Roland Boer's Blog, page 78

Obedient Little Slaves: Academics, Journal Rankings etc

Why do we borrow all the really bad ideas from England and send our good ones over there? I'm referring to the latest wank in trying to assess research quality - journal ranking. I haven't bothered much with this since I first heard about it, but decided to catch up. Now we have an entirely sectarian and arbitrary list of journals ranked:

A* (top 5%)

A (next 15%)

B (next 30%)

C (the rest)

It really is a futile effort to determine what will be important 50 or 100 years down the track. And as if new id

Chinglish in Shanghai

Apparently Shanghai is trying to clean up the Chinglish signs before the world expo next year. Shame, really, since much of the appeal will be gone - if they succeed, that is:

Theists and Atheists and Theology, or Pinning Me Down

A number of posts have appeared recently on theology, religious studies and belief. The Dunedin School fired one item off (here), Daniel Fincke at Camels with Hammers had go (here), and Missives from Marx wants to pin me down (here). That would be like trying to nail jelly to a wall, but I have put in a couple of paragraphs from an article I wrote recently for an edited book called Reasonable Religion, where theists and atheists discuss working on theology together. I'd like to see both possibil

Cairns or Canberra

Jim West (here) suspects I might be in Cairns, gluing up toilet seats so some poor soul gets his fat arse stuck to it. No, Jim, not Cairns (which is in the tropics), but Canberra, where I am beginning a visiting fellowship. No sticky seats here.

Tony Abott for Leader of the Liberal Party?

Over at Faith and Theology (here) is an abridged piece - really a literary laxative - by some baboon called Scott Stephens on why Tony Abbott should be the next leader of the Liberal Party. Apparently he has conviction. Doubtful, but in case he has, let's see what it includes.

The 'mad monk', as he is known (a conservative Roman Catholic) has a political vision that includes thousands of pregnant teenage mothers and starving unemployed.

First, when Abbott was health minister in the previous govern

Is that an RSL Medallion on Steve Hooker's Pants?

Is it (you may need to enlarge the image)? Hooker is of course the world champion pole vaulter, having won gold this week at the Athletics world championships in Berlin.



What's an RSL medallion, you may ask? Well, the RSL is the Returned and Services League of Australia - retired soldiers. Instead of medals on their chests, many of the men sport medals down below, especially after taking a leak.

Bultmann, phallic towers and feminism

I thought I'd gather the various pieces of a debate that only got half started. It deals with feminism and theological scholarship, beginning with a short comment from Christina in reply to my post on the 125-year celebrations of Bultmann's birth. Jim West organised a small blog-fest, I noted it a few days ago (here), and Christina left this short comment:

yes, what better way to escape the utterly depressing state of the world today -- by celebrating the one of the patriarchs of the phallic ivor

Back Scratching and Ego Stroking

There are some very nice people out there ...

Take Ben Myers, for example, at Faith and Theology, who has some generous things to say about my 'pugnacious' Calvin book, Political Grace: The Revolutionary Theology of John Calvin. The book was launched on Calvin's 500th birthday here at the Grand Hotel, in the smoker's room, in Newcastle. A few very bewildered patrons of my local watering hole were looking on. Here's Ben:

Roland Boer, Political Grace: The Revolutionary Theology of John Calvin (WJKP,

The Bible on the Ghan - 2011

Last January I announced the 'Bible on the Ghan', the first of what may well become a series of rolling conferences.

When: between April and May 2011

Theme: Biblical Journeys - in the widest sense.

The idea is for a group to meet for a few days in 2011 on the Ghan train, which runs from Adelaide to Darwin over about two and half days through the middle of the Australian desert. It's the red line on the map.


The Ghan has up to three private carriages: the Chairman's Carriage, the Prince of Wales Carr

Am I full of shit? Bob Cargill's work space

As I've said often, we are all full of shit - literally and metaphorically. The constipated among us perhaps even more so.
I'm touched that Bob Cargill, the archaeologist media tart, reminds himself of this truth every time he sits down at his desk:

(with thanks to Jim West)