Biblical scholars to get more European visibility

Christian Century, Feb 27, 2002 by John Dart

In another step to widen the exposure of North American biblical scholars abroad, the large Society of Biblical Literature has signed a co-publishing agreement with Brill Academic Publishers of the Netherlands. Brill will publish hardcover editions of the 20-to-25 titles a year by SBL authors, while the Atlanta-based society will publish the paperback editions.

Few scholars in biblical studies, like specialists in many academic fields, secure major publishers such as Harper-Collins with international offices. Addressing that problem, for instance, an American consortium--Abingdon, Augsburg-Fortress, Crossroad, Orbis, Hendrickson and Eerdmans--works with Alban Books, Ltd., as its United Kingdom and European sales, marketing and distribution company.

But in a February announcement, SBL editorial director Rex D. Matthew said that its new partnership with one of the oldest and largest publishers of academic books "will ensure that our books achieve both high visibility in the European academic community and greater availability."

Regardless of how many copies of SBL books Brill prints, scholars in North America striving for faculty tenure may find a certain "resume appeal" because books chosen by SBL editors will also carry the prestigious Brill imprint. Past SBL titles, published for years by the now-defunct Scholars Press, nevertheless were praised by Brill spokesman Hans van der Meij as exemplifying a "high quality of academic research."

The SBL has 8,000 members, about 2,000 of them from outside the U.S. and Canada--partly the result of international biblical conferences held abroad annually by SBL since 1983. Last year, more than 400 scholars attended the meeting in Rome. "I think in Berlin we will have close to 500 people," said Kent Richards, SBL executive director, referring to the upcoming meeting July 19-22. "The international conference is very close to being a break-even operation financially."

For most of the last century, German-language biblical scholarship held sway in academia. "Opinions vary, but I and many others feel that for the last quarter of the 20th century, if not for the last 40 years, the influence of American scholarship has been increasing," Richards said.

Besides publishing three journals, the SBL holds concurrent meetings each November with the American Academy of Religion in North America. Some 40-45 percent of the combined registration of 8,000 are SBL members.