From Boston To The Blogosphere

I’ve been unable to blog much while I was away at the Society of Biblical Literature conference in Boston. Now that I’m back, there’s a lot to catch up on…

First, some did manage to blog from (and about) SBL. Chris Heard provides a day by day account of his experiences on Saturday, Sunday and Monday (For this, Jim West thanks heaven). Jim Getz also provides a day by day (0, 1, 2, 3, and 4). Eric Sowell has a five–part blog series on SBL. Douglas Mangum has two posts on “adventures at SBL” as well as several others related to the conference. Jim Davila read a paper in which he told a Terminator joke, took a photo from his window, and even blogged about the book display. Ken Schenck posted on Saturday and Sunday, and now has some post-conference reflections. Stephen Cook has posts #1, #2 and #3. Loren Rosson has a roundup, as does Ken Brown. Matthew Montonini has begun reflecting on SBL now that he’s back home. Josh McManaway blogged Saturday and Monday. Mark Goodacre blogged Monday and Tuesday. John Hobbins judges booksellers by their bags. Danny Zacharias hurt his back (and this was before he began carrying increasing numbers of books). Stephen Carlson did leave his hotel room (although you wouldn’t know it from his blog). Did Sean Winter? Jim Spinti gives a bookseller’s perspective. Michael Homan was at ASOR. C. Jay Crisostomo made it home, as did Peter Head. Roland Boer wasn’t there but many other minimalist guild members were. Wade watched from a distance.

One highlight of the conference was the bibliobloggers’ dinner organized by Michael Halcomb (who is now reading). Chris Brady has shared some photos from the event, and will at some point also post a podcast (he’s also shared a site with humorous cartoons). Jared feels (as I do) that it is nice to put a face on bloggers. We still don’t have a face for NT Wrong, but at least he knows my blog is red hot. And I likewise found James Crossley to be a nice man. It was nice meeting so many bibliobloggers, too numerous to mention individually in what is already a long post.

Jim West also has a post on Mounce’s comment equating SBL’s failure to be limited to Evangelicals and coddle them as being “less friendly to Evangelicals”. You can read what Mounce thinks about the Bible here. That post helps clarify what the issue is: at SBL we study the Bible, have to face critical scrutiny of our arguments from others, and cannot get away with simply imposing our presuppositions on the text. So indeed, those who want that should look elsewhere, but the irony is that those who do go elsewhere form sectarian groups that manage to persuade themselves that they are the ones who are treating the Bible with respect by shielding it from the honest critical investigation of mainstream Biblical scholarship.

In other news, ThinkChristian has a post on creavolution. AIGBusted mentions an atheist supporter of Intelligent Design. Jake Bouma points out an article about Richard Dawkins and religion. RJS blogs about the age of the earth. Steve Martin has a post on Adam’s historicity. Heather Wax posts on Saving Darwin. Chet Raymo as always has interesting thoughts on religion and science. Chris Tilling also touches on creation and evolution. And there’s much of interest at The Panda’s Thumb. Carmen Andres shares the new Battlestar Galactica 4.5 trailer and Star Trek trailer. Crypto-theology has a video clip about alien intertextuality.