Annual Report 2008-2009

David Trobisch

During my last year as an employee of Bangor Theological Seminary I represented the school on five continents.

Teaching: For BTS I taught three courses (including a trip to Ethiopia with students), one course for Iliff School of Theology in Denver, a continuing education seminar for pastors of the ELCA in West Virginia, and the CENTER/LEARN module New Testament for the UCC in Iowa.

Professional activities: As chair of the text criticism section at the international meetings of the Society of Biblical Literature I organized the text-critical sessions in Auckland, New Zealand, but was not able to attend in person. In Münster, Germany, I served as a keynote speaker. The Islamic University of Tehran, Iran, invited me to lecture to the New Testament classes of their graduate program. The British Museum in London invited me to speak at the conference celebrating the successful completion of the digitization project of the Codex Sinaiticus, the oldest manuscript of the Christian Bible.

Teaching

06/23-07/3/2008 Iliff School of Theology. Denver, Colorado. Summer Course: Performance of Biblical Texts. Paul's Letters to the Corinthians. 3 credit course.
08/11-16/08 Summer Course 2008 (Monday - Saturday): The Letters of Paul (NT 1502). Portland Campus. Three Credits.
10/20-21/2008 West Virginia - Western Maryland Synod. ELCA. Continuing Education Event, Will O’the Wisp, McHenry, MD. Storytelling and Preaching.
Trip to Ethiopia 01/12-1/24/2009 with students and friends of BTS. Three Credits.
02/06-02/08/09 IOWA Center/Learn program, Des Moines, IA.
06/8-06/12/2009. Summer Course 2009 (Monday - Friday): Acts of the Apostles. Bangor Theological Seminary. Three Credits. Portland Campus.

Professional Activities

07/04-07/06/2008 Heidelberg, Germany. Gerd Theißen Symposium. Paper.
07/10/2008 Society of Biblical Literature, International meeting, Auckland, New Zealand. Working with Biblical Manuscripts (Textual Criticism). As the chair of the New Testament text criticism section I organized the session but did not attend.
08/03-05/2008 Muenster, Germany. Paper. Münster Colloquium on the Textual History of the Greek New Testament.
08/18-20/08 University of Aberdeen, Scotland. Presentation: The New Testament as a Publication of the Second Century.
11/9-12/2008 Second International Conference on Religion and Media, Tehran and Qom, Iran. Lecture at the University.
11/20/2008 Paul: From Tarsus to China. Public lecture sponsored by the American Bible Society. Boston. Union Club. Contact: Paul Veerman
11/21-11/25/2008 Boston. Society of Biblical Literature.
12/05-12/07/2008 Amherst, NY. Paper. The Jesus Project.
01/09/2009 New York. Translation Committee meeting.
07/06/2009 London. Codex Sinaiticus Conference. British Library Conference Centre.

Service to the community

07/17/2008 Augsburg, Germany. Methodist congregation. Lecture and discussion: The Book of Acts.
07/19/2008 Salzburg, Austria. Performance of a Midrash.
07/26/2008 Berlin, Germany. Sermon. St. George's Anglican Episcopal Church. 10:00; 18:00.
10/27/2008 Theologische Runde. Christusgemeinde, Wiesloch, Germany. Kindheitsevangelium des Jakobus.
10/10-12/2008 Muscatine, Iowa. Faith United Church of Christ. From Ancient Manuscripts to Modern English Translations: Challenges and Joys of Biblical Scholarship. All day Saturday workshop. Sermon on Sunday.

Publications

“Codex/Codices”. The New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible (Abingdon Press, 2008).
“Codex Claromontanus”. The New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible (Abingdon Press, 2008).

With the Publisher

Article “Bible. II. NT [bible resp. NT as collection, book, canon, literature]” De Gruyter’s new Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception in 30 volumes.
“No Man Knows My History: Prolegomena to Historical Jesus Research,” to be published in an anthology by the Committee of Scientific Examination of Religion (CSER) in preparation for the so-called Jesus Project.
“The New Testament in the Light of Book publishing in Antiquity,” to be published in Editing the Bible, ed. John Kloppenburg. University of Toronto Press.

“The Narrative World of Acts”. Article for an anthology edited by Kavin Rowe. University of South Carolina Press in collaboration with Duke University.
“Literaturgeschichte des Urchristentums”. Festschrift Gerd Theissen, 65^th birthday.
300 page narrative commentary on the letters of Paul: Ein Clown für Christus: Die ganz andere Geschichte von Pau lus und seiner Zeit. To appear in spring of 2010 (Gütersloher Verlagshaus – Random House).

After serving the Seminary to the best of my abilities since 1997, and since 2000 as a senior professor holding the Throckmorton-Hayes Chair of New Testament Literature and Languages, I look back on 12 turbulent years that saw the School go through radical transformations. The trustees, staff, faculty, and students of Bangor Theological Seminary will continue to live in my heart as I move on to the next adventure.