Koinonia

Author Interviews: My favorite part of ETS and SBL meetings.

One of the distinct privileges of working for Zondervan Academic is the face-to-face interaction I am able to have with some of today’s foremost Christian scholars. I’m not trying to brag, and I will do my best not to “name drop” in what follows. Rather, I simply want to acknowledge that I am blessed to work at Zondervan. And it’s not just because Grand Rapids, MI is such a sunny vacation spot and/or a cultural mecca (sigh...) but I’m blessed because of the interactions I have with authors who genuinely love the Lord Jesus, and who have devoted their life to glorifying him in their scholarly pursuits. These are driven, brilliant people who, on occasion, I get to interview as a result of my work. This, for me, is the highlight of the annual ETS and SBL meetings.

Why write this up today? Because I think others might want to attend these meetings for different reasons. Some might just want to go for the discounted books alone (read: disinterested librarians). Some others might only be interested in hearing papers on the bleeding edge of research within their discipline (read: rabid doctoral students). And still others are likely there just to network (read: most everyone else). Me? I like to interview professors about the textbooks they are writing. Nerdy, I know, but here’s why:

The annual ETS and SBL meetings (and the weeks leading up to them) are THE busiest weeks of the year for Zondervan Academic. Our days at these meetings are packed with activity, literally 6am to midnight. On these days our team sets up displays, hauls books, carts around signage, catches cabs, runs-down-busy-city-blocks-in-dress-shoes-with-heavy-copy-paper-boxes-of-fliers, keeps Mike Bird out of jail, and a myriad of other tasks related to putting on a good showing at a conference. We also entertain authors, agents, journal and magazine editors, event planners, publicists, potential authors, and retail managers at these shows. We have to be at our best, and “on” all the time. We must be ready to answer questions at any moment, and to represent Zondervan well. Not to mention the weeks leading up to the shows that are filled with meetings, deadlines, and emails all focused on creating great booths and fun and productive meetings with authors.

It’s all very exhausting. Fun, but exhausting. I’m sure our colleagues at Baker, B&H, or any of the other fine publishing houses that attend would say the same.

But back to the author interviews....

Impressions of ETS, IBR, and SBL 2010 by Tremper Longman III

ETS/IBR/SBL meetings are among the most interesting, stimulating, tiring, and productive times of the year for me.  Attendees have different strategies for making the most of the sessions.  My own philosophy is that if a paper is good it will get published, so I personally don’t rush from paper to paper.  I also don’t give papers unless invited to do so (the other option is to submit paper topics).  My time is usually very busy meeting with editorial committees, publishers, and board meetings.

Highlights of the ETS 2010 Annual Meeting by Craig Blomberg

The theme of this year’s meeting was “Justification by Faith.”  Themes for annual meetings of the ETS determine the choices of topics and speakers at the plenary sessions, and inevitably a plurality of the papers for the smaller parallel sessions held in between will have something to do with that topic as well.  But with all the different study groups and specialized interests of the members, it Is certainly possible to select sessions to attend in between the plenaries during every single time slot on entirely unrelated topics.  Some years the plenary speakers have been so-so and the best papers have been some of the less highlighted ones.  This year, however, I suspect there would be widespread support for the belief that the three plenary speakers did indeed dominate the “highlight reel.”

ETS Paper on ESV/TNIV (Monday with Mounce 50)

This is a bit off-topic, but thought I would share about my paper at ETS on the ESV/TNIV. Basically I think it went well, and hopefully set the tone for further debate.

 

My paper was entitled, “Can the ESV and TNIV Co-Exist in the Same Universe?” (It was a response paper to Mark Strauss.) I jokingly answered, “In light of current developments, evidently not” and opened the floor for questions.

 

My real answer was, “Yes, in fact, they must co-exist” (thinking of the NIV2011). I do not believe that one size fits all. Children no longer learn to read by reading the Bible, and we live in a post-Christian culture that is attempting to expunge any hint of biblical language/metaphor.

 

When I was a full-time pastor, I preached from the ESV, but for VBS we used the TNIV. We had hundreds of unchurched kids from the neighborhood, and I had no idea of their church background and how their mom felt about “man” and “he.” After all, the goal of translation is communication, so I used the translation that helped me communicate the best in both contexts.

 

So if they must exist together, the question becomes how. My suggestion was that we all learn to “Play Fair,” and I suggested seven principles of how to play fair.

ETS Update 2: An Inklings meeting at the Conference

Another highlight from the first day of ETS was a visit from Dr. Hal Poe, co-author of The Inklings of Oxford. He stopped by just to chat and ended up signing an autograph for another of Z Academic's scholars: truly, it was an Inklings-like meeting of the minds.

ETS Update #1: BTNT reception with Andreas Kostenberger

Dr. Andreas Kostenberger visited the Zondervan Academic booth today for a special reception celebrating the release of A Theology of John's Gospel and Letters - the first volume in the new Biblical Theology of the New Testament (BTNT) series. Dr. Kostenberger will be giving away copies of the book, today through Wednesday, at this link. Here are some pics from the reception this morning.

A tower of Johannine theology! :-)

Get ZIBBCOT (and Other Titles) at 60% Off at ETS, IBR, SBL

This is as good as it gets.

At the ETS, IBR, SBL annual meetings next week, we're offering a generous 60% discount on several new resources! (Note: you can see all events and specials here.)

Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary: Old Testament

Only $99.99 (Wednesday and Saturday only)

 

 

 

Zondervan Encyclopedia of the Bible

Only $120.00 (Thursday and Sunday only)

 

A Theology of John's Gospel and Letters

Only $16.00 (Wednesday only)

 

 

Four Views on Moving Beyond the Bible to Theology

Only $8.00 (Thursday only)

Would You Want a Digital Textbook?

Back in February '09 we gave away two Sony Readers. The winners were chosen at random from a drawing collected at the ETS and SBL annual meetings last November.

In addition to the Sony Readers, the winners received free copies of Scot McKnight's The Blue Parakeet, Bill Hybels' Axiom, Larry Osborne's Sticky Church and the complete text of the TNIV Bible. After our winners had the Reader for some time I sent them a list of questions with the hopes that the Zondervan Academic team could gain some insight as to what readers want in regards to digital, academic books.

I've posted my interview with one of our winners, Dr. Robert Hewell of Ouachita Baptist University. After you've read it, I encourage you to post an answer to this question:

In regards to academic ebooks what would you like to see Zondervan Academic doing?

Should we: Create a large library of our backlist? Push for full-color, photo-friendly formats (e-readers cannot handle our full-color textbooks yet)? Ignore them because textbooks should be "real books"?

What are your thoughts...?

Here's the interview:

Influential Books and Authors: Dr. Walter C. Kaiser, Jr. discusses Beecher, ETS and more

Each week in Influential Books and Authors we hear from a noted scholar on the author(s) and book(s) that have been most important to them for spiritual and intellectual growth. This week we feature renowned Old Testament scholar, Walt Kaiser.

Walter Kaiser On Wallace Beecher and ETS and SBL from Zondervan on Vimeo.

Walter C. Kaiser Jr. (PhD, Brandeis University) is the Colman M. Mockler distinguished professor emeritus of Old Testament and president emeritus of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Massachusetts. He has taught at Wheaton College and at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Dr. Kaiser has written over 40 books, including  "Exodus" in the Expositor's Bible Commentary; The Messiah in the Old Testament; The Promise-Plan of God; and coauthored An Introduction to Biblical Hermeneutics: The Search for Meaning.

ETS/SBL Sony Reader giveawayDigital Books - A good read, or a bad buy?

During the ETS and SBL annual meetings we held a drawing in the Zondervan booth for two free Sony Readers. We're happy to announce that Dr. Robert Hewell of Ouachita Baptist University and Peter Payne of Mount Hermon, CA are our winners!

The Sony Readers they receive will come pre-loaded with four free books: The Blue Parakeet by Scot McKnight, Sticky Church by Larry Osborne, Axiom by Bill Hybels, and the complete TNIV Bible.

There's a continuing discussion in media, and among publishers about where the book industry is going. I.e. How should the industry change? What does the digital conversion mean? Do people really want to read books in a digital format?

With that in mind we've asked both our winners to give us some feedback on what they think of the Sony Reader. We're going to give them some time to use the Readers, and after a month or two we'll post up their thoughts on the pros and cons of reading digitally.

--Andrew, for the Z Academic team