Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Engaging McClendon

One of the events I'm most eagerly anticipating in connection with the upcoming meetings of the American Academy of Religion and Society of Biblical Literature I'm attending in Chicago this weekend is the gathering of the National Association of Baptist Professors of Religion on Saturday, November 17, 9:00-11:30 AM at the McCormick Place Convention Center / Room W183c. The program will feature a panel exploring the work of Baptist theologian James Wm. McClendon, Jr. in connection with the reissue of his Systematic Theology this year by Baylor University Press in a new edition with introductions for each volume by Curtis Freeman. Panelists for the NABPR McClendon session include Terrance W. Tilley (Fordham University), Kimlyn Bender (George W. Truett Theological Seminary, Baylor University), Willie Jennings (Duke University Divinity School), and Jacob L. Goodson (College of William and Mary), with Curtis Freeman (Duke University Divinity School) serving as moderator. Plans are in the works to publish these responses to McClendon in the form of a book symposium in the journal Perspectives in Religious Studies published by the NABPR (for which I serve as Book Review Editor). In a future post to the ABPnews Blog I'll report on this panel and offer my own reflections on the Baylor University Press reissue of McClendon; that post will appear subsequently here at Ecclesial Theology as well.