Gazing into biblioblogdom’s navel
April DeConick started something by asking What is a biblioblog and who is a biblioblogger? She has so far garnered answers from:
The answer, clearly, is that no-one knows, and there are many canons. Jim (who offers a remix of “I did it my way”) himself maintains two canons: his own, and a considerably longer shared canon at Biblioblogs. (Oddly, Jim’s named co-editor, Brandon, seems to have edited himself off the canonical list, as currently not an active blogger.) This blog is a biblioblog in the shared canon, but relegated to the apocryphal status of “theoblog” in Jim’s denomination (If he doesn’t excommunicate me for this!).
As the biblical studies carnivals demonstrate, there are a very wide range of possibilities for inclusion, and some posts represent an occasional incursion into the territory from blogs that cover other topics more often. (The page needs updating with this month’s.) It is, I think, impossible to produce any kind of comprehensive listing. Equally, there is value in a listing which includes all those who blog regularly and who have a major focus on biblical studies (widely conceived) which is comfortable with the associated academic disciplines. The Biblioblogs site is the nearest thing to that, and worth having, but I don’t see that anyone can expect it to be comprehensive.
It’s always good for readership to be in a canon, and we all want, I think, to be as well linked to from the community as we try to link to it. But hardly any biblioblogs are exclusive to the bible, and part of the joy of many of them is the getting-to-know-you element of the many other types of posts that sit alongside the bible orientated ones.
Personally, I’d go for the widest definition possible, along the lines Duane suggests, but I wouldn’t reasonably expect someone to put in all the effort involved in maintaining an up-to-date listing of such a wide range. So why not just enjoying exercising that blblioblogging body. Navel-gazers only end up with fluff. (NB, that’s lint to those who don’t speak the Queen’s English.)
January 11th, 2008 at 8:48 am
[...] is a biblioblogger?” discussion. April started it (this time). Chris, Duane, Jim, Tim, and Doug have all chimed in—apologies if I missed [...]
January 11th, 2008 at 10:34 pm
Am I a biblioblogger? I don’t really care. I blog as I blog, sometimes about the Bible, and if other people want to put me on their lists of bibliobloggers, that is up to them. The blogosphere defies this kind of pigeonholing, and that is one of the best things about it.
January 31st, 2008 at 10:52 pm
[...] take, Tim Bulkeley wedging in some statistical clouds to squeeze himself into the in-crowd, Doug Chaplin meditates on the same subject, Chris Heard has a kvetch, and the mysterious bzephyr contributes a [...]