A professional colleague recently posted his perspective on the new world of blogging. It is worth the time to read: http://ntweblog.blogspot.com/2012/08/vertical-blogs-vs-horizontal-blogs.html
From his description this blog leans toward the vertical. I appreciate and enjoy interacting with commentors, however the blog is an opportunity for me to express some of my personal thoughts on the Bible and the world. For those who don't know, in the 1990's I moderated one of the early list-serve discussions started by Alan Culpepper. In the list-serve format emails were used to correspond back and forth with a discussion on a topic. The follower could either receive emails on a daily basis, thus participate actively, or receive a daily digest, thus lurk in the background and read others' discussion.
The non-professional blogger is more apt to be vertical rather than horizontal while the professional blogger who actively responds to comments more horizontal.
My observation would be that the written word always leans toward the vertical (thus the Bible) while the oral conversation leans toward the horizontal (thus the kerygma). When placed on a common Harstine example, the spectrum, this time with two axes (the plural of axis not ax or axe) similar to the x-y axis of algebraic horror stories, only represented by the horizontal (x) and vertical (y), the question is raised, Where does your view of the Bible fall? Is the Bible vertical (thus definitive and not open for discussion) or horizontal (thus descriptive and inviting discussion)?
Mor importantly, how are your verbal conversations? Do you converse vertically or horizontally? A description of this line of thinking can be found at http://www.patheos.com/blogs/rogereolson/2012/08/remembering-the-progressive-orthodoxy-of-horace-bushnell-part-two/
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