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FSC holds Bible Symposium

About the Speakers
James H. Charlesworth is the George L. Collord Professor of New Testament Language and Literature at Princeton Theological Seminary.  He is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University (A.B.) and Duke University (B.D., Ph.D.).  An internationally known scholar, he has authored numerous articles and books on biblical studies and is the editor of the standard edition of Old Testament Pseudepigrapha.  His recent publications include The Odes of Solomon: Critical Studies and Authentic Apocrypha: False and Genuine Christian Apocrypha.  Dr. Charlesworth's scholarship has been recognized for its excellence by the Biblical Archaeology Society, and he is the recipient of such prestigious awards and fellowships as the Frank Moore Cross Award and the Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship (1983-84, 1998).  He has been the Annual Professor at the Albright Institute, Jerusalem.  As director and editor for the Princeton Dead Sea Scrolls Project he recently published two volumes: Pseudepigrapha and Non-Masoretic Psalms, Daily Prayers, and Related Documents and Angelic Liturgy: Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice.  He is the continuing member of these symposia and also serves as co-editor for the symposia series, Faith and Scholarship Colloquies, published by Trinity Press.

Victor Paul Furnish is University Distinguished Professor of New Testament, emeritus, Southern Methodist University, where he served on the faculty of the Perkins School of Theology from 1959 until his retirement in December, 2000.  He holds an undergraduate degree from Cornell College, a theological degree from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, and the Ph.D. degree from Yale University.  He is a clergy member of the Northern Illinois Conference of The United Methodist Church, and a Past President of the Society of Biblical Literature.  His most recent book is The Theology of the First Letter to the Corinthians (1999).  Among his other books are: Theology and Ethics in Paul, The Love Command in the New Testament (1972), The Moral Teaching of Paul: Selected Issues (1979; 2d ed., revised, 1985), The Pauline Letters (with Leander E. Keck, 1984); and Jesus According to Paul (1993).  He is currently completing a commentary on 1 and 2 Thessalonians.  In 1995 Cornell College conferred on him the honorary degree, Doctor of Humane Letters.  Southern Methodist University named him the 1993-94 University Scholar/Teacher of the Year, and he was the 1994 recipient of the SMU Alumni Association's Award for Faculty Excellence.

Sara Fletcher Harding is assistant professor of Religion at Florida Southern College, where she has taught since 1997.  Dr. Harding received her B.A. from Nebraska Wesleyan University and pursued graduate studies at Iliff School of Theology, where she received her M.A.R., with distinction, in 1991.  As a Ph.D. student at  Marquette University, she taught courses in New Testament and was a visiting lecturer at Carroll College.  Her dissertation, for which she received her Ph.D. in 1999, is entitled Astonished at his Teaching: The Structure and Authority of Jesus's Sayings in the Gospel of Mark.  In addition to surveys of Biblical writings, she teaches advanced courses on the teachings of Jesus, Paul's letters, and Johannine literature.  Her recent papers include "Not the What but the How: The Authoritative Structure of Mark 2:27," presented at a recent meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, and "Christ as Greater than Moses in Clement of Alexandria's Stromateis, 1-2," published in Studia Patristica, 31.  Dr. Harding supplements her academic work by serving as faculty advisor to FSC's chapter of Habitat for Humanity.

Alan F. Segal, Professor of Religion and Ingeborg Rennert Professor of Jewish Studies at Barnard College, Columbia University has crafted a distinguished career around the interplay of Judaism and Christianity in the biblical period.  He was educated at Amherst, Brandeis, and Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. His teaching career has included Princeton University and the University of Toronto previous to his tenure at Barnard-Columbia, where he has also served as chair of the Department.  Prof. Segal's list of publications include studies of current Jewish-Christian and Jewish-Arab relationships, the role of computers in the humanities, Judaism in late antiquity, and the New Testament in the Roman period.  His book, Paul the Convert: The Apostasy and Apostolate of Saul of Tarsus (Yale University Press, 1990) was recognized as Editor's Choice, the main selection of the History Book Club, and a selection of the Book of the Month Club.  His current scholarship focuses on life after death for the Anchor Bible Reference Library.

About Florida Southern
Florida Southern College, the state’s oldest church-related college, is a four-year, private, co-educational liberal arts college affiliated with the United Methodist Church. The college offers more than 40 undergraduate majors and a master of business administration degree accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Located in Lakeland, Fla., the college is home to the largest, one-site collection of Frank Lloyd Wright architecture in the world.

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