What madness you speak! What would happen if scholars actually tried to write to people without PhDs?! Would the world be able to cope if scholars, other than those of the fundamentalist variety, wrote academic books for non-academics? That would be crazy! Next you'll probably ask pastors to try and communicate with people who don't want anything to do with church. Madness...its all madness!
It's too often the poison that gets popularized.
Yeah, I saw this cat on the Daily Show. He was a decent interview, but his rhetoric made it sound as if there was a textual variant that would confirm the Da Vinci Code. Communicating with the unchurched masses is one thing, marketing to them is another. How is the book?
I have not read the book he is now promoting all over the media, but I have read some of his other works, including his intro textbook and some of his technicial text critical work. In a sense, one could argue that Ehrman's greatest strength and weakness is one and the same. He makes a strong case for the theological meaning behind text variants. It has helped to reorient the field as scribes are no longer seen as automatons. On the other hand, discerning theological intent behind something as enigmatic as a textual variant must be conducted with a great deal of caution.
Commenting by HaloScan
