Over six months ago, I began this blog. I had just graduated with my Masters, moved to the Big Apple, and I was ready to put my theological and academic thoughts on the virtual table.
As I sat poised to publish my first post, I remember the slight tremble in my hand, thinking, “Am I committed to sharing my voice?”
It’s not that I can’t handle criticism. As an academic, I am continually judged on my performance, on an intimate and public scale. Everything I write in my scholarly future will be picked apart and examined by overeager graduate students, just as my classmates and I do now. My big hero in this regard is Dr. Christine Hayes. When she finished doctoral work and published her dissertation, the predominant leader in the field of Rabbinic Studies, Jacob Neusner, promptly published a book entitled, Are the Talmuds Interchangeable: Christine Hayes’ Blunder. If she can take that, I can handle anything.
But it’s the personal nature of blogging, of being misunderstood, of having no way to defend or clarify my thoughts once they are published that made me so hesitant to begin.
In my end-of-the-year big milestone reflection, I am astounded at the positive support I have had in my fledgingly blog project. I want to thank all of you who took the time to send me a brief tweet, Facebook message, or comment of encouragement over the last six months. Your retweets, shares, and engaging comments have made blogging an exciting adventure! And those of you who wrestled, probed, and disagreed, thank you as well! Your engagement challenged me to become better at writing, all the while shaping my formation as a scholar and theologian.
And to those who have ever disliked my posts,
If you think I am too liberal, it’s probably true.
If you think I am too conservative, that’s nothing new.
If you think I talk about faith too much, I normally do.
If you think I don’t talk about faith enough, you’re right too.
I started out wanting to write about my academic world from my faith perspective. And I don’t always do it well. I write out of the hurt and frustration of my fundamentalist background. I write from my scholarly space of suspending belief in order to interact with religious phenomena. I write from my place of faith, informing my post-evangelical worldview and my interaction with God. And most of all, I write with a deep love for this “religion” we call Christianity, diverse, inspiring, painful, and renewing as it is
I look forward to a new year of blogging, friendships, and long hours spent wrestling over issues of doctrine, identity, and faith. Because as the rabbis say, “I have learned much from my teachers, but from my peers more than my teachers” (BT Ta’anit 7a). Thank you!
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