Wednesday, July 28, 2004
will bloggers be worse theologians
Further to the good comments by maggi and others here:
I think there’s a category of faith seeking understanding that is not explicitly aware of theological tools and theological history. This is a blog that describes themselves as a “postmodern pilgrim”; and they write Christianly about community or leadership or whatever.
They might not be a professional theologian like maggi dawn or steve garner, but they are wrestling with their pain (experience) or some Scripture or some culture or some bad tradition. This is still faith seeking understanding. This is still theology.
How do we couple the riches of the professional theologian and the depth of the tradition and the awareness that we are not the first kids on the block/blog to wrestle with community or leadership or whatever, with such widespread blogging reflection?
Blogs democratise knowledge. I am not convinced that democratisation will enhance theology, not because their is anything elite in theology, but because blogging can be a surface, skimming occupation that leaves less time to think and reflect.
So could blogs actually make poorer thinkers? Could they mean people skim and link more, yet know less? What does the democratisation of blogging mean for “professional theology”?
)
hi again steve. I started a comment here and it turned into a blog-post at my blog!
Comment by maggi — July 28, 2004 @ 9:12 pm
Steve,
Mad fat props on a blog with provocative, Spirit-churning stuff.
I’ve started a comment that’s turned into a post on my own humble blog. Thanks for getting me thinking.
Peace,
Evers
Comment by Evers — July 29, 2004 @ 2:37 am
Theologians, Spiritual Practitioners
A bunch of folks (here, here, and here) are talking about the next generation of theologians being bloggers. I’d like to spin this in a little different direction. I think that blogging can be very valuable for theologians, especially in
Comment by xphiles — July 29, 2004 @ 3:17 am
I don’t think bloggers are better or worse, blogs do things differently. Much better for exploring ideas, much worse for presenting a coherent “position”.
But it IS fascinating how your (and other people I’ve been listening to at AIBI) concerns “So could blogs actually make poorer thinkers? Could they mean people skim and link more, yet know less?” echo Plato’s Socrates in Phaedrus seem http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Plat.+Phaedrus+275a
Comment by Tim — July 29, 2004 @ 2:46 pm
Aagh, messed that up and no edit button for comments, sorry here is what I meant to say:
I don’t think bloggers are better or worse, blogs do things differently. Much better for exploring ideas, much worse for presenting a coherent “position”.
But it IS fascinating how your (and other people I’ve been listening to at AIBI) concerns “So could blogs actually make poorer thinkers? Could they mean people skim and link more, yet know less?” echo Plato’s Socrates in Phaedrus http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Plat.+Phaedrus+275a
Truely there is nothing (really truely) new under the sun, at least in terms of human attitudes, and our fears about what we will lose in gaining the new…
Comment by Tim — July 29, 2004 @ 2:49 pm
i see blogs more as an ‘in’ for people previously without any forum for theological discussion. I don’t see that they need be an ‘out’ for professionals who might otherwise have engaged in more rigourous study.
blogs make theological discussion available for poor (as in impoverished, not less-able) thinkers, who had no access to it before.
i don’t see how their input would diminish the ability of professional theologians to engage at the same levels as the always have, as well as at this new level. Professional theologians can still have conferences and study for doctorates and engage in private discussions. (In fact the net would make all this easier too…)
So, the people who had nothing now have more, and i can’t see that anything has been lost to the ‘professionals’…
perhaps democratisation just means that professional theologians have a participating audience. seems like if theology wasn’t reaching new people, it would want to find ways to do so.
Comment by kelli — July 30, 2004 @ 12:15 pm
oops. just realised how much of previous discussion/how many threads i missed before making above comment. perhaps this is exactly what you mean by ‘poorer thinkers’…
a lunch break is not much time to come properly up to speed and engage meaningfully a worthwhile discussion.
Comment by kelli — July 30, 2004 @ 12:35 pm
umnaqiy xbrjed.
Comment by Isaac — October 24, 2004 @ 1:49 am
Nice blog, just wanted to say I found you through Google
Comment by John Huron — November 5, 2004 @ 4:35 am