Crux Sola: Formed by Scripture to Live like Christ
This blog series spotlights 50 NT scholars and their research. The goal of this series is to introduce readers to a wider circle of scholarship than they have encountered. The majority of people on this list are early or mid-career NT scholars who are doing great research and writing.
Explain why you love teaching and/or writing, and why it brings you vocational satisfaction.
My love of teaching stems from the satisfaction of knowing that when I teach I am fulfilling the commandment to love God and my neighbour through the work which God has called and equipped me to do. Thus I approach my teaching as an act of worship in which I aim to express my love of God (and to inspire my students to love God more!) through the careful handling of the Scriptures. And since I cannot claim to love God whom I do not see if I fail to love our brothers and sisters whom we do see (1 John 4:20), I likewise strive to love my neighbours well when I am teaching–especially neighbours from backgrounds or cultures that all too often have been marginalised by the Western academy, but without whom I would have a truncated and distorted view of the Kingdom of God. In my classroom, I try to the best of my ability to show the breadth and beauty of the Body of Christ, and it brings me tremendous joy to watch as students marvel at the vast scope of the gospel.
What is one “big idea,” emphasis, or theme in your scholarship that you hope impacts the way students and scholars read and understand the NT?
I hope that Christian students of the NT learn that in order to understand the Scriptures we need to learn to inhabit the Scriptures. We should be people who have so fully consumed the Scriptures that, as Eugene Peterson says, they get into our nerve-endings, reflexes, and imaginations (Eat This Book, 9). This certainly isn’t an idea unique to my work, but it is certainly one that motivates all of my own writing projects.
Who is your academic hero and why?
Beverly Gaventa has been one of my heroes for many years now. Her scholarship strikes a balance between grace and courage, and her exegesis is always patient and measured. More than that though, she taught me to love Paul’s letters through her own infectious love of Romans, and for that I am exceedingly thankful.
Name a few academic books that were formative for you as a student.
Beverly Gaventa; Our Mother St. Paul
James Cone, The Cross and the Lynching Tree
J. Louis Martyn, Galatians
Read Heim’s Work
Adoption in Galatians and Romans
“In Him and through Him from the Foundation of the World: Adoption and Christocentric Anthropology” in Christ and the Created Order (ed. A.B. Torrance and T.H. McCall)
“The Inward Groaning of Adoption (Rom 8:12-25): Recovering the Pauline Adoption Metaphor for Mothers in the Adoption Triad” in Making Sense of Motherhood (ed. Beth Stovell and Lynn Cohick)
Read Heim’s Work ONLINE
Follow Heim on Social Media
If you ran into me at SBL, and you didn’t want to talk about New Testament studies, what would you want to talk about?
Gardening, cooking, traveling, or my children
What is a research/writing project you are working on right now that you are excited about?
I’m currently working on a couple of different projects on Galatians (a commentary and a critical introduction), and I have really enjoyed having two projects that allow me to linger over the details of one of Paul’s relatively short letters.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In