For those who missed the excitement over Ron Hendel’s farewell to SBL, it is now too late to comment. The forum in SBL’s membership pages closed yesterday. This afternoon I skimmed the accumulated 95 posts, by quantities known and unknown, looking for anything that might be useful for classroom use.

The best I could find was by Alan Cooper.

Alan Cooper (#38, posted 24 June 2010)

Those interested in the history of scholarship on this topic might wish to (re)visit Jacques Berlinerblau’s essay, “What’s Wrong With the Society of Biblical Literature?” in the November 10, 2006 issue of the Chronicle for Higher Education. See also the letters in the January 12, 2007 issue and Berlinerblau’s response to them (February 9). Also Michael Fox’s challenging posting on the SBL Forum, “Bible Scholarship and Faith-Based Study: My View,” http://sbl-site.org/Article.aspx?ArticleID=490, which provoked many responses, including an interesting one from Berlinerblau, “The Unspeakable in Biblical Scholarship,” http://www.sbl-site.org/publications/article.aspx?articleId=503 . On the way the field has been transformed over the years—mostly for the better, in my view—may I immodestly recommend my article, “Biblical Studies and Jewish Studies,” in the Oxford Handbook of Jewish Studies, edited by Martin Goodman and published in 2002. I use a lot of this material in a seminar on “Methods of Biblical Interpretation” in order to stimulate discussion among the students about what it means for them to be members of the “guild.” I wonder if my friend Ron and those who are responding to him know that they are walking along a well-trodden path. By an odd coincidence, last year I was invited to speak on “A Jewish View of Historical Criticism” in the SBL Christian Theology and the Bible Section (sic!). It was a terrific session, with both panelists and audience deeply engaged in the topic. It manifested the openness, eclecticism, and diversity of the society nowadays, in vivid contrast to the (critical) methodological dogmatism that predominated in my student days. Unlike Ron, I feel more comfortable now at the annual meeting than I did in the old days. There’s plenty of stuff at the meeting that I don’t like or that I think is silly, and guess what: I don’t go to those sessions.

I remember that session last November, and Cooper’s contribution in particular. It was stimulating.