Reza Aslan's interview with Fox News drew a lot of fire, mostly against Fox News, but the very off-beat, defensive, and frankly unprofessional answer Aslan gave to a seemingly neutral question got me thinking - he does not know much about what he is really talking.
First, his claims of being a historian is indeed a misrepresentation of his academic credentials. As explained by this blog Aslan is more of a sociology thinker than anything. His insistence on being a historian is again shown in this interview with CNN.
Second, his doctoral dissertation is not based on any work involving the origins of the bible, and so he is not much qualified actually to speak on the matter. At best, he is a mere commentator in the true sense of the word. No has he studied the bible in all its aspects, linguistic, historical, sociological and theological. Indeed, he has not delved into the theological underpinnings of bible and its relations with the growth and development of Christianity.
It would have been better if he instead focused on Islam and the Koran. I have not seen any major scholarly Muslim thinker focus on the fundamentals of Islam in the same way that many Christians have done on the bible. A study of the Koran conducted in a dispassionate way would have helped in opening up the rigidity and inflexibility of the Islamic faith. This would have been a great opportunity to foster internal reflection on the underpinnings of a seemingly intolerant religious text in the same way that the reformation opened up the exclusive monopoly of the Catholic Church in the interpretation of biblical "truths."
Anyway, I don't find any interesting tidbits of wisdom that would come out of his book as better and more qualified authors have done a more thorough and comprehensive analysis of the bible, Christianity and yes, Jesus. Aslan has not conducted any thorough study of the aforesaid topics to warrant any new knowledge can be gained from a reading of his book.
Walang komento:
Mag-post ng isang Komento