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BNTS 2020 Call for Papers

Proposals for papers are invited for the British New Testament Society meeting 2020 to be held in Durham from Thursday 3 to Saturday 5 September. Paper proposals must include the presenter’s name and institutional affiliation (where appropriate), a title, and an abstract of not more than 300 words, and should be sent directly to the relevant seminar chairs by Monday 9 March 2020. Proposals for the Simultaneous Short Paper session should be sent to the Secretary, Steve Walton (steve.walton@cantab.net), by Monday 27 April 2020. Specific seminar contact details and calls for papers are below.

If you prefer to download this Call for Papers in another format, please select one of the following: .pdf and .docx.

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Update on 2020 conference in Durham

After discussion among the committee, the British New Testament Society announces that we are postponing the opening of bookings for this year’s conference until 1 May 2020 (it was due to be early in April). We have not taken a decision to cancel the conference, and seminar chairs are continuing to make preparations on the basis that the conference will go ahead.

We are monitoring the situation with the coronavirus pandemic and will make further announcements when we have more news, as the situation develops.

If you have questions or thoughts about this, please email the Secretary, Steve Walton.

Further BNTS Funding Opportunity

We have completed the first round of grants from the Society’s reserves to projects which advance “education through study of and research into the New Testament and related writings” in the UK (from our Constitution), and have made four awards—details here.

We now invite further bids for small grants in support of these aims. Grants may be awarded for a range of purposes. Examples might include travel and conference costs for a BNTS seminar presenter from abroad; public engagement events highlighting the work of New Testament scholarship; support for the ongoing research of independent scholars; any activity undertaken for the benefit of the Society. These examples are not prescriptive, however, and do not imply any particular preferences. The Committee looks to members to come up with creative ideas for the appropriate use of our financial resources.

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BNTS Grants: First Round

We have completed the first round of grants from the Society’s reserves to projects which advance “education through study of and research into the New Testament and related writings” in the UK (from our Constitution), and have made four awards.

The successful bids received in the first round were each for £500, as follows:

Continue reading “BNTS Grants: First Round”

BNTS Code of Conduct

The BNTS Code of Conduct was adopted by the BNTS committee in November 2019, and is available below or by download here.

British New Testament Society Code of Conduct

The British New Testament Society (BNTS) is committed to making our conferences accessible and productive for everyone, regardless of factors such as religious affiliation or lack of it, age, disability, race, gender, sexual orientation, or relationship/parental status (including pregnancy and maternity). The BNTS will not tolerate harassment of participants in any form.

  • It is an expectation that all BNTS members will act appropriately for a professional audience which includes people of many different backgrounds. The ethos of the Society is to conduct all conversation, debate, and critical discussion in a respectful manner.
  • Harassment and sexist, racist, or exclusionary comments or jokes are not appropriate, whether in personal interactions or online activity. Harassment includes prolonged and hostile public criticism, inappropriate physical contact, sexual attention or innuendo, deliberate intimidation, stalking, and unwanted photography or recording of an individual. It also includes offensive comments related to gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, or religion.

Participants asked to desist from any inappropriate behaviour are expected to comply immediately. An attendee who persists in violating these principles may be asked to leave the event at the sole discretion of the BNTS committee and without a refund.

Any participant who wishes to report a potential violation of this policy or to seek support is asked to speak, in confidence, to Michelle Fletcher or to any member of the BNTS committee.

JIBS First Issue Published

The first issue of the Journal for Interdisciplinary Biblical Studies has been published: https://jibs.group.shef.ac.uk/current-issue/.

Meredith J C Warren, “Editorial Preface,” 1-5.

Caroline Blyth, “Bringing the Apostle Down to Earth: Emily Dickinson Wrestles with Paul,” 6-25.

Chris Greenough, “‘Queer Eye’ in Theology and Biblical Studies: ‘Do you have to be queer to do this?‘” 26-41.

Matthew R. Anderson, “‘Aware-Settler’ Biblical Studies: Breaking Claims of Textual Ownership,” 42-68.

A. K. M. Adam, “Sensuous Hermeneutics,” 69-94.

Anna Cwikla, “There’s Nothing about Mary: The Insignificance of Mary in the Gospel of Thomas 114,” 95-112.

Katie Edwards, “Rape Myths and Gospels Truths: The Bible and Rape Culture,” PAGES. **COMING SOON**

JIBS is a peer-reviewed, open access journal dedicated to publishing cutting edge articles that embody interdisciplinary, social justice-oriented, feminist, queer, and innovative biblical scholarship. The journal welcomes submissions that challenge canonical and/or disciplinary norms and boundaries or that query the field of biblical studies’ relationship to the broader investigation of human religion, culture, and literature. JIBS will publish two issues a year in summer and in winter. ISSN 2633-0695.

Poverty in the Early Church and Today, made freely available online

A new book has been published and made freely available online: Poverty in the Early Church and Today (London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2018), edited by Prof Steve Walton and Dr Hannah Swithinbank. Prof Walton writes:

I’m very pleased to announce that the wonderful people at Bloomsbury T&T Clark have agreed with the website Knowledge Unlatched to make Poverty in the Early Church and Today: A Conversation, the book which Hannah Swithinbank and I edited available online for free. We’re delighted, as we were keen to make the book freely accessible to people in the developing world—but our publishers have gone one better in making it freely available to anyone. For more about the book, see here and here.
The download is available from here. You may need to register on the Knowledge Unlimited website to access it, but that is free and has no future obligations.