I knew I should have paid more attention to biology class in high school. “You never know,” mom said. “One day you might grow up to be a biblical scholar, and someone might publish a scientific paper that intersects with your own field and you might want to be able to understand it.” How right you were, mom. How right you were. A friend sent me a link an article, made available through Human Biology Open Access Pre-Prints at Wayne State... Read more
Several days ago over at OnFaith, John Dickson posted “4 Responses to the Problem of Violence in the Bible.” I respect Dickson and his work a lot. I also think his thoughts in this piece are constructive and will be helpful to many readers. Dickson’s post responds specifically to Richard Dawkins’s charge that the Canaanite extermination in the book of Joshua is “xenophobic violence.” Dickson agrees that these texts are indeed violent, but not about ethnic cleansing. He supports this response with 4 points: Just... Read more
Is there resurrection from the dead in the Old Testament? No. Not really. Well, sort of. O.K., yes, but it depends on how you look at it. Resurrection is pretty central to the New Testament, in case you haven’t noticed. Yet searching for that kind of resurrection it in the Old Testament makes you come up basically empty-handed. We do have one lengthy passage, Daniel 12, which is an important text for understanding the development of Jewish faith later in the Second... Read more
I’m not sure where this came from. Maybe when I was buttoning my shirt this morning, on the way to teach an adult class at a local church–another among countless other classes where I am, once again, going to talk about God. God must be bored out of his mind. We have a lot of free time here in the modern west, a lot of access to information, and many means for communicating that information. And we religious types have the luxury... Read more
On Monday I had the the good pleasure and fun of being interviewed by the fine people at Back to Red, a new podcast hosted by Tim Ivey and Eric Nobrega (Nobe). We talked for an hour or so about The Bible Tells Me So: Why Defending Scripture Has Made Us Unable to Read It–both about the book itself and pushing some important issues a bit further. Tim asked some great questions. Nobe, however, thought it would be appropriate to wear... Read more
Here is my second post on my reaction to the RNS interview with Paul Copan and Matthew Flannagan about their recent book Did God Really Command Genocide?: Coming to Terms with the Justice of God. (The first post is here. I may add a third and final post later this week.) Based on some comments to my first post, one of which by one of the authors (Flannagan), I want to be clear that I am responding to the interview. I assume the authors are... Read more
Word is making its way around the blogosphere that Fox News is doubling as a theological think tank. I don’t like picking on Fox News when they talk religion of any sort, including Christianity. It’s too easy and it gets boring. But I can’t help myself here. According to the Fox News website, Michael Moore–who really hates this movie, I mean really, really hates it–tweeted about how inconsistent this movie is for Christian faith–hardly a sign of Moore’s Paul-like blinding light conversion, but... Read more
Earlier this month, Jonathan Merritt over at RNS interviewed Paul Copan and Matthew Flannagan about their recent book Did God Really Command Genocide?: Coming to Terms with the Justice of God. Copan is Professor and Pledger Family Chair of Philosophy and Ethics at Palm Beach Atlantic University, and Flannagan is a philosopher with proficiency in contemporary analytic philosophy based in New Zealand. The book was released last November. I own it but have not yet read it. Based on the interview, though,... Read more
Well, the words are 13th century. The music is much more recent. But still. And, with this, I bid you all a good evening. Hear, smith of the heavens, what the poet asks. May softly come unto me thy mercy. So I call on thee, for thou hast created me. I am thy slave, thou art my Lord. God, I call on thee to heal me. Remember me, mild one [or mild king (pun)] Most we need thee. Drive out, O... Read more
Oxford University Press is about to release the paperback version of The Bible and the Believer: How to Read the Bible Critically and Religiously, which I co-wrote with Marc Zvi Brettler and the late Daniel J. Harrington, S.J. The volume is identical to the hardcover original (2012), except for a brief preface and dedication to Dr. Harrington. The other difference, of course, is that it is now in paperback and therefore not only cheaper but far less dangerous, Just saying. I heard reports of... Read more
Peter Enns
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