I suspect that there is no serious scholar who doesn’t like to watch television. I’m just the only one who confesses.

–From an interview in The Paris Review

Following on the heels of the announcement made by ESPN magazine that they are contemplating a “no cloths” issue in which athletes will be photographed nude while certain parts will be discretely obscured by hockey pucks, helmets, and the like, Christianity Today has just announced that they are not planning an issue of this kind.  Here are their very comforting words:

not in the works anytime soon: an issue devoted to nude theologians covered only by commentaries and manuscripts

No offense but the prospect of seeing Jürgen Moltmann or N.T. Wright in the buff gives me the willies.

I had quite a funny experience while doing some work on the handout for biblical reference works that I previously posted about.  A friend mentioned that I should include a technical commentary series like Anchor or Word.  So, I went surfing for links to the publisher’s pages for these resources.  While on the Thomas Nelson site, publisher of the Word series, I saw that a person named Frank Peretti was listed as the author of the 2 Kings and 2 Samuel volumes.  I had not heard of this person and thought it was strange that someone I didn’t know of was writing for the Word commentaries so I followed the links on the Thomas Nelson site that led to Peretti’s “official website.”

I found out that Peretti has sold over 12 million fiction books–which is probably about 11,999,500 more books than I will ever sell (my mom will buy a few boxes to pass out to her friends).  However, I also found out that he studied film and screen writing at UCLA and then dropped out to work at a ski factory.  My head was in a tailspin.  I thought–how on earth could this guy be writing a technical commentary?  The cognitive dissonance was amazing–I didn’t think it was true but there it was on the publisher’s website.  So, I went to Amazon and found out that T.R. Hobbs was the real author.  Here is the screenshot of the Thomas Nelson site for your amusement (notice even the link to Peretti’s website at the bottom of the pic):

Frank Peretti writer of technical biblical commentaries

Hmmm, looks to me like Tiamat cut in half and her blood spilling out to form human beings…

See the controversy in NYTimes piece.

I’m compiling a handout for some classes this semester entitled, “Biblical Studies Reference Works Every Pastor Should Own.”  Here is a draft of the handout and I’d be very interested in your suggestions.

At some point all of us suffer from the dreaded malady called ‘Writer’s Block.’  The symptoms include a sluggish brain–empty of any ideas of publishable quality.  It is as if we have a cinder block on our shoulders instead of a brain, hence the term (nice midrash, huh?).  Not to worry, there are a few remedies and, thankfully, none include a co-pay:

1. Get back into the primary data.  I find that when I spend some time way from reading texts in the original languages, sifting through the musings of those engaged in manual labor (otherwise termed ‘archaeologists’), or squinting at some arcane tablet, I start to run out of publishable ideas.  However, within half an hour of jumping back into the data the steady stream of questions to solve starts flowing.
2. Read thoughtful but provocative people.  Once I have some new ideas sloshing around my head a million agreements or objections spring up faster than kudzu.  Also, try doing this with scholars that are outside your field–often times trends in other disciplines can impact you own areas.
3. Take a walk.  If you are just hitting your head against the wall and nothing is happening then take a break.  Go outside and walk around the block.  If that doesn’t work take a mental vacation: mow the grass, retile the bathroom, weekend in Paris, whatever–the goal is to give your mind a rest so that when you come back to writing you are fresh and ready to go.

Do you have any tips on how to generate ideas for writing?

A friend sent me this quote from Mark Smith’s Untold Stories. Doubtless I’m preaching to the choir but here it is anyway:

Scholars of Ugaritic and Bible should continue to insist on a rigorous knowledge of primary sources even as the discipline engages recently developed methods. . . . . By the same token, the research of specialists or nonspecialists alike legitimately deserves criticism if it does not exhibit knowledge of primary sources.  A field lacking basic professional standards is by definition not professional, and failure to invoke such standards surrenders its identity as an arena for rigorous research.  (page 223)

Bibles that publish the original languages with glosses underneath are sooooooo 20th century.  Here is a web version of an interlinear.  I’m not a big fan of interlinears because they give a false feeling to beginning and intermediate students that they understand what they are reading, nevertheless, this resource might be helpful in some cases.

Raymond Westbrook was Professor of Near Eastern Studies at Johns Hopkins.  I have personally benefitted from his work and he will surely be missed.  Here is his bio on the Johns Hopkins site as well as a long list of his fine publications.  May his memory be for blessing.

Is it just me or is California starting to sound like AIG?

Local governments will lose millions of dollars that are used to build housing, among other purposes, and the state plans to borrow roughly $2 billion in property taxes from localities, which would have to be repaid within three years. Lawmakers believe that cities and counties could in turn borrow against that borrowing; localities bankrupt or nearly so would be exempt.

via NYTimes