Collegian Article

The latest issue of Butler University’s student newspaper, The Collegian, includes an article about my recent book The Only True God.

I was in two minds about doing the interview, since I’ve had some unpleasant experiences in the past. This time, I’m largely pleased with the outcome, with only one real exception: once again, the student journalist jotted down notes based on things I said, and from those notes constructed “quotes” which do not put things in exactly the way I would put them in my own words.

It is not the journalist’s fault, on this occasion. I mentioned my previous experience of being misquoted in the paper, and asked whether I could see the article and ensure that the quotes attributed to me are in fact my own words. I was sent a draft – which closely resembled what actually appeared in yesterday’s Collegian – and I made some corrections to some minor details as well as rewriting the quotations attributed to me so that they were not only the gist of what I had said when I did the interview, but precisely what I would say in precisely the way I would say it.

Hours after returning this to the journalist, I received a late-night e-mail explaining that it was not the newspaper’s policy to allow people to “change quotes” prior to publication. It doesn’t seem to me that it is “changing a quote” if what one is changing wasn’t really a quotation to begin with.

I wonder what actual professional newspapers do when it comes to quotations. I presume they either record the interview or ask for written statements from those interviewed. I am baffled by the fact that a student newspaper would have a policy so directly opposed to what I would assume to be the best practice in the profession, and would instead encourage its journalists to put their own paraphrases in quotation marks and attribute them to their sources.

At the moment I’m tempted to write a letter to the editor asking them to add a disclaimer on the front page of every issue, explaining that all “quotation marks” are in fact “scare quotes” unless otherwise specified. So obviously I’ll wait until I feel I can be less sarcastic before trying to address the issue.

But what I will offer here is an improved version of the article – with quotes that are actually quotations of me, my thoughts in my own words. The quotations from students have not been modified – obviously.

One of Butler’s professors celebrated the unique accomplishment of publishing a book this summer, even though he missed the book’s opening for a very common reason: he had the flu.
Dr. James F. McGrath, associate professor of religion, published his new book in July, entitled, The Only True God: Early Christian Monotheism in Its Jewish Context (University of Illinois Press). It is a topic that had been brewing in his mind for over a decade.
“I have been interested in monotheism in its earliest sense since I wrote my doctoral dissertation in 1998,” McGrath said.
In his book, McGrath analyzed early Christians’ view of God.
“Most people are aware that Christians developed a distinctive view of God, articulated in later times as the doctrine of the Trinity; but I wanted look at the question of how Christianity got there,” McGrath said. “This book investigates if the earliest Christians were monotheists.”
McGrath wanted to take a second look at this idea in the context of Judaism.
This was not the first time Dr. McGrath’s work has been published. His first book, John’s Apologetic Christology (Cambridge University Press), was published in 2001. His second book, The Burial of Jesus: History and Faith, was published last fall.
“This is a scholarly book and I hope it will impact many other scholars, researchers and teachers,” McGrath said, “however, I tried to write it in a way that anyone could understand.”
Some of McGrath’s former students offered comment on his teaching and the prospect of reading his new book.
“I took “The Bible” first semester of my sophomore year, and I felt that he was knowledgeable on the makeup of the Bible and its intent and purpose,” junior dance major Mary Priestly Jarrard said.
“I would definitely consider reading his book, because I respect him as a person and admire his dedication and would love to know any more information he has to share on a subject he is passionate about.”
Junior Mary Fowler Howell agreed that Dr. McGrath knows what he is talking about.
“Dr. McGrath knows the Bible well and his strength definitely lies in scholarly writing,” Fowler said.
McGrath hopes to spur discussion from his book, and writes a blog, Exploring Our Matrix (http://exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com/) that explores themes in the book further, as well as many other topics (including LOST – which is perhaps not surprising if one considers that Dr. McGrath will be teaching a class on “Religion and Science Fiction” next semester). He also maintains a separate blog dedicated to posts related specifically to The Only True God.
“I hope this book will foster interreligious dialogue and understanding. There are so many diverse forms of monotheism that have characterized people’s belief in God over the past several thousand years,” McGrath said.