The Biblioblog Top 50 has posted November’s statistics and this blog managed to just crack the top 100 at position 99. If I was silly enough to install Alexa on my own computer I’m sure I would push it higher .

I am making a list of blogs which either have a specific focus on a particular book or author of the Bible. This doesn’t mean that they blog only on that particular book or author, but rather just that they are quite knowledgeable on it and give some good blog posts concerning it. I am making this list with the intent of putting it in the sidebar. Please feel free to add some more in the comment section. There must be a lot more out there that I  am missing! Here is a preliminary list:

Genesis – Hesedweemet

Psalms – Psalterium

Psalms – Bob’s Log

Wisdom – Parker’s Mood

Job – Sufficiency

Galatians – Epistle to the Galatians

The Pastoral Epistles – The Pastoral Epistles

James – Agaphseis

James – So Much For Straw

Hebrews – Polumeros kai Polutropos

Revelation – Revelation is Real

Revelation – CafeApocalypsis

Earlier today I noted that the Biblioblog Top 50 Minions were checking out whether or not to categorize bibliobloggers by political preference, very liberal to very conservative.

But alas, they had a change of heart in spite of certain people’s efforts to squelch dissenting opinions.

A victory for the people?

Truth and Peace,

Rod

[Updated]

Jason Staples

Loren Rosson

Bill Heroman

Yes.

I once again find myself on the dissenting opinion side of things. I know. Just feel this large rash of guilt for having dissenting opinions.

Yesterday, the three Presidents of the Biblioblog nation posted about them considering to once again label and order us bibliobloggers. First, it was the academic standing, from the elites to the lowly laypersons. Now, its time for the bibliobloggers to join tribes according to how liberal or how conservative they are.  I find it both suspicious and the labels unhelpful.

I do not know about any other nation’s politics, but here in the United States, the terms liberal and conservative are used more as polemical terms, to place complex persons and thinkers in a box. I identify myself as a libertarian, but only for theological reasons as I have expounded in several posts. But, a couple of years ago, I would not have accepted that label. It was through rigorous study and intellectual growth that I slowly came to political libertarianism. Who is to say that I will not change? If bibliobloggers change religious and/or political preferences because of some deep intellectual insight, or change their mind on a particular issue that may make them conservative to one person’s liberalism, how shall Biblioblogger Top 50 folks keep up with them? No one stays the same over a period of a lifetime; we all change, even if we do not change belief systems, we probably change the way we uphold our beliefs.

Also, as Jason pointed out, what about those persons who are inconsistent in the view of many? There are some folks that I have read that they are conservative in their methodology, but liberal in their worldview, and vice versa.

I am also afraid that there may be more hostile emails sent bibliobloggers’s their blog is labelled liberal, and the reader is disappointed to learn that the blogger may not hold all of the traditionally progressive views one might consider liberal. I am speaking from experience here. In the past, I have received hateful and ill-informed emails and blog comments from persons who did not appreciate my body of work just because I supported politicians they did not like or held positions that ran contrary to theirs.  Labels are a very dangerous thing to throw around,  and do a disservice to the uniqueness of each individual.

What would be helpful then, if labelling of political/theological perspectives would help in the Biblioblog Top 50 searches, maybe the Jim’s Minion’s could email each biblioblogger asking for what would the bloggers label themselves. If we were allowed to name ourselves for who we are as bibliobloggers, then it would be far less invasive and far more democratic as a process.

Truth and Peace,

Rod

Mike Fox, over at Fox’s Wanderings discusses “Scholarship as Worship”

I personally don’t think academic study and worship are mutually exclusive. i talk to folks in biblical studies all the time who make hard distinctions between their academic work and their devotional study. i personally don’t want to do that, just like i don’t want to partition off my sunday behavior from my mon-sat behavior.

Along with Stephen and Chris Heard as well as Joel , I did have some concerns initially about the officialization of the relationship between the Biblioblogs and the Society of Biblical Literature. I had a feeling that there was going to be a re-establishment of some hierarchy of knowledge and ordering of blogs according to the number of degrees earned or the number of years in the profession, something of the sort.  And now, from that one small step toward hierarchy, yet we have another larger step as we are now ordered by “academic qualifications.” Let’s call a spade a spade; I know what academic elitism looks like. Being in the academic realm, laypersons and students who have a heart for ministry really are on the margins.  Practical concerns are eschewed in favor of questions of theodicy or the ancient origins of sacred texts. I am becoming much more aware of the separation of academy and church (or religious institution) where the select priesthood shuns those with who work with ordinary people. It was my hope that the Internet (“The Great Equalizer”) and the blogosphere would best serve bridging the divide between “Athens” and “Jerusalem” but instead we have made it an extension. My blog is one of the ways I see my scholarship becoming accessible to those outside of the academy. I can only hope that this trend halts before we see a decline in dialogue in interaction between scholarly blogs that are up there and the yeoman/yeowoman blogs which remains with the peasantry down there.

Truth and Peace,

Rod

Mike Koke of The Golden Rule has posed some interesting questions about Christianity and its complicity in empire building:

Postcolonial critics consider the Bible to be both part of the problem and part of the solution; the biblical message of liberation is far more complex and indeterminate (117).   So what do you think of postcolonial criticism, given that the Bible is the product of people living under different imperial regimes (Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Greek or Roman)?  Has Christendom, often alligned with imperialism and colonial expansion, missed the critique of Empire found in the Bible in the Exodus, the call to justice in the prophets, the message of the kingdom of God or the confession that Jesus (not Caesar) is Lord and Savior?

I think Mike has given a basic grasp of postcolonial studies and its relationship to religious scholarship. For more, check out his post Bibliobloggers and Postcolonial Criticism.  Fellow Brite Divinity Schooler Rob Reid has also made a valuable contribution as well with his Bibliblobber Challenge and Towards Defining Imperial Critical Methodology.

Pour surprenant que cela puisse paraître, il n’existait pas jusqu’à il y a trois ans de rencontres régulières des personnes intéressées par les problématiques particulières des fonds anciens.

Depuis, l’association BiblioPat a été créée et elle organise pour la troisième année en collaboration avec l’enssib les journées Henri-Jean Martin, rendant hommage au grand historien du livre.

Ces journées d’études possèdent un double avantage. D’une part faire le point, à travers un certain nombre d’interventions, sur quelques thématiques ayant trait au patrimoine écrit. D’autre part réunir l’espace de deux jours des professionnels de ces matières afin de créer une sociabilité à la fois utile et agréable.

La première demi-journée était dans un premier temps intitulée “à quoi bon numériser ?” (et finalement “Quelles stratégies pour la numérisation du patrimoine ?”), tant le paysage peut paraître flou et la situation embrumée aux professionnels.

De nombreuses bibliothèques ont numérisé une partie de leurs fonds, sous des formats différents (mode image/texte) avec des différences plus importantes encore en ce qui concerne leur visibilité et leur inclusion dans l’Internet (protocole OAI, moissonabilité, etc.)

Parmi les quelques interventions auxquelles j’ai assisté, je voudrais revenir sur celle de Noëlle Balley (désormais NB), parce qu’elle m’a paru emblématique de ce qui se passe actuellement. Je résume très rapidement – c’était plus drôle en vrai, il y avait de la vie et de l’humour.

L’histoire se passe à la bibliothèque Cujas – mais pourrait se passer à n’importe quel autre endroit. Avant l’arrivée de NB et du directeur actuel, il est décidé un plan de numérisation : les très belles collections de cette bibliothèque héritière de l’ancienne faculté de droit de l’université de Paris en valent la peine.

Il est décidé de tout faire en interne, grâce à un fort coûteux scanner acheté pour l’occasion. Ceci devrait bien se passer car, en parallèle, la bibliothèque devrait être pôle répliqué du programme Persée. Et enfin, la bibliothèque veut agir sans mettre au courant les autres bibliothèques de ses menées – pas même la BnF, gros numérisateur.

Or, en quelques mois
*ils apprennent qu’ils n’ont pas été retenus pour le programme Persée (normal, ça se fait dans ma bibliothèque, gniark, gniark)
*le scanner est un peu décevant sur certains types de papier
*ils apprennent que la BnF compte numériser/a numérisé la majeur partie de leur corpus

C’est alors qu’un nouveau directeur arrive et que NB se trouve chef de projet avec comme priorité de définir une nouvelle stratégie de numérisation, reposant sur
*une ouverture à des partenariats (surtout avec la BnF)
*un élargissement thématique des documents (notamment des documents pédagogiques)
*un recours à des prestataires extérieurs pour les documents antérieurs à 1830 (mode image et saisie de la table des matières)

Le centenaire de Jean Carbonnier et le colloque afférant sont l’occasion d’un grand chantier : la mise en ligne des polycopiés de ses cours. Cela nécessite l’accord des ayant droit du juriste. Mais surtout, une correction intégrale par des humains de l’OCR afin d’obtenir une transcription parfaite. Le résultat est en effet très bon mais le coût élevé.

L’étape suivante est la numérisation de classiques de l’histoire du droit (du XVe au XIXe siècles) à partir d’une liste de 428 titres établie par deux professeurs et surtout la participation au projet de la BnF en tant que bibliothèque spécialisée.

Je passe sur les détails d’organisation en terme technique ou d’équipe. L’expérience est finalement une assez belle réussite mais un choix initial malheureux a obligé à un bricolage permanent alors même que les conditions de la bibliothèque Cujas sont optimales (spécificité et légitimité reconnues, soutien de la direction, moyens financiers, bonne culture informatique…).

Un retour d’expérience fort intéressant, donc, en ce qu’il illustre à la fois ce qu’il ne faut pas faire et la manière de sauver un projet bien mal engagé. Mais si ce type d’exposé pratique est utile aux professionnels, pourquoi ne pas les offrir systématiquement et en temps réel ?

Cela ne pourrait-il pas tout simplement prendre place sur un blog ? Il faudrait juste pour cela décider qu’il n’y a pas de honte à avouer ses erreurs mais au contraire les faire connaître aux autres pour qu’ils n’en commettent pas de semblables (ce dont a eu le courage NB aujourd’hui).
Manquerait peut-être alors le côté relationnel. Mais là encore des outils existent : oserai-je dire que j’ai l’impression de mieux connaître certains conservateurs que je n’ai jamais croisés que sur Facebook ou Twitter – où l’ambiance est à la fois sympathique, créative et laborieuse – que certains des collègues de ma propre université ?

On aimerait en savoir plus sur ce qui se trame partout, afin que les partenariats soient plus aisés, que chacun bénéficie du travail des autres, que les idées circulent et les bonnes pratiques soient connues. Les rencontres Henri-Jean Martin montrent toute l’importance de ces pratiques : continuons toute l’année, parlons, collaborons !

I have decided to extend the deadline for submissions for the Patristics Carnival.  This is due to the fact that I have a two week long Ephesians 6 battle with TCU’s IT department.  I will accept entries as late October 8th, 2009, with a conservative goal of posting the carnival the week of October 11-15th 2009.

The guidelines will remain the same as Phil’s modest proposal entry in November 2006 and August 2007.

Remember you can offer submissions on the carnival site or the dedicated e-mail (patristics-carnival@hotmail.com)

I look forward to hearing from you all.

Truth and Peace,

Rod

I rock!

Last month’s Biblioblogger rankings came out a few days ago, and I’m currently #16 of some 300+ blogs! And I don’t even believe in Jebus!

In August I was #69, so that is a pretty good advance. I guess given the “bad” publicity from the horrible cartoons I post, one can only say that “sexism sells”.

But who was #1?

I dunno, some guy. No one important.

AND… I made a major leap in the Technorati rankings too. I broke 200,000 (by a little bit) a week or so ago, but I just checked a few minutes ago and I’m up to 152,732!

WOOT!

So, what do I normally do to celebrate life’s little victories? Why, I turn on the stereo and listen to a little jazz, and in particular, female jazz singers. Hell, even when they are singing tear-jerkers, they make the world seem like a decent place.

So, who should the celebratory Slinky Jazz Babe be?

Emilie-Claire Barlow

Visit her website at www.emilieclairebarlow.com or her myspace page.

I’ve got three of her albums, and they are all great.

2007, The Very Thought of You.

2005, Like a Lover

2009, Haven’t We Met?

On her website, there are four other albums dating back to 1998. Must see to getting them.

So, lets have some music!

Emilie-Claire Barlow performing All I Do Is Dream Of You – Live on Canada AM. Featuring Reg Schwager on guitar, Kelly Jefferson on sax, Ross MacIntyre on bass.

Ain’t nobody here but us chickens.

Oh yeah, Dr. Jim is going to take over the world.

As a relative newcomer to the Bibliobloggers list I have noticed that there is a good bit of wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth over one’s ranking, with Jim West’s “blog” with its totally depraved name firmly entrenched at the top spot since the historical Methuselah was in nappies.

I’ve had the Atheist Blogroll badge on this site for some time but for whatever reason, never got listed there, so I’ve sent an email to get it all sorted out, so I am on the list now, too!

So, what are the relevant numbers?

As of right now, 9:25 am (Mountain Standard Time, well, we are still on Daylight Saving Time) Sunday Sept. whatever the heck it is, here are the figures:

Atheist Blogroll: 989 blogs.

Bibliobloggers: 553 blogs. 342 in the main list and 211 others on related topics.

The Atheists win!

If you are one of those atheistical heathen pagans and you blog about it, sign up with the winners! Go to Mojoey’s Deep Thoughts blog for more details.

EDITED TO ADD: Since I first posted this, not only did I get listed on the Atheist blogroll, but some others did too, so now the number is up to 999! Gwan, sign yerself up!

~~~~~~

Unfortunately, WordPress doesn’t let one add the whole blogroll. So I just cut and paste the whole darn thing here for your surfing convenience.

The whole darn thing. No, I did not count them.

Well, what the heck, I might as well jump in on the discussion about the SBL’s granting affiliate status to Bibliobloggers.

One of the SBL Bibleblogging badges.

This is a move championed by Jim West (see the announcement here) and objected to by a number of other bloggers including Chris Heard and Alan Lenzi.

Lenzi has felt that his objections to the plan were serious enough that he wanted his blog removed from the informal “Bibliobloggers Top 50” list.

Needless to say, this being the blogosphere, the opinions and disagreements are not altogether polite on the larger issues and the fallout is a bit ugly. More needless would be repeating it all here. There is a lot of backstory, I think, some behind the scenes issues and I don’t pretend to know nearly enough of it to judge anyone.

In the end Lenzi has quit blogging, although I hope he reconsiders as I think he has a lot of good stuff to say on the ancient Near East and the Bible.  I was just getting ready to jump into the conversation that was starting around his comments on myth and the Bible that I largely agreed with.

I have been wondering where I stand on the matter of me and the SBL blogging community, and like so much else, I’m in two minds on it, neither of which might be very clear on the matter…

Shamelessly stolen bandwidth from http://public-domain.zorger.com

I am listed on the Bibliobloggers website.

I’m not sure how I got there, though. I don’t remember actually asking to be included (although given the summer I’ve had, that might have happened). I think I made a few comments on other blogs and someone put the Thinking Shop forward. I’m not sure what Bible Bloggers find interesting about this … well, whatever it is.

Stolen from Savage Chickens: www.savagechickens.com

Not that I minded being listed of course, but I don’t really blog about the Bible all that much although lately I have been bitching and whining about the state of biblical scholarship.

I am a member of the Society of Biblical Literature although sometimes I wonder why. I’m not exactly disgruntled, but I’m not fully gruntled either.

On the one hand, I understand the questions some folks raise about the issue SBL bloggers. What defines a biblioblogger? Who has the right to speak for bloggers-a fiercely independent bunch? In his latest (I hope not last) post, Lenzi writes:

First, I learned about the affiliation between the SBL and “Bibliobloggers” led by Jim West (note the capital letter in “Bibliobloggers” in the announcement and the announcement refers to this as a group with members) on Chris Heard’s Blog. There was a lot of confusion about what the affiliation meant, who were members, why Jim West was the leader, etc. because few of us knew anything about the plan except what we read in the announcement.

I did share some of these concerns although I was pretty quick to add the bibliobloggers badge. After reading up on some of the issues and coming to the conclusion that I like being rather independent I removed the badge (which actually replaced the regular bibliobloggers badge so neither is now displayed). I’ll stick it back on eventually. I like the Top 50 list, some good links and its rankings are all in good fun.

I didn’t remove the SBLBlog badge out of spite for anyone involved in the project (I’m not judging Lenzi, West or anyone here). I don’t intend on stopping to blog about the Bible by any means (not that I do much of it anyway).

My attitude is more a positive and hopeful “wait and see”. If there are sessions at the SBL on Bible blogging that are interesting I might attend if they don’t coincide with sessions I am MORE interested in. See the latest travesty of scheduling that clearly shows the SBL is out to get me *makes whipped puppy eyes*.

Blogging is now a significant way of sharing ideas and many Bible bloggers produce posts that display high academic standards. I suppose I should try to emulate them…

Just how the medium of blogging can be best utilized by academia is certainly a valid point of discussion for SBL. Needless to say, its limitation and how other disciplines regard blogging are also points worth talking about seriously.

So why don’t I keep the badge? Well, for starts, at this point I don’t have anything much to say about blogging itself. I really don’t know much about it. I can stick some cartoon and sleezy pictures and rambling text on the interwebs, but that is about it. Its full potential is really beyond me.

Likewise, I don’t think to much about the different venues for academic thought. I sort of take for granted journals, monographs and edited volumes, go to conferences and so forth but don’t really engage in a lot of academic media metacommentary, so anything I have to say on those issues won’t be very useful too anything else.

www.coxandforkum.com. Great cartoons, check 'em out!

Needless to say, the liklihood of my presenting a paper or an oral blog post at the SBL biblioblogging sessions are about nill. But some good might come of the SBL blogging bunch, so I don’t think there is any point to burning bridges.

But since I won’t participate in the sessions and can’t even guarantee that I would attend them, there is no point my displaying the badge here.

I’m still undecided whether this is Bible blog or not. I’m not going to write here what I can, with a good bit of extra work, get published in a peer reviewed journal or edited volume. Yet, there might be a number of points worth bring up that might be worth posting all the same. As I’ve said, lots of people make some very serious posts about Biblical interpretation and I’ve learned a lot from some of them. Perhaps I should emulate them…

BUT WHY? Does one’s whole life have to be so damn dreadfully serious? Blogging is fun and it is nice to say “F*** off” to political and academic correctness once in a while.  I like the idea of blog carnivals, but blogging itself is something of a carnival to me: an inversion of usual social conventions and restraints.

At this point, having read the word “carnival” and knowing how much of what passes for humour on this site is based simply on word association, much of Dr. Jim’s usual audience is eagerly anticipating a picture of a 9/10s naked woman parading around with a bunch of feathers or so some such accoutrements (holy crap, I spelled that right on the first go, didn’t I?!) on the streets of Rio. Ok, who the hell am I to disappoint the punters?

If it can be put on the streets it can be put on a blog…

Well, that’s enough for now, methinks. Back to our usual programming…

I haven’t done a great deal of work on Hebrews, in fact I know very little. Yet, while reading it today several things stood out.

The date of composition from what I deduced from an “Introduction” and a quick search is between 60 CE and 95 CE. At 12:4 there is a mention of persecution, though “not yet resisted to the point of shedding your own blood.” But there is no mistake, there has been some persecution (10.32-4) against this community. So perhaps, the date is more between Nero and Domitian.But what I am interested in is the role of Judaism in this text and how their notions of it might be protecting them from this persecution.

Also I am wondering about the images. They seem very Greek, and the focus on words at 3:1-6; 9:15-7. Yet this might just be because the author is interested in what it means to abide and what it means to construct.Here the angels might help. But I am not sure. I need to look into angels in Judaism.

Following several conversations with fellow graduate students, MA and PhD, I found that many of them don’t read the New Testament– even though it is their area. I was confused by this, so I pushed my question: “Do you mean regularly?” The answer shocked me.

None of them, and granted I only asked about 6 people, had read the NT cover to cover – ever. They had read the relevant sections for their work, or they had skimmed it when taking it in their undergrad NT course, but no one had actually read it or really picked it up since then. Now granted, I haven’t recently (in the last 9 months) read the NT in its entirety, but I have been working on other projects (i.e., this paper on memory).

Seriously? Graduate students aren’t reading the primary literature. So I asked my supervisor about a good reading schedule to use while preparing for my major comprehensive exam. I wanted to begin slowly just reading the NT so when I got into the massive amounts of secondary literature, once this paper is complete, I was (somewhat) fluent again. Her response was “That is a great idea, not many really, truly, focus on the NT readings.” Seriously! Though I am not entirely certain what “really, truly” means, I don’t want to push the question.

My reading schedule: 6 Chapters a day. No notes, just read. This will allow me to get through the NT in about a month and a half.

Greetings to all who have been reading me and to those who will stumble across this blog. I was invited to be co-author of Near Emmaus (NECT) biblioblog and I have accepted. ‘Love for the Logos’ will merge with NECT.

This week was supposed to be the launch of the first post on the ‘Nature of God.’ However, I did not anticipate my move and settling into Portland to be a big adjustment for me.

So, in conjunction with the merge of this blog with NECT, I will be beginning my authorship there with this series. Look forward to a discussion of Arian theology next week!

While I was away from my laptop tonight, Rob Kashow accused me of throwing out unfair accusations, then admitting that I was corrected, and not updating my posts.

Well, I was at a friends house, away from their computer and away from mine so I did not bother to update my post as of yet, but since Rob found it necessary to not only take a cheap shot at me but also the content and title of this blog, I guess I do owe Polycarp a formal apology.

Joel is correct. I was found in error. Joel was having a discussion about why the numbers game, the rankings of the top 50 had lost the sense of enjoyment, and I swept his post under a rug and with my rant, condemned it as if he were saying something else. I enjoy reading Joel’s blog and his insights on Christianity and politics among other things. His posts are usually the first I read in the morning, to be honest.  I in no way intended my rant as a personal attack against Joel or Mike. I just wished that there also be the serious side of blogging taken more critically, what it means for one’s career, or even one’s Christian witness, as Joel was trying to point out I guess.

In any case, I am prone to error and restricted by my own limitations (both self-imposed and social re-inforced), but that should not stop me from be held accountable by my fellow sisters and brothers in Christ. I stand (or sit, as which I am right now) corrected.

Truth and Peace,

Rod

Joel and Mike are mistaken.  There are times when one can have fun when blogging, but blogging as an academic is not for fun, and never will be entirely enjoyable.

Blogging as an intellectual hoping to become a professional student someday means taking a risk.  This risk includes time constraints (shouldn’t I be doing reading assignments for my independent study right now than being on both WordPress.com and Facebook.com?).  It means a risk of having intellectual property stolen; I mean, to throw out our ideas as if they were of no value would be ridiculous. It means risking the idea that you may be subject to criticism on any given issue or that you are altogether ignored.  There are some bibliobloggers who have the luxury to blog as much as they want because they have earned the privilege of tenured professorships, or maybe even lofty positions in the church or academy.  For the rest of us, the risk greater.  Administrators, ecclesial authorities, and professors at prospective PhD programs or clerical positions can just as easily reject or accept a candidate based on what she or he blogs about.

No, blogging is not always for fun.

Truth and Peace,

Rod

Joel’s toying with the idea of The Association of Unaffiliated Bibliobloggers. Of course, the irony is, once you join you are associated and 5 years later you will likely become so big that you will partner with SBL. And so, like the television series LOST, a continuous cycle of blogging organizations will continue.

If you haven’t voted yet. VOTE now!

Bienvenidos y bienvenidas a este blog creado de forma incipiente y sin mucha idea pero con la mejor de las ilusiones.

Como filóloga el objetivo de este blog es publicar y recibir todo tipo de documento relativo a nuestra literatura y todo texto ilustrativo o no que nos ayude a relajarnos, recrearnos en el placer de la lectura y nos provoque esa sensación de escapismo tan ansiada en algunos de nuestros momentos rutinarios. Esperando vuestras miradas… “Carpe Diem”.

Noted: Being a biblioblogger is nothing that was originally intended to institutionalized or formal.

Noted: The Society of Biblical Literature is a formal institution, a guild that legitimates biblical scholarship from, say, the random eisegesis of an individual pastor (who is allowed, to say, oh, be a biblioblogger).

There are so many questions to be asked and John Hobbins has a few of them.

HT: Mark Goodacre

Truth and Peace,

Rod