A reader writes,
Jay:
It occurred to me the other day that a great way to begin getting a systematic progressive theology put together would be to start a theological wiki.
For those unfamiliar with the term, a “wiki” is a website that allows multiple authors — even the general public — to add posts to create a large body of knowledge on the internet. The classic example is the Wikipedia, which allows anyone (nearly) to write articles for the online encyclopedia.
What if something like this were attempted for the progressive Churches of Christ? Good idea?
(I assume we couldn’t open authorship up to the general public. What would be the point of seeing articles re-written every 5 minutes as competing factions try to get their preferred theology posted?)
Any point in such an effort? Who should be allowed to post? Who gets to be an editor?
It's a great idea, as long as I get the final say. 🙂
Seriously, though, don't most of us feel somewhat that way? If the wiki comes out saying several things that you have real problems with, will you want to say that you were a part of it?
One solution, I guess, would be to allow multiple viewpoints on each issue. Or would that defeat the purpose?
Grace and peace,
Tim Archer
You mean like this: http://www.theopedia.com. I haven't read through the site protocol, but I have referred to it occasionally.
I would not see a problem with having multiple viewpoints for each entry. In fact, I would think that would enhance the benefit because it then isn't just for people who think a certain way but allows a better understanding of differing positions.
Sorry, forgot to subscribe to the follow-up comments.
hppt://www.theopedia.com comes from a calvanistic point of view; however, it would provide a great ouline of how to accomplish our own "wiki".
A wiki is not a wiki unless it is at least somewhat open to public editing. If you’d like to publish an online theological encyclopedia, that’s great, but a wiki by nature should be editable by any registered user at least. Obviously this gets hairy when you have debatable and controversial issues being written about.