Failure to Respond (to Things Around the Blogosphere)

Failure to Respond (to Things Around the Blogosphere)

A few posts have mentioned me or linked to me recently in the interest of conversation, and having failed to respond in a timely fashion, I will take a first step towards rectifying the situation by linking back and at least acknowledging the posts in question.

Chris Brady mentioned me in a post asking about technology and its likely impact on the future of Biblical studies.

Also on a related topic, משלי אדם has a post about the future of eBooks and your library.

David Miller mentioned earlier conversations we had on academic freedom, statements of faith, and universities.

And on other subjects that interest me, Scot McKnight shares a message from a youth pastor wrestling with how to present issues related to creation and evolution to youth in his church. My advice is to be honest while understanding of the concerns of others. Allowing fear of controversy to silence you in essence allows the church to be controlled by the biggest loudmouths or the most intimidating bullies.

Ben Witherington shares a lecture he gave on the historical Jesus, which gives a more personal perspective on how he approaches the topic.

And finally, in the category of “this just in,” April DeConick just posted on her work to explore our traditional scholarly tools, figure out what criticisms of them are valid, and “refashion them, rather than abandon them.” She has also settled on a term for this: Transtradition Criticism. She defines it as follows:

Transtradition Criticism is an approach to texts, artifacts, and other cultural productions, which seeks to expose, explain and understand the production, meaning, use and transmission of t/Traditions within their historical fields of conversation. This approach is interested in investigating the dynamic interstitial spaces and networks between and across t/Traditions, exposing the politics of power and conceptions of the Other that support the structures of the t/Traditions. Transtradition Criticism is grounded in a pragmatic and embodied view of human beings as personal and social agents who actively and constantly (re)shape the t/Traditions to align with their experiences of themselves and their world. They are participants in personal and social conversations that support, create, modify and destroy t/Traditions.

That too gets added to the list of things around the blogosphere that I hope to join in conversations about, when things get a bit less hectic.


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