"Show Your Work" and Biblical Scholarship

 In the rhythm of the academic year, summer is often a time for me to reflect upon the craft of scholarship and/or teaching. I recently discovered a book called Show Your Work:10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered by Austin Kleon (thanks, Luke Tallon). While it is written for artists and writers, it wasn't hard to make connections with the craft of scholarship. Here are a few takeaways from the book, which I have translated into my world of biblical and theological scholarship:

1. Creativity is not the product of a lone genius. Great ideas, profound insights, compelling questions,  unexpected connections come from engagement with others (and not just in books). Good scholarship comes from social interaction. Kleon encourages us to make the most of collaboration, especially with the capabilities of the Internet. I would add to his observation that it is helpful to pay attention to the contributions and questions of non-scholars, things that people in the pews are interested in--sometimes they are asking the most important questions, and the ones that are discipline does not see.

2. Stop promoting yourself. Instead, do quality work and share your process. Be a good listener. Be genuinely interested in the work of others. Use the Internet (Facebook, blogs, Instagram, Twitter) to bring people along in your process and to connect with others who interest you. 

3. Send out something every day, no matter how small it is. Focus on days, not weeks or months. 

Find pieces of the process to share--images, quotes, ideas, questions. Give the "So what?" of your work. Small contributions, over time, become big. 

4. Share with others who is inspiring you, challenging you; who is making your scratch your head;  who has influenced your thinking and why. 

5. Tell stories.  Show how your research is connected to a bigger story. Explain why the research question is important to you, why you are looking at the particular texts that your are studying, how you go about the research journey, etc. Become a documentarian for your research projects. 

6. Teach what you know; out teach the competition; share trade secrets: let people in on the unique things that you know, that you have been trained in. Share how you work through a passage, perhaps prepare a sermon, or how you go about writing a monograph. 

7. Expect trolls--people will critique what you do, for a variety of reason, and not always in your best interest. Learn to take the punch; and don't waste your time with people who really aren't in it for a dialogue or with your best interest in mind.

8. Take time to step away from your work so that you can see it afresh.