Pete at Pastorum – The Bible For Normal People

Over at Internet Monk, Chaplain Mike has several posts (June 7 back to June 4) reviewing a conference I just got back from in Chicago called Pastorum.

The conference was organized by Logos Bible Software. Twenty-one biblical scholars were asked to come and boil some things down for pastors and others who attended. We each had a 30 minute slot (though, true to form for academics, we treated the time limit as a vague suggestion).

So that you don’t lose sleep about it or get irritable, I will tell you that I spoke on the cosmic battle motif in Exodus (Yahweh beats up the gods of Egypt) and how that motif plays out elsewhere in the Old Testament (especially the Psalms) and then how Jesus in the Gospels is engaged in a similar cosmic battle. (Hint: Jesus calming the storm reflects the defeat of the watery chaos by Yahweh in the Old Testament, which works off a broader ancient Mesopotamian motif.)

I was given the coveted time slot of 5:30 pm, the second to last slot of the conference, when everyone was thinking of dinner or catching their flight, but it went well–by which I mean I was able to speak loud enough to drown out the snoring. On the brighter side, I was the only speaker there who had had LASIK surgery the week before.

Anyhow, Chaplain Mike has a great summary of the conference if you are interested, including the complete list of speakers. Logos did a GREAT job pulling this off, as did Park Community Church in hosting it. If I can offer two observations by way of helpful criticism: (1) every speaker, save one, was a white male; (2) don’t assume the pastors work with–or even know–Greek or Hebrew.

Among other attendees were Scot McKnight, Mike Goheen, John Walton, and Craig Keener.