Review of Sandra van Rompaey, Mandaean Symbolic Art

Last updated on: December 3, 2025 at 1:19 pm By James F. McGrath

Not all doctoral theses get published. Those that deserve to are often found in monograph series with generic covers. Sandra van Rompaey’s Mandaean Symbolic Art stands out from this usual state of affairs by being not merely distinctively formatted but beautiful. Even before one begins to engage with the contents (which are rich and absolutely unique in the history of scholarship), the fact that Mandaean artwork is found throughout the book makes this perhaps the only doctoral dissertation that one might... Read more

Breaking the ICE with Jokes

Last updated on: December 4, 2025 at 1:11 pm By James F. McGrath

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Some ICE jokes. The reason that I’m sharing them is at the end of the post. Why do the ICE thugs always walk around in threes? One can read, one can write, and the third keeps an eye on the two intellectuals. A frightened man came to ICE. “My talking parrot has disappeared.” “That’s not the kind of case we handle. Go to the criminal police.” “Excuse me, of course I know that I must go to them. I... Read more

Imran H Spam

Last updated on: December 3, 2025 at 1:18 pm By James F. McGrath

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If you are an academic author, and perhaps any author, you’re likely to get academic spam of various sorts. Please contribute to this journal not in your field, please attend this academic conference in Oxford (but not affiliated with Oxford University) for this exorbitant price. Perhaps the most insidious are the ones that pander to our egos. Most academics make very little money from sales of their books. We may find out how many copies sell, but other than academic... Read more

Where I’ll Be (November 2025 Edition)

Last updated on: November 18, 2025 at 1:20 pm By James F. McGrath

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I thought it would be useful to share where I’ll be speaking and what else I’m involved with in the coming weeks. First, there’s the upcoming AAR/SBL conference. I get there Thursday morning for part of the NetVUE preconference. Butler University is a member, and we’ll be hosting a Scriptural Reasoning hub on campus in May 2026. Mark your calendar and plan to attend! Back to Boston, I’ll be leading a pre-conference session as part of THATCamp (The Humanities and... Read more

The Carpenter’s Son

Last updated on: November 15, 2025 at 2:34 pm By James F. McGrath

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The movie The Carpenter’s Son is the childhood of Jesus reenvisioned as a horror movie. It takes some inspiration from the apocryphal text known as the Infancy Gospel of Thomas. Although the opening sequence of the film mentions apocryphal extracanonical texts, the movie bears no close relationship to that or other ancient texts in terms of its contents. However, I can understand the connection between the Infancy Gospel of Thomas and horror. One time when I taught a course that... Read more

Time Travelling Apologist

Last updated on: October 30, 2025 at 2:30 pm By James F. McGrath

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TIME TRAVELLING APOLOGIST Episode I VOICEOVER with theme music: Welcome to the Apologist News Hour, your home for reporting that is 100% biblical. With your host Ian Luegner. HOST: Hello everyone and God bless you. Today we welcome a very special guest, Prof. Kenneth Jambon, who has been working on an incredible scientific project that seeks to provide definitive scientific evidence to confirm the details of the Bible and thus of your faith. Prof. Jambon, welcome to the... Read more

Monty Python meets Theology Beer Camp

Last updated on: October 26, 2025 at 2:04 pm By James F. McGrath

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The Monty Python meets Theology Beer Camp skit that I wrote for this year’s Theology Beer Camp was just one of the fun things about it. As always, the event was not merely fun and enjoyable but profoundly moving and inspiring. John Dominic Crossan offered a powerful application of the creation stories and Paul’s theology of resurrection to our present scientific context. It was moving and motivating, while also being hilarious at times. One of my favorite lines of his... Read more

Artificial Intelligence Isn’t God (or Even Human)

Last updated on: October 6, 2025 at 10:23 am By James F. McGrath

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I will be giving a talk soon with the title “AI Isn’t God (or Even Human).” If you’d like to hear the talk, it will be the annual Carr Lecture at Mount Union University in Ohio. For those who aren’t in that area, but are interested in the new book that I have out about artificial intelligence, there will be an online conversation that you can join in on this Thursday. The Carr Lecture won’t be about teaching, although it... Read more

Knox College Undergraduate Conference in Religious Studies

Last updated on: October 4, 2025 at 1:49 pm By James F. McGrath

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Robert Geraci passed along this information about an upcoming undergraduate conference in Religious Studies, and with his permission I share it here. I would like to call your attention to the opportunity for your students to join us for our second annual undergrad conference in religious studies at Knox College! Our theme is Religion In/And/Out/of/Time and we will host folks Oct 24-25. Please feel free to share this announcement with your colleagues also. Last year’s event was a lot of... Read more

Hymnprovisations

Last updated on: September 20, 2025 at 6:58 am By James F. McGrath

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I recorded an album of piano music over the summer, and have given it the title Hymnprovisations. It is now available. I recorded it at Crooked Creek Baptist Church where I am a member and where I regularly play the piano. If you enjoy listening and you are local, I hope that you will join us some morning. While I’d say the greatest strength of our community is the fact that we are united in love without any sense that... Read more

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