Class notes - Princeton Theological Seminary

fall 1997
on&off Campus
Hodge Hall: The Sequel
Hodge Hall is not just a pretty
face. The building, whose exterior
was renovated this summer, also
received an internal overhaul
(as did other dormitories on campus).
Between May 15 and Labor
Day, seven different contractors
worked inside and out rewiring
and refurbishing the three dormitory
floors to accommodate computer
network service, improving
telephone service, and implementing
cable television capability, air
conditioning, and energy management.
Additionally, all seventy-five
dorm rooms were freshly painted.
David Poinsett, the Seminary's
director of facilities, said, "The
project went as smoothly as it
possibly could have. All of the
contractors involved worked well
together and did an outstanding
job."
~~cIT¥~gDeadSea Scrolls
A Jubilee Celebration
Scholars Celebrate Scrolls
For four days in November, the Seminary hosted an international symposium celebrating
the fiftieth anniversary of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in a cave in
Qumran. More than fifty scholars from Israel, Canada, Europe, and the United States
presented lectures and seminars on the clues the scrolls divulge about rabbinic
Judaism and early Christian origins.
PTS Professor James H. Charlesworth, who heads up the Princeton Dead Sea Scrolls
Project and has spent a career searching the world for scroll fragments and working
on publishing a comprehensive edition of the scrolls, gave the symposium's keynote
address. He told participants that the scrolls "throw a rare illuminating light on our
culture and our faith because they help us see our past paths, our origins. They help
us reconstruct a whole world that existed 2000 years ago; as sacred text they preserve
the memory of a community."
The symposium also premiered a BBC film titled
Traders of the Lost Scrolls, in which Charlesworth
and other biblical scholars traverse
the globe in the style of
Indiana Jones to track down the
sometimes minuscule fragments
of leather from the Judean desert.
Among symposium speakers
were James Sanders, president
of the Ancient Biblical Manuscript
Center in Claremont, California,
and Krister Stendahl, former dean
of Harvard Divinity School, as well
as PTS faculty members J. J. M.
Roberts and Donald Juel. Papers
from the symposium will be published
by the Princeton Dead Sea
Scrolls Project.
A fragment from the scrolls showing text of the
Book of Daniel, as it appears naturally (left) and
showing previously unseen writing enhanced by
computer imaging techniques developed by scientists
from the Rochester Institute
and the Xerox Corporation.
of Technology
San Antonio and Princeton Set
for Youth Ministry Forums
The Princeton Institute for Youth
Ministry has selected Princeton and
San Antonio as sites for its 1998
Forums on Youth Ministry. Forum I
will take place in San Antonio, Texas,
from Tuesday, January 20 through
Friday, January 23, 1998, at the Oblate
Renewal Center. Forum II will be
at Princeton Seminary from Monday,
April 27 through Thursday, April 30,
1998.
Featured lecturers for Forum I are
Nancy 1. Ammerman, professor
of sociology of religion at Hartford
Seminary's Center for Social and
Religious Research in Hartford,
Connecticut, and Martin E. Marty,
the Fairfax M. Cone Distinguished
Service Professor at the University
of Chicago. The conference preacher
is Lenora Tubbs Tisdale, associate
professor of preaching and worship
at Princeton.
In Forum II, Sharon Daloz Parks,
associate director at the Whidbey
Institute in Clinton, Washington,
and William H. Willimon, dean of
the chapel and professor of Christian
ministry at Duke University, will be
the lecturers. PTS's assistant professor
of New Testament Brian Blount will
be the conference preacher.
The theme of this year's forums
is "Growing Up Postmodern: Imitating
Christ in the Age of 'Whatever/"
For information on the forums or
a registration form, contact Kay Vogen,
assistant for Christian education,
by phone at 609-497-7914; by fax
at 609-279-9014; or by email at
kay.vogen@ptsem.edu.
inSpire· 7