How many times has someone recommended a book or an article to you, saying, “This is the best study on this subject that I’ve found”? What do people mean when they say that?
Sometimes the person means that they held a different view prior to reading the study, but found the thoroughness and persuasiveness of the article to be so strong that they changed their view.
In a few rare cases, they mean that the author has done careful research and presented it extremely well, even though the reader remains unconvinced.
More often than not, it seems to me, the person means, “I found someone who agrees with me and expresses it well.”
What do you think? On what criteria should we judge the quality of a study of a biblical issue or text?
Hmmm…my spiritual renaissance came about primarily (though not exclusively) through reading and listening to N.T. Wright. Much of what he has to say wasn’t exactly news to me, but truths I hadn’t fully seen or which at some point had grasped in part but then lost. So, when I recommend any of his work to someone, I do it because I’ve been challenge and informed through it, but not because he said better something I believed fully before encountering it. Does that answer the question, or am I missing it?
No, Adam, I think you’re getting it. I was just reflecting how many times when I see someone say, “This study is the best I’ve seen,” I already know what the study is going to say because I know what the person believes.
Tim, I try (success questionable) to use the phrase both in terms of what I agree with and disagree with. For the latter, I recently read a book by Lee Camp, and while I disagree with some of his ultimate conclusions, I believe he argued his point so well I can whole heartedly recommend the book. For the former, I recommend Everett Ferguson’s work on baptism, not because he changed my mind, but because he is such a towering figure in patristic studies. I think the phrase “consider the source” to be appropriate. If a closed minded person tries to get me to read a book on a particular subject then I know without opening the book what it will say. Conversely, when another individual recommends a book I will order it without questioning, because I trust the individual’s broad vision.
BTW – I recommend your blog because it is the best study on just about any subject. ;-)
OK, Paul wins the brownie points today.
Tim…You wouldn’t be suggesting that some people are just intellectually lazy or apathetic enough to never read anything that might call into question what they believe? :-)
Any ways, I think Adam and Paul remind us that it depends on who is using the phrase as to what it means.
If I agree with you will I find myself in the same boat? I try not to recommend books beyond telling them it is what I am reading.