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If the Catholic Biblical Quarterly (‘CBQ‘) can be compared to AAA baseball, that’s only because they throw so hard in the bigs. Journals like the Journal of Biblical Literature and both Novum Testamentum and Vetus Testamentum may be the first choice when biblical scholars choose to publish their best work, but CBQ is on balance just about as capable and perhaps only slightly less consistent.
CBQ in its modern incarnation represents post-Vatican II Roman Catholic scholars, joined by ecumenical biblical specialists, grappling with biblical texts and interpretation under only the lightest cover of Catholic dogma. Whether such independent mindedness is a virtue or a vice will vary in the eyes of diverse beholders, yet the guild of biblical criticism now takes it as a fact on the ground, hardly worthy of comment.
Still, the Catholic connection provides a space for writing that nurtures faith in a way that other print organs do not. The January, 2007 volume that lies before me (Vol 69, No 1), for example, contains a lead article by the current president of the Catholic Biblical Association that engages the book of Chronicles with all the conventional critical tools, yet openly advocates its relevance for readers seeking to live lives of faith and worship.
A bit later in this number, Karl A. Kuhn offers a scintillating portrayal of a key document from Qumran and the way it mediates the ‘son of man’ figure in Daniel 7 so that Luke can advocate a son of man – son of God equivalency without verbosity because the bridge from one concept to its successor had already been erected within the interpretive traditions of Second Temple Judaism.
Biblical scholars already know that CBQ is a fixture as a source for mature reflection on the texts that occupy them. Serious Bible readers and those in preparation for pastoral ministry and/or biblical interpretation would be wise to join them.
Canter Bridge 
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