MetaCatholic

Okay, I’ve probably raised Jim West’s blood pressure by including the words Wikipedia and facts in my post title. I continue to stand by my view that Wikipedia has its place for the student who knows how to use information sources critically. And now a new piece of research suggest that some students, at least, don’t treat it as the be-all and end-all of looking for information, but are, in fact, both more traditional and more sceptical.

A short list on what’s caught my eye this week, and that I haven’t already picked up on.

• There’s a good introductory post on hermeneutics from Ben Witherington, though I would want fairly strongly to nuance his bare assertion “What it [the text] meant [then] is what it means [now]“
• Chris Tilling has continued blogging his way through Gordon Fee’s Pauline Christology. This is a noble and heroic effort. I put the book on my shelf long before finishing it as a really useful reference work and commentary on many specific passages, but one that was far too repetitious (and tedious) to read as an actual book.
• Nick Meyer as a follow-up to his post from last week on reasons (or rather explanations of reasons) why Paul persecuted the church. Together they make a useful summary of some of the ways in which Paul is interpreted. I would be most suspicious myself of the psychological ones.
• Kudos and all gratitude to Ben Smith for his freely available synopsis.
• Various people have blogged about Mother Teresa’s almost permanent dark night of the soul based on this Time story. I will be fascinated to read the book of these collected letters when they come out next month. I recall meeting her as one of the most genuinely humbling experiences of my life.
• Loren Rosson started the week with a long annotated guide to seasons 1,2 & 3 of the new Doctor Who. For those who are still wondering whether to catch up it’s a good starting place. Although I broadly agree with him, I rate Fear Her, The Runaway Bride, and Smith and Jones more highly Then again, I think Freema Agyeman does much better at the impossible job of following Billie Piper than he does. And perhaps you have to have seen The Catherine Tate Show to get the most out of the Runaway Bride. But Loren is dead wrong when he says: “I think all of the season finales could have been 5- instead of 4-stars if they hadn’t been written by Russell Davies.” Russell Davies is a brilliant writer, without whom none of these series would have been made.
• Finally for Classic Who, go to Mark Goodacre’s post.

Sunday update: Mark has a much longer post explaining exactly where Loren’s view of Doctor Who goes wrong.

Somehow I feel obliged to gloat (even if it won’t last).