Roland Boer was kind enough to take the time to respond to my thoughts on his initial post about the critique of idolatry in Isaiah. I do want to respond to his new post, but I really don’t have time today. So for the moment let me just say that Roland’s response is basically the reason why I like the blogosphere and engage with other people in this virtual space. This is an instance where a well-known and established author and scholar has taken the time to engage in discussion with a second year doctoral student. And it’s not like I’m Boer’s student or anything. We don’t even live on the same continent. Additionally, his response is measured and considerate, which it certainly needn’t have been (being a scholar and being impolite are, unfortunately, not mutually exclusive). I still don’t really know how blogging fits in with my broader academic life, but at least one of the reasons that I like it so much is that I get to engage in discussions with exceptional minds. So, thanks for the response Dr. Boer, I’ll give it a think.
October 20, 2009...9:24 am
More on Idolatry, but Not Really…
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3 Comments
October 22, 2009 at 9:10 am
hey! where’s the link to the family blog?
October 25, 2009 at 5:43 pm
Hey Colin, let’s not get carried away with the academic pecking order – well-known and established and all that stuff. I’m too much of a marxist to think that any of that is important (and universities are far too full of people trying to scrabble over others for some dubious status). Good ideas and good discussion are what count.
October 25, 2009 at 6:21 pm
Ha! Roland Boer, the only academic alive who’s insulted by being called “established.” Sorry man, once your list of publications extends over two pages and you’ve got books in several major academic presses, “established” applies.
But, hopefully being established and having good discussions aren’t antithetical to one another. And yes, boo to pecking orders. How can you tell I came up in a province still saturated with the legacy of Tommy Douglas?