DeVille Contra Bruenig

Time constraints prevented me from putting together a “Weekly Reading” post over the weekend. Had I been able to, topping the list of recommendations would be Professor Adam DeVille’s incisive critique of Elizabeth Stoker Bruenig’s article, “Fear of a Radical Pope.” (For my own critical comments on this rather troubling piece, see here and here). From DeVille’s piece over at Catholic World Report:

When I was a graduate student, a professor once said to me: “watch your adverbs.” I offer the same counsel here to Bruenig because her careless usage offers very fat targets ripe for ready rejoinder: wildly successful evangelism? Obviously superior approach? Relative to whom—the Westboro Baptists? Such lazy, tendentious and noticeably fact-free generalizations have no place in the writing of any would-be serious scholar—and the fact she’s writing for a once-popular magazine does not excuse this evidentiary burden.

Be sure to read the rest.

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