|
|
|
Useful Articles Found in Books
The links on the page will lead you to valuable articles found in professional journals, books, and online sites. ARTICLES IN PROFESSIONAL JOURNALS Academic articles are the best sources to use for academic work. Not only do they look good in a footnote or bibliography, they allow you to encounter a dozen perspectives in the time that it would take to read a single book. The problem is finding them. There are three main sources for academic articles. The first is the professional journal. Journals are small paperbound books, and literally hundreds of them are printed in fields related to Biblical Studies. They are usually printed either by schools or professional societies. Many seminaries print journals so that their own faculty can get into print. An example would be the Westminster Theological Journal published by Westminster Seminary. WTJ publishes articles from a conservative Reformed perspective. While they publish articles by many authors, their articles are often written by Westminster professors. Academic societies also publish journals. An example would be the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society (aka JETS) published by the Evangelical Theological Society. All members of ETS sign an annual pledge that they accept the inerrancy of the Biblical text, and articles in JETS always represent that perspective. Journals are published in annual volumes. However, each volume is published in sections. They are printed from two to twelve times a year. As an example, the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society is printed in the spring, summer, fall, and winter, but all four installments have consecutive page numbers. Each installment is then numbered from 1 to 4. For example, I had an article published in JETS titled "Egypt and Early Israel's Cultural Setting: A Quest for Evidential Possibilities." The article appeared in 2008 which was volume 51. It appeared in the fall (September) issue which was 51.3. I was the first article in that issue, and it began on page 449. Page 1 would have been the first page of the first issue for the year. So bibliographic information for the article looks like this. Dalman, Rodger. "Egypt and Early Israel's Cultural Setting: A Quest for Evidential Possibilities." Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 51.3 (2008): 449-488. See the "Articles in Journals" link on this page to see how to find journal articles. ARTICLES IN FESTSHRIFTS The second important way to find articles is in books that are collections of articles. They are found in two kinds of books. The first kind of book is called a festschrift. It is a book written to honor a scholar as he or she approaches retirement age. Festschrift is a German term that translates roughly as celebration book. For example, Allan MacRae taught at Biblical Seminary when I attended the school. A few years after I graduated, the faculty published Interpretation & History: Essays in Honour of Allan A. MacRae. In bibliographies, festscrifts are listed by the names of the editor or editors who pulled together the project. Festschrifts typically contain a biography of the person honored and a bibliography of his books and articles. Then it contains from a dozen to two dozen articles by friends of the scholar. Often the articles are in the same field, and they usually share the same theological presuppositions. For example, the MacRae festscrift contained two tributes, a bibliography, and 17 articles written by the faculty of the school and friends. Hundreds of festscrifts appear every year. See the link on this page for "Articles in Books" for advice in finding them. ARTICLES IN MULTI-AUTHOR BOOKS Academic articles are also commonly published in Multi-author books. These are very common. An editor will decide to write a book on a subject. Then he will divide the subject into chapters or sub-headings and will find someone to write each chapter or sub-heading. A good example would be a book edited by James Hoffmeier and Alan Millard titled The Future of Biblical Archaeology: Reassessing Methodologies and Assumptions. The book was printed by Eerdmans in 2004. The book contains a total of 17 essays by various authors on the subject of the future of Biblical archaeology. These are important books because an author can write a chapter in a book fairly rapidly while writing a whole books would take years of work. Since the academic world runs on a "publish or perish" ethic, the articles in multi-author books fill the need for several authors to get their work in print. See the link on this page for "Articles in Books" for advice in finding them.
|
|
Copyright © 2009 Dr. Rodger Dalman
|
