108 Years of Adventist Scholarship and Service Honored in San Antonio, Texas

Posted November 23, 2016On Sabbath, November 19, hundreds of Adventist scholars attending their national societies' annual meetings in San Antonio, Texas, united to celebrate the work of two longtime professors of the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary for their 108 combined years of distinguished service to academe and the church. Publication of a Festschrift, a collection of essays by colleagues, in their honor, is one of the high tributes scholars may receive for their work.

Robert M. Johnston, retired New Testament scholar, received his Festschrift during the Sabbath morning meeting of the Adventist Society for Religious Studies (ASRS) at the San Antonio Hyatt hotel. It honored Johnston's 60 years of teaching and other service to the Adventist church at several levels and in different parts of the world. Before becoming a celebrated seminarian he served for two years at Fresno Union Academy teaching Bible, History and Spanish. Later, he and wife, Madeline, made pioneering contributions to the growth and education of the church in Asia: 1958-1969, they served in Korea where he was head of the religion department at the Korean Union Training School which became Korean Union College (now Sahmyook University); from 1969 through 1970 he was acting dean of the graduate School of Religion at Philippine Union College. Subsequently, he was earnestly recruited for the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, where he arrived in 1973. As Madeline says, " we've been here ever since." Johnston retired in 2002, having spent much of his time at the seminary as chair of the New Testament department.

Johnston's admiration around the world of New Testament scholarship for his work on parables is reflected in the focus of his Festschrift, entitled Biblical Parables, a compilation of studies on Old and New Testament parables by 20 scholars, including such leaders in the field as Craig Keener and Craig Evans.

Source: 108 Years of Adventist Scholarship and Service Honored in San Antonio, Texas