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Just Call Me Bob
The Wit & Wisdom of Robert W. Funk
Edited with an Introduction by Andrew D. Scrimgeour
Robert Walter Funk, founder of the Jesus Seminar, was a leading New Testament scholar of the second half of the twentieth century. A natural problem solver and keen observer of life, he was educated at Butler and Vanderbilt and taught at universities from Cambridge, Mass to Missoula, Montana. In Just Call Me Bob, Funk delights and enlightens readers with his reflections on a wide variety of topics which, not surprisingly, include God, the Bible, Jesus, and academia.
Scrimgeour has done a yeoman’s task, researching and then consolidating the wit and wisdom of Robert Funk under one cover. The result is a rich collection of sayings and writings, at times poignant, at times profound, even, at times, pugnacious.
“If we cannot laugh at ourselves and even about the things we hold dear, then God’s reign has eluded us,” Funk said on one occasion. “The acquisition of information is no certain cure of ignorance,” he said on another. In 1975 he wrote, “Readers of the gospels speak glibly about the religion of Jesus because his followers created a religion about Jesus. It is not at all clear that religion concerns Jesus.”
To those who would address him as Doctor, Funk would respond, “My name is Bob.” Just Call Me Bob keeps faith with that sentiment. In its pages one comes to know the man through his ideas. And that, as readers will intuit, is the way he would want it.
“This bracingly encouraging book reminded me of a boyhood hero from the old black and white Hollywood movies, Spencer Tracy. Tracy always played the rugged, decent American—completely incorruptible, yet totally without sanctimony: exactly like Bob Funk. Bob was not just a great scholar and thinker: he was a great American, great in his courage, and great in the way he challenged moral and intellectual corruption. In this book his words still go on speaking to us, and they are more needed now than ever.”—Richard Holloway, Bishop of Edinburgh & Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, Retired |
| "Working out of respect and obvious affection, Scrimgeour has created an engaging and affective compilation of quotations from the work of Bob Funk, one of the 20th century’s most influential religionists. The result is as charming and pleasing to the soul as it is challenging and informative to the mind. Even Bob Funk would have approved of this one."—Phyllis Tickle, Religion Editor, Publishers Weekly (ret.) |
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For a list of other Polebridge books by Robert Funk, click here.
Polebridge Press
Paperback, 240 pages
2007 ISBN 978-1-59815-005-6