Thomas’s essay has appeared at Bible and Interpretation. It’s a very fine piece and worth reading for sure. The abstract asserts
The exchange between Niels Peter Lemche and Hector Avalos underlines the concern which many of us have biblical studies has had with critical studies. The self-censorship which governs the individual imagination of the believer also plays an at times prevailing role in the systematic mobbing with which so many professional scholars and university institutions influence our field by defining the limits of acceptability for the public expression of our critical thought. While this censorship is most apparently and egregiously related to perceived threats which such thought might pose for “faith,” such mobbing is also encouraged by political goals which are directly supported or threatened by religious traditions. The following account is motivated by hopes of greater openness and honesty in our scholarship. It was written in the course of responding to a request from the editor, Mark Elliott, that I expand on and clarify the conflicts and debates, which had surrounded the acceptance and publication of my dissertation. The account is personal and deeply rooted in memory. Its objectivity is limited by that perspective and, of course, the feelings associated with it. It is offered as but a single example of a still chronic problem faced by many critical scholars, a problem which, over the past 50 years has hardly ever been addressed by the universities, let alone such societies as the Catholic Biblical Association, the Society of Biblical Literature or the American Schools of Oriental Research, which, nevertheless, have occasionally claimed dedication to critical research.
Enjoy it all.
Zwinglius Redivivus 