Mondays with Peter Davids ... Part Eight

This is the final installment of an eight-part interview with Dr. Peter Davids, Professor of Biblical Theology at St. Stephen's University in New Brunswick.

Dr. Davids was interviewed because he is a highly-regarded New Testament exegete, and also believes that all the gifts of the Holy Spirit are for today. He discusses some his experiences of the Spirit here.

I would like to take this opportunity to express my deep appreciation to Dr. Davids for his generosity with his time.

JR: What writing projects do you have planned for the future?

DAVIDS: In the past I have not planned my writing projects. While I did purposely write my first two articles, one a scholarly one on a word in James, published in New Testament Studies, and the other a popular one on Jesus and wealth published in what became Sojourners, and did so because those were areas I wanted to continue to write in, that was not how my books happened.

I was invited "out of the blue" to write my first commentary (James) and then a second, also on James. When I was almost finished with my first James commentary F. F. Bruce, a close friend of I. Howard Marshall, was aware of the fact and invited me to write on 1 – 2 Peter (the person to who it had been previous assigned had not managed to produce a commentary after 25 years and he hoped I would be faster). I gave the 2 Peter part away, but finished 1 Peter and thought I might be through when God told me that writing was part of my call. I wrote that to an elder in my former church, posted the letter, turned back to my work on my desk, and an hour or so later InterVarsity Press called to invite me to write More Hard Sayings of the New Testament, later incorporated into Hard Sayings of the Bible. Later they would invited me to help edit the Dictionary of the Later New Testament. Then I was invited by the series editor to write 2 Peter – Jude. I have always had a book going, normally producing one slowly, but in each case I have been invited to write the book rather than coming up with the idea on my own. The latest in this category is a Greek handbook on 2 Peter – Jude for Baylor University Press.

However, I do have projects that I want to do. I started and never finished a New Testament survey book (I wrote a rough draft), but what I think I really wanted to do was write a NT theology that consistently looks at the text from a kingdom of God perspective. That may be an after retirement project, so in another 9 or 10 years (I am presently 60).

Another project that fascinates me is the idea of writing a book applying Bowenian family emotional systems insights to biblical interpretation. I think that it could be as helpful as applying sociological theory, rhetorical insights, and the like have been. Jesus is the most well-differentiated person who has lived. The fall narrative can be analyzed from the point of view of the rise in anxiety and the reactivity that this engendered. The many commands against judging are not just God telling us how to behave, but family systems shows that focusing on the sins of others keeps us from looking at our own contribution to the system and focuses us on what we cannot change rather than on we can change (i.e. us), so it is unproductive as well as evil (in other words, sin is not good for us, which should come as no surprise). There are a number of ways that I use this type of analysis in teaching already, but there is so much more to do. This is not reductionism, but rather using a tool to help understand the dynamics in texts in a different (perhaps deeper) way. Or, to put it another, way, using a tool God has given me to help others understand the Bible, just as I use linguistic tools, historical tools, etc. to help people understand the Bible.

But right now I am teaching five courses per term plus doing some writing and church work – and our house is being renovated because our daughter, husband and family are living with us while he studies at St. Stephen’s University. Any writing that I do will probably have to wait until next summer, assuming that the Lord does not have plans for that summer which do not include writing.

JR: Thanks again, Dr. Davids.