Over this past weekend Neil Shenvi, self-proclaimed “apologist” and frequent contributor to The Gospel Coalition and the Council of Biblical Manhood and Womenhood republished his review of Kristin Kobes DuMez’s Jesus and John Wayne to X.
I'm listening to Jesus and John Wayne right now, and DuMez is so thorough in her writing. I've never heard of Shenvi before this (I'm not sad about that), but I immediately recognized how he completely missed what she was saying in the quote you used.
Since I have no knowledge of this man, I don't know whether this misunderstanding was unintentional or disingenuous. I have my suspicions which it is.
As a sidenote, I struggled before I settled on phrasing the misunderstanding as "unintentional or disingenuous." I traditionally question whether missteps are caused by incompetence or maliciousness, but I don't know this guy. That felt too mean. 😂
It’s difficult because there’s a whole swath of folks (who mostly write for TGC) who have essentially indoctrinated themselves see everything through a “worldview” lens and who apparently cannot take any media as a thing on its own. This tends to come off as either obtuse or stupid depending on the “review”
Thank you Jay. Shenvi’s critique is especially bothersome to me. He has no degrees in history or theology. Yet, he constantly belittles women.
He’s questioned my analyses of statistical and mathematical issues. Again, while I’m sure he’s had some upper level math with his PhD in theoretical chemistry, he still found it necessary to try to dismiss what I was saying about statistical matters because I was a woman with a Master’s in mathematics.
In his mind, I guess, I didn’t have the right equipment.
"What is worse is when there is no evaluation of either criticism, critique, or even opinion unless it is coming from someone ideologically aligned." -From my experience and observations it seems that to offer "criticism, critique or even opinion" leads in many cases to being labeled as ideologically not alligned. This effectively works like an immunity to the need to consider any criticism as valid.
Way to be hip and current, Neil. I've been ignoring him for the last five years, but it's kind of funny that while we were all talking about J&JW six years ago, he was trying to have the conversations about critical theory and Christianity that everyone else had in the 90s and 00s.
I'm listening to Jesus and John Wayne right now, and DuMez is so thorough in her writing. I've never heard of Shenvi before this (I'm not sad about that), but I immediately recognized how he completely missed what she was saying in the quote you used.
Since I have no knowledge of this man, I don't know whether this misunderstanding was unintentional or disingenuous. I have my suspicions which it is.
As a sidenote, I struggled before I settled on phrasing the misunderstanding as "unintentional or disingenuous." I traditionally question whether missteps are caused by incompetence or maliciousness, but I don't know this guy. That felt too mean. 😂
It’s difficult because there’s a whole swath of folks (who mostly write for TGC) who have essentially indoctrinated themselves see everything through a “worldview” lens and who apparently cannot take any media as a thing on its own. This tends to come off as either obtuse or stupid depending on the “review”
Thank you Jay. Shenvi’s critique is especially bothersome to me. He has no degrees in history or theology. Yet, he constantly belittles women.
He’s questioned my analyses of statistical and mathematical issues. Again, while I’m sure he’s had some upper level math with his PhD in theoretical chemistry, he still found it necessary to try to dismiss what I was saying about statistical matters because I was a woman with a Master’s in mathematics.
In his mind, I guess, I didn’t have the right equipment.
"What is worse is when there is no evaluation of either criticism, critique, or even opinion unless it is coming from someone ideologically aligned." -From my experience and observations it seems that to offer "criticism, critique or even opinion" leads in many cases to being labeled as ideologically not alligned. This effectively works like an immunity to the need to consider any criticism as valid.
Exactly
Way to be hip and current, Neil. I've been ignoring him for the last five years, but it's kind of funny that while we were all talking about J&JW six years ago, he was trying to have the conversations about critical theory and Christianity that everyone else had in the 90s and 00s.