Peter H. Davids is a biblical scholar living in New Brunswick, Canada, right on the USA border (about 300 meters from Maine). He is a professor, writer, and pastor, as well as a husband, father, and grandfather.
Recent Comments
Peter H. Davids is a biblical scholar living in New Brunswick, Canada, right on the USA border (about 300 meters from Maine). He is a professor, writer, and pastor, as well as a husband, father, and grandfather.
Fr Peter's Reflections 
Brad Davis (TESM) here. I think of you often. Curious to see you are in Canada and Canadian. I learned five years ago that I am Canadian. Born in Cali, yes, living in the US, also yes, but my first home was Vancouver (age 1 mo to 10 mo) where my mother’s home was before we emigrated to the US to join my father. Anyway, if you receive this, it would be wonderful to hear from you. Deb and I are in Connecticut, retired after 30+ years as boarding school missioners, and still healthy and active. My ecclesial journey has not been as exciting as yours, but still following the Anointed. Everything good to you. Brad
Actually, the information is a bit old. I must correct it. I was born in Syracuse, NY to a British father (who had received American citizenship) and mother with British parents, so I grew up American although, unknown to me until 1996, I had British citizenship as well. We moved to Canada in 1983 at the invitation of Regent College in Vancouver (and did receive Canadian citizenship in 1989). Then in 1996 we moved to Austria for 6 years, then to Houston (my wife’s home town) in 2002, then back to Canada, to New Brunswick, in 2006, and finally to Houston again in very late 2010. In was in Houston that we met John Michael Talbot and that eventually triggered our entry into the Catholic Church through the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter in Feb 2014 (Andy Ringle was one of my two sponsors) and my ordination as deacon and priest in Dec 2014. I am now in theory retired, but serve as chaplain to the Dominican Sisters in Georgetown, TX, and also as priest-in-residence for the Austin Byzantine Catholic Community. I do remember you very well. Great to hear from you.
Out of date, like too many things on the www. Thanks, Peter, for catching me up. So much coming and going! I am busy cobbling together a new book of poems—a “new, selected, and early” collection—including poems from my other six books (four of which were combined in a single volume.) Are you doing any writing these days? Holding you in my heart. –Brad
hello!
My name is Slo and i’m 15 and I have autism. I’m establishing a personal religion/spirituality for myself (for myself only-I do not want to convert anyone as this faith will just be for me) and I believe that action figures have souls. I want to establish a church for my action figures and I want to become a priest of my religion. I would like to ask you if you could, with your authority of the priesthood, could ordain me a bishop of my religion by saying a blessing/prayer for me in a email below. By ordaining me you would be establishing a new priesthood which I can give to my action figures. It would really mean a lot to me as I look up to you and everyone else I’ve asked has rejected me.
I am sorry, Slo, but only bishops have authority to ordain, not priests, and even they do not have authority to ordain outside of the Catholic Church. They only ordain priests within their own diocese. They only ordain bishops who have been appointed by the Pope and then do so together with several other bishops of the Church. Your request is simply outside the area of my authority.
Thought I typed a comment – but then it disappeared.
Greetings, Prof. Davids! I do some work in theology and have appreciated your own work on the general epistles. I’m interested in specializing in those works myself, but they don’t seem to have built the same kind of community that the Gospels and Pauline corpus have.
What would you recommend I do if I want to connect with scholarship communities who focus on those works?
Thank you!
-Cody Cook
You are correct that since the Reformation and certainly in modern scholarship the Catholic Epistles have been neglected. They are not as neglected now as they used to be, but when I wrote my doctoral dissertation they had problems finding an examiner for me in the United Kingdom (I studied at Manchester). Only one person had written on James, at least only one person who was alive and able to travel. But things have changed a bit. Right now the IBR has a research group active (IBR-BBR.org) and their leaders would know more about community than I would (Darian Lockett (darian.lockett@biola.edu), Kelly Liebengood (kellyliebengood@letu.edu), or Gene Green (gene.green@wheaton.edu)). In the past the ETS has had a group. You rarely if ever find a chair for Catholic Epistles or any single Catholic Epistle at any academic institution, but you do find NT professors who are interested. Now it sounds like you are looking to do academic work in the area, so you might ask that question of one of those people I suggested. Usually one would do a more general NT study and then one’s thesis would be on the Catholic Epistles. Another way to go is to look for recently published commentaries on the Catholic Epistles or one of them. For instance, one of James just came out by a professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Do not look for super popular commentaries, for such works are often not the main interest of the author. Then inquire of the author. I might suggest studying in England, but for that one needs a masters thesis in the area and then one applies to a university to a professor one might wish to work with, at least that is how it worked for me although being a M.Div. student I had to submit a longish paper not a thesis and that meant an extra year on my program. England is not as reasonable in terms of costs now as it was then, either. So there are some ideas to investigate. Your communities are mostly academic and meet at academic conferences with email communications between times. I do not have an academic connection right now, i.e. not with a degree granting institution, so I cannot be much help in that regard. If you have further questions contact me directly at phdavids@gmail.com. Sincerely, Peter Davids
That is a wealth of information! I thank you for your generosity of time and for pointing me in the right direction. Blessings!