Vorkosigan

The book was published by a skeptical publisher, Prometheus. Avallos himself is the director of the Committee for the Scientific Study of Religion.

Can't wait to see the reviews in Biblical Studies. If there are any.

michael

Gamera

I found Avalos' article incredibly naive and specifically take issue with the point on which you agree with him, above.

What does it mean to devote "disproportionate" resources to the study of certain texts as opposed to some others? Avalos assume, as you do here, that he or somebody has divined the appropriate amount of energy that should be expended on each text or category of texts, and that we should follow his lead.

That's a bit arrogant, and worse it's naive. Texts aren't inherently valuable --their value is determined by each generation in terms of what each generation finds interesting. Mediaeval Europe generated and reproduced thousands of saints lifes,which were gobbled up by the public for hundreds of years. Hardly anybody (besides mediaevalists like me) bother to read them anymore. And that's totally appropriate. They have little direct cultural significance to us any more, though their scholarly value persists.

The bible is a significant text because we're interested in it. End of story. So long as people are interested in it -- for whatever reason and from whatever perspective -- the texts of the bible remain meaningful and hence scholars comment on those text. That's what scholarship is all about.

In short, Avalos point is virtually incoherent as a scholarly statement, and as a proclamation of populism, he's lost before he even began -- the scholarly industry of biblical studies exists because of the vast popular interest in biblical texts (as opposed to say Gilgamesh or some third-rate Greco-Roman Romance).

Avalos's article is virtually a self-consuming artifact: nobody would be interested in it except for the fact that we are fascinated by biblical texts and the commentary they produce, which contradicts the very premise of Avalos' article.

Chili

I have always said that the best thing that could ever happen to N.America is to gather all the bibles into a windrow from East to West and burn them from West to East.

Clouseau

It would save millions of Americans from 'perjuring' themselves.

Chili

. . . and maybe also the lives of others who do not quite see it their way.

Chili

Most important here is that the bible must be prior to us by nature before it can make sense to us and that is is also very biblical ("eyes opened" and not just half open). Yet we read it with coriuous minds because it testifies on behalf of salvation and eternal things (Jn.5:39-40), that are not ours and will never be ours if we have even one eye asquint towards it (thief in the night).

Bible study is much like yeast in bread for pharisees and that makes the Gutenberg press the equivalent of a giant yeast factory. But of course, every once in a while we will see someone bundle some carefully selected bible passages together and on these will launch himself into midheaven from where he shouts urgencies to those down below that they may become his followers and do the same as he did . . . until finally he and each one of them will crash at the foot of the cross and there sing songs of patient endurance until they die nonetheless. You may read more on this in Rev. 14:6-12 but not 13.