> >>The minimalist in me makes me lean towards option 1 -- I am not too
> >>keen on the multiplication of hypothetical documents and as a
> >>methodological principle like at least to begin by attempting to
> >>make sense of the data by means of the documents we do have.
> "Brian E. Wilson" <brian@twonh.demon.co.uk> then writes:
> >I wonder whether ** minimalist ** is not what is meant here, but rather
> >** minimist ** ? According to the New Shorter Oxford English
> Dictionary,
> >"Minimalism" is a political term to do with minimizing governmental
> >intervention in society. "Minimism" is used in theology and is about
> >minimizing a dogma or theory.
Marc Bauer:
> seriously, i may understand the word minimalist
incorrectly also. > not a theologian by study, but by living, i
simply explain my use of > minimalist by those more authoritative
than i. such as dever in his > recent group of articles in basor and
bar and such in dialogue with > reich and thompson. dever and shanks
both use minimalist and not > minimist. and this is an interesting
clarification, mr. wilson.
Yes, interesting. I have never heard of 'minimist' either: I will
look out for it. Of course what I meant was that as a methodological
principle I like to begin to analyse documents by means of the
documents we have. The second, sometimes necessary stage is to look
at the possibility of hypothetical documents. Often in scholarship
the second stage is wrongly prioritised.
Good wishes
Mark
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Mark Goodacre Tel.: +44 (0)121 414 7512
Department of Theology Fax.: +44 (0)121 414 6866
University of Birmingham Email: M.S.Goodacre@bham.ac.uk
Edgbaston Homepage: http://www.bham.ac.uk/theology/goodacre.htm
Birmingham B15 2TT World Without Q: http://www.bham.ac.uk/theology/q.htm