Brandon Wason and I have been working on
draft criteria for inclusion in biblioblogs.com blogrolls.
In this post, we outline our proposals and a draft set of blogroll categories. Comments
are welcome.
Blogs listed will
be active blogs one or more of whose authors
(1) Is a member of a recognized
community of students and scholars such as EABS, Tyndale House, SBL, IBR, CBA,
ETS, SIL, AAR, ASOR, and AOS. The above list of communities is not meant to be
comprehensive in any way. Blogs will be listed when membership in one or much
such communities is acknowledged by the blogger;
(2) Blogs on issues of biblical
criticism and interpretation in interaction with a broad cross-section of
biblical scholarship 18x or more a year ([re-]start-up status factored in) –
after a 6-month hiatus, a previously listed “active blog” will be removed;
(3) Keeps a blogroll, a comment
function, and/or demonstrates commitment to link to and engage with other blogs
that touch on shared interests.
(4) Commercial, institutional and
associational blogs will not be listed until someone is in place to manage
such a list and limit it to true blogs.
(5 Anonymous blogs are not
listed.
(6) All blogs are listed by
category, multi-author and semi-anonymous blogs included, alphabetically by
blog name (title only, not subtitle).
(7) An aggregate blogroll of all blogs
will be provided, alphabetically by blog author (format: first name,
last name (if known); in the case of multi-author blogs, listed under the names
of at most 3 people;
(8) Blog categories are in terms
of primary focus.
There are many bloggers who enjoy
interacting with biblical scholarship but do not wish to contribute or get the
training to contribute to academic biblical studies and/or related disciplines.
When that is the case, it stands to reason that criterion (1) will not be met.
Criterion (1) is useful if the goal is to put together a list of scholars and
scholars-in-training who are also biblical bloggers. That is our goal here.
To be sure, non-academic bloggers
are sometimes more prepared on a topic than their academic counterparts. They
are often teachers in communities of faith, seminaries, and/or wider
communities (some members of the just-named categories, of course, pursue
academics at the same time). But, for reasons of their own, they have chosen
not to be scholars, that is, people who do dreary things like deliver papers at
associational meetings, contribute to peer-reviewed journals, and otherwise
write for academic as well as non-academic readerships.
Some of the best biblical
bloggers are bereft of academic pretensions. Conversely, some academically
qualified bloggers are known most of all for their dismissive attitude toward
those with views other than their own. This is the opposite of scholarship as
we understand it. “The Short List of Scholar Bloggers in Biblical Studies and
Cognate Disciplines” is not the list of blogs we recommend. It serves another
function. It is a measure of the involvement of academic bloggers in online
debate. A list of recommended blogs in biblical studies and cognate disciplines
might include some of the blogs in the list we plan to offer, and would include
others not on the list. For a comprehensive list of biblical bloggers, see The Biblioblog Top 50.
Blogrolls by Category: A Draft Proposal
ANE & Mediterranean
Archaeology
Ancient Near Eastern
Context
Hebrew Bible / Old
Testament
Judaism of the Greek
and Roman Periods
Ancient
Mediterranean Context
New Testament
Early Christianity
Bible Translation
History of
Interpretation
Reception of the
Bible in Literature, Film, Music, and Art
The Bible and Modern
Ideologies
Generalists
Serious Fun
John,
Might we suggest expanding 'Bible Translation' to something like "Linguistics and Translation'? There are a few bloggers (like you, Mike Aubrey, Steve Runge, and us a little bit) who offer linguistic insight into biblical texts that don't have anything necessarily to do with translation.
D&T
Posted by: danielandtonya | November 01, 2009 at 10:52 AM
That's very true, D & T. Your proposal is worth pondering.
Posted by: JohnFH | November 01, 2009 at 01:00 PM