Draft criteria for inclusion in biblioblogs.com blogrolls

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

Comments

[danielandtonya]

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

[JohnFH]

That's very true, D & T. Your proposal is worth pondering.