I’ve written this post many times in my own head. I’m the kind of guy that should not be blogging.
1.) I have no real clue what I am doing.
2.) It has too way much potential to come back and bite me. Jim West’s warning continues to ring in my head. [Should I have a warning label with any link to West’s blog?]. But see this response.
In response to these two posts, I’d say I’m in a totally different league. At best I’m an aspiring E-Rate scholar (not as much to lose).
- A – Big names who really are great.
- B – Big names who make you wonder how they made their names.
- C – Those who are really smart, hold their own, write a few books, but are not big names (at least not yet).
- D – Those who are on the way, doing things as they are supposed to be done, publish a few articles, etc.
- E – Guys who enjoy study, bumble along and are working towards their PhD.
Still, in some of the circles I move in, someone could hold something I write here against their own litmus test of orthodoxy. I’m gambling on the fact that most of them won’t know what a blog is.
3.) I’ve been a chameleon all my life. Liberals think I’m more liberal than I am. Fundamentalist think I’m more fundamental than I am. Pentecostals think I’m more Pentecostal than I am, and so on. I just hope my dad never stumbles across this blog. I am sure to be disowned ;-).
3.) It’s better to be quiet and considered a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. I’m not a particularly sharp thinker or eloquent writer (or spellr). My brain always seems to be on tape delay. I just try work with what I’ve got.
4. There are way too many blogs in biblical studies and personal life that will always be far better.
5. Most of my subjects of interest are interesting mostly to me: my dissertation topic, the latest antics of my kids, and any recent news article that struck my fancy. So specialized that no one cares. But maybe that’s my saving grace. (See West’s warning post again.)
So why start?
- I’ve got thoughts that feel like they could use a somewhat-structured outlet? (Whether anyone actually reads it or not.)
- to spare the e-mail inboxes of all my friends?
- to help me think and write better?
- to end the hypocrisy?
So here goes a half-baked start. We’ll just see where it goes and how long it lasts. When it peters out, I’ll shut it down.
The best way to learn is to start trying. I’ve heard it said somewhere that you learn more from your mistakes than your successes. Let the trial and error begin.
So much for disclaimers.
Confluence: Ben Byerly's Muddy Mix 
Well I look forward to what you have to say. Who knows, we might even list you on Biblioblogs…..
😉
Jim,
I suspected you’d be the first visitor. (It’s only fitting for the Boss Tweed.) I’m a long ways from Biblioblogs ;-). Thanks for checking in.
He’s also the one who’ll be showing everyone else where you are. Welcome. What’s your dissertation topic?
Yes, how about you start with a series on that, you can intersperse it with all the other stuff, but people are usually most interesting “talking” about things that they are passionate about…
Those were kind of the same thoughts that were running through my head when I started writing maybe one post every week or so back in March of 2007. Most of them came out of discussions I was having on the Atheists v. Christians Google group. When I tired of that and decided to discuss theology again with theologians, I began to write more. But I started because I always have thoughts in my head that I never write down so I lose them. So I figured why not have a place to record some of that stuff and perhaps get the insight of others once in a while, or more often. So I took the Log idea of Blog literally.
Hey Ben,
I wish you well with this. Blogging’s a great way to practice writing and engaging in discussion.
[…] As for me, I think I know what I want to do – at least the general context, who I want to serve, and the types of things I want to be doing. On the other hand, I know the downsides of the job market. In a previous job, I worked with several PhDs who were basically doing glorified administration. It struck me then that I was already doing administration, though at a lower lever, and that made me wonder whether the sacrifice of time and money was really worth it. Let’s face it; PhDs in biblical studies are a dime a dozen; PhDs in New Testament are especially common. A provost of a seminary once told me that for every NT position they advertise, they get well over a hundred applications. (OT was more like 30; many were pastors looking to come return to academia.) In my program here, six of us are doing NT; only one is doing OT. (The translation department on the other hand has four candidates doing OT translation; the other is studying the metaphor of light in both the OT and NT.) As a result, it was a little tough knowing that by choosing NT, I was basically killing any real job prospects. I’m not that good. […]
[…] the muddy mix A year ago today I wrote my first post (a half-baked beginning) on kind of a lark. Now that I plan to suspend (in about a week till I finish my dissertation), I […]