I haven’t tossed any contributions of my own into the current blogabout on “minimalism” and “maximalism,” largely because I haven’t yet read Mario Liverani’s Israel’s History and the History of Israel (Equinox, 2007). Claude led off with some comments apropos of his own forthcoming review of Liverani’s book. Claude labels Liverani a “minimalist,” and offers various criticisms of “minimalism” in general. Jim applauded Claude’s summary, but disagreed with Claude’s assessment of the book. Chris Brady weighed in with a long post, generally favorable to Claude, which elicited one of the most bizarre misreadings I could have imagined—and an even more bizarre defense of the misreading in the comment thread. Poor Duane feels left out (possibly with a sigh of relief). Perhaps I will take time later to offer some reflections of my own, but for now, Kevin Wilson gets my vote for the most sensible post of the whole lot.

Update: Claude has continued the conversation.