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Practically
anything about earliest Christianity interests me. My
own abilities and competence certainly have limits,
but my interests and appreciation extend much farther.
In my teaching I try to give an understanding of the
New Testament and the origins of Christianity, and also
an unabashed excitement about the questions that characterise
scholarly investigation in the field.
The New Testament
is a collection of early Christian writings with a fascinating
and complex history to them, an invaluable body of evidence
from early Christian circles. But these writings are
also Holy Scripture for Christians, and the single most
important collection of writings for anyone who seeks
to understand the Christian tradition and come to some
appreciation of the key beliefs and convictions that
have shaped it.
My own research
has always been driven by questions: how the New Testament
came to us, how the Gospels were transmitted in the
early centuries, what this or that passage means, how
the early Christians adapted traditions from their religious
background and how they innovated, how their worship
began and how it was shaped, how they accommodated Christ
along with God in their devotional life, how Christian
belief and practice was shaped by opposition and historical
developments of the first two centuries . . . And my
questions continue.
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