Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath - Page 4 of 1174 - The Blog of Dr. James F. McGrath, Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University, Indianapolis

The Bible Shows Us How to Do Theology, Rather than Telling Us What to Believe

August 21, 2018 By James F. McGrath

In a recent blog post, Pete Enns wrote: Not all biblical writers were on the same page when it came to describing what God is like and what it means to believe in this God. And the reason why we see these differences is because—just like every other human—biblical writers lived in different times and places, under different circumstances, asking different questions and seeking different answers. To put it another way, their life experiences led them to think of God… Read more

#PCA #CFP

August 20, 2018 By James F. McGrath

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Philosophy and Culture Division Call For Proposals: Sessions, Panels, Papers POPULAR CULTURE ASSOCIATION & AMERICAN CULTURE ASSOCIATION 2019 JOINT NATIONAL CONFERENCE Wardman Park Marriot, Washington, D.C. Wednesday, April 17, to Saturday, April 20, 2019 For information, please go to http://www.pcaaca.org/national-conference/ DEADLINE: OCTOBER 1, 2018 We are considering proposals for sessions organized around a theme, special panels, and/or individual papers. Sessions are scheduled in 1½ hour slots, typically with four papers or speakers per session. Presentations should not exceed 15 minutes…. Read more

#CFP Science Fiction Food and Drink

August 19, 2018 By James F. McGrath

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The International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts shared a call for papers on a fascinating and neglected topic as far as scholarly attention is concerned: food and drink in science fiction. Here are more details: CFP, edited volume: Food and Drink in Science Fiction “But now, we must eat!” Food and Drink in Science Fiction Deadline for abstracts: November 15, 2018 Edited by Cindy Miller, Steve Rabitsch, and Michael Fuchs this volume will discuss food and drink in… Read more

Blade Runner 2049 and Philosophy #CFP

August 18, 2018 By James F. McGrath

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Popular Culture and Philosophy Blade Runner 2049 and Philosophy, Call for Abstracts Robin Bunce and Trip McCrossin, editors Describe in single words, only the good things that come into your mind about Blade Runner 2049. Dialogue … cinematography … music… philosophy! Abstracts are sought for a collection of philosophical essays related to Blade Runner 2049. The volume is to be published by Open Court Publishing, as part of their successful Popular Culture and Philosophy series (e.g., Twin Peaks and Philosophy,… Read more

Deceitful Intelligent Design

August 17, 2018 By James F. McGrath

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I thought I would share on the blog what I wrote on Facebook when sharing my recent post about Deceitful Design: It is possible to be both intelligent and malicious, and Designer posited by so-called “Intelligent Design” really deserves to bear a different label that highlights its key distinctive belief. Religious believers of many stripes who accept mainstream science also believe in a Creator who is intelligent, and see that reflected in the world that science describes. And so let’s… Read more

Neglected Mentions of John the Baptist and Mandaeans in Syriac and Aramaic Sources?

August 16, 2018 By James F. McGrath

9 Comments

Several sources online have highlighted a new resource related to the study of Syriac literature: the Digital Syriac Corpus. As illustration of what is available, here is the beginning of Narsai’s work “On John the Baptist” so that you can see what happens when you copy and paste from the site: ܥܲܠ ܡܵܪܝ ܝܘܿܚܲܢܵܢ ܡܲܥܡܕܵܢ̇ܐ ܡܸܐܡܪܵܐ: ܘ܀ ܕܡܵܪܝ ܝܘܿܚܲܢܵܢ܀:ܕܝܼܠܹܗ ܟܲܕ ܕܝܼܠܹܗ ܡܸܐܪܵܐ ܕܫܬܿܐܕܡܵܪܝ ܝܘܿܚܲܢܵܢ ܡܲܥܡܕܵܢ̇ܐ܀:ܥܘܼܢܵܝܵܐ:ܫܘܼܒ̣ܚܵܐ ܠܗܵܘ̇ ܕܲܓܠܵܐ ܐ̄ܪܙܵܐ ܕܨܒܼܝܵܢܹܗ ܠܪܵܚܡܵܐ ܕܨܒܼܝܵܢܹܗ As you can see from the fairly clear text that has pasted, and from the hyperlinks in each word if you follow them, it is a very… Read more

One Size Fits All Spirituality

August 15, 2018 By James F. McGrath

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This is yet another one of those blog posts that has been more than two years in the making, as I have continuously pasted in links, but failed to ever find or make the time to fully elaborate the germ of an idea that led to the creation of the draft post in the first place. As someone who has been involved in a number of different religious communities in different traditions, and who enjoys not only playing and listening… Read more

Deceitful Design

August 14, 2018 By James F. McGrath

9 Comments

I shared an interview with Dennis Venema on Facebook, highlighting this quote from the piece: [T]he evidence is everywhere. It’s not just that a piece here and there fits evolution: it’s the fact that virtually none of the evidence we have suggests anything else. What you see presented as “problems for evolution” by Christian anti-evolutionary groups are typically issues that are taken out of context or (intentionally or not) misrepresented to their non-specialist audiences. For me personally (as a geneticist)… Read more

Gaming against Biblical Literalism

August 13, 2018 By James F. McGrath

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I think that one of the most effective tools to combat the false notion that there are any genuine “biblical literalists” may be to ask people to imagine themselves into the world as the ancient authors of the Bible assumed it to be. Here is what I wrote on this topic recently while sharing a blog post on a related topic on Facebook: It was interesting reading Steve Wiggins’ blog post about ancient Israelite cosmology, the idea of water as… Read more

Teaching Writing

August 12, 2018 By James F. McGrath

4 Comments

I got permission to share this quote from a Facebook friend, which I think sums up an incredibly important and neglected point related to education: “Based on my experience in high school, university, and graduate school and now as I’m tutoring a refugee college student in English, no one ever teaches writing. They assign writing. They grade writing. But no one TEACHES writing. Writing instruction doesn’t exist. It’s just testing what we haven’t taught over and over again until the… Read more