James Kelhoffer, Associate Professor at Saint Louis University, has been officially proposed as Professor and Chair in New Testament Exegesis in Uppsala (job description in English). However, some other candidates for the post have appealed the decision, as often happens, so the formal appointment has been somewhat delayed.In any case, the chair has been vacant for a very long time, after the predecessor Kari Syreeni left in 2007, so it is indeed very good news for New Testament exegesis in Sweden, and of course particularly in Uppsala, that the chair will soon be occupied again.
Many readers of this blog will know that James Kelhoffer's dissertation subsequently published by Mohr Siebeck is of great interest to text-critics as it examines the Long Ending of Mark:
Miracle and Mission: The Authentication of Missionaries and Their Message in the Longer Ending of Mark (WUNT Reihe 2/112; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2000).
James has been to Sweden many times for long and short periods and has had much contact through the years, especially with the Department of Biblical Studies in Uppsala. I know from experience that he already speaks some Swedish (and reads it even better). I have met him on various conferences, including SNTS 63d meeting that took place in Lund 2008 (reported on here).
Last year, in April, he gave an invited lecture on “Suffering as Defense of Paul’s Apostolic Authority in Galatians and 2 Corinthians 11″ in the Advanced Exegetical Seminar in New Testament. This piece was published as an article with the same name in Svensk Exegetisk Årsbok 74 (2009): 127-143.
James has an academic homepage here with CV and publications. His publications, including two full length monographs in the WUNT series, are available for download (sic), but hurry up! I assume these pages (under SLU.EDU) will disappear when Kelhoffer takes up his new post in Uppsala. From these pages you can also find very positive bookreviews by Elliott, Holmes, Hurtado, and others of Kelhoffer's Miracle and Mission.
Update: I just learnt that some candidates have appealed to have the decision changed (which I assume is highly unlikely in this case), so the formal appointment has been delayed. I have updated the original post accordingly.