Christian Historians and Social Media: Part One

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We had some technical difficulties with the screen

This past weekend I participated in a session on social media at the biennial meeting of the Conference on Faith and History. It was a great session and I had fun being a part of it. For those of you who were not able to attend, the participants in the session will be posting their short talks at their respective blogs. Today, session chair Jonathan Den Hartog has posted his opening remarks at Historical Conversations.  I will post my remarks here at The Way of Improvement Leads Home on Wednesday.  Chris Gehrz will post his presentation on Thursday at The Pietist Schoolman, and Paul Putz will share his thoughts on his personal blog.  Finally, on Monday Den Hartog will summarize the session at Religion in American History.

Here is a taste of Den Hartog’s remarks:

Further, this development of history and social media is reshaping academic practice and perception. There is a growing conversation about what to do with social media in the academic historical realm. Our conversation today is thus part of a larger conversation going on in other venues. For example…
*Last September (a full year ago–practically ancient history!), Heather Cox Richardson appeared on the blog of the (now-suspended) Historical Society to ask, “Should Historians Use Twitter?” and argued in the affirmative
*At the Organization of American Historians’ meeting last April, a panel considered, “Is Blogging Scholarship?”
*Similarly, at the American Historical Association this coming January, a panel will consider “Blogging and the Future of Scholarship.”
*But, if you miss that one, you can attend on the same week-end two panels sponsored by the American Society of Church History, with one entitled, “The Digital Humanities and the Study of Christianity in Late Antiquity: Reflections on a Disciplinary Intersection” and another entitled, “American Religion Online: How Digital Projects Can Change How We Teach, Research, and Interpret Religious History.”
Clearly, there is a conversation going on, that I believe we can add to.
Stay tuned.  Tomorrow this piece of paper will be turned into a blog post

RECOMMENDED READING

THIS WEEK: The Conference of Faith and History AHA session on Eugene McCarraher’s The Enchantments of Mammon Is revisionist history “fiction”? Yes, if you are a Texas conservative. Billy Graham to Richard Nixon: Satan was working through the Jews, but Hitler handled it all wrong FORUM: The New Shape of Christian Public Discourse

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