The Mind in Another Place: My Life as a Scholar

by Luke Timothy Johnson

A witness to the peculiar way of being that is the scholar’s   Luke Timothy Johnson is one of the best-known and most influential New Testament scholars of recent decades. In this memoir, he draws on his rich experience to invite readers into the scholar’s life—its aims, commitments, and habits.  In addition to sharing his own story, from childhood to retirement, Johnson reflects on the nature of scholarship more generally, showing how this vocation has changed over the past half-century and where it might be going in the future. He is as candid and unsparing about negative trends in academia as he is hopeful about the possibilities of steadfast, disciplined scholarship. In two closing chapters, he discusses the essential intellectual and moral virtues of scholarly excellence, including curiosity, imagination, courage, discipline, persistence, detachment, and contentment.  Johnson’s robust defense of the scholarly life—portrayed throughout this book as a generative process of discovery and disclosure—will inspire both new and seasoned scholars, as well as anyone who reads and values good scholarship. But  The Mind in Another Place  ultimately resonates beyond the walls of the academy and speaks to matters more universally the love of knowledge and the lifelong pursuit of truth.

Genres: Memoir, Biography, Theology, Nonfiction, Biblical Studies, New Testament

278 pages, Hardcover

Published March 22, 2022

About the author

Luke Timothy Johnson is an American New Testament scholar and historian of early Christianity. He is the Robert W. Woodruff Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at Candler School of Theology and a Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University.

Johnson's research interests encompass the Jewish and Greco-Roman contexts of early Christianity (particularly moral discourse), Luke-Acts, the Pastoral Epistles, and the Epistle of James.

Reviews

[James Klagge · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I consider myself well-read in theology, I had never read anything by the author. I had heard of him, but not read anything. I was attracted by the subtitle--since I consider myself a scholar as well.
The first thing to say is that I am not as much of a scholar as the author--maybe 10% as much! He offers a litany of his publications (p. 5)--35 books, 75+ articles, 100+ popular articles, 200+ book reviews... I'm a far cry from that...and I consider myself fairly productive--4 books, 4 edited books, 27 articles... I'm not sure how you do that much! But we are on the same path anyway.
The second thing to say is that the author's personal life remained something of a mystery. It is true that he did not propose to write a spiritual memoir. But his spiritual life--he began as a monk and then soon accepted excommunication to marry, a woman 9 years older than him with 6 children and significant health challenges--had a great impact on his scholarly life, yet we never learn much about that (pp. 82-5). There was a slight parallel between our paths early on. Once while I was working on my PhD I considered focussing on doing community development work in a Christian community before going into academia. But the advice of a professor and a budding romance turned me away from that route. Perhaps it remained a mystery to him as well. But he is so articulate about so many things that it is hard to imagine he couldn't have articulated more about this. Anyway...
I thought the author did a good job of characterizing the life of a scholar--not only the process of research, but the other activities such as teaching, administration, public service, family...that make such a life a challenge. What he did not do as well, at least through most of the book, was to characterize his own scholarly contributions. He certainly listed them. But not as much of what they amounted to in general terms accessible to most readers, such as myself. (He did this more near the end.) The one area that I had some familiarity with was the work of the Jesus Seminar--assessing the historicity of Jesus (e.g., The Five Gospels: What Did Jesus Really Say? The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus). I have long been a fan of this work, and it was frustrating to hear that he roundly criticized it, without him offering a clear account of why (pp. 146-49). He questioned their method, but I was unclear how he disagreed with their conclusions--especially since he distances himself from fundamentalists. I gather that he thinks historicity is the wrong lens to bring to the issue, but I wish he had done more to explain his preferred lens. In general, when it came to his research contributions, he never presented them in a way that made me think I would read this or that by him. In the end I felt sympathetic to the views and approaches he set out, but I was never pulled in. And so that was a little disappointing.
The author's scholarly career spanned about 1970 to the present (mine about 1975 to the present), so it was interesting to recall the evolution of scholarship in those decades. E.g., the advent of personal computers for faculty in the late 1980's, the move from letters to faxes to e-mail, by the mid-1990's, the development of digital resources beginning around 2000, etc. When I was corresponding with G.H. von Wright about Wittgenstein stuff for our book Philosophical Occasions: 1912-1951 we used faxes, which were faster than letters! When I published a survey of Wittgenstein's use of the concept "besteht darin [consisting in]" in 1995, it was completely based on my actual reading of all the sources. There was no digital search I could do. (And I don't think I missed any!)
When the author recounts his childhood and the relevant influences, he recounts an intellectual family life. In my case it was not until I was in high school that I found the debate team and friends who valued intellectual activities--not that my family discouraged that, but never modeled it.
One interesting topic the author considered was productivity and perfectionism (pp. 130, 221). On the one hand he talks about the odd valuing on non-productivity in elite departments--as though there is something beneath dignity to actually publish things. I have heard about this but not experienced it. And then he also discusses perfectionism, where a scholar can't let go of a piece. This was how Wittgenstein behaved, and to a lesser extent was present at UCLA when I was a grad student there (1976-1983). Maybe Rogers Albritton is the best example of that, but also exhibited by David Kaplan to a lesser extent. Kaplan never published his monograph on Demonstratives (on which he gave courses in the late 1970s) and only allowed it to be published in a collection about his work Themes from Kaplan published in 1989. The ethos at UCLA was certainly to publish only very carefully.
The author had an incredible commitment to teaching. This is all to the good, and something that I share in my own work. But he took it far beyond anything I would expect. When he has TAs--in his case for courses around 100 students--he not only oversees their work, but he himself does all the actual grading. This would be completely unworkable in my case, with courses numbering 150+ students. But it seems to me that TAs should be trusted to do their grading, with proper oversight. I'm not sure why he went that far.
I most enjoyed the book's chapters near the end on the intellectual and moral virtues of a scholar. These were interesting and to me insightful and plausible. He discusses the importance of not allowing ideological perspectives to overwhelm the issues under discussion. It is clear that this has had greater impact on New Testament studies than it has on Wittgenstein studies. I hope that remains true.
He also discusses the long time it sometimes takes to research, process and write up scholarly results. This was true of a number of the author's projects. This was another respect in which my own work can be compared to the author's. My longest-term project Tractatus in Context: The Essential Background for Appreciating Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus took 45 years. Another Wittgenstein's Artillery: Philosophy as Poetry took 10 years. And my views about Wittgenstein's views on the relation of mind and brain have evolved over 30 years, starting with a paper in 1989, another in 1996, this book Wittgenstein in Exile in 2011, and a book review in 2018.
Another virtue the author promotes is Imagination. I especially appreciate this one. Ray Monk's famous biography of Wittgenstein Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius is subtitled "The Duty of Genius." Monk uses "genius" as a perspective to view Wittgenstein's life. In one of my books I use "exile" as a perspective to view his life. This is not a fact that one discovers or proves, but an imaginative way of thinking about Wittgenstein. The "proof" is only in how much illumination it brings. Perhaps this seems to go beyond the work of the scholar, narrowly construed. But it is a contribution to our appreciation. That is what I have aimed for.
Another virtue the author promotes is breadth, which I also second. He mentions the value of reading literature broadly--not (just) for its content, but for its vision. I have especially brought this to bear in my recent book Wittgenstein's Artillery: Philosophy as Poetry. In one chapter I draw on a wide range of examples from literature to illustrate other ways of doing some of the kinds of things Wittgenstein tries to do in his vignettes and aphorisms. To appreciate Wittgenstein we have to try to bring as broad a perspective as he himself brought to his own work.
All in all, this book gave me a lot to think about, and I appreciated the author's candor. I guess I wished for even more--but that may be too much to ask.

[Daniel Supimpa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pleasant venture into scholarship by means of a memoir (more precisely, an “intellectual autobiography”) of an important North-American scholar. I have to be honest that this is only the second book that I’ve read by LTJ (the other was “The Writings of the New Testament,” also very well-written), but I’ve come to admire his honesty, colourful and reflective style.

The overall structure of the book is 3/4 autobiography, and 1/4 a precious and fascinating exploration of the virtues helpful for one to measure oneself as a scholar. A short but sharp epilogue puts forth what LTJ believes is the scenario for the next generation of scholarship in the humanities and, more particularly, in New Testament Studies. His conclusion/intuition is that the alterations produced by technological language for digital natives (the hive syndrome or the inarticulation of how the physical and contextual ambience shapes deep learning) and ideological impulses (a very Babel-like landscape running from the avidness for survival of ecclesiastical institutions all the way to progressivist agendas and cancellation) will likely give the tone of the meaning and practice and scholarship in the next couple of years.

Two caveats: first, this books is anchored on the North-American system of scholarship; the differences from, say, the British or Brazilian academic landscapes are as different as the flora and fauna of these places. Yet, there are important resonances and lessons to learn.

Second, LTJ might sound ostentatious when talking about what he was involved in, or how his intelectual questions were ahead of the curve or contentious. This is perhaps due to his excitement in reviving the experience of these questions, or only an attempt to show that his life was fraught with reflections while also marking papers, active in faculty meetings and committees, besides dealing with his wife’s lifelong sickness and all the household and practical issues that all mortals need to deal with. His mind was genuinely “in another place”. Read him with sympathy and you’ll love it.

[Robert D. Cornwall · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoy reading well-written memoirs by figures who inhabit similar spaces as me. Thus, being a pastor and a scholar, reading the memoir of a person like Luke Timothy Johnson is enticing. I don't remember if it was his commentary on Acts, which I relied upon during my brief tenure as a professor, or his somewhat controversial response to the Jesus Seminar (The Real Jesus: The Misguided Quest for the Historical Jesus & the Truth of the Traditional Gospels, but I have long respected his scholarship and his willingness to take on his colleagues. I knew a bit of his story, and even had the opportunity to meet him a number of years ago at a conference I regularly attended, but I still didn't know much about him. Now I do.

The subtitle of this memoir reveals the central theme of the book. The now emeritus professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at Emory University notes at the start that when one decides to write a memoir, one must decide why such a venture is worthwhile. In other words, who is going to read this book? After all, Johnson has had a long and influential career as a teacher, speaker, scholar, and author, but he's not a celebrity. Nevertheless, he decided he has a story to tell, and that story has to do with why and how he became a scholar, and once he became one, what that meant for him.

Writing a review of a memoir is always tricky because you don't want to give away too much. However, like most memoirs, this one starts at the beginning, with his origins as a young boy in a small town in Wisconsin. His father died not long after he was born, but his mother made sure that he and his older siblings had a home, an education, and a religious upbringing. Unfortunately, his mother died early herself, and that led to a rather peripatetic life that ended up with him living and studying at a seminary at the age of thirteen. With that, he began his journey to becoming a monk, a priest, and a scholar. He loved God, the church, and reading. He read voraciously across a wide variety of genres, and all of that fed the search for knowledge.

Johnson distinguishes between an intellectual and a scholar. The former is inquisitive, knowledgeable, and likely well-read. What makes for a scholar, as we will see is the commitment to a life of productive research that generally leads to the academic life, including teaching and writing. It's the academic life that drives the conversation, as he moves through seminary to ordination to the decision to pursue scholarship, which led eventually to Yale and Ph.D. in New Testament. All the while, he was a monk and a priest assuming he would be such for his life. That is until he met Joy, and everything changed. As we learn, his decision to marry Joy would have significant ramifications on his life (and hers). Of course, he left the priesthood, and because of her status as a divorced woman, that made life in the Catholic Church difficult.

In any case, we follow him as he finishes his Ph.D., takes up a non-tenure track position at Yale Divinity School, followed by a decade at Indiana University, and finally his move to Emory, where he became the Robert W. Woodruff Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins. The focus of the book is on the scholarly life, though his marriage plays a significant role in the journey as the reader will discover. We learn what it means to be an academic/scholar. We may know a person like Johnson from his writings, both scholarly and more popular, but we may not know what it's like to be a professor. Yes, there's teaching but there's a lot more to it than that. There are the committees and other forms of service. There are the relationships with students that take place outside the classroom.

One part of the story that some will be familiar with is his engagement with the Jesus Seminary, an engagement that brought him much attention. But as he shares, he may have sold lots of books and gained notoriety, but it wasn't a pleasant experience. I must admit that I share many of his concerns about the Jesus Seminar and the way they go about their scholarship. They have garnered attention but is it because of good scholarship. That's to be determined, but Johnson's not a fan.

As the reader discovers, Johnson is a complicated figure. In some ways, he's rather conservative, especially in the way he reads the New Testament. Part of this stems from his insistence to engage in serious exegesis. Part of it has to do with his own religious convictions. He may have left the priesthood, but the priesthood stays with him. While he writes for and with the Catholic Church, he notes that he never sought the imprimatur of the church. Thus, he remains free to do as he believes is right. At the same time, he is supportive of women in ministry and the full inclusion of LGBTQ folks.

As noted, Johnson begins the story with his journey to become a scholar, which is explored in four chapters of Part One. Part Two begins after he finished his doctoral work and became a scholar (Part Two). Finally in Part Three, a section titled "A Scholars Virtues" he focuses on two forms of virtue -- intellectual and moral. By moral, he means emotional and volitional virtues such as courage, ambition (it's not what you think), discipline, persistence, detachment, contentment, multitasking (he doesn't mean playing solitaire on your phone while you watch a TV show). The focus here, on both intellectual and moral virtues, is a commitment to excellence as a scholar.
That is what he sought after, excellence in his life as a scholar. It is according to these virtues that he judges himself. He might not fully reach the standards he set for himself, but that is his guiding principle.

I've attempted to give a brief overview without saying too much. I'm not sure if everyone will find the book as interesting as I did, but then I've attempted to be a scholar (though as he notes it's more difficult to do so effectively outside the academy --- he's correct), so I enjoyed thoroughly his descriptions of the scholarly life, some of which I sought after but couldn't attain. He writes with clarity and keeps you involved in the story. I highly recommend it!

[Josh Olds · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve only really known Luke Timothy Johnson through his various academic works and a few different lectures and debates. In particular, his thoughtful and nuanced call for LGBTQ+ inclusion has been really helpful to my own thinking, as has his work on Luke-Acts. And with a sentence like that, you can easily see the eclectic and wide-ranging nature of Dr. Johnson’s influence. In what is perhaps his final work, A Mind in Another Place: My Life as a Scholar offers readers a memoir that ruminates on Johnson’s public and professional life, offering a rarely-seen glimpse into Christian academia.

Amid it all, personal details do seep through. They must. Johnson was catechized in Roman Catholicism and began ministry as a Benedictine monk and priest. During this time, he graduated with a B.A. in philosophy from Notre Dame and a M.Div from Saint Meinrad School of Theology. This was an interesting section, as many Christians—myself included—are virtually clueless about the monastic life and might tend to still picture it as something more akin to the Middle Ages. The monastic life did not stay, however. In one sentence, Johnson explains it all in stark detail: I entered doctoral work as a monk and ended it as a husband with a child and six stepchildren.

A Mind in Another Place does not languish in those personal details. Enough is given so that the reader grasps Johnson’s context and his humanity, but we are mostly confined to his professional life—a choice that I’m sure reflects both humility and privacy. As he reflects on his time as a PhD student, he doesn’t refrain from honest and sharp critiques of the system. This theme continues as he moves into postdoctoral work, navigating the intricacies of professorship and tenure. I had thought that the exploitative policies driving adjunct work were recent, but Johnson reveals the business of academia as having always been the political, capitalistic behemoth it is. Similarly, as a doctoral student myself, I had to smile in wry compatriotism as I found Johnson recounting certain issues with academia that I have myself.

Altogether, Johnson writes as one very erudite and assured. This is not a personal memoir. It is written rather formally and covers Johnson’s academic life in great detail. I hesitate to say that it’s boring—because I certainly didn’t find it so—but I understand how it could be seen as boring. There are some memoirs that have universal appeal. The appeal here is very narrow. Johnson has a particular audience and he writes for them, and for himself. This is his way of re-membering the life that he’s had and the work that he’s done. A Mind in Another Place only gave me deeper respect for Luke Timothy Johnson and the life that he’s led.

[Norman Falk · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first 3/4 of the book is CV commentary; it’s essentially the chronicles of LTJ. An overly critical eye finds him perhaps bragging in this part of the memoir. But a more sympathetic view sees a child eager to share with the world all the exciting things he saw and did during the day. It’s all about the joy and delight of a particular kind of work. This image of scholarship as imaginative play is found throughout the memoir, but it is also creatively held in tension with order and purpose. “Scholarship in my area, I understood, mattered in a deeply existential way”.

The remaining 1/4 of the memoir is a beautiful lesson on (and illustration of) the intellectual and moral virtues required of a scholar in the humanities. You may just as well skip and read this section of the book. It’s that good.

The memoir feels like an the honest, un-fabricated retelling of a Biblical scholar’s life ...in North America . But this specific social and geographical reference point is not fully recognized. LTJ claims not to have been given the privilege of the Ivory tower, and he is probably right…if the comparison is mainly with other Biblical scholars in the US. But scholars and practitioners from non-western contexts may still look at an Ivory tower here. Having all conditions nicely lined so as to be able to regularly put one’s “mind in another place” is not a privilege extended to many theological educators in other parts of the world, even if they put just as much work into it.

But yea, i do agree with him that all this social location stuff can be overplayed. For instance, I share his concerns over ideological assumptions that stand behind personal introductory statements like this one: “I am an Asian, feminist, postcolonial scholar in the Gospel of John” (more details of the incident in the book). It’s not that he is a full-blown contrarian. He just doesn't like the policing.

This is how he concludes: “My own work will join the great river of forgetfulness that flows into the ocean of oblivion…All the more important, then, that I did my work taking delight in the process rather than in the expectation of success”. Very Qoheletian and I love it. The book is full with this kind of wisdom. Very insightful on so many levels…

[Ephrem Arcement · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book will certainly have its target audience and won't suit the everyone's interest, but I, even though not a scholar, count myself one who has been targeted. I've been interested in Luke Timothy Johnson since way before I joined the same monastery he did. His singular and unique journey as a monk and then married with children, many children, and one who way gay, initially peeked my curiosity. His Writings of the New Testament as a recommended source at my Protestant divinity school intrigued me. Once I began reading him, his vision and clear prose won me over. I have been privileged to meet Luke on a few occasions, one being the time I received his U-Haul collection of books when he moved out of his office at Emory and brought them to St. Joseph Abbey. Another was when I sang at his beloved wife's funeral. There are few people for whom I have a genuine admiration. Luke is one of them. I am inspired by his energy and sacrifice. I am challenged by his courage and convictions. I am touched by his commitment and wide embrace (especially of his gay step-daughter in a church and discipline where this is counter-cultural). I've read nearly everything Luke has written and am a wiser and better person because of it. So, it was with great interest that I moved (very quickly) through the pages of his fascinating memoir. Thank you, Luke, for your faithfulness...to your craft, to your faith, and to your family. What a gift you are!

[Michele Morin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve always been curious about the life of an academic, and while my own story has been anything but ivory tower, I fully identify with Luke Timothy Johnson’s assessment that the pursuit of truth often results in a life characterized by The Mind in Another Place. In his engaging memoir, Johnson recounts the influences that shaped his early decision to become a scholar and then remembers the unique challenges and rewards of that manner of life.

Whether we make a career in academia or simply make the commitment to a life of intellectual inquiry, Johnson’s story is an inspiration to pursue excellence and to embrace curiosity. Particularly in today’s cancel-culture, the risks of true scholarship run from pesky trolling all the way to career-ending attacks, requiring a level of courage in the pursuit and the communication of truth.

Fortunately, the author’s immersion in New Testament literature has been more than merely academic, and his passion for learning was fueled by a relationship with the main character of the sacred text. His role as a teacher was clearly a calling, enabling him to conclude, “As I gladly learned, so gladly did I teach.” May this be the motive behind my own quest for truth!

Many thanks to Eerdmans Publishing for providing copies of these books to facilitate my reviews, which are, of course, offered freely and with honesty.

[Colin Chapell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was interested to read the memoir of a scholar who takes his faith seriously and sees the implications of it flowing into his work. Though I come from the Protestant side and work in another discipline, I did appreciate the parts of the book that talked about this exchange. However, much of the book, particularly in the second and third parts, were quite discouraging. LTJ writes from a position of someone who has held an endowed chair and has occasionally taught 4 classes/year. As someone who regularly teaches 4-6 courses each semester plus the advising, committee, and other duties that he notes, some of the comments about balance and production send out of touch with contingent faculty. Yes, this may be a criticism of what the book is not rather than what it is, but as LTJ noted that part of this project was to note what academic life was like, I think it’s still fair. Very few scholars end up as endowed chairs and he doesn’t quite seem to acknowledge that. Nonetheless, I do think he gives some great insights into faithful scholarship.

[Judith Kimsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Curiosity, then, is the sense of unease, distress, or simple wonderment that propels the process of research in the first place, and keeps the process going as new questions emerge from the ones first raised" (189).

One Goodreads reviewer used the word "ruminate." That is the perfect word for what Johnson has done here and for what we should do in response to this memoir. He ruminated on what it takes to live the life he lived (and loved), and those of us pursuing a scholarly life need to ruminate on whether/to what extent we will do the same. You don't think a scholarly memoir could be so compelling, but I read it in six days and felt like I was taking my time. As one on the cusp of a scholarly (second-half of) life, I take to heart his intellectual and moral virtues, and I plan to use them as navigation tools for my next thirty years. This book is a gift and a treasure to the entire academic field of biblical studies.

[Kelly Brill · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting view inside the academic life. I bought this book after reading a mention of it - the name Luke Timothy Johnson is familiar to me because of his biblical scholarship. After a rather tragic childhood (losing both parents at an early age), Johnson found himself very much at home in the monastic community where he was a voracious reader. But along the way he meets a woman (mother of six!),they fall in love and have a child of their own. His wife Joy has many health problems which leads - in part - to daily financial challenges. Johnson describes the precarious economic situation of a young professor. I enjoyed the glimpse into the various everyday activities - writing book reviews, student recommendations, teaching, writing commentaries - juggling this work with family life - making decisions about how much to participate in extracurricular speaking engagements.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part of the reason I found this memoir so interesting is that Johnson was my Greek professor in Divinity School 45 years ago and our i have read quite a few of his books in addition to hosting him as a speaker in one of my churches with all the personal contact that involved. . Hearing him tell the story of his life was enlightening and fascinating. At a deepe3r level, he explores the challenges and joys of a life of academic scholarship, which was interesting to me because both my son and son in law are professors. And on a personal note, it made me glad that I was a pastor partly because I clearly do not have the gifts his field required but mostly because the grass actually didn't look greener when I took a closer look over the fence.

[Matt Ely · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perhaps more memoir than anything else, that's not really a detriment. Johnson's life took astounding turns, but he always recenters the biographical narrative on his development as a scholar and what that word means to him. What held his attention, what defined his work, and why was it worth doing? The text gives many off-ramps for the reader to consider their own habits of learning, teaching, and producing. His vision of scholarship is a compelling one, compellingly told. The reader's mileage may vary regarding discussions of academic controversies in which the author was engaged, which sometimes feel like defenses as much as anything. But in all, I found the author was able to stick to his key question and use himself as the means of asking it.

[Jonah Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a unique memoir, part autobiographical about Johnson’s life and part information about biblical scholarship. His life is fascinating, and he is very obviously a tenacious, brilliant person. As someone who is certainly no scholar, I found the book insightful and informative. I would be curious to know if many of his thoughts are consensus opinions amongst scholars. But, it was a very entertaining read, and I’m glad I read it.

[Jonathan Caldwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this memoir by LTJ. It is a side of Biblical Studies that had always interested me since I am on the ecclesial side. His background as a Catholic monk is especially interesting. His laxity concerning his vows, Joy's divorce, and homosexuality are a bit surprising. He certainly provides an interesting point of view of studying scripture at the academic level.

[Chris Carson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book as I remember Luke Johnson from my time at Emory. He was a favorite teacher of mine. This book opened my eyes to another level of appreciation for him not only as a professor but as a person.

[John Haydon · Rating 4 out of 5]

An amazing story. He left the monastery after falling in love with an older woman. He found a soul mate and true love.

[Stephen Pitts · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting account of Luke Timothy Johnson’s life — pedantic in some places and profound in others. Of interest to anyone interested in post Vatican 2 theology or the changing academy.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was inspired (!) to read this from the book review in Christian Century:
https://www.christiancentury.org/revi...

[sch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oct 2023. Interesting background on a scholar I greatly admire. Several surprises in the first two, narrative chapters. The final chapter is a wonderful conclusion, a wise and daunting exhortation along the lines of the pagan moralists he admires so much. Think I am more intellectual than scholar as he defines the term near the beginning.