Doug Moo

Ever have a flash of inspiration that leads to rejection? It happens to me fairly regularly. The inspiration and rejection. Yet, sometimes inspiration leads to a breakthrough.

One of my roles as Dean of the Seminary entails finding course instructors. This is quite a task for a school that relies heavily on adjuncts to teach courses. Since most of our courses are week-long modular intensives, it is not as daunting as it would be if I had to find locals in small town Saskatchewan to teach specialized graduate level courses. 

Since I have only been on the job five months, I am still figuring out how things work. In this case, I decided to reach out to some of the best educators I could think of. Douglas Moo was my first choice for Pauline Epistles. If you don't know Doug Moo, here's what Wikipedia says about him:

Douglas J. Moo (born March 15, 1950) is a Reformed New Testament scholar who, after teaching for more than twenty years at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Illinois, has served as Blanchard Professor of New Testament at the Wheaton College Graduate School since 2000. He received his Ph.D. at the University of St. Andrews, in St. Andrews, Scotland.

Moo has published several theological works and commentaries on the Bible; notable among them are An Introduction to the New Testament (with D.A. Carson and Leon Morris) and The Epistle to the Romans (part of the New International Commentary on the New Testament series). His current research interests are Romans, Pauline theology (and exegesis) and environmental theology. He has been a member of the translation committee that produced the NIV and TNIV since 1996, and is its current Chair. He previously edited Trinity Journal.

In 2014, a Festschrift was published in his honour. Studies in the Pauline Epistles: Essays in Honor of Douglas J. Moo included contributions from G. K. Beale, Craig Blomberg, James Dunn, Grant R. Osborne, Thomas R. Schreiner, and N. T. Wright. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_J._Moo)

Now that you know a bit more about him, you might appreciate how this "flash of inspiration" would almost certainly result in rejection. I emailed him asking him to consider coming to southern Saskatchewan to teach. In the subject line I wrote "Shot in the Dark". 

Doug emailed back and accepted my offer. Yes, you read that correctly. He's in. So, Doug Moo is coming to teach a one-week Pauline Epistles course at Briercrest Seminary. Please join us in October 2023 to learn from one of foremost New Testament scholars. Stay tuned for more details.