Thursday, March 13, 2008

Satisfaction in Print

Five copies of the new issue of Anglican and Episcopal History arrived in the mail today. After about a year "Hampton Court Again, The Millenary Petition and the Calling of the Conference", the article adapted from the first chapter of my ThD thesis, has been published, and here it is in print.
Most of my friends will be happy to hear this, I think; but some might wonder why I should make a fuss about it. After all, these days anyone can publish their ideas in a minute fraction of the time, and for a far wider potential audience. That is true, and this very blog post proves it.
But I won't get the same satisfaction from clicking the key and "publishing" this post as I do from looking at the purple academic journal on my desk. The article in that journal as been through anonymous review and rather a tough editing process (any remaining problems are my fault); its presence means that other people have looked at my work and accepted it as worth saying, whether they agree with it or not. And that's something I can't say about something I might just post on the old blog.

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