I love reading and studying academic books. But not too academic. I am sometimes amazed at the ability of some scholars to add infinite layers of complexity to the simplest of subjects.
Below is a funny comic strip which illustrates this. Credit goes to Trevin Wax for finding this comic.
Maybe academics do this for job security, or maybe it is to impress people with their knowledge. I have written about this elsewhere.
Either way, I call such scholars and theologians “Academagicians.” They conjure academic positions and arguments out of thin air, just to wow their adoring audience. Often their ideas and arguments use hermeneutical slight-of-hand, with lots of smoke and mirrors. Frequently, they propose answers to questions nobody has ever asked.
The ultimate goal of an Academagician seems to be respectability within the academic community, and to create a sense of dependency among their followers who feel that they cannot hope to understand Scripture and theology without the help of the professionally-trained academic scholar.
Have you run into any Academagicians lately? What was your response to their conjuring tricks?
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