Being appropriately skeptical is an important tool in the toolbox of the academic, but scholarship is not merely skepticism. I explain this in my latest article in The Bible and Interpretation, and thought that I should share it here so that subscribers to my blog are made aware of it and get a chance to read it. Skepticism of Scholarship As I consider my own journey into and through academia, the most fundamental shifts that I have undergone pertain to... Read more
After a serious spoiler warning to hopefully send anyone who wants to avoid spoilers running for their lives and averting their gaze, I begin this post with the biggest mystery of the episode but by no means the only one, namely whether the credits saying “Introducing Billie Piper” is significant and if so in what way. Saying that she was mentioned is of course a spoiler, but for those who are still reading, who either don’t care about spoilers or... Read more
It is hard to say that any Doctor Who episode with a seemingly one-off villain or mystery stands out as worthy of revisiting, yet I suspect that if fans had been polled, the episode “Midnight” would have been chosen by many. Even if that is not the case, it was certainly a memorable episode, and so the episode “The Well” was particularly engaging to fans who have been watching for at least since the David Tennant era. Those who started... Read more
It is strange to be commemorating those who lost their lives opposing tyranny as the nation veers increasingly into autocracy. I have been thinking a lot recently about Romania, having lived there for three years and visited many times before and since then. It is the country with a recent history of dictatorship in which I have spent the most time. Of course, it is easy to forget that other places I have lived, such as Ireland and England, and... Read more
The Story and the Engine is the latest episode of Doctor Who, and I’m once again exploring the episodes of this season out of order. Perhaps a better way to put it, given the focus of this episode, is to say that I’m not sticking to the narrative sequence of the story. As always, when an episode engages with religion, it gets my attention and calls out for commentary. Stories about Stories This episode is yet another in a... Read more
It has been a privilege to get to know filmmaker Sarey Martin Concepción through Theology Beer Camp. At TBC last year in October, I got to see a trailer for Sarey’s movie “The Winemaker” which I now just recently had the privilege of seeing at the Indy Film Festival this year, held at the Kan Kan theater. The latter is such a cool local venue. I need to get there more often and find out more about what sorts of... Read more
Doctor Who: Lux “God of light” sounds like such a positive character, and yet the opponent the Doctor faces in “Lux” is anything but bright and sunny, at least as far as his personality is concerned. I will get back to the first episode of this season, “The Robot Revolution,” very soon. But having fallen behind on writing, it seems appropriate to jump in on this second episode, titled “Lux,” since it intersects with religion very directly. We had seen... Read more
Most of us who watched the movie Conclave not long ago did not expect that the next real life conclave would be happening so soon. I saw the movie twice, watching it once because it was so highly recommended by friends, and then watching it again with my wife after recommending it to her. I didn’t expect the movie to be as engaging as it was given its overall lack of sensationalism. Certainly it offered drama that cannot be said to... Read more
Historians and Easter Historians and Easter do not relate to one another in the same manner as either apologists and Easter or theologians and Easter. Apologists try to demonstrate that a bodily resurrection happened in a way that leaves no room for doubt. Theologians often assume the resurrection as event while setting aside as non-essential matters the precise details of what actually happened. The historian or other historical scholar, however, cannot bypass questions about what happened. That’s the very essence... Read more
My biography of John the Baptist titled Christmaker continues to inspire. I was genuinely moved by the kind words and thoughtful engagement at the 2025 Midwest Regional Meeting for Biblical Studies, where the final plenary session was about the book. Dr. Clare Rothschild was one of the two panelists and she said that Christmaker: A Life of John the Baptist is “one of the most engaging works of nonfiction I’ve ever read…Wonderful!” (The panel was also about my larger monograph John of... Read more
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