For the past several years (while not blogging regularly), Chris Gerhz has graciously allowed me to do some guest posts over at The Pietist Schoolman (25 to be exact). So since I am only committing myself to a minimum of one new post per week here at The Hermeneutic Circle, I thought I’d take some time to revisit some of those previous guest posts. My last (and I believe my most popular), was an open letter to David Barton. It was a rant, I admit; and I’m somewhat embarrassed by it. I’m not usually that sarcastic (except with friends and family of course.) But I was up late suffering from a bit of insomnia and perhaps feeling a bit bolder (and certainly grumpier) than normal. Here’s how it started:

Maybe you can clarify something for me. Why do you continue to insist that because you read primary sources you have a unique voice when compared to professional Christian historians like me, who you say fail to make use of original sources?

I am hardly the first to be annoyed by this, but suffice it to say this is utterly incomprehensible to me. Primary sources are to historians what hammers are to carpenters; what keyboards are to composers; what language is to writers. They are the tools of our trade, the most basic implements we learn to use …

You can read the whole thing here.