Life after full-time teaching is keeping me busy (more here). I’m expecting a hardcover copy of Consider No Evil to show up any day now, so that makes the first book of mine to be available for kindle, on paperback, and hardcover. I’m working on a couple projects—one academic, one middle grade—and I’m continuing to teach a little at The University of Findlay this year.
And, oh yeah, a chapter I began writing for a book back in 2012 is finally going to see the light of day this year (due August).
The book,The Ecumenical Edwards: Jonathan Edwards and the Theologians, brings together several scholars who engage the life and thought of Edwards from within their specialties. Ashgate has the page up for the book, but no cover yet, unfortunately. It might be the last thing I’ll ever write on Jonathan Edwards (given my new writing direction), but it was a great essay to put together, especially on the heels of writing Becoming Divine: Jonathan Edwards’s Incarnational Spirituality within the Christian Tradition (2011).
My chapter is “The Erotic Side of Divine Participation: Jonathan Edwards, Gregory of Nyssa, and Origen of Alexandria on Song of Songs 1:1-4,” in which I look (as a sort of reception history) at the lengths each of these figures go to de-sexualize the Song of Songs—an exegetical cold shower, so to speak. It was a fun angle to write from considering the piety of my subjects.
Ashgate’s description says the contributors are theologians, which (as I’ve talked about here) is not how I classify myself. I’m an historian of religion in religious studies who looks at my field from an academic perspective. I’m sure every contributor will have their own angle as well. Those interested in Edwards should put it on their TBR. Kyle Strobel, the editor, has put a lot of work into making it happen and it will definitely help to bring anyone researching Edwards up to speed on current scholarship.