faculty news & notes

Beginning with Richard H. Niehbuhr’s book Christ and Culture (Harper & Row, 1956), Austin Seminary’s MidWinter Lectures have been the catalyst for many important books. Our 2021 Currie Lecturer, The Reverend Dr. Scott Black Johnston, has just published his book Elusive Grace, that grew from his lectures, “Good News for the Great Awakening: Gospel Truths for the Frightened, the Angry, and the Hyper-Aware.” Learn more about our 2023 MidWinters on the back cover.

good reads

Scott Black Johnston, Elusive Grace: Loving Your Enemies While Striving for God’s Justice Nashville: Westminster John Knox Press (2022)

I remember when Professor Scott Black Johnston would come to my office to chat. I’d hear the squeak to the door of the building, then a wide-spaced, determined, and happy clomping as he walked from the front door to my hallway (about three Scott steps), turned right at the water fountain (usually after taking a drink) and three doors down (five more clomps) to my office, where he always paused (maybe looking to see if I had any new comics on my door), and then knock hard, three times in rhythm, every time.

“Come in, Scott!” I would say. And he would answer, “How did you know it was me?”

He would plop down in a chair with a mess of papers in one hand, pull a pen out of his pocket, lean forward and look me in eye, smile, and ask me a theological question, like: Why does it mean to say Jesus is human now? What do you know about heaven and hell? Do you think something changes in a person when they are ordained?

When I read Unexpected Grace, I knew it was Scott. It was like he had clomped into my office again, looked me in the eye and asked, “Jesus said ‘love your enemy.’ Now—how exactly are we supposed to do this while we are simultaneously trying to do justice in the world?” Scott has a way of asking a question that invites his interlocutor to get caught up in the passion of the question with him, in a way that they wind up working together on answering it.

Dr. Johnston’s goal is to change the world, and he wants to do it by way of love. Not an unusual project. But his book, like his knock, is sharper than the usual “What the world needs now” approach. He suggests we give the Holy Spirit a leg up by striving to live the holy lives to which we are called, by reclaiming virtue, retraining our hearts, and working on a more expansive understanding of church. I resonate with, but am indicted by, a section near the end, “Called to a Larger Vision,” where he imagines what Jeremiah would say to people in the US if he were standing on a street corner today:

You have no interest in the truth … Your energy is spent on shameless selfpromotion and scoring cheap political points … Meanwhile, the real issues fester … poverty … addiction … people’s sense of purpose and worth … [And] what are we doing about it? Nothing … you aren’t thinking of changing your behavior … confessing your sins, or getting everyone together to forge a vision that is bigger, grander, and holier than this” (123).

These words that Johnston puts in the mouth of Jeremiah are his words to us through the book. A prophet for our time, Johnston is with and for the people whom he serves and to whom he preaches. But, fair warning to those who read his book to find out how to fix our world: It is you that Johnston is positioning to be changed.

—Reviewed by Cynthia L. Rigby, The W.C. Brown Professor of Theology at Austin Seminary

faculty notes |

Sarah Allen (OMFAS) will lead a workshop on intergenerational worship at the Association of Partners in Christian Education (APCE) annual conference in Birmingham, Alabama, and will serve as the keynote speaker at Mission Presbytery’s Youth Midwinter Retreat at Mo Ranch, both in January.

Margaret Aymer was installed as academic dean during a worship service on October 11 (photo above). She will be the Bible study leader for the 2023 DART Clergy Conference in Orlando (Feb. 8-10, 2023).

João Chaves (mission and evangelism) received the 2022 Book Prize from the Hispanic Theological Initiative for his new work, Migrational Religion (Baylor University Press, 2022).

Bobbi Kaye Jones (pastoral ministry and leadership) participated in the iACT Thanksgiving Service. She will preach at Saint John’s United Methodist Church (Austin) in April.

Dean Aymer contributes to update of NRSV

Dr. Margaret Aymer, academic dean and The First Presbyterian Church, Shreveport, D. Thomason Professor of New Testament Studies, was the editor for the book of James in The New Revised Standard Version-Updated Edition (NRSVue) of the Bible that made its print debut in November. Drawing a direct line in English-language translations from the King James Version (1611), the Revised Standard Version (RSV) was authorized in 1952 followed by the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) in 1989. Under the authority of the National Council of Churches, which holds the copyright, The Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) formed a committee of scholars in 2017 to initiate a new update of the NRSV.

SBL’s mandate to was to “ensure the currency and integrity of the NRSVue as the most up-to-date and reliable Bible for use and study in English-language religious communities and educational institutions” with the intention that this translation “be produced by a diverse team for diverse readers.”

The SBL editorial team included fifty-six book editors who worked over the course of two years (2018–2019) comparing the 1989 NRSV text with recent developments in manuscript dating and accuracy.

“Where a translation was unclear or did not fully capture the text,” says Aymer, “we were asked to make suggestions for a clearer and more precise text. Our work then went through two other editorial lenses, one group of biblical scholars and a second group of both scholars and pastors representing the National Council of Churches. The editors of this volume represent the most culturally diverse and gender-balanced group of editors ever to work on an English translation of the Bible.” According to editors, over 10,000 substantial revisions (alongside 20,000 minor revisions) mark this updated edition. According to publisher, “The NRSV Updated Edition Bible is intended to be the world’s most meticulously researched, rigorously reviewed, and faithfully accurate modern English-language Bible translation available to date. The NRSVue is informed by the results of discovery and study of hundreds of ancient manuscripts, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, in the more than thirty years since the first publication of the NRSV … With modern scholarship applied to ancient texts, the NRSV Updated Edition is designed to help readers explore the meanings of ancient texts in light of the cultures that produced them with unprecedented readability, accessibility, and inclusivity.”

Professor White shares scholarship on beauty in new book

Dr. David White, The C. Ellis and Nancy Gribble Nelson Professor of Christian Education, published his latest book, Tending the Fire that Burns at the Center of the World: Beauty and the Art of Christian Formation (Wipf and Stock, 2022), this summer.

One reviewer notes: “At first glance, someone might think beauty is a nice but peripheral topic in Christian discipleship. Indeed, it seems that this under-appreciation of the topic is the norm for individual Christians, churches, denominations, and movements. Until recently, I would have held a similar view. Dr. White provides a thorough, biblical, historical, and theological case for us to return the appreciation of beauty to its rightful place in our lives of discipleship ... I am now much more attentive to the beauty in my life—sunsets, mountains, music, ocean, good food, faces, acts of kindness, and holy moments—and I allow them to call me to worship the Creator.” White’s other books focus on the lives of youth in the church, including Joy: A Guide for Youth Ministry with Sarah F. Farmer and Miroslav Volf (2020), Dreamcare: A Theology of Youth, Spirit, and Vocation (2003), Practicing Discernment with Youth (2005), and Awakening Youth Discipleship: Christian Resistance in a Consumer Culture with Brian J. Mahan and Michael Warren (2008).