What About Peer Review? Prof. Goodacre Weighs In
I have been working on a long and detailed post about the issue most often raised the past ten days from the academic community regarding the “Lost Tomb of Jesus” film–that is, the matter of Peer Review. I have received the most blistering, even insulting e-mails, thankfully from only a handful of scholars, chastising me for participating in this project that was not properly “peer reviewed.” I should add that I have also had many more private messages from academic colleagues around the world who have quite another view, many of whom choose to remain silent for now, probably thinking they should not write and speak about the Talpiot tomb based on a week or so of press reports and Blogging wildfire.
I was quite pleased to see today that Professor Mark Goodacre of Duke University posted on this very topic on his most influential and respected site: NT Gateway Weblog: Peer Review and the Tomb. Mark and I have neither spoken nor consulted in any way on matters related to the “Tomb” subject, though I know we have kept up closely with one anothers posts. Mark shares some of the perspectives I plan to discuss in my own more extensive post on the subject that I hope to have up by the weekend. In the meantime I highly recommend Prof. Goodacre’s considered and thoughtful post.
Not to be flattering here but Prof. Goodacre’s input into the Talpiot tomb discussion has been a model of “sanity” and reasonableness in the BiblioBlogging world. He has also carried posts, comments, and links to a group of scholars who have contributed balanced and informative input to the discussion, such as Richard Bauckham, Jack Poirer, and Stephan Goranson. I commend him for his high standards of respectful exchange and dialogue when the level of slander, personal rudeness, and incorrect information has filled the Web and printed page to an overflow.