In a very short period in the second century BC – mainly between 170 and 140 – Jewish thought and religion changed swiftly and fundamentally, creating a world that is familiar to later historians from Early Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism. I have already described some of the scriptures that emerge from this world, but let me here explore some of the religious themes that now rose to central significance. By way of background, we might look at the wider processes... Read more
Last weekend, Germany celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of the end of the East German government’s blockade of its own citizens. In November 1989, amid considerable political confusion, East German security forces did not prevent crowds from crossing the border and scaling the Berlin Wall. It was not the first moment in which East German soldiers chose not to fire at a critical moment. Because it transpired away from Berlin, most outsiders have forgotten the critical role that a Lutheran Church... Read more
This post on politician Rand Paul, the latest in a series that has included Pentecostals, holiness groups, and Charles Spurgeon, will probably perturb everyone. Conservatives will object because they won’t want to be linked to the “liberal” position of pacifism. Libertarians will object because theirs is not a principled pacifism, but a fiscal one. Pacifists will object because theirs is a not a fiscal one, but a principled one. Progressives will object because they, though perhaps admiring Paul’s rhetoric of... Read more
[Today’s guest post is from my Baylor history colleague Dr. Beth Allison Barr. You can follow Dr. Barr @bethallisonnbarr] We academic types have all been there. Piecing together funding grants and last month’s grocery leftover cash to present “the” conference paper. The one that will grab the attention of a notable scholar, land us a journal article or book contract, maybe even help find us a job. Only to get there, 20 minutes early to the presentation room, and realize... Read more
The answer is carbon. Pain is unavoidably part of the package of carbon-based life, explained Denis Alexander this week in his Herrmann Lectures at Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts. Alexander, biochemist and emeritus director of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion in Cambridge, took on the rather large question, “Is Life Going Anywhere?” Origins and evolution are scientific and theological puzzles. Evolution opens onto theodicy, consideration of why evil exists in the world and the nature... Read more
In the third and second centuries BC, the Jewish world changed very rapidly, and we see the development of many themes and debates that would shape both Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism – the Last Judgment and eschatology, angels and demons, afterlife and apocalypse. In that process, one very short period of thirty or so years demands our attention, as the centerpiece of a wide-ranging spiritual revolution. The critical date in the politics of this era is 167, which marked the... Read more
Gerard Russell’s Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms is a remarkable book, both for its breadth and vision. Russell, a former British diplomat (who claims on the book’s jacket to speak fluent Arabic and Dari but within the book’s pages speaks a little bit of nearly every Middle Eastern language) surveys seven religions that are not only forgotten but vanishing, at least within their native lands. Survey isn’t really the right word. Russell takes his readers to remote villages, sacred festivals, and... Read more
The St. Louis County grand jury tasked with determining whether enough evidence exists to indict Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown will announce its decision later this month. Regardless of the outcome of that inquiry, large groups of people will be disatisfied, even angry. Unfortunately, their reaction will not be determined by the details of the grand jury inquiry and what the evidence shows, but have been predetermined based on assumptions about race–evidence of the... Read more
I recently read Penn law professor David Skeel’s remarkable apologetics book True Paradox: How Christianity Makes Sense of Our Complex World. I have to admit to ambivalent feelings about a lot of Christian apologetics, which often seems likely only to confirm Christians’ faith rather than engaging seriously with the work of Christianity’s critics. I found Skeel a refreshing change, then, as his book not only surveys the thought of key materialist writers such as Steven Pinker and Christopher Hitchens, but calmly... Read more
I have been exploring how Judaism acquired its ideas of angels as named individuals like Gabriel and Michael, and whether that practice reflect Persian influence. As I suggested, our knowledge of Persian religion is actually less detailed than we often think, and that is especially true in matters like angels and the heavenly hierarchy. Nineteenth and twentieth century Western scholars tended to back-project from much later Zoroastrian scriptures to understand primitive forms of the faith. Also, they interpreted those scriptures... Read more
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