Essays and Essayists<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"James Vanoosting, in the introduction And the Flesh Became Word, says something that struck my inner chords: "Given half a chance, I'll write an essay\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2006\/10\/30\/essays-and-essayists\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Essays and Essayists\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"James Vanoosting, in the introduction And the Flesh Became Word, says something that struck my inner chords: "Given half a chance, I'll write an essay\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2006\/10\/30\/essays-and-essayists\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2006-10-30T07:22:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2006\/10\/30\/essays-and-essayists\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2006\/10\/30\/essays-and-essayists\/\",\"name\":\"Essays and Essayists\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2006-10-30T07:22:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2006-10-30T07:22:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"James Vanoosting, in the introduction And the Flesh Became Word, says something that struck my inner chords: \\\"Given half a chance, I'll write an essay\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2006\/10\/30\/essays-and-essayists\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2006\/10\/30\/essays-and-essayists\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2006\/10\/30\/essays-and-essayists\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Essays and Essayists\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author of more than fifty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/author\/scotmcknight\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Essays and Essayists","description":"James Vanoosting, in the introduction And the Flesh Became Word, says something that struck my inner chords: \"Given half a chance, I'll write an essay","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2006\/10\/30\/essays-and-essayists\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Essays and Essayists","og_description":"James Vanoosting, in the introduction And the Flesh Became Word, says something that struck my inner chords: \"Given half a chance, I'll write an essay","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2006\/10\/30\/essays-and-essayists\/","og_site_name":"Jesus Creed","article_published_time":"2006-10-30T07:22:00+00:00","author":"Scot McKnight","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Scot McKnight","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2006\/10\/30\/essays-and-essayists\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2006\/10\/30\/essays-and-essayists\/","name":"Essays and Essayists","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website"},"datePublished":"2006-10-30T07:22:00+00:00","dateModified":"2006-10-30T07:22:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252"},"description":"James Vanoosting, in the introduction And the Flesh Became Word, says something that struck my inner chords: \"Given half a chance, I'll write an essay","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2006\/10\/30\/essays-and-essayists\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2006\/10\/30\/essays-and-essayists\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2006\/10\/30\/essays-and-essayists\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Essays and Essayists"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/","name":"Jesus Creed","description":"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252","name":"Scot McKnight","description":"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author of more than fifty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/author\/scotmcknight\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/197"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1859\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":1859,"date":"2006-10-30T02:22:00","date_gmt":"2006-10-30T07:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/2006\/10\/30\/essays-and-essayists\/"},"modified":"2006-10-30T02:22:00","modified_gmt":"2006-10-30T07:22:00","slug":"essays-and-essayists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2006\/10\/30\/essays-and-essayists\/","title":{"rendered":"Essays and Essayists"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

James Vanoosting, in the introduction And the Flesh Became Word<\/em><\/a>, says something that struck my inner chords: \u201cGiven half a chance, I\u2019ll write an essay before <\/em>a book, after <\/em>a book, between <\/em>books, and (my favorite) instead <\/em>of a book.\u201d There\u2019s a man after my own heart. In fact, a man who seems to have lived in my own house.
\nWhich, of course, he has. JVO and I lived in the same home, he before I \u2014 and that shows our relative ages \u2014 but which, once you hit 50, no longer matters. How old someone is over coffee matters less than the pleasure of the conversation, and I could spend a many with him.
\nJVO has had numerous essays published and I have not. I\u2019ve written a few, but no one has published them. Here\u2019s my admission: I love essays, familiar essays like those of Joseph Epstein and William Hazlitt and others, and I\u2019d like to write one someday \u2014 and if I could choose, I\u2019d want it published in something like The New Yorker<\/em> or The American Scholar<\/em> (under a former editor). But, alas, when JVO left that home on Burchard in Freeport, IL, he went on to novel writing and essay writing. We are both professors, but I write books about the Bible and for the Church. Not that I\u2019m complaining.
\nBut, how odd is that? Two kids who barely knew one another who turn out to be writers and from a small midwestern town known mostly by the unusual nickname it gives its sports teams: the Pretzels.
\nThe first draft of Jesus Creed<\/em> had some essayist flourishes. My steady, insightful editor, good ol\u2019 Lil Copan, said something like this: \u201cWhaddaythinkyou\u2019redoing, Scot, writing an essay?\u201d To which I said, \u201cI like essays.\u201d To which she said, \u201cThis isn\u2019t an essay. Keep to the task.\u201d Which I did. Thanks to Lil.
\nNow, like a familiar essay, I\u2019ve wandered a bit. Back to JVO\u2019s book. The first six chapters are personal narratives, and I loved them. He talks about Mikey Pohill, our next-door neighbor and about First Baptist Church. He speaks about the most wonderful librarian in the world, Mrs. Popp, and then he tells some stories about almost dying, about almost committing suicide, about depression and about divorce. Real stuff here. I hope some of you take up the chance to read him. The second section, called Biblical Narratives, has an insightful piece on \u201cvocation.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"