My Take on Biblical Studies

I always suspect that people who slugged their way through a doctoral program in religious studies and then turn their eyes to studying the differences between the heretics and the orthodox end up siding with 'the man' (= the great Church) not because of some 'modern conspiracy' but because doctoral candidates necessarily have to cultivate 'ass-kissing the man' as a cardinal virtue. No one gets to be a professor through repeatedly plucking the laurels of his teachers. Hence the heresies don't get a fair shake from 'the man' and the 'new men' cultivated by a program of placating the authorities. The heresies saw the man and said 'f*** you' in some form or another. Not so with new recruits into the university. So the readings of the 'the man' are inevitably 'true' or at least better than the undisciplined and unwise sectarians who refused to acknowledge the authorities for their own advancement. Just what I think ...