McMaster Journal of Theology and Ministry

I have recently come across the McMaster Journal of Theology and Ministry. With articles by authors like Stan Porter and Craig Noll, this journal has articles that are very worth reading. I have updated my Greek NT Resources post with some articles I found here.

Filología Neotestamentaria - Free Journal

I just found Filología Neotestamentaria the other day. It's a Spanish (English language) journal on New Testament textual studies. This is how they describe it:

[This] journal is the result of initiative taken at the Chair of Greek Philology of the Department of Antiquities of the University of Córdoba, Spain.Within its Scope lies every aspect of New Testament Greek philology, namely textual criticism, grammar, semantics, lexicography and eventually semiotics and its relationship with Classical or Hellenistic Greek. It is published in Córdoba (Spain) by EDICIONES EL ALMENDRO DE CÓRDOBA, SL once a year (September).

I'm not sure if this journal is still in production; the website only lists years 1994-2007, and I can't find any information on subscription.

The few issues I've looked at have been good, with scholarship by some of the "big names" in NT textual work.

Limited Time: "Journal of Biblical Counseling" Free!

CCEF is releasing the Journal of Biblical Counseling for free each quarter (?). Those articles will be available until the next issue is released and then they'll be available for a fee through the archive service. CCEF also announced that back issues and articles will be available online sometime this summer.

You might want to set a calendar reminder to ensure you check back each quarter and download the new articles.

D.Min-ology

No, I'm not going to delve into the theological underpinings of a Frank Peretti novel, I'm talking about the Doctor of Ministry degree.

The D.Min is a "professional" degree (over and against an "Academic" degree) where a student takes approximately 30hrs worth of advanced classes and then write a 100-200 page project paper. This degree allows for specialization in areas such as management and goal setting, preaching, church planting, or missiology.

David Wells sees this type of a degree as troubling, because it reveals, he argues, a desire to be seen as a "professional" amidst other (secular) professionals. One of the many sources Dr. Wells uses is the Hartford Study that seems to have looked at why a student desired to get the degree (n.b.: I didn't read the study, I read the synopsis by one of the authors). In that synopsis, Dr. Carroll explains some of the reasons the degree was so popular:

Certainly the initial success of the degree was partly due to the broader continuing-education movement that gained momentum in the early 1970s among the professions in general. Without doubt the success of the D.Min. also reflects the importance Americans attach to credentials. Some cynics believe, too, that the D.Min. has provided one way in which clergy can try to bolster their status and enhance their careers.

 Other reasons cited later were increased pay and better self-esteem.

All that to say, I am certainly not disparaging the D.Min degree, in fact, I would probably complete such a program if given the chance. I love the chance to have outside assessment, and I think the D.Min allows pastors to continue to develop their mental acuity and be a continued blessing to their ministry. Of course, it could be taken for foolish or selfish reasons, but so could an associates degree.

If you'd like to continue to read more about this, see the Journal of Christian Ministry, which is online for free.

What do you think of the D.Min degree? Do you have one? Was it helpful? Would you consider getting one? 

Speaking of the Founders Ministry

I recently mentioned the Founders Ministry, and I should have linked to a few more resources that could be useful.

The Founders publish their Journal quarterly-ish. It is focused on being useful for Reformed Baptist pastors and those interested in such things. Each issue has a theme and they range from Preaching, to the history of the Baptist Convention.

All in all, a good resource to be aware of. These guys are pastors in the trenches writing to the same. Here's their blog (I like the look of it).

JETS and TynBul

For those of you wanting to mix it up in a scholarly fashion check out the JETS archive and the TynBul archives. You can go to their respective archives (linked) or you can go to handy Biblicalstudies.org.uk where you can find all of the same files (and a WHOLE bunch more) but in a more searchable format.

Contains: JETS - vol. 12-50 (previously BETS, which can be downloaded here). TynBul has vol. 1 - 56.2. The link above states it is current through three years ago, but that is apparently a bit out of date.

The Good: 1) FREE. 2) TynBul is all (to the best of my knowledge) OCR'd so the .pdfs are searchable (very handy if you have Zotero installed with the pdf searching plugin - post to come soon!). Many of the recent JETS articles are OCR'd as well.

The "ehh": The majority of JETS articles are page scans so there is no searching available.

Question:  John Piper once said that he typically goes to the Puritans when researching a passage because the scholarly journals and commentaries just aren't asking the same questions. I agree in part, but I've occasionally found some scholarly resources necessary when trying to accurately present the background or the context of the situation - to make the passage really come alive. Do you find scholarly journals useful in sermon prep / bible study prep? Why or why not?