There are three reasons why academics seek publication in journals. Firstly, academics seek publication to further their career. This might sound mercenary but it is simply a fact of the trade – if you want a job in academia then you have to get published, if you want promotions then you have to get published, if you want research funding then you have to get published. Secondly, academics seek publication out of academic interest – they want to know stuff, they want to know the stuff that other people know (and they quite like to show other people how much they know). Thirdly, academic publication serves a purpose for the laity. Not directly, of course, because academic journals are not written for a popular level, but indirectly, academic research trickles down to popular level. This is not, necessarily, a good thing. The conclusions of critical scholars were the basis of the liberal theology of Anglican seminaries. But, all other things being equal, researching something leads to better conclusions than not researching something; academic research can have a positive influence on the laity. And whenever one has influence, one also has responsibility.
This raises interesting questions for the Christadelphian scholar. Anyone attempting an academic career will have to try to get published. And anyone who has persevered long enough to be in any sense a “scholar” is probably the sort of person who will pursue academic interests for their own sake. But does a Christadelphian scholar also have a responsibility to influence the laity?
The EJournal is one outlet for the Christadelphian scholar. It will not help him or her achieve an academic career. But it is a useful forum for pursuing academic interests and trying out ideas and hypotheses. Yet the EJournal is not just a talking shop for a handful of people who really, really, need to get out more. The EJournal is also a way of sharing academic research, with a Christadelphian perspective, with those non-scholars who have a scholarly interest.
However, more than that, can the Christadelphian scholar hope to influence those outside the community? Can he or she, in some small way, input into the academic discourse through publication in mainstream journals and thus, in some small way, have some influence? The answer to this question has to be tempered with humility. Even a titan of his or her field does not have unilateral influence and there aren’t many academic titans in our community (the late Brother Wilfred Lambert was genuinely a leading light in his field – Assyriology). But even a meagre influence is still influence. And where there is influence, there is responsibility. What that responsibility corresponds to in practice is a far more complex question.
10 Years of the Christadelphian eJournal of Biblical Interpretation