I normally write in Portuguese on this blog. As it is my mother language, I feel way more comfortable using it. Besides, my objectives with this space are to try to informe my Brazilian friends about what I think is important. Today, though, I need to do something different. Last night, through a dear friend, I heard the sad news about the death of James D. G. Dunn. I got the news with a very heavy heart and decided to praise him with some words in his own language, the one which, without even knowing it, he used to form my understanding about one of my dearests interests.
Through his many books and articles, James Dunn has always been a mentor from afar for me. His understanding about the first century world, early judaism, Paul, the beginnings of Christianity and the Jesus tradition proved to be incredibly helpful to change my mind about everything I thought I knew regarding the New Testament and it's history of formation. It was mainly through Dunn's academic work that I could finally understand why there's such an amazing difference between the gospels, how the oral tradition makes sense of this difference and in what way we can approach the NT with a fair methodology, while his work on the new perspective on Paul made it possible for me to finally unite the loose ends my previous research had left behind.
Although I've never meet him, it always felt to me that he was like a friend and teacher. Having read more or less three thousand pages he wrote, Dunn normally was the last person to talk to me every night. Living in the UK for the last couple of years, one of my dreams was to meet him as I discovered he lived two and a half hours by train away from my house; I dreamed about having a cup of coffee with Dunn and thanking him personally for everything he had taught me, or maybe just to take a picture standing next to the legend. Unfortunately, this will not be possible anymore, at least not in this life.
This is now the only way I can express my gratitude to Professor Dunn and say that he is still teaching me loads and loads about one of the most important topics of my life as I'm right in the middle of Christianity In The Making Volume Two. May he rest in peace and his family be comforted. Maybe one day we can finally meet and have a good conversation. Thank you, Jimmy!