Posts tagged with "Biblical Studies"

In which Morrissey responds to Kris’ question on the utility of linguistics

Kris asks: what is linguistics good for? Here’s what Morrissey has to say:

I’m not quite as pessimistic as Morrissey. I Kris’ question has layers to it. I believe those who engage in exegesis (a group to which I no longer belong) benefit from using resources informed by modern linguistic theory. I believe they would benefit from even more resources of this kind being available.

Moving to the next level, though, do I think those who engage in exegesis would benefit from studying the linguistic theory that may be behind the resources themselves? I think some knowledge is necessary for the sheer reason that it helps to understand one’s tools. But just how much knowledge of linguistics a exegete should seek, I’m not sure.

At any rate, if you have thoughts on the subject, be sure to visit Kris’ post and chat with him over there.

The 10 book meme – my version

This is my version of the meme going around on Facebook (not that anyone asked) to name 10 books that have stuck with you without thinking too much about it:

  1. Ecclesiastes – unknown
  2. Night – Elie Wiesel
  3. The Hound of the Baskervilles – Arthur Conan Doyle
  4. Introduction to Christianity – Joseph Ratzinger (or Truth Tolerance and the World Religions, both of which I read around the same time and had a significant effect on me)
  5. The Beak of the Finch – Jonathan Weiner
  6. The Neuroscience of Language – Friedemann Pulvermuller (close competitor – A Cognitive Exploration of Language and Linguistics – Dirven and Verspoor eds.)
  7. The Critical Meaning of the Bible – Raymond Brown
  8. The Count of Monte Christo – Alexandre Dumas
  9. The Lexical Approach: The State of ELT and a Way Forward – Michael Lewis
  10. Introduction to Biblical Hebrew – Charles Isbell

Now that the task actually has me thinking about it, this was pretty much impossible.