SBL and Biblioblogging
Most likely many of you are aware that the announcement of an affiliation between the Society of Biblical Literature and Biblioblogs was not greeted with open arms by all individuals. While the conversation between those that were yea, nay, and on the fence was occurring I did not really have an opinion to add to the conversation.
So in the proverbial “Day late and dollar short” fashion I am going to offer my two cents after the dust has settled and no one cares… except for that one dude that quit blogging: he cares too much.
My SBL program came in the mail and I opened its pages and among the sections: SBL New Testament Mysticism Project Seminar, Underrepresented Racial and Ethnic Minorities in the Profession Committee, Adventist Society for Religious Studies, and others. You know: whatever, but definitely not my thing.
But two sections particularly caught my eye as relevant to the biblioblogging discussion: SBL Bible and American Popular Culture, and SBL Bible and Film Consultation.
It seems that the SBL has a prior interest in mediums other than the academy or commentaries in which biblical studies is represented. The internet and blogs can be reduced to medium and message in which some people trained in the discipline of biblical studies are disseminating ideas about biblical studies in the medium of blog posts.
To complain about a group of like minded individuals that may see this medium as a valuable tool for some sort of biblical studies gathering to discuss the use of that tool is as about as valid as me complaining about the section: SBL National Film Premiere! Finding God in the City of Angels: Scriptural Communities and Dynamics in Los Angeles (p 57). Do you know how I’m going to respond to this section?
I’m not going to go to it. There are some derogatory comments I want to make about it, but I’m going to leave it at: I’m not going. I’m becoming collegial and all!
Before complaining about the SBL biblioblogging affiliation might I suggest taking a full perusal through the SBL program guide. I think you’ll find that the SBL Biblioblogging section is more than a legitimate section among the many biblical studies conversations that are already happening at the convention; perhaps, more legitimate than some others.
See, now that just sucks… I initially misread that as “SBV Bible and Film Consultation.” I thought the long-awaited publication date had arrived, along with a really phat job in Hollywood — but it’s just a bunch of bible eggheads sitting around trying to impress each other: “Yes, yes… but did you catch the real christological importance of the final scene in Alien Resurrection? The militantly atheistic statement of the human-alien hybrid (stand-in for the adversarial view that Jesus’ “divinity” is inherently monstrous, and therefore his church is equally monstrous) being sucked into the vacuum of space (the ersatz triumph of science over religion) through the tiny perforation in the ship’s hull. And let me tell you, the Synoptic ‘eye of a needle’ reference there just cannot be ignored!”
Talk about your sucktastic let-downs…
LOL. “SBV Bible and Film Consultation.” Yes, we are all eagerly anticipating that day!
let’s not be hasty…
Good point(s) Scott. If you don’t like some of the conferences offered, then just don’t go. I wish I could go to the SBL annual meeting and attend the many conferences, but alas I will have to read the program and the publisher’s advertisements and plan on which books I’m going to buy. (You might know Larry Perkins, at ACTS – he is presenting. See 23-127).