Reports Relating To The Fifty-Ninth Annual Meeting Of The Society -- By: Anonymous

Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 51:1 (Mar 2008)
Article: Reports Relating To The Fifty-Ninth Annual Meeting Of The Society
Author: Anonymous


Reports Relating To The Fifty-Ninth Annual Meeting Of The Society

The 59th Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society had 2290 persons registered at the Town and Country Resort and Convention Center, 500 Hotel Circle North, San Diego, CA. The facilities were superb, including a new, carpeted exhibit hall that housed more than 100 booths for participating publishers who offered generous discounts on their books and other products. The program theme, “Teaching Them to Obey,” was explored in four excellent plenary sessions and by many of the more than five hundred individual papers. Participants gathered from six continents and the islands of the seas to fellowship, exchange ideas, critique one another, and to keep abreast of the most recent scholarship in their disciplines. More than twenty study groups also met as part of the overall program.

Acting President Hassell Bullock served as program chairman and put together a fine array of plenary speakers. On Wednesday afternoon, Douglas Moo, Professor of New Testament at Wheaton College, provided a NT perspective on the theme by exegeting Paul’s concept of “the obedience of faith,” from Gal 5:1–6. Later that evening, the second plenary address was delivered by Christopher J. H. Wright, the International Director of the Langham Partnership. He spoke on “The Obedience of Faith among the Nations,” exploring the concept of OT ethics in covenantal and missional perspective.

On Thursday afternoon attendees heard Philip Jenkins, Distinguished Professor of History and Religious Studies at Pennsylvania State University, author of 20 books and 120 chapters and refereed articles. His topic was “Teaching Them to Obey: A World Christian Perspective.” What is the core message of Christianity and what is merely cultural? One needs to know this when taking Christ from one culture to another. He applied Paul’s conclusion in Gal 3:24, “Now that faith has come, you are no longer under a schoolmaster.”

The fourth and final plenary was delivered on Friday morning by David Wells, ETS member, prolific author, and Andrew Mutch Distinguished Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He spoke of “Christian Discipleship in a Postmodern World,” emphasizing a global vision and authenticity in a borderless interconnected world of affluence and relativism. A slightly edited version of his address is included in this issue of the Journal.

Many parallel sessions ran concurrently on such disciplines as OT, NT, biblical, historical, and systematic theology, church history, archaeology, philosophy, hermeneutics, evangelism and missions, pastoral ministry, ...

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