{"id":3219,"date":"2011-07-02T08:56:59","date_gmt":"2011-07-02T13:56:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/?p=3219"},"modified":"2011-07-05T06:10:27","modified_gmt":"2011-07-05T11:10:27","slug":"the-proto-blogger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2011\/07\/02\/the-proto-blogger\/","title":{"rendered":"The Proto-Blogger"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Scot wrote about Montaigne this week<\/a>, and I heartily agree with his appreciation of the inventor of the essay.\u00a0 I first read Montaigne as a freshman in college, and have been a fan ever since.\u00a0 \u201cOf Friendship\u201d is my favorite essay by Montaigne, in which he contrasts same-gender friendship with the father-son relationship, the brother-brother relationship, and the fires of romantic love.\u00a0 In contrast to the lattermost, he writes,<\/p>\n

Whereas in friendship, \u2019tis a general and universal fire, but temperate and equal, a constant established heat, all gentle and smooth, without poignancy or roughness\u2026<\/p>\n

Friendship, on the contrary, is enjoyed proportionably as it is desired; and only grows up, is nourished and improved by enjoyment, as being of itself spiritual, and the soul growing still more refined by practice.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Montaigne would have been a great blogger \u2014 in fact, I\u2019d argue that he was the proto-blogger, and his invention of the personal essay has evolved into what I and tens of thousands of others do every day on blogs.<\/p>\n

If you never have, I encourage you to get your Montaigne on!<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scot wrote about Montaigne this week, and I heartily agree with his appreciation of the inventor of the essay.\u00a0 I first read Montaigne as a freshman in college, and have been a fan ever since.\u00a0 \u201cOf Friendship\u201d is my favorite essay by Montaigne, in which he contrasts same-gender friendship with the father-son relationship, the brother-brother […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[331,566],"class_list":["post-3219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","tag-jesus-creed","tag-scot-mcknight"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Proto-Blogger<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Scot wrote about Montaigne this week, and I heartily agree with his appreciation of the inventor of the essay.\u00a0 I first read Montaigne as a freshman in\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" 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