Good project
Kevin Wilson announces an interesting book project. Jim West responds by suggesting some possible contributors. (Some good suggestions there, Jim!) The idea of bibliobloggers reflecting on how their blogging relates in various ways to their academic discipline is well worth the exploration.
BUT (and I think this is a fairly significantly-sized ”but”) he lists some criteria which are there “to ensure that the contributors are scholars who have significant experience with what it means to blog on the Bible.” Now, I have no problem with that per se, yet isn’t a significant part of blogging the fact that it takes place in a world of demotic anyone-can-play discourse? And doesn’t this contribute significantly to the ways in which scholars develop their arguments and interact with fellow scholars, serious students, interested parties, and occasionally very strange bedfellows indeed?
It seems to me that if this book is to be at its most fruitful, some way needs to be found to incorporate readers’ reflections on scholarly blogging, perhaps as chapter responses from among other, less qualified bloggers, who nonetheless participate in the same conversations.
August 2nd, 2007 at 5:48 pm
Interesting suggestion Doug. I can see your point- just as I can see Kevin’s. Maybe after Kevin’s book comes out you can set out a response in book form as well- potentially titled- “Biblioblogging Without A PhD: What ThD’s and Master’s Degree Holders Think of Kevin Wilson’s Project Along With Contributions By Others As Well and Including a Compendious Listing of Blogs that Post At Least Once A Week and Dismissing Those Which Post Less Than Once A Month”
(I love those long titles. People are so afraid of them these days…..)
August 2nd, 2007 at 5:54 pm
It would probably sound better in German! And have fewer but longer words
August 2nd, 2007 at 11:34 pm
A year or so ago Jim West put forward guidelines on who is qualified to interpret and comment on the biblical text, in a blog post which has now disappeared. I wrote at the time that I met his guidelines. Perhaps that worried him, because he now seems to have upped his requirements to include a PhD.
August 2nd, 2007 at 11:36 pm
Peter, this particular set of criteria isn’t Jim’s but Kevin’s.
August 3rd, 2007 at 4:47 am
less qualified bloggers, who nonetheless participate in the same conversations.
I have a major disagreement with “less qualified bloggers” - can we please say “differently” qualified bloggers.
Since I contributed a book chapter in a different discipline, and was accepted as an equal in that area without a PhD, please, I don’t want to hear that bibliobloggers are more uptight that the average schmo!
Now I have to hear that Christians are more threatened by those without a PhD than non-Christians. Now I have to hear that someone with a PhD trumps all those who can read Greek and Hebrew for some other reason than those three letters - please tell me that this is not the end of meritocracy!
This goes against the whole spirit of the blogosphere. No, I don’t want to see token non PhD’s invited to participate.
I can only say that since those without a PhD have less incentive to publish, they are not likely to want to sweat over their own little chapter, having better things to do - they will just be happy to know they aren’t despised as the “less qualified” and then carry on with life.
August 3rd, 2007 at 5:40 am
I meant to put a wink
after the “differently qualified” bloggers. If scholars need to publish, let them publish!
August 3rd, 2007 at 12:52 pm
Doug thanks for correcting Peter’s misreading. In fact, my comment above pokes a bit of fun at the idea that only ‘PhD’s’ have something to say. Anyway, if you think about it, what has a degree in philosophy to do with biblical interpretation anyway? Or, for that matter, anything but philosophy?
August 3rd, 2007 at 4:19 pm
Jim, thanks for the clarification. Let me know when you would like a contribution to “Biblioblogging Without A PhD…”
August 3rd, 2007 at 11:27 pm
In regard to Doug’s original post, I agree that the fact that interaction on blogs takes place in an atmosphere in which everyone is welcome to respond. I think that is an important element of blogging, and I am sure people writing the essays in the proposed book will incorporate that into their essays. In fact, I hope one of the essays will be on the topic of what it means to interact with non-specialists.
My limitation is not due to the fact that I think non-specialists have nothing to offer. Obviously if I thought that I would not be blogging. But in a book dealing with the topic of scholars who blog, I thought it best to have the essays written by scholars who blog. Please note, however, that I am hoping to include an essay by a non-specialist who is a reader, as well as one essay by a student blogger.