There’s an old saying that goes “the essence of tyranny is the denial of complexity.” Sometimes scholars bring clarity by making things less clear. This is true in most academic pursuits, but it matters especially in biblical scholarship which deals with sacred texts. Peter Martens explores the task of Bible interpreters, religious, scholarly, and scholarly-religious, in an essay that was recently published in the Maxwell Institute’s Studies in the Bible and Antiquity. The essay began as a lecture Martens delivered at Brigham Young University on March 27, 2015. This episode features the recording of that lecture along with a mostly-audible Q&A session.
About Peter Martens
Peter Martens is associate professor of early Christianity and chair of the Department of Theological Studies at Saint Louis University. He specializes in the exegetical cultures that emerged around the Christian Bible in late antiquity. He is author of Origen and Scripture: The Contours of the Exegetical Life. His paper “The Bible in Early Christianity: Audiences, Projects, and Agendas” is available in volume 7 of Studies in the Bible and Antiquity.
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The post #36—Part 2: Early Christian interpreters of the Bible and the scholars who interpret them, with Peter Martens [MIPodcast] appeared first on Neal A. Maxwell Institute - Brigham Young University.