Jeremy Thompson Catholic PhD in Biblical Languages, Programmer, Runner

I will not be blogging anything of my own today considering I am working on my dissertation.  However, I did not want to leave you without any food for thought for today.  HERE is a link to a post by Chris Brady on his reasoning for not using the term “myth” in his series on Genesis 1-2.  I feel like I have been linking to Chris’s posts a lot here lately, but the series on Genesis has just been so good.  And, it has sparked a lot of dialogue with John Hobbins, Daniel McClellan, and now Alan Lenzi among others.  The recent dialogue has really brought out some important issues of how scholars should speak with general audiences.  When speaking or writing for a general audience, should scholars use the word “myth” and try to make sure that people understand that term properly (i.e. it doesn’t necessarily mean that something is false)?  Or, should they jettison the term because of misunderstandings that people have about it?  I have tended to use the term, but to try to make sure that people I am speaking or writing for understand it properly; however, I can understand the opposing view.