Some links to follow

Here's my thoughts on human plasticity.

Mark Thompson has fired up his blogging engines once more and has a bit to say about John Webster and the Trinity.

David Hohne meanwhile gets all spiritual. Well, Jesus does.

Andrew Katay wants to stop hogging the leadership here.

Moore Blogs

I have had a go at aggregating as many Moore College student and faculty blogs as I can, and you can see them over right on my blog list. I think they give a fascinating insight into Moore College life and its joys and trials. There is some quality theological discussion and some very funny stuff. There is also stuff about food, about living in Newtown, and about hobbies, like craft.

To those student and faculty bloggers - the challenge to you is to keep your blog ticking over at least!

I am also starting a select Moore graduates list - so if you are a Moore graduate and blogger, send me your url!

Which Theologians would have made good bloggers?

Which theologians would have been successful bloggers? Or, which theologians do you reckon would have had blogs if they had been available at the time?

Luther - the pamphleteer and controversialist in Luther would have been attracted to the medium of blogging. He was a master disseminator of his own ideas using the printing press. His colourful language would have got him a seat in Australian parliaments. And he was quick on his feet. Perhaps verbosity would have got in his way.

Newman - A controversialist too, but with an acid tongue and an piercing application of sarcasm when needed. Aren't the 'Tracts for the Times' really just blog entries?

Augustine - a more ponderous thinker and not equipped for the brevity necessary for good blogging perhaps: but quite the controversialist and up for a good argument. You certainly wouldn't have wanted Augustine lobbing comments on your blog!

Tertullian - a master of Latin style, an orator and a lawyer. Great with the extended metaphor, and the wry observation. A little mad - it helps!

Broughton Knox - our local Aussie theologian never wrote much, but had a flair for the compact observation, the scribbled down note, the timely saying. Also a noted controversialist in the vein of a Luther. His piece on nude sunbathing in (I think) the Selected Works Vol 1 is a blog entry pure and simple!

Any others?

Anonymous comments...

Apologies for the loss of my blogging mojo of late... can't explain it. Must be the warm weather here in England...

Is there ever a case for making commenting anonymously on blogs/discussion boards and the like?

I admit, I have done it once or twice. But, as a rule, I think it is something a Christian person would not do. I think I am committed to the view that words attach to persons, and detached from them they lose their truth - or, at least, the reader of those words loses the opportunity to evaluate the truth of the words by the character and actions of the writer. Words are of their nature personal, and by anonymity become depersonalised, and unanswerable - a status no human word should really have.

The same would hold for writing anonymous letters: what is the case for ever writing one? What circumstances would justify it? How does anonymity transform it as a speech-act?

The counter argument would be that anonymous comment allows the vulnerable and the fearful to have a voice where they might not have. But even so, I would call these exceptional circumstances.

Blogging...

If you are any sort of blogger, you will have moments when you wonder about the medium and where it is all going... I admit to a faint embarassment when I admit off line that I have a blog. It is like admitting that you like to smoke... Because for some people contempt for blogs is stock in trade.

It is true that blogs contain some of the freshest ideas going... it is amazing what you can learn from reading blogs...but, also: I have never seen such undigested rubbish as I have seen on blogs. I have never encountered such nastiness as I have seen on blogs. In the old world, your average nutter was happily isolated. In the blogging world, your average nutter can actually find a whole community of nutters out there. Seeing some of the blogs that are out there reminds me that having a blog is no great achievement...

So, are we just going to blog forever, or what?

Sometimes I do wonder what is to become of all this blogging. It is such a new medium. What does it mean for how one is perceived, for example? When I meet people who say 'oh, yes, I have read your blog' I feel quite embarassed for some reason (maybe it is obvious to you readers out there!). I suppose it is because, even though this is a very impersonal blog as far as blogs go, they know something about me already.

I also perceive a certain contempt for blogging from older people, especially older Christians, who think (with some justification) that blogs are sinkholes for gossip and half-formed thoughts written by people who couldn't accept the discipline of publishing something.

And I do notice that when I encounter someone else who blogs a lot my first instinct is to say 'they clearly don't have enough to do at work!' I am not sure yet that having a blog is a way to be taken very seriously!

I am also conscious of the responsibility of the teaching office to which I have been called (in whatever way you understand it): that half-baked thoughts undermine the dignity of the calling somewhat.

Am we just supposed to blog from here to kingdom come? Is that it?

Some aphorisms about blogging

I have been blogging for a while now, and I feel quite the seasoned blogger. What have I learnt? Here are, I believe, some of the deep truths of blogging:

1. Typing out a quote without commenting doesn't count as blogging: it is just typing. [You know who you are...;-) ]

2. Writing an inflammatory blog in order to get a bit of discussion going can backfire, because people will think you are a grumpy person in general.

3. The state of one's blog is likely to be similar to the state of one's desk. Well, mine is...

4. The ideal blog entry is 200-350 words. Ask me to scroll down? You gotta be kidding.

5. In the blogosphere, the one principle that is a constant is vanity.

6. Lists work really well on blogs. So do series. I can't really do either.

7. It is possible to be really really obsessed about blogging.

8. The kids don't blog: blogging is a middle-aged (ie, over 21) thing. The kids do facebook and myspace, where they can post lots of pictures of themselves at drunken parties and type swears.

9. Sometimes it is sooo much easier to blog than it is to write a thesis; so much easier that I can end writer's block by tricking myself into blogging what I want to write. Copy-paste-done!

hey did you see this?

http://www.sydneyanglicans.net/mission/missionthinking/blogging_will_take_the_world_by_storm

The Art of Blogging

Ok, I have just realised some things about blogging.

Firstly, you have to keep your entries SHORT in order that people can have a quick look and get something. Fair enough!

Second, you have to be regular in adding to your blog, or regular users give up looking.

Third, you have to keep monitoring and engaging with discussions.

Have I got it?