The Avengers

It took me until now to get around to watching the movie The Avengers. But I’m glad I did. In addition to action and great (if not scientifically feasible) special effects, it contains a great deal that is food for thought and discussion, for those of us interested in the intersection of religion and popular [...]

Fox News and Jonah

Get it? He spent three days in Wales? I really enjoy and appreciate this cartoon because it does some subversive things. Fox News is notorious for its distortion and bias, and yet it is popular among people who claim to value truth and being “Biblical.” And so the cartoon subversively asks what if behind some of [...]

Don’t Be a Jonah

Sheol Identified

Scholars and laypeople have engaged in significant debate about the precise meaning of the word/name “Sheol” in the Bible. At times it seems to be an underworld, at times simply the grave, and at times perhaps something else. A student in my class on the Bible has actually solved the mystery and come up with [...]

Lecture on the Book of Jonah