The Gentle Art of Blurbing<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I've suddenly been found on the radar for writing blurbs for books. I have gone from total obscurity to occasional presence, and I think it is because of\" \/>\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\/12\/15\/the-gentle-art-of-blurbing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Gentle Art of Blurbing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I've suddenly been found on the radar for writing blurbs for books. I have gone from total obscurity to occasional presence, and I think it is because of\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2006\/12\/15\/the-gentle-art-of-blurbing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2006-12-15T07:20:11+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=\"1 minute\" \/>\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\/12\/15\/the-gentle-art-of-blurbing\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2006\/12\/15\/the-gentle-art-of-blurbing\/\",\"name\":\"The Gentle Art of Blurbing\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2006-12-15T07:20:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2006-12-15T07:20:11+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"I've suddenly been found on the radar for writing blurbs for books. 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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":"The Gentle Art of Blurbing","description":"I've suddenly been found on the radar for writing blurbs for books. I have gone from total obscurity to occasional presence, and I think it is because of","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\/12\/15\/the-gentle-art-of-blurbing\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Gentle Art of Blurbing","og_description":"I've suddenly been found on the radar for writing blurbs for books. 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{"id":2038,"date":"2006-12-15T02:20:11","date_gmt":"2006-12-15T07:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/2006\/12\/15\/the-gentle-art-of-blurbing\/"},"modified":"2006-12-15T02:20:11","modified_gmt":"2006-12-15T07:20:11","slug":"the-gentle-art-of-blurbing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2006\/12\/15\/the-gentle-art-of-blurbing\/","title":{"rendered":"The Gentle Art of Blurbing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I\u2019ve suddenly been found on the radar for writing blurbs for books. I have gone from total obscurity to occasional presence, and I think it is because of this blog \u2014 now considered by some to be \u201cmedia.\u201d My favorite request was this one:
\nI was asked to blurb Eugene Peterson\u2019s 3d volume of his 4-volume Spiritual Theology (from Eerdmans). No kidding. Will it, I seriously asked myself, do him any good to have my name on the back? And, does he need anyone<\/em> to blurb him? Well, I was tempted to say this: \u201cBeing asked to blurb this book is like an ordinary Catholic being asked to blurb the Catechism<\/em>.\u201d I didn\u2019t think the publisher would take that kind of blurb seriously, so I sent something else in. (It\u2019s a very good book. We\u2019ll see if they use my blurb.)
\nQuestion: What is your favorite blurb of all time?
\nThere are some good books coming out soon from Nick Perrin, (handsome) Ron Martoia, Tracy Balzer, and Dan Kimball (Dan, did you see that picture on this blog where I showed my seminary hairdo?). I\u2019ll post about these books when they come out. Yes, I\u2019ve chosen not to blurb some.
\nIf you are thinking of sending me a ms to blurb, please don\u2019t send it unannounced; please send it in paper (I don\u2019t like reading books on my computer screen and I don\u2019t want to ask the school to spend money for someone else\u2019s mss); please give me a date when it is due.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve suddenly been found on the radar for writing blurbs for books. I have gone from total obscurity to occasional presence, and I think it is because of this blog \u2014 now considered by some to be \u201cmedia.\u201d My favorite request was this one:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[476],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Gentle Art of Blurbing<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I've suddenly been found on the radar for writing blurbs for books. I have gone from total obscurity to occasional presence, and I think it is because of\" \/>\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\/12\/15\/the-gentle-art-of-blurbing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Gentle Art of Blurbing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I've suddenly been found on the radar for writing blurbs for books. 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