Holy Blog Wars

PAUL HARVEY

Earlier on the blog we guest-posted Matt Sutton's counterblast of a review of Aaron Ketchell's Holy Hills of the Ozarks in Books and Culture, which included a reference to Matt's own (and more positive) review of the book in Christian Century; the comments section included some thoughts of the author of the book. Click above or scroll down to read.

John Wilson has responded to the post here. I've invited Matt to respond, and will post that here if he chooses to write something in return.

Coming soon: thoughts of Ralph Luker, Ed Blum, and others on the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and his relationship with Barack Obama.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Okay, I'm going to take John Wilson's post as a compliment to this blog, and indirectly even to Sutton, in that it makes a critique of a book review part of a spirited, ongoing conversation. Wilson reminds us that book reviews matter, and the stature of the venues in which they appear matters, even in a digital age. Maybe book reviews matter even more now, since they circulate that much faster and can often be read by anyone, not just those who subscribe to the specialized journals. I was so impressed that the editor of JAAR took an entire page of the journal a few issues back to note that a book review published earlier had been irresponsible, that the journal had erred in sending the book to an unqualified reviewer, and that a new review was forthcoming. I'm for everything that keeps the discussion of books open and alive, and I especially appreciate it that, though he appears to be in close agreement with Frederica Mathewes-Green on the merits of Ketchells book, Wilson urges us to go out and READ it. I'm eager to read Sutton's response to Wilson's rejoinder to Sutton's critique of Mathewes-Green's review of Ketchell's book. This is getting pretty meta, but I guess that's what the blogosphere is for.