Pages

Wednesday 2 June 2010

Jewish continuity and Christian discontinuity? Daniel Block and Donald Hagner in Cambridge

     I had a great talk with two respected Evangelical scholars in Cambridge recently. To the left is dr Daniel Block, professor of Old Testament at Wheaten College and to the right is dr Donald Hagner, emeritus professor of New Testament from Fuller Seminary.

An interesting issue came up during our discussion. Block comes from a Menonite, Lutheran tradition which at times focussed too strongly on radical discontinuity between the Jewish character of the Old Testament (focusing on Law), and an all new era in the New Testament. With this in view, Block is trying to focus on the continuity between Old and New Testament - particularly between the Torah and the New Testament.
On the other hand, for some decades Hagner operated in a context within which the Jewish character of the New Testament was so dominant (probably from EP Sanders-) that he is trying to focus on the discontinuity between the Old and New Testament. He will be presenting a paper on this theme in July - I might blog about it then.

Two fine and humble Christians scholars.

2 comments:

Mark Baker-Wright said...

Writing from Fuller, glad to see that Dr. Hagner is being well taken care of! :)

Unknown said...

dr Hagner is doing very well! He is well loved here at Tyndale by everyone! He is also writing an Introduction to the New Testament. Will blog about his paper in July..