One week ago I had the privilege of presenting Prof. N. T. Wright with a Festschrift (German for ‘celebration writing’), which is a sub-genre of scholarly books comprised of essays from former students, colleagues, and long-time friends. This kind of book celebrates the contributions of a particular scholar, typically on the occasion of a major birthday or retirement. Festschriften are usually intentionally broad, containing a hodgepodge of essays that contributors choose to submit in honor of a particular scholar without regard for the coherence of the volume (except perhaps for an intentional narrowing of the scope of the volume’s content). My co-editor (Eric Lewellen) and I, however, decided early on that, while we wanted scholars to honor and celebrate Prof. Wright in the way that they wanted to, we especially wanted to provide a coherence and structure to the volume that would hold it all together as a fitting tribute. Thus, we chose the title One God, One People, One Future, which corresponds to the core theological topics of second temple Judaism as Wright has famously contended: monotheism, election, and eschatology. The title also corresponds to the three portions of the volume, which help to provide coherence to the volume as well as an appropriately open-ended scope in keeping with the sub-genre of Festschriften.
This is a project that we’ve been working on for the past four years and it’s been top-secret. I’m thrilled that we were able to surprise Prof. Wright and that it’s now finally out in the open! Initial conversations began in October 2014. That year’s SBL meeting was in San Diego, and the school that I was working for at the time brought Dr. Michael F. Bird out for a special lecture (the Las Vegas extension campus of Lincoln Christian University). Afterwards Dr. Bird came along with me and a few others on a road trip to San Diego for SBL. While on the road Dr. Bird asked, “Hey, mate, is there any plan for a Tom Wright Festschrift?” The timing was perfect, and I confirmed that at SBL this year I planned to find as many of Prof. Wright’s former students to see if one was already in the works and, if not, whether they’d be keen to contribute. After having a delightful conversation with Dr. Sylvia C. Keesmaat at the Wipf and Stock reception, she gave Eric and I the go-ahead to proceed with the volume and to rope in as many former students from their Oxford days and other long-time friends as we could. Thankfully, Prof. Wright’s longtime publishers, SPCK in the UK and Fortress Press in North America, agreed to publish the Festschrift straight away.
It was a serious task trying to keep this a secret for four years. This book was such a surprise that many on the marketing staff within both SPCK and Fortress Press had no idea about the book until incredibly late in the game. In fact, I heard that there were staff who found out the day after we presented the volume to Prof. Wright! SPCK had a strict policy that the volume could only be discussed within their own building and only among specific staff. Needless to say, we all kept this very close to the chest and we’re thrilled that we actually pulled this off. Typically Festschriften leak out in the process and the honoree finds out before the presentation. Priorities #1–5 for the publishers and us as editors were to ensure that that would not happen. We had to put out several fires along the way, but thankfully word never got back to Prof. Wright. We even kept this news from Prof. Wright’s wife, Maggie!
The real difficulty was figuring out a way to get Prof. Wright in a visible location without giving the game away. We determined that the best bet was to have Prof. Wright give a special lecture at the Fortress reception, and then we would commandeer the event and provide Prof. Wright with the Festschrift. The SBL/AAR program book originally announced a Fortress Reception that Prof. Wright would be giving a brief lecture on the reception of Paul and the Faithfulness of God five years after its publication. This would be followed by a Q&A session as well as a open-bar reception. One of Prof. Wright’s closest friends, Dr. Richard Hays of Duke Divinity School, was the MC for the night, but instead of overseeing the Q&A, Dr. Hays introduced Eric and myself. And we were able to say a few words about the book as well as the surprise. Here’s a short video recording of that portion of the event (though sadly the initial part has been clipped):
It was such an incredible honor to be able to do this! We hope that Prof. Wright enjoys the volume and that you too find it a worthwhile read. If you’re keen to know, the Festschrift includes 27 wonderful essays. Here’s a brief TOC:
Introduction: Celebrating The Right Reverend Professor N. T. Wright — John Anthony Dunne and Eric Lewellen
N. T. Wright and the Promise of New Testament Theology — Michael F. Bird
ONE GOD
N. T. Wright’s Theodicy — Michael Lloyd
The Human Face of God: God and the Christology of the New Testament— James D. G. Dunn
The Shema and 1 Corinthians 8.6 Again — Richard Bauckham
The Way the One God Works: Covenant and Ethics in 1 Corinthians—Grant Macaskill
King Solomon, a New Adam and Incorporative Representative of God’s People: A Text that Supports N. T. Wright on Paul and the Messiah — Crispin Fletcher-Louis
Reading Climax of the Covenant with John: Return from Exile, Monotheism, and the One People of God in the Fourth Gospel — Nicholas Perrin
ONE PEOPLE
First Corinthians and the Marks of God’s Ekklēsia: One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic — Michael J. Gorman
Grace, Race, and the People of God — David G. Horrell
Saints Re-Formed: The Extension and Expansion of Hagios in Paul —Scot McKnight
The Healing of the Blind and the Lame in the Temple: David, ‘Canaanites,’ and the Reconstitution of Israel in Matthew 21.14 — Grant LeMarquand
Tom (aka N. T.) Wright on Galatians — Peter Oakes
The Source of the Problem: Source Arguments and the Role of Women in the World and in the Church — Ben Witherington III
Sex, Scripture and Improvisation — Brian J. Walsh
Paul and Obedience — Andrew J. Goddard
Neither Sober nor of Sound Mind: Timothy’s Spirit of Sōphronismos — Oliver O’Donovan
Paul, Poverty, and the Powers: The Eschatological Body of Christ in the Present Evil Age — Bruce W. Longenecker
Walking with the Oppressed: Lament and New Creational Hope — Sylvia C. Keesmaat
ONE FUTURE
Reclaiming all Paul’s Rs: Apostolic Atonement by Way of Some Eastern Fathers — Edith M. Humphrey
N. T. Wright and Justification Revisited: A Contrarian Perspective — J. Andrew Cowan
Newness of Life: Gospel, Church, and the Common Good in Romans 12—13 — S. A. Cummins
Narrative Cross, Apocalyptic Resurrection: Ephesians and Reading Paul — Carey C. Newman
Apocalyptic and the History of God: Possibilities from Mark’s Epistemological Inclusio — J. P. Davies
‘One Day as a Thousand Years’: Psalm 90, Humility, and the Certainty of Eschatological Judgment in 2 Peter 3.8 — Scott J. Hafemann
Hope for What We Do Not Yet See: The Salvation of All Israel in Romans 11.25–27 — Richard B. Hays
‘Beloved for the Sake of the Ancestors’ (Romans 11.28b): God’s Covenant Love in Romans and Some OT Backgrounds —Stephen I. Wright
The book will be available for purchase on Amazon.com and Fortress Press‘ website soon enough if any of you are interested in checking it out. For now, here are the Amazon.co.uk and SPCK urls for those in the UK:
SPCK: https://spckpublishing.co.uk/one-god-one-people-one-future
AMAZON.CO.UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/One-God-People-Future-Essays/dp/0281075786
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