Cornerstone University’s Bible Division gained prestige as one of their professors was published on the national level.

Dwayne Adams, associate professor of Bible, recently received word that his paper about Luke 15 was accepted by the Society of Biblical Literature.

He submitted the paper sometime in late February or early March of this year.

The paper was entitled “Reading of Luke 15 in Narrative Context and Septuagintal Intertext.” Adams said that the basic premise of his paper was that Luke 15 and the parables included — the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the prodigal son — “cannot be understood without reading it in light of the big picture of Luke.” The paper was a total of 16 pages long.

In the opinion of Adams, “when most people read these stories, they unplug them from the preceding context.”

The paper being accepted is only the first part of the process. Adams will be required to present his paper at the national Society of Biblical Literature conference in Boston. The section that the paper was submitted to is called “Formation of Luke-Acts Section.”

Adams said that “this section will meet over two days, and six papers will be presented.” He also said that the presenters are limited to 30 minutes per paper. There will be a 45-minute discussion period after the third paper of the day is presented.

Submitting papers to national societies is nothing new for Adams. This is, however, the first time that Adams has had a paper accepted by the Society at the national level. He has previously submitted and presented papers at the regional level four times. Last year, he attempted to submit a paper to the national level, but there was a mix up, and it was misplaced.

His mentor had a strong influence on him and helped expose him to the world of scholarly papers. Adams said, “The first meeting that I attended took place in 2002 in Toronto.” It was quite intimidating.

According to Adams, he and Doug Mohrmann, associate professor of religion, “are the most active in terms of getting papers written” in their division. They have attended regional conferences together. They have been a great source of encouragement for one another.

Philip Bustrum, head of the Bible, Religion & Ministry Division and professor of Christian education, said that this was good for the university as well as the faculty. “It gives Cornerstone some prestige,” said Bustrum.

Adams agreed.

He said, “Taking part in these conferences helps in the classroom and aids credibility to work done in the classroom.” He said that it was good for both the Bible Division and Cornerstone as a whole. “It’s good to see Cornerstone on the agenda along with a guy from the University of Zurich.”