From Quest to Q

On June 30th 1999, James M. Robinson formally retired from his position as Arthur Letts Jr. Professor of Religion at Claremont Graduate University. At this juncture in his life Peeters Publishers is proud to be the publisher of a festschrift, From Quest to Q, dedicated to Robinson, and his monumental contributions to the field of Q studies or the Sayings Gospel Q. The Festschrift is divided into four sections following an introduction written by Asgeirsson.

The first section of the Festschrift entitled "From Source to Document" opens with a tribute to the jubilee whose very work within the International Q Project has, indeed transformed the hypothetical source into a document using a papyrological model. It is followed by two essays: one on the genre of the document Q and the other on the impact of Old Testament citations or allusions in Q or more specifically the Temptation Story in Q.

The second section on "Founder and Fashion" visits in three essays the questions of the character of Jesus. Whom may he be likened to, what factors in the social environment of the followers of Jesus colored his manners and view of life?

In a third section "Topos and Topics", four essays deal with diverse theological motifs in Q. From the breaking up of traditional family relationships to the question of the poor, this section also includes the motif of Son of man and the geographical topos, Nazara.

The last section, "Q in Redaction" deals with several aspects of the redaction of Q in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Finally, in this section, two essays deal with parallel motifs in Q, the Gospel of Thomas, the Synoptic Gospels, as well as the Gospel of John.

The contributors, from Europe and the United States, have all worked within the field of Q Studies and together comprise some of the most prominent names among junior and senior scholars in the field.