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Suggestion Box

September 18, 2010 in blogging with 9 Comments

Over the past several weeks we have had a number of interesting discussions here–interesting, in large part, because I wasn’t doing all the talking! The thread about Mary Magdalene and Mary the washer of Jesus’ feet has raised some important questions of how the Gospel writers write. I think that will be its own post in the next couple of days. The thread about the word “evangelical” keeps going as well with some important issues raised that I’ll jump back into today.

Several of the best conversations over the past month or so have been generated by folks asking me to write about something that I hadn’t otherwise thought of. So, this is suggestion box time.

What do you want to hear about, talk about, fight about, work through together on this blog?

One person asked for something on the righteousness of God (what does it mean, how do we orient in the current debate?), so I’ll be hitting that in the next couple days. But what else do you want to talk about? This is your blog, too.

FYI: Blog Roll Feed in Effect

September 8, 2010 in blogging with 8 Comments

In case you didn’t notice, I have added a blog roll feed to the side bar. It will apprise you of the latest posts in several categories of blogs that I more or less follow. I’ve enjoyed having the more active indication of what’s new among those whose blogs I might want to read, and hope you’ll take advantage of it.

Right now, I only have “biblioblogs” looping through. I’ll add a few more links there and also be adding other categories in the near future.

If you feel that your blog has been or might have been unduly excluded from my list, feel free to let me know about it in the comments and I’ll see what I can do.

Buyer Beware!

September 6, 2010 in Academia, blogging, Church, Culture, Humor with 0 Comments

There’s all kinds of crazy crap out there on the internet these days. Egads!

In one recent blog post, Bob Cargill suggested that people should disagree agreeably and possibly even share a beer afterwards! More than that, he claims it’s happening! I’m not sure how trustworthy such a fellow could possibly be.

In another blog, Joel Watts has concurred with the notion that Lady Gaga represents the blurring of the lines between porn culture and pop culture. Then he goes so far as to suggest that Christians help their children find alternative icons.

Be careful friends. If you don’t, you might just find some intelligent stuff on the interwebs.

Parable of the Bloggers’ Feast

September 2, 2010 in Academia, blogging, Humor with 8 Comments

Once upon a time, there was a king who gave a feast. Though the invitations were sent, the honored invitees declined. They preferred their brides, their fields, their sundry other obligations. And so the servants were sent out into all the highways and biways to compel all whom they could to enter.

At the feast, however, there were two problems. First, an unexpected and honored guest arrived. This compelled all who were seated unduly to shift their seats down. Their glory reach had exceeded its grasp.

Then, indeed, there was the problem of one-too-many guests. And so the master called forth the lowliest and said to him, “You are not properly adorned for the feast. Go out, where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

And when the teacher gathered with his disciples, they asked what might be the meaning of the parable. And he answered, saying, The meaning of the parable is this:

There were once those who were invited to the Top 50 Biblioblogs for August. And yet, there was a grave oversight of the Storied blog that should have appeared at position 29.

When the honored guest arrived, there was a needful shuffling of those beneath him. And #50 was thrown out into the cold, reinforcing said lowly blogger’s sentiment that there is never one objective meaning in the text, least of all a top 50 blog list.

Why Blog? Further Reflections

August 21, 2010 in Bible Thoughts, blogging, Culture with 5 Comments

Way back in January, when I launched Storied Theology, I posted a few thoughts on why I got back into blogging. Having been in the saddle now for eight months or so, I have a few more reflections. I think it’s good for our theological debates and it’s a wonderful source of continuing theological education.

Ben Myers recently published an article in which he processes some of the dynamics of blogging as theology. I commend it to you.

My own experience with this world of biblioblogging is that it has been a great way to more quickly become part of the biblical studies community, especially with other young New Testament PhDs. When I go to our annual conferences, I know dozens of late-20s to mid-30s scholars and/or scholars in training. I have gotten to know some of their work, and am able to have conversations about theological and biblical topics both online and offline due to the relationships that this medium has helped create.

The positive relational angle also manifests in the debates themselves. I take my recent exchange with Dan Wallace to be a case in point. I’ve never met Dan, he just popped up in my comments a couple days ago. We’re in the process of hashing out some differences over Jesus, the Law, and the nature of biblical authority. This is a low-key, non-polemical context. In the online world I don’t feel so much ownership of my position that I couldn’t change based on the discussion. It’s not peer review and doesn’t need to be.

The blogsphere is broadening how I develop relationships with biblical studies colleagues whose feedback and challenge makes my own thinking better.

And this bleeds into the second set of points. The blog is great for Continuing Theological Education (CTE). And I mean this in two directions.

One is what I’ve just alluded to: it’s good for my own CTE. People challenge my thoughts and my thoughts become more articulate, or my positions change, or I learn about a resource I was previously unaware of. This also happens in the process of writing itself, of course. But as often as not the place I learn or have my perspective shifted is in the push-back or extensions of the thought that happen as you, the reader, jump in on the comments.

But one way that I have been more excited about the CTE angle recently has been from the presence of former students on the blog. One challenge we biblical scholars face is that everyone comes into our class knowing how to read the Bible and what it says, and we engage in this lengthy process of trying to reframe thinking, to give new theological constructs, to transform our students’ imaginations.

And, believe it or not, even with a superb teacher such as myself, sometimes this takes longer than one 10-week quarter.

One exciting thing I’ve seen on the blog over the past 8 months is students continuing to come around, to wrestle with some of the big-picture ideas and how they work out in he details. The blog becomes an on-going post-classroom experience in which I can keep the educational conversation going–and where a number of students have shown that their understanding of what I’m up to (for good or for ill!) is continuing to crystallize.

And so, the blog must go on.

Why Blog?

January 16, 2010 in blogging with 9 Comments

In a follow-up of sorts to the “what is a / my blog?” discussion I want to say a few words about why I’d engage in this sometimes confusing, muddy enterprise.

The short answer is that I believe the Bible is important and that I have something to say about it.

A story: A couple of years ago I found myself driving my brother’s car from our parents’ house in Concord, NC, to Durham, NC. Two hours and change. Since my brother is an InterVarsity staff worker, he has edifying and helpful things to listen to in his car, so I found myself listening to talks from a Willow Creek Leadership Conference. One talk was about leadership.

The guy giving the talk offered his take on the two indispensable qualities of a leader: “leaders are optimists, and leaders have an ego.” I was a little disheartened when I heard this, because despite having more than my fair share of ego, I’m not usually accused of interpreting the world through rose-colored glasses. Dangit.

But then he went on to explain what he meant: leaders are people who believe that there is a better future ahead and that they are part of it. Oooh, that was starting to sound closer. In the words of Cornell West, “I cannot be an optimist but I am a prisoner of hope.” And in the words of Thomas Wolfe (the older one!), “He was so bitter with his tongue because his heart believed so much.”

I want to put my thoughts out there for the world because I do believe the Bible, and God’s people who read it, have a bright future. And I think I have a role to play in seeing that future dawn. I blog because I believe there is a better future ahead and I’m part of it.

But even that is probably not enough to bring me back into the blogsphere after a 5+ month hiatus.

One driving reason that I return to blogging is because of the global character of the church/mission of God. Blogging is a way to both “give away” what might otherwise only be purchased through books, magazines, or tuition dollars and to engage in a conversation that embraces more voices than any of the community spaces I or my published writings can physically occupy. Numbers aren’t everything, but in the first day this blog was up and running I had more readers than I will teach in one year in Fuller Seminary classrooms. Yes, I blog because I believe that I am part of the better future ahead, but I also blog because I believe in the world-wide nature of the “you” who also have a role.

The third and final reason I blog: I am more theologically creative when I am constantly thinking about what I want to share with this world-wide community. My next couple books have had their seed as blog posts, which sometimes show before I’m fully aware where there is a cluster of issues I’m passionate about. The next several articles I want to write are all the fruit of putting some musings on the internet, getting some – from my readers, and continuing to wrestle through the issues.

So I’m back. And for now, my desire to say something, to say it in dialogue with the world, and to keep my sayings fresh are enough. Thanks for coming along for the ride.

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