I submitted a proposal to the Paul seminar for the September British New Testament Society just before I left for Berlin. I got an email back saying that this year all the Paul papers were invited, so all the slots were filled. However, he sent my proposal on to the Hermeneutics section. And I received confirmation a few days ago that my paper ‘The Motif of Glory in Romans’ has been accepted. It’s a 45 minute slot, so I get 20-25 minutes to present and 20 minutes for questions. I think they say about 100 wpm reading is good–so that’s ‘only’ a 2000 word essay.
Before I submitted the proposal, I did some general writing on the topic to help get my thoughts together and think about key issues that should be discussed. From that I decided to focus on the timing of glory and relationship between righteousness and glory in the letter. The conference is in early September, so that gives me July and August to get it together.
I did a conference presentation back when I was doing my MBA but it was more informal–not a full paper but a summary of some financial analysis I did with regard to earnings management. I did it because it got me a free trip to Las Vegas for me and my wife from the school I was attending. Since another prof from my school was the one organizing it, I asked for the 8am slot on the first day hoping that I wouldn’t get much of a turnout. It was 10 or so people and one of them hammered me on the fact that I was using an old formula to test the results. In fact I knew I was, but it was the only one I could understand the math!
It is a little daunting to think about doing the presentation, but this is what academics do so I thought I should jump in as early as I can. This actually relates to my thesis topic, so hopefully it will move me along there too.
Monday, 25 June 2007 at 7:59 pm
Hi there
Love the blog. I was wondering if you could help me regarding some info on Rudolf Bultmann. I would like to read up on this man, but it seems that it is quite difficult to get information on him.
Christiaan
Monday, 25 June 2007 at 8:23 pm
If you are looking for stuff on him as an individual, I’m not sure where to go. Anything I know is what I’ve heard in classes. He was apparently a good preacher, but other than that I’m not sure. Somebody wrote a good review of his NT Theology that I’ve got at home in the UK, but the person’s name escapes me now. I’ll put it on my calendar to look it up when I get back. Also, here’re a couple of posts I did on his NT Theology–just some summaries…Bultmann on Paul and Bultmann on the Earliest Church
Monday, 25 June 2007 at 9:42 pm
Ben, congratulations! I can imagine that you feel a little nervous about presenting, but I think you are doing the right thing: jumping in and using this as an opporunity to develop some essential skills. I won’t be in England until very late September, so I won’t be able to catch it, but please let me know how it goes.
I’ve never done a formal presentation, so I can’t offer you any advice, but I am sure you will do well.
~Kevin
Thursday, 28 June 2007 at 9:23 pm
Ben, that’s great! Love to see a copy of the paper. As they say in Public Speaking 101; an audience is an audience is an audience…so to help hone your craft there might be some tips on this web site.
http://www.tyboyd.com/freeforyou.html
Look under “How To Make a Blue Ribbon Presentation”. It’s some of what I’d share with you but you’d probably receive it better from a third party source than from your father-in-law.
Congratulations on the opportunity!!!!