squiz

Fascinating example of the academy at work. A real eye-opener, if you still think that the world of biblical scholarship is open to new or critical ideas.

http://www.bibleinterp.com/opeds/critscho358014.shtml

I found the encounter with Ratzinger (the future pope) to be especially interesting.

maryhelena

Sad, very sad.....:crying::crying::crying:

Celine

Sort of like meeting Dostoevsky's Grand Inquisitor in the flesh.

Sheshbazzar

Its a miracle! ...that anything intelligent ever manages to survive and filter through such institutionalised dishonest obfuscation and enforced stupidity.

Toto

Tom Verenna has published 2 parts of an interview with Thomas:

Part 1

Part 2

gurugeorge

Yeah it's quite chilling, actually. "a Catholic could not write this"

Catholicism, controlling minds since, oh, around 90 CE.

It's hard to understand unless you've been a Catholic.

It's so ... comforting.

stephan huller

In my opinion the real problem isn't that Catholics aren't interested in theses that question their inherited tradition but rather than secular institutions haven't rewarded and don't take enough interest in a great scholar like Tommy Thompson. It has always been amazing to me that someone like Thompson (whom I know through his wife who has published many things on the Samaritans) has been unemployed for so long. Nevertheless Thompson's efforts find just as much resistance in Jewish circles as Catholic ones (as the article points out). All of us should be more active in promoting and ensuring that scholarship like Thompson's is entrenched in public secular universities. It wouldn't take much to change things. I think that many of us get distracted from the real problem which is that a disproportionate number of religious people really care about the Bible. My father, who was an atheist never took much of an interest in these sorts of things. I am sure he is not alone. As a result, the people who 'really care' about the Bible end up controlling the agendas of universities beyond those institutions aligned with churches and organized religious bodies. That's the real problem. Everyone thinks that 'representing' various points of view proportionate to the population is 'being fair.' So you have a rabbi, a Christian, a Muslim and those critical scholarship is relegated to the 'slice' in the population that is represented by atheists, non-believers etc (10% or so if at all). This is absurd. Can you imagine if the departments of biology had 'representation' based on the numbers of people who believe in creationism vs. evolution, or the physics department by those who think that the reason why things fall to the earth is because 'that's where they belong' or on a 'big bang' vs. divine fiat. Nevertheless, this is the 'totally democratic' system we have created for higher education.

There is a reason why Plato argued for a philosopher king in the Republic. Democracy doesn't protect sacred institutions like learning. It exploits them

avi

Yup. the Danes rescued me too, back in the mid 1970's.....

avi

Doug Shaver

Thanks, Toto. Very enlightening.

hjalti

Then how can you not be horrified of the fate of Thompson, having heard the Danish language? :Cheeky: