Sir Isaac Newton wrote to his scholarly rival, Robert Hooker, in 1675, “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.” Newton’s point is that he can see further by being raised up to a greater height by the advancements and legacy of those who have come before him.
“This is the beauty of being a community where raising up others on our shoulders is at the heart of what we do.”
I have often mused on this idea as a pastor-scholar. Being trained at theological college is like being raised up by a whole faculty to stand on their shoulders for the advancement and progression of the gospel. Not out of rivalry but through gospel partnership together. So that a new generation can see further, can go further, bringing the light of the gospel to a dark world. This is the beauty of being a community where raising up others on our shoulders is at the heart of what we do.
Three Giants
In the last nine months I have had three reasons to reflect on the giants whose ministry raised me up so that I can see further.
The first reason was the passing into glory of my doctoral supervisor, Professor Gordon Wenham, in May this year. In February, I finished the proofs of my Leviticus commentary for the Hodder Bible Commentary series. I can quite honestly say that this commentary would not have come to fruition without Gordon’s published work on Leviticus and without his mentorship as I wrote my doctoral thesis.
Without hesitation, and with a humility that I could only hope but to emulate for my own doctoral students, he lifted me up on his shoulders so that I could see further and so that I can write further on Leviticus than he could in his time.
Shaped by Giants
The second reason was the writing of footnotes. This might sound odd, but the footnotes were for a chapter on literary context in a forthcoming Hermeneutics textbook for Zondervan. The footnote I wrote said this,
I (Katherine) am indebted to two lecturers from when I attended Ridley Melbourne, Dr Douglas McComiskey and Dr Lindsay Wilson. They taught an exegetical method where literary context has these two steps of structural location and literary function. My work here is built on their own.
“Through their ministry, these two lecturers raised me up on their shoulders so that I could see further.”
I was taught at theological college by Douglas McComiskey and Lindsay Wilson to locate the passage I was studying within its book (structural location) and then I was taught to ask why it was there in its local context (literary function). How I was trained by these two lecturers has shaped my work since.
So when I was writing a chapter on literary context I was struck by how my training in the past has not only shaped how I prepare to teach, preach, and write, but my training prepared me to write that chapter so that future generations can read and understand passages of Scripture in their literary context too. Through their ministry, these two lecturers raised me up on their shoulders so that I could see further, so that I could train others beyond their own ministry.
Thank God for Giants
The third reason was training doctoral students to write literature reviews.
A critical stage in the formation of a doctoral student is to help her or him see that placing their own work within the trajectory of past scholarship is not to tear down the work of others in a combative way but to recognize the giants who have had the courage to publish their work so that others, like doctoral students, can stand on their shoulders and see further than they could.
Literature reviews are all about whose shoulders we stand on.
“Being thankful to God for the giants whose shoulders we stand on in our gospel ministry is good for our soul and for our humility too.”
I was struck by how this is true for every ministry worker. How we mentor, how we preach, how we teach, how we plan, how we care – how we carry out the ministry God has entrusted to us – is shaped and built on the shoulders of those who have gone before us.
I ask doctoral students, once their literature reviews are drafted, to take time to be thankful to God for those shoulders on which their work stands. This discipline creates in us a spirit of humility and strips us of a spirit of competitiveness. This is true for all of us. Being thankful to God for the giants whose shoulders we stand on in our gospel ministry is good for our soul and for our humility too.
