when Rev. McCaulley begins as a new faculty member at Northeastern Seminary (part-time, at a distance this Fall, and full-time on campus in Fall 2016) there’s going to be great synergy in the biblical studies courses—and, indeed, with the entire core curriculum of NES, which emphasizes the relationship of Bible, theology, and praxis.

In fact, since Rev. McCaulley just signed his contract with Northeastern (the day before the conference), he is already technically on the faculty.

So I want to affirm the welcome to Professor Esau McCaulley that Doug Cullum, the Dean of NES, extended at the conference. Lots of students are eagerly looking forward to taking your courses and being mentored by you.

You can access Esau McCaulley’s blog here.