Transition and Continuity

As of 01 August, I retired formally from the chair of New Testament Language, Literature & Theology in the University of Edinburgh.  So, on the one hand, a much-reduced level of income.  On the other hand, a release from the responsibilities of teaching and academic administration (the latter an increasing burden in UK universities).

With continuing good mental and physical health, however, I aim to remain active in research and writing plans, and also in contributing to the supervision of PhD students here in the School of Divinity (New College).  Indeed, I’ll continue to welcome new PhD students whose interests particularly align with my own expertise.

These fifteen years in my chair here have been the most stimulating and demanding of my academic career.  I continue to feel very fortunate to have been offered the professorial chair here, in this historic centre of scholarship in my field.  With predecessors in my chair such as H.A.A. Kennedy, William Manson, and Hugh Anderson, upon my own appointment I felt both honored and obligated to do my best.  The library resources of the University and the city are wonderful, and the fine colleagues with whom I’ve worked here, both fellow New Testament scholars and colleagues in other fields as well, have really made New College a most happy venue.

One of my greatest sources of satisfaction lies in the NT colleagues I’ve had a hand in bringing to New College, Drs. Helen Bond and Paul Foster, who have now established themselves internationally on the basis of their own scholarly contributions to the field.  They have been the best colleagues one could ask for, and I am pleased to have had a small part in their academic development.

I’ve a busy schedule of writing commitments for research and publication projects and conferences over the next several months.  I also have plans for further book-size productions of my own.  For scholars, “retirement” can simply mean an un-ending research leave, and that’s how I view it.