Template:Did you know nominations/David Bentley Hart

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Cielquiparle (talk) 11:44, 26 March 2023 (UTC)

David Bentley Hart

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David Bentley Hart and his dog Roland

• ... that writer and theologian David Bentley Hart translated the New Testament for Yale University Press and also believes in fairies? Source:
  "Remind them, and this is absolutely vital, that fairies are real." from the 2:42 mark here: Saving Scholé with David Bentley Hart and "Believing in fairies, ...right now, that's got to be part of orthodoxy, that's got to go right into the creed." from the 1:54 mark here at The Armstrong Archives: Otherworlds with David Bentley Hart.
  "Of course mermaids exist. Or, to be more precise, of course water spirits and magical marine beings of every kind are real and numerous and, in certain circumstances, somewhat dangerous. ...The modern reports of real encounters with mermaids or other water-spirits, such as two from Zimbabwe, one from South Africa, three from northeastern India, and so on ...are so ingenuous, well-attested, and credible that only a brute would refuse to believe them [and] there is a real moral imperative in not dismissing such tales as lies or delusions." David Bentley Hart (2020). "Selkies and Nixies: The Penguin Book of Mermaids." The Lamp: A Catholic Journal of Literature, Science, the Fine Arts, Etc. Issue 2. Assumption 2020. pp. 49-50.
  "He also sometimes argued (partly inspired by the writings of Owen Barfield) that human consciousness may have changed rather drastically over the epochs, and that perhaps the very frame of nature has altered with it. He believed that at one time human beings had been much better able to perceive certain dimensions of reality that, with our modern mechanistic view of nature, we no longer can" David Bentley Hart (November 2012), "Therapeutic Superstition".
  • Reviewed:

Improved to Good Article status by Jjhake (talk). Self-nominated at 04:32, 4 March 2023 (UTC). Post-promotion hook changes for this nom will be logged at Template talk:Did you know nominations/David Bentley Hart; consider watching this nomination, if it is successful, until the hook appears on the Main Page.

• The suggested hook probably be split into two separate hooks. ‍ ‍ Helloheart ‍ ‍ 18:33, 4 March 2023 (UTC)
• @Helloheart: Thank you. I'm not really wanting to maintain multiple suggestions, and I'm just hoping to share the newly improved and recognized article about David Bentley Hart. I was hoping for a dramatic contrast between his being respected by church leaders (like the Archbishop of Canterbury) but also having some "wild" ideas (like belief in fairies). However, I can see how this might be too much to fit into a clear hook. What about just something like this instead: "... that writer and theologian David Bentley Hart believes in fairies and mermaids?" If that might be good, can I just edit my original suggestions above? Jjhake (talk) 19:28, 4 March 2023 (UTC)
• Or maybe: "... that writer and theologian David Bentley Hart translated the New Testament for Yale University Press and also believes in fairies?"

• QPQ unnecessary, GA recent enough, hook is definitely interesting. However, the fact that DBH believes in fairies is not explicitly stated. Instead, there are many references to his writing on fairies. ~ Pbritti (talk) 17:41, 6 March 2023 (UTC)

@Pbritti: Thank you for this note and consideration. I could find more in print, but I've added these two citations within the related articles with DBH explicitly stating his belief in fairies. There is also a direct statement from him about his belief in mermaids that I already had included. Here they are:

• In Saving Scholé with David Bentley Hart at the 2:42 mark: "Remind them, and this is absolutely vital, that fairies are real."
• In The Armstrong Archives: Otherworlds with David Bentley Hart at the 1:54 mark: "Believing in fairies, ...right now, that's got to be part of orthodoxy, that's got to go right into the creed."

Let me know if I can help in any other way. This my first time with any DYK submission. Jjhake (talk) 19:39, 6 March 2023 (UTC)

Two minor hang-ups, @Jjhake: the article only explicitly mentions his belief in fairies within references (the DYK fact has to be within the prose of the relevant article). Also, I saw you included passage on mermaids, but that's on another article. If you want me to make the relevant change so that the fact is in the prose, just let me know and I'll link the diff for you to review. ~ Pbritti (talk) 19:55, 6 March 2023 (UTC)

@Pbritti:, thank you. I've just added this with three citations with the main article: "Hart writes often about fairies and has commented several times about his belief in them and related creatures." It's in the "Influences and key ideas" section. (For my part, I think that just mentioning fairies is plenty within the DYK but I've now included the mermaids quote within one of the citations within the main article as well.) Thanks for the help!

Good to go, Jjhake! Nice work and congratulations! As a note, please be careful when editing templates like this; as a couple of your edits kinda broke the page (no big deal; I do it all the time). ~ Pbritti (talk) 20:20, 6 March 2023 (UTC)

ALT1@Pbritti: Below is another idea that should be fully supported within article citations already. Jjhake (talk) 23:41, 8 March 2023 (UTC) ... that David Bentley Hart translated the New Testament for Yale University Press and believes in fairies with the encouragement of his dog Roland (pictured) who is the hero of a recent book?

@Jjhake: That's a tad on the wordier side (generally we want to keep DYKs tighter). I'll make a recommendation tomorrow morning Colorado time. That said, I'm very happy you decided to include the dog photo and I have to say that it's just stinking cool you convinced him to release that image to the public domain! ~ Pbritti (talk) 06:10, 9 March 2023 (UTC)

@Pbritti: Makes sense. If helpful, here's another try as well:

ALT2... that, in a recent book, David Bentley Hart talks with his dog Roland (pictured) about New Testament translation, philosophy of mind, and fairies?

I like the spirit of ALT2 but since the article doesn't explicitly discuss the contents of the dialogues (unless I'm missing something, which is entirely possible), I recommend

• ALT2A: ... that in a recent book, David Bentley Hart–New Testament translator and proponent of the existence of fairies–engages in dialogues with his dog Roland (pictured)?

Let me know if that is ok! ~ Pbritti (talk) 15:30, 9 March 2023 (UTC)

@Pbritti: Yes, looks great to me! There is a lot getting packed in there, but I that's the name of the game with Hart, and your solution has the magic. Thank you for all of the help. Jjhake (talk) 18:56, 9 March 2023 (UTC)

Approving hook ALT2A. @Jjhake: great job, hope to encounter you on the project more often! ~ Pbritti (talk) 18:58, 9 March 2023 (UTC)