Subject: tc-list Scholarship

From: "James A. Gehman" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1999 12:50:18 PDT

TC-List:

I would like to bring before this forum a few questions about scholarship.  
Please see below concerning my reasoning for these questions and their 
relationship to textual criticism.

What is the essence of scholarship? (or, Is there a sine qua non of 
scholarship?  If so, what is it?)

What are the inherent values of scholarship?  (I am not referring here to 
methodology but its constituent elements).

What are the requirements to be a scholar? (educational background, formal 
training in the subject area, record of publication, adherence to one of the 
standard theories of the discipline, etc.).

What makes scholarship scholarship?

What are the criteria which distinguish between good and bad scholarship?

Do you know of any articles/books which deal with these issues?

<><  <><
Reason for questions:  I am researching an aspect of Venezuelan culture as a 
missionary in a course via Internet called Applied Research Techniques 
offered by Dr. Stan Nussbaum of Global Mapping International in Colorado 
Springs.  Since I am involved in theological education through a local 
seminary and the Latin American Theological Fraternity, this aspect (which 
is the lukewarm reception of the Latin American Theological Fraternity in 
Venezuela) causes a great amount of consternation on my part. On the one 
hand, I agree with many Latin American scholars that what we need is not 
more scholarship but praxis or concrete action in the here and now (see for 
example the writings of Gutierrez, Segundo, L. Boff, C. Boff, among many 
others).  On the other hand, I am not willing to give up my Hatch and 
Redpath, Patristic Greek Lexicon, etc. and hit the streets (caution:  I am 
not saying that the scholars mentioned above would give up their books 
either).  I am looking for a different approach to the problem by trying to 
identify the values of scholarship in the world-wide community and 
interfacing that with Venezuelan culture (by means of field research in this 
course).  I would like to see what values of scholarship are already valued 
in Venezuelan culture.

Relation to TC:  While these questions do not apply directly to TC, I 
approach this forum for a specific purpose.  Of all the disciplines 
associated with Biblical Studies, perhaps TC can claim to be the most 
scientific (i.e., empirical, repeatable, verifiable, susceptible to 
falsification, etc).  Either a certain variant exists or it doesn't.  
Therefore, it seems to me to be most appropriate to bring these questions to 
this list.

Thanks for your time and cooperation.

James A. Gehman, M.A.
Apartado 75304, El Marques
Caracas D.F., 1070-A
Venezuela
[email-masked]
[email-masked]
011 (582) 241-2834

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