Greetings members,

In October, 2021, two emails were sent out to ETS Full Members.

The first, on October 1, provided an update on the process of incorporation, communicating that ETS was granted corporate status by the Arizona Corporation Commission in September, 2021.

The second, on October 22, provided information on proposed bylaw amendments, and explained the process and timeline. The proposals seek to have our bylaws more clearly reflect our current procedures and practices.

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After a spike in COVID cases in the late summer, there has been a significant downward trend, including in the Fort Worth area. We have been monitoring recommendations in Texas, and specifically in the City of Fort Worth.

The City of Fort Worth does not have vaccine or mask mandates, but encourages visitors to wear masks and practice health and safety measures.

Conference attendees should be careful and responsible, and should not attend sessions or other conference activities and events if they are symptomatic.

Despite the pandemic, Majority World institutions expanding their online learning are asking Theologians Without Borders to help find tutors. A South Indian seminary has more than sixty online teaching opportunities for late-2021—2022 for TWB associate scholars. They’re offering MDiv, MTh and doctoral subjects in OT, NT, Missiology, Pastoral Theology. Can you help? For more details, email director@theologianswithoutborders.org or apply through TWB's website.

Please click here to view the session draft.

All edit requests must be submitted to meeting@etsjets.org by July 1st.

As part of the Society of Christian Philosophers cross-training fellowship program, we are excited to announce a funding competition to support invited speakers to come to campus and give scientifically engaged talks. 6 grants are available for up to $2,000 each. This competition is open to members of the SCP, EPS, ETS, and ACPA. Please share with anyone who might be interested!

For more details and application instructions, please visit: https://kevintimpe.com/scientifically-engaged-lectures-grant/

Posted 6/7/2021

Zaporozhye Bible Seminary is a school in the heart of the Bible Belt of the former Soviet Union. ZBS has been serving the Baptist Union in the Zaporozhye Region in Ukraine since 1991.

The ZBS Master of Theology program is in need of qualified professors, who can teach on a modular basis (one week physically there or from the US via Zoom teaching for one week in the afternoons). The ZBS MTh program has been running since 2012.

We seek those with a doctorate or doctoral candidates to teach a Master’s level course within their area of specialty.

The Society of Christian Philosophers invites applications for its Graduate Student Cross-Training Fellowship Program, with fellowships to begin fall 2021.

After 22 years as editor of the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Andreas Köstenberger is stepping away from the job. During his tenure, Andreas oversaw an expansion of the peer review process, the addition of abstracts and key words to the beginning of articles, an increase in the number of book reviews and the size of the journal, and much more. We are grateful to Andreas for his faithful service over the years with his many significant contributions to the society and the journal, seen and unseen, in addition to his own writing and teaching.

We are pleased to welcome Dorian Coover-Cox as the new JETS editor and look forward to her leadership in this vital position. Dorian is Professor of Old Testament Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary and has served there as an assistant and an associate editor for Bibliotheca Sacra. Future manuscript submissions and communications for JETS can be sent to Dorian at editor@etsjets.org.

Posted January 4, 2021

The ETS Annual Meeting will open for attendees to view the pre-recorded videos on Monday, November 9th. Please take a few minutes to watch our demo video to familiarize yourself with the virtual platform and all that it has to offer. Click here to watch the video.

ETS is looking for moderators for the Theme and Discipline specific sessions.
The Sessions that need moderators say, "Moderator Needed" in red. Moderators for the virtual meeting will be the ZOOM host for the meeting.

Your duties will include:

• Once the meeting is set up through ETS, it will be turned over to you to host.
• Receive and relay the questions that come in from the attendees.
• Make sure each presenter has an opportunity to summarize and take questions on his/her paper

We are pleased to announce that we are able to reduce the price for registering for the 2020 annual meeting. The price from now through the annual meeting will be reduced to the early registration price. To view registration prices and to register, click Annual Meeting Registration.

For those who have registered since June 1, under the Advanced Registration prices, we will be issuing refunds for the difference in cost. If you paid with a credit card, the difference will be refunded on your card. If you paid by check, you will receive the refund by check in the mail. The refund may take 2-3 weeks to process.

We hope that this will make it easier to attend the annual meeting and take advantage of all it has to offer, including sessions, publisher’s exhibits, book discounts, and more.

Q: Why is this year’s meeting virtual?

A: A virtual meeting was necessary this year due to the COVID crisis. To date Rhode Island is restricting public gatherings to 125 people, with social distancing, and has not announced an estimated end date for these restrictions. Additionally, the primary hotels are not taking reservations due to the impact of COVID on their operations, and the convention center is operating as a field hospital and is not slated to be returned to normal operations until sometime in 2021. The bottom line is that our contracted space will not be available for the meeting.

Q: If the meeting is virtual, why is there a registration fee?

A. Although some costs will be reduced for the 2020 Annual Meeting there are still significant and new expenses to provide a professional meeting that includes a virtual exhibit hall, networking opportunities, along with synchronous and asynchronous program elements. Additionally it is important to keep in mind that income from the annual meeting does more than just pay for the meeting. It also appropriately contributes to the overall Society budget. We do anticipate that the savings in travel, lodging, and other expenses will yield a significant net savings for attendees and will allow many who might not ordinarily be able to travel to the meeting to attend. Additionally the advance registration rate will be kept in place for the remainder of the registration period.

Please check back. As details for the 2020 meeting are finalized additional information will be posted here.

Updated July 24, 2020

We have finished sending all of the paper and session proposal notifications. If you did not receive an email about your paper proposal please check the status of your proposal by clicking the View My Proposal(s) link in the Annual Meeting Proposal System menu.

If you did not receive notification regarding your proposed session please email Bonnie Thigpen at meeting@etsjets.org.

The Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies XXXIII 2021 on: “Social Media & the Self: The Promise of Connectedness.” Mss. Deadline: January 15, 2021. Call for Papers attached; on JIS web: https://www.jis3.org/callforpapers2021

Download the flyer: JIS Call for Papers.

July 2021 Symposium in Pasadena, CA, U.S.A. on: “The Arts & Transcendence: In Search of Beauty, Truth & Goodness", Hilton Pasadena, California, USA, 23-24 July 2021 (tentative dates).
Download flyer: Call for Papers, Conference Structure, Travel, and Registration.

On May 4, 2020, the Executive Committee of the Evangelical Theological Society accepted the recommendation of the Executive Director Search Committee and unanimously selected Ken Magnuson as the Society’s second Executive Director.  David S. Dockery, chair of the search committee remarked that the committee reviewed applications and nominations from a large group of qualified individuals. "It soon became clear," he noted, "to every member of the committee that Ken Magnuson, based on his outstanding education, years and breadth of experience, scholarship, administrative gifts, relational abilities and people skills, as well as his Christian character and commitment, was extremely well suited for this key role in the life of ETS. We are thankful for the fine leadership that Mike Thigpen has provided and are extremely hopeful about Ken Magnuson's guidance for the Society for the years ahead."  ETS President, Craig S. Keener, commented, “All of us on the Executive Committee affirm Ken Magnuson and are grateful to the Lord for the prospect of leadership that will continue the wonderful legacy we have already experienced with Mike Thigpen.”
 
Ken Magnuson has been on the faculty of Southern Seminary since 1999. He has served as Professor of Christian Ethics, Chair of the Department of Worldview and Culture, and as Director of The Commonweal Project on Faith, Work, and Human Flourishing. He serves as a deacon in his church, on the editorial board for Themelios, and as a board member for the American Friends of Tyndale House (Cambridge, UK). Magnuson holds a PhD in Theological Ethics from Cambridge University, and MDiv and BA degrees from Bethel Seminary and Bethel University (MN). He teaches and writes on discipleship and moral issues, including marriage and sexuality, singleness, and infertility and reproductive technology. He has published journal articles and contributed chapters to several books, and has recently completed Invitation to Christian Ethics, published by Kregel (forthcoming in 2020). He serves on the steering committee of the ETS Christian Ethics program unit. Ken and his wife Katherine have four children.



Magnuson will begin this new post June 15, 2020.  He succeeds J. Michael Thigpen who has served the Society as Executive Director since 2009.  Thigpen is leaving the position to serve as Executive Vice-President and Provost of Phoenix Seminary.  On hearing the selection, Thigpen noted, “I believe Ken Magnuson is the right person to lead ETS in this next season.  Ken's temperament, experience, godly character, and outlook on the role of the Society in the church and the academy are a wonderful fit to move us forward.”

The Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies XXXI 2019 on: “The Future of Education: Rediscovering Free Inquiry,” featured on the Chronicle of Higher Education’s Selected New Books on Higher Education list (Dec. 2019).

Two Related Calls for Papers:

(1) JIS XXXII 2020 on the overall theme: “The Digital Challenge: How to Humanize Technology.” Call for Papers on JIS web: https://www.jis3.org/callforpapers .

(2) ICSA IX. World Congress on: “Social Media & Intimacy: An Alternative Reality?,” Hilton Pasadena, California, USA, 30 July-1 August 2020. Call for Papers/Registration on JIS web: https://www.jis3.org/icsaix2020 .

We plan as well a JIS 2020 Special Section on: “The Future of Education Revisited.”

72nd Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society

Nov 17 - 19, 2020, Providence, RI

Theme: “Christianity and Islam”

The proposal period will open on Monday, March 2, 2020. The submission deadline for proposals will be Tuesday, March 31, 2020, at 5:00pm (Pacific).

To view the Call for Proposals please click here
To view the Section call for proposals please click here

At its meeting last month, the Executive Committee approved a change in JETS subscription rates. Beginning Dec 1, 2019 the new rates for JETS are:

• $45 1 year
• $90 2 years
• $135 3 years

It had been 20 years since the last increase to the subscription prices. The increase in production prices over the last two decades made the move fiscally necessary. Even with the increase, JETS continues to be competitively priced in the academic journal market.

Download the ETS Annual Meeting Program app onto your iPhone or Smartphone for access to the program, maps, list of exhibitors, advertisements, special events, and more. The program app is updated immediately with each change in the program so you will never get caught at a cancelled session when using the app.

Download the app at the App Store^TM

Download the app at Google Play^TM.

Two related Calls for Papers of interest:

(1) Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies XXXII 2020 on: “The Digital Challenge: How to Humanize Technology.” On JIS web: https://www.jis3.org/callforpapers . Mss. deadline: January 15, 2020.

(2) ICSA IX. World Congress on: “Social Media & Intimacy: An Alternative Reality?,” Hilton Pasadena, California, USA, 30 July - 1 August 2020. On JIS web: https://www.jis3.org/icsaix2020. Deadline for 250-word Abstracts: January 30, 2020.

A Facebook group has been started for women who are ETS members or who are considering membership as well as women who work for evangelical publishers exhibiting at ETS. It's meant to be a setting where collaboration, encouragement, and networking can take place. If you are a woman and a Facebook user, please find us and request to join! If you know of women you'd like to encourage to join and participate, please pass the word along and they can request to join.

Proposals submitted to Section open sessions have been notified whether the proposal was accepted, declined, or moved for consideration in a discipline specific session.

Proposals submitted to discipline specific and theme sessions will be notified by June 1 if the proposal has been accepted, declined, or held for potential inclusion if cancellations occur.

The status of proposals are updated when decisions are made. To view the status of your proposal, click the View My Proposal(s) link in the Annual Meeting Proposal System menu.

Center of Theological Inquiry is accepting applications for the Theology as Interdisciplinary Inquiry Writing Workshop for Early Career Scholars.

The worship is a 6-week intensive at CTI in Princeton, NJ, May 2 - April 8, 2020.

The center welcomes applications from early career scholars-doctoral, post-doctoral, and pre-tenure-who address the methodological question of theology as interdisciplinary inquiry in their own current research.

Scholarship Program Accepting Nominations

We are now accepting nominations for the 2019 Annual Meeting Student Scholarship program. After a thorough review of the program's effectiveness over the last 6 years, two key changes have been made. The first is that the scholarship is no longer regional. Nominees may reside anywhere in the US or Canada. (We hope to be able to expand the program to additional international regions in the future.) The second change is that the program now exclusively targets doctoral students.

The Program's Purpose

This program is designed to help academically promising doctoral students who find participation in the Society economically prohibitive, or who come from a traditionally underrepresented group to get to know the Society, its functions, its leaders, and the role it plays in supporting conservative evangelical scholarship. The goal of the program is to encourage and support students, who might otherwise not participate in the Society, to appreciate the value of membership and the profitable part that it might play in their academic and ministry futures.

Nominating a Student

Full or associate members who want to nominate a student should send an email to rallinson@etsjets.org that includes the following:

• Nominee's name and email address
• Description of the member's relationship with the nominee
• Description of how the nominee fits the scholarship criteria

Nominations must be received by May 31st. Nominees will receive an email from the ETS office with application instructions.

For complete information on the scholarship program, please see: ETS Annual Meeting Student Scholarship Program

Introducing Theologians Without Borders

As we all know, there is a resource imbalance in global theological education. The West has material resources and many more PhDs. But it is the Majority World (MW) church that is growing in leaps and bounds. Many Western (W) scholar-teachers want to help and are willing to visit to teach in the MW.

Download the ETS Annual Meeting Program app onto your iPhone or Smartphone for access to the program, maps, list of exhibitors, advertisements, special events, and more. The program app is updated immediately with each change in the program so you will never get caught at a cancelled session when using the app.

Download the app at the App Store^TM

Download the app at Google Play^TM.

All paper proposal notifications have been sent. If you did not receive an email notification regarding the status of your paper proposal please log in to your member account. Then click on the "View My Paper Proposal(s)” link in the "Annual Meeting Proposal System” menu on the left side of the homepage. The status column will show one of the following:

• Approved - means that the proposal was accepted and that you will be receiving session details by June 15th.

Verifying That Your Submission Was Received

To view your proposal(s), please use the View My Paper Proposal(s) link the Annual Meeting Proposal System box on the left side of the homepage. (You must be logged in to view your proposals.)

If you see:

• Submitted, your proposal was received and is awaiting adjudication.
• Moved, your proposal was not accepted in the program unit session where it was submitted, but was rated highly enough to be considered for use in the discipline specific sessions.
• Approved, your proposal was accepted. You will be contacted by email with session details. (See below for notificaiton timing.)
• Declined, your proposal was not accepted. Unfortunately, due to the high volume, we are not able to provide individual feedback on declined proposals.
• Held, your proposal was rated highly, but there was not room for it in the program. In the event of a cancelation in an appropriate session, we may contact you regarding the potentail of adding your paper to the program.

Notification Timeline

There is an opportunity to teach at the Zaporozhye Bible College and Seminary in Ukraine in their MTh program.

ZBCS is a missionary endeavor. It is a nonprofit organization. All visiting professors are in effect short term missionaries. You would need to raise your own airfare and bring 350 Euro (or equivalent) for food and transport.

Dear Fellow ETS Members,

The goal of this short communication from the Executive Committee of the Evangelical Theological Society is to
• clarify the impact of the resolutions adopted at Annual Meetings, including the most recent one
• reaffirm the Society’s foundational convictions
• express our commitment to review, renew, and refine our processes

Clarify the Impact of Resolutions Adopted at Annual Meetings
There have been a number of questions about the resolutions that were adopted at the 2015 Annual Business Meeting. Many of these relate to the content and meaning of the resolutions themselves, but the most urgent questions concern the impact of the resolutions—must members affirm them? Will they be used for screening membership? Do they have binding force, or indeed any force at all?

We have completed all of the paper proposal notifications. If you did not receive the email informing you of the status of your paper proposal please click on the "View My Paper Proposal(s)" link to the left in the "Annual Meeting Proposal System" box.

If your paper proposal was accepted, you will receive an email with your session details by July 15th. Please email any name, affiliation, and/or title corrections to meeting@etsjets.org by July 31st. Corrections received after July 31st will not be included in the printed program.

The ETS Executive Committee is pleased to announce the Annual Meeting Student Scholarship Program. This program is designed to help academically promising students who find participation in the Society economically prohibitive, or who come from a traditionally underrepresented group to get to know the Society, its functions, its leaders, and the role it plays in supporting conservative evangelical scholarship. The goal of the program is to encourage and support students, who might otherwise not participate in the Society, to appreciate the value of membership and the profitable part that it might play in their academic and ministry futures.

Scholarship recipients will receive a two-year benefit package including:

The first issue of a new peer-reviewed journal titled Journal for the Evangelical Study of the Old Testament is now available at www.jesot.org. The issue includes 5 new articles and 15 book reviews that can be freely downloaded online and can be purchased in print through Wipf and Stock Publishers. The journal features articles by Michael S. Heiser, Eugene H. Merrill, Joel E. Anderson, Todd Scacewater, and John F. Hobbins.