T&T Clark Study Guides
Anyone at all use the T&T Clark Study Guides?
It is difficult to find information about these online... they seem to be academic, but terse. The price seems high, but am I missing something? Are these more phenomenal than I think?
Thanks!!
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concise, i should say
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Joel J. said:
Anyone at all use the T&T Clark Study Guides?
I am very fond of them - particularly because they are terse. When I want to get an overall view of a book before going into sentence by sentence analysis, they are my go-to resource. Any commentary or monograph I read later, they have given me the framework to understand.
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
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Nice. In terms of theological stance, where would you say this lands? Maybe somewhere in the middle?
Does it go overboard with redaction criticism? In the samples I found, there was a whole lot of redaction, which is kind of cool, but I am wondering if it goes beyond that.
I'd love to hear your thoughts.
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Joel J. said:
Does it go overboard with redaction criticism?
The volumes I have are not necessarily good candidates for redaction criticism - rather what I see is history, canonical and literary criticism mixed with some explicit theological criticism e.g. a chapter on the theology of Lamentations.
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
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Mathew goes way overboard with redaction criticism.
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In terms of theological stance, where would you say this lands? Maybe somewhere in the middle?
It is expected of this sort of academic treatment to be confessionally detached. The emphasis is not to argue this or that theological stance. Rather the emphasis is to give an overview of where academic biblical studies are at: leading views, consensus. The author may briefly argue pros and cons and his/her own leaning concerning these views. You generally don't go to these guides to have your heart warmed, but to have cold data and (interesting) analyses.
They are useful as such as long as you don't have the wrong expectations. The broad field of biblical studies includes schools of thought that have very "liberal" views of the Bible and that has a broadly ecumenical etiquette. Depending on the author's leaning and the subject, this may come more or less to the fore. For instance, expect documentary hypotheses and source critical discussions to show up but an author who has reservations about them will be less gung-ho than one whose postdoctoral work is all about that.
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I have 51 Sheffield/T & T Clark guide that downloaded with my Max subscription. May be a good way to gain access to them if you are not a Max subscriber.
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We are talking 14 years ago. But still valid.
"If myth is ideology in narrative form, then scholarship is myth with footnotes." B. Lincolm 1999.
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I like T&T now. It’s amusing to see my comment from 14 years ago be revived. :)
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My old comments are embarrassing. Ha. Unlike the past, digital remembers.
I have maybe 10 of the Guides. I really wanted to get the whole available set but the authors are too 'bouncy'. Bouncy I already have. Info! Info! I went back and looked at Wisdom of Solomon with my VF turned on (below). Basically he's outlining 'iffys' with his 'nah' to follow. I already know the iffy's.
"If myth is ideology in narrative form, then scholarship is myth with footnotes." B. Lincolm 1999.
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I love these little books. They have helped me start many papers in my scripture classes in seminary.
EDIT: oh wow this is a very old thread, I only noticed it after posting my reply…
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Well stated.
Yeah, I think expectations matter, for sure.
Pairing academic commentaries with another kind of commentary, such as a pastoral commentary, can be especially useful — if for no other reason than to compare and contrast, but it's even better to add additional insight/support/depth to applications.
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