Philip Sumpter is currently doing a PhD at Cheltenham, but long distance from Bonn, Germany. Earlier this summer an acquaintance forwarded me a Yahoo group thread in which Phil got into a short discussion with Philip Davies over the significance of canon for biblical studies. This caught my interest for a variety of reasons which I won't go into here.

I noticed last week that Phil has started a blog, entitled Narrative and Ontology, and that he is embarking on a discussion of Childs' work, among many other things. He has already sparked quite a discussion! I see today that the first installment in the promised series was posted over the weekend. It's titled: Introducing Brevard S. Childs…

It's a busy time for me just now—final year PhD stuff: moving into a new flat this last weekend, looking for jobs, building the CV, and all the while attempting to write up and revise for submission—so it's hard to say how involved I'll get. But I do look forward to seeing what he has to say.

Last week, after I ventured too long an explanation of my thesis to my aunt and uncle, my uncle recovered from the semi-conscious state I had induced just enough to ask how many would read my work. ("Ten?" I guessed. "Excluding the examiners, if I'm lucky. And eight of them won't like it.") The question reminded me of some of the hazards of specialization. To cope with this, it is tempting to imagine that you're not just isolated with this highly specific knowledge, but that it makes you unique. Maybe, you think, I put the special in specialized. For instance, I have wondered before if I was not the youngest person to have made a project of reading through Childs' entire corpus. Obviously, if the conditions are framed carefully enough, most people can earn distinction in a given area, if only for themselves. But—and here's the point—it probably isn't true. Even Elijah had to be shown that there were 7000 left in the land.

So I am pleased to discover that others are interested in this topic. Good luck moderating, Phil.

UPDATE: I couldn't resist. See my additions to an already overlong thread here (then John's response), here (John's response again), and here plus here (with a third response), then here. Meanwhile, Phil moved ahead with the next installment. But it's time for me to get back to work.

Tags: Childs