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SBL E-Newsletter

Call for Papers Now Open
The 2014 Travel Grants
Invest in the Future
New SBL Font
Highlighted Sessions for 2013 Annual Meeting in Baltimore
ICI Update
New JBL is Available
SBL Hotel Reservation Reminder
Membership Updates
Calendar of Events

Have you filled out your Member Profile?
The response has already been outstanding, but we need to have a majority of members represented by the end of the year, in order to better serve you. There are many reasons why this is important.
Plus, you will be entered into a drawing to receive one of two iPads!
 
 

Call for Papers Now Open

Paul J. Achtemeier Award for New Testament Scholarship
David Noel Freedman for Excellence and Creativity for Hebrew Bible Scholarship
De Gruyter Prize for Biblical Studies and Reception History

Click on the links above for criteria and guidelines for submitting proposals

The 2014 Travel Grants

The SBL Travel Grants offer opportunity to four current SBL members to attend the Annual Meeting, participate in the program, enhance their professional development, and build their network with fellow scholars. These grants help facilitate the work of Program Units, the International Cooperation Initiative (“ICI”), and other SBL Committees representing scholars in the field. These scholarships are intended to support underrepresented and underresourced scholars. As such, preference will be given to underrepresented members, including women, ethnic and racial minorities, and members from ICI-qualifying countries. A key criterion is an applicant’s demonstrable financial need. The 2014 Travel Grant applications are now posted. Complete application packets are due March 1, 2014.

Invest in Future Humanities Scholars

Contributions to the Society Fund not only support the Society’s programs it nurtures future generations in the field of biblical, religious, and theological studies. Scholarship awards, travel grants, and special sessions at the annual and international meetings are possible through donations made by the Society’s members. Please consider a gift to the Society today.

Click here to donate now and to find out more how you can further support the Society’s future through estate planning. If you have made your 2013 contribution – Thank you! We appreciate your support!

New SBL Font

The latest SBL font, SBL BibLit, is now available for download on the SBL website. This font combines Greek, Hebrew, and Latin characters, including diacritics necessary for transliteration. Keyboards that make the transliteration characters easily accessible are also available for download for Windows and Mac OS X operating systems. Be sure to check out our updated documentation in the Biblical Fonts FAQ, including operating system-specific installation instructions.

Highlighted Sessions for 2013 Annual Meeting in Baltimore

S25-210b
David Noel Freedman Award for Excellence and Creativity in Hebrew Bible Scholarship 11/25/2013 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM Room: 348 - Convention Center
Theme: Honoring the 2013 Award Winner: Jeremy M. Hutton
Douglas A. Knight, Vanderbilt University, Presiding
Jeremy Hutton, University of Wisconsin-Madison
On the Roof of the Temple: Reconstructing Ancient Levantine Small-Scale Altar Usage (30 min) Ann Killebrew, Pennsylvania State University, Respondent (15 min)
Richard Hess, Denver Seminary, Respondent (15 min)

S25-134
Paul J. Achtemeier Award for New Testament Scholarship
11/25/2013 9:00 AM to 10:30 AM Room: Harborview 1 - Sheraton Inner Harbor
Theme: Honoring the 2013 Award Winner: Joshua W. Jipp
Marianne Meye Thompson, Fuller Theological Seminary (Pasadena), Presiding
Joshua W. Jipp, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School Christ the King as Living Law: Paul’s the "Law of Christ" and Ancient Kingship Discourse (30 min)
Julien C.H. Smith, Valparaiso University, Respondent (15 min)
David G. Horrell, University of Exeter, Respondent (15 min)
Discussion (30 min)

After the session, you are welcome to join us for a reception in memory of Paul Achtemeier in the Chesapeake 2 room on Level 3 of the Sheraton.

ICI Update

SBL will be broadcasting six sessions from the Baltimore meeting in November to ICI countries. We have been working through the ICI Liaison Network to identify groups of students and scholars who are interested in participating in one of the sessions. Currently, we have groups in Bolivia, Brazil, Central Africa Republic, Egypt, Ghana, India, Nigeria, Peru, Poland, South Africa, and Ukraine that will be taking part. Persons from ICI countries who would like to be part of this initiative are encouraged to contact Leigh Andersen.

The following books were added to the ICI online book depository in September. Please click here for the complete online books list.

Becking, Bob and Susan Hennecke, eds. Out of Paradise: Eve and Adam and their Interpreters. Hebrew Bible Monographs, 30. Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2010.

Graham, Susan Lochrie. The Flesh Was Made Word: A Metahistorical Critique of the Contemporary Quest of the Historical Jesus. New Testament Monographs, 27. Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2010.

Hock, Ronald. The Chreia and Ancient Rhetoric: Commentaries on Aphthonius’s Progymnasmata. Writings from the Greco-Roman World, 31. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2012.

Shantz, Colleen and Rodney A. Werline. Experientia, Volume 2: Linking Text and Experience. Early Judaism and Its Literature, 35. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2012.

Sheppard, Beth M. The Craft of History and the Study of the New Testament. Resources for Biblical Study, 60. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2012.

New JBL Available Online

Journal of Biblical Literature 132.3 has been posted.

SBL Hotel Reservation Reminder

Have you registered for the SBL Annual Meeting yet but forgotten to book your hotel? As a reminder, SBL is working with the Baltimore Housing Bureau this year regarding making reservations for hotel rooms for this year’s meeting. If you haven’t made your housing reservations yet, we urge you to go to your SBL Registration confirmation page and click on the “Book Hotel” link located at the top of the page.

If you have questions about your reservation, or need to make changes, please contact the Baltimore Housing Bureau directly at 800-282-6632 (toll free) or 410-837-4636 (Outside U.S.) or you may also reach them via email at conventionhousing@baltimore.org. You must be registered for the SBL Annual Meeting before you can make your hotel reservation.

For more information regarding housing options, please click here. You may also click here for updated information about the SBL Annual Meeting.

Membership and Subscriptions


Address Change
We have dropped the use of our post office box. Please send all mailings for SBL directly to Society of Biblical Literature, The Luce Center, 825 Houston Mill Road, Atlanta, GA 30329 . Please be sure to use the most recent membership and subscription form.

New Membership Profile!
The Society of Biblical Literature has developed a new Membership Profile. We urge all of our members to fill it out as soon as possible and to update it each year when you renew your membership. This profile will allow us to better understand and serve our members and analyze trends and changes within the field. Please sign into the website with your member number !*SBLID*! and then click on “Member Profile” and answer the new questions. It will only take a few minutes of your time and will help us in so many ways. Every member who fully completes the questions by December 31 will be entered into a drawing to win one of two iPads.

Subscriptions
The Journal of Biblical Literature is the flagship journal of the field. It is published quarterly and includes scholarly articles and critical notes by members of the Society. Essential reading for over a century, it is now available online and in print.

In order to receive the printed issue 132:4 of the Journal of Biblical Literature your subscription and payment must be received no later than November 15, 2013. The subscription form can be found at: http://sbl-site.org/assets/pdfs/JournalSubscriptions.pdf. You may fax or email your form to the office. Our Fax number is 404-727-2419 or you may email the form to SBLServices@sbl-site.org. If you prefer, you may renew your subscription online, by logging into the website at http://www.sbl-site.org/membership/joinnow.aspx and following the directions. You may also of course mail your subscription form to us at 825 Houston Mill Road, Atlanta, GA 30329 for later issue subscriptions.

The Review of Biblical Literature (RBL), founded by the Society of Biblical Literature, presents reviews of books in biblical studies and related fields. Appearing in digital form and in print, RBL is comprehensive, international, and timely.In order to receive the printed annual of the Review of Biblical Literature for 2013 your subscription and payment needs to be received by October 15, 2013. The subscription form can be found at: http://sbl-site.org/assets/pdfs/JournalSubscriptions.pdf . You can print the form, fill it out and mail it with your payment or payment information to 825 Houston Mill Road, Atlanta , GA 30329. Or, you can fax it to 404-727-2419. If you prefer you can renew your subscription online by logging into the website at http://www.sbl-site.org/membership/joinnow.aspx and following the directions.

Special subscription rates to JBL and RBL are available to institutions in ICI countries. Download the ICI order form here.

Calendar of Events

Submit your events to Sharon Johnson

Click here for full calender



October 2013
10/9- 10/12 Changing Perspectives in Old Testament Studies: Past, Present, and Future
An International Conference at the University of Copenhagen. The conference focuses on the major changes within the field of Old Testament Studies during the past 50 years. It is the aim of the conference to investigate those changing perspectives within a broader context of Hellenistic studies, theories of composition, theories of history, anthropology, archaeology, Ancient Near Eastern religion and comparative literature, Dead Sea texts and cultural memory studies, and to suggest future prospects for the discipline.More information
10/15 Application Deadline-CFP
The University of Southern California's West Semitic Research Project (http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/wsrp) has finished training the third round of applicants for training in Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) and is looking for another round of applicants.
USC'S TRAINING Program is for scholars, conservators, library and museum professionals, archivists and researchers. Participants are trained in the use of Reflectance Transformation imaging (RTI) for documenting ancient texts and artifacts, including the loan of imaging equipment.The objective of this project is to develop an infrastructure for training scholars in the use of RTI technology and subsequently to lend the necessary imaging equipment to participants in the training program so they can do an initial RTI documentation project either in field environments (archaeological sites, etc.) or in libraries, museums and/or other similar venues, worldwide (for examples of RTI images see this video.
This initial undertaking should be understood to be a pilot project that can develop into an ongoing, broader documentary effort and preferably may also serve as the catalyst for establishing a scholarly network consortium for image documentation of a given corpus (or corpora) of ancient texts and/or artifacts. All equipment to be lent out is both rugged and compact and is thus ideal for doing sophisticated imaging in remote locations. Twenty awards over three years (approximately seven per year) for traineeships will be provided based on the merit and intrinsic importance of a proposed pilot imaging project as well as the appropriateness of the subject matter for RTI imaging.
More information or see http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/wsrp/projects/imls.shtml, or contact Marilyn Lundberg (mlundber@usc.edu) or Bruce Zuckerman (bzuckerm@usc.edu).
10/23-10/26 Westar Institute Fall Meeting
The biannual meeting of the Westar Institute, advancing religious literacy through a twofold mission of fostering collaborative research in religious studies and communicating the results of scholarship to a broad non-specialist public, will take place this Fall in Santa Rosa, California. Critical questions to be considered include:
  • Did Christianity begin with Jesus, Paul, Luke, or Constantine?
  • Which came first, the Gospel of John or the Gospel of Luke?
  • What did the first New Testament look like?
  • How did the debate about rules and rituals shape Christianity?
  • Does the date of Christian origins impact Jewish-Christian relations?
Please inquire about student discounts at westar@westarinstitute.org. Program details and registration now available at: http://www.westarinstitute.org/national-meetings/westar-fall-meeting-2013/
November 2013
11/20- 11/22 John, Jesus, and History: Engaging the Legacies of C.H. Dodd and Raymond E. Brown
The occasion of this pre-SBL conference at St. Mary’s Seminary & University in Baltimore is the 50th and 60th anniversaries of Dodd’s books on John and history as well as the ongoing significance of Brown, who taught at St. Mary’s from 1959 to 1971. The conference is sponsored by St. Mary’s and the SBL’s John, Jesus, and History section. The keynote address will be given by Jimmy Dunn. Papers and other presentations will be given by John Ashton, Alan Culpepper, Jonathan Draper, Craig Koester, Wendy E. S. North, Tom Thatcher, Jan van der Watt, and Catrin Williams, as well as Paul Anderson, John Donahue, Michael Gorman, and Jaime Clark-Soles. For further information, contact Craig Koester (ckoester@luthersem.edu) or Michael Gorman (mgorman@stmarys.edu). Registration begins June 1 at The occasion of this pre-SBL conference at St. Mary’s Seminary & University in Baltimore is the 50th and 60th anniversaries of Dodd’s books on John and history as well as the ongoing significance of Brown, who taught at St. Mary’s from 1959 to 1971. The conference is sponsored by St. Mary’s and the SBL’s John, Jesus, and History section. The keynote address will be given by Jimmy Dunn. Papers and other presentations will be given by John Ashton, Alan Culpepper, Jonathan Draper, Craig Koester, Wendy E. S. North, Tom Thatcher, Jan van der Watt, and Catrin Williams, as well as Paul Anderson, John Donahue, Michael Gorman, and Jaime Clark-Soles. For further information, contact Craig Koester (ckoester@luthersem.edu) or Michael Gorman (mgorman@stmarys.edu).
Registration begins June 1
11/23- 11/26 SBL Annual Meeting
The SBL Annual Meeting is the largest gathering of biblical scholars in the world. Each meeting showcases the latest in biblical research, fosters collegial contacts, advances research, and focuses on issues of the profession. The Annual Meeting will be held in Baltimore, Maryland
More information 
11/30 AASR Call for Papers Deadline
Its time to start thinking about our next African Association for the Study of Religions Conference and we’re excited to announce that we’ll be turning our attention back to the environment as we meet at University of Cape Town in South Africa, July 30-August 3, 2014. Now is a great time to be thinking about the paper you want to submit. The theme for this year’s conference is: Religion, Ecology, and the Environment in Africa and the African Diaspora. Papers can be submitted online through our online submission system. Read the full conference announcement here.
More Information
December 2013
12/31 Deadline for SBL Members iPad Contest
Every member who fully completes the SBL Member Profile questions by December 31 will be entered into a drawing to win one of two iPads. You can access the SBL member profile by logging in to the SBL website with your SBLID number. Once you have logged in to the website, click on “my profile” in the Login Box. On the next screen, click on the “Edit Button” under Member Profile.
More information 
See SBL News Archive
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Society of Biblical Literature

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