March 17, 2024

The official hashtag for the American Academy of Religion and Society of Biblical Literature annual meeting is something lots of people get wrong because they switch it every year in the interest of not giving one organization or the other permanent priority. This year it is #SBLAAR24. Before I write anything else, let me mention that the call for papers for SBL closes in a couple of days on March 20th so there’s still a bit of time to get... Read more

March 4, 2024

One possible avenue I’ve been thinking of exploring as a next book project is the question of whether Jesus’ parables were intended to be funny. If and when I get around to pursuing that, I will obviously share more here. In the meantime, I will have some related links to share below, and would love to hear what you think about whether Jesus was funny and if so when and how. As I’ve been leading a study of the Gospel... Read more

February 29, 2024

You probably know Eric Reitan for his excellent and insightful nonfiction books. In addition to a number of theological and philosophical interests that he and I share in common, we also both enjoy reading and writing science fiction. Eric has a new novel out, So Eden Sank to Grief, and I’m delighted that he’s agreed to do an interview for my blog. My questions are in italics and Eric’s answers follow indented below.   What is your novel, So Eden Sank... Read more

February 17, 2024

I saw an ad on Facebook for You.com which from its URL sounds like it could be any number of things other than what it is, an adaptation of ChatGPT that supposedly can be better at providing sources so that you can have AI write an actual research paper. Of course I had to try it out. The verdict? It is terrible, but not in the ways that I feared it would be. How is it terrible? Read my brief... Read more

February 12, 2024

I am humbled and honored by the endorsements of Christmaker: A Life of John the Baptist. “Essential reading for all interested in Jesus’s spiritual formation as well as the later ‘parting of the ways’ between John’s teachings and Jesus’s, this highly accessible work walks us through a little-known story of a relationship that no one previously has brought to light with such clarity and insight.” —Nicola Denzey Lewis, Claremont Graduate University  “Thanks to a fresh approach and many hypotheses for ancient... Read more

January 25, 2024

I am delighted to have the opportunity to offer a brief review of Mireille Hadas-Lebel’s book Les Pharisiens: Dans les Evangiles et dans l’Histoire. It accomplishes a great many important things in a manner that will be of interest to scholars and yet is presented in a way that should reach a much wider audience. Having a scholar who has previously published on other aspects of Jewish history in the same period tackle this topic is a definite gain. In... Read more

January 23, 2024

…ࡁࡔࡅࡌࡀࡉࡄࡅࡍ ࡖࡄࡉࡉࡀ ࡓࡁࡉࡀ I struggled for a long time with Mandaic fonts not working on my PC. Mandaic characters have been added to Unicode and there are free fonts available, but at some point they stopped working. I realized that this was not an issue for everyone when someone Tweeted at me in Mandaic, and when I looked at the tweet on my phone it displayed correctly. Yet when I went to reply on my PC I did not see... Read more

January 15, 2024

This semester I’m teaching my Religion and Science Fiction class with a focus on climate change and dystopian fiction. We’ll start off with Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower. Rereading it with a view to teaching it has me excited to introduce students to it and explore its themes. It is so rich simply as literature but especially in terms of theology and social commentary. I will try to emphasize that the point of reading novels is not to remember plot... Read more

December 28, 2023

I received an email encouraging me to try out Bard’s GeminiAI and thought it would be fun to ask it how to detect when students have used AI. Here’s what it wrote: Determining whether your student’s work is AI-generated can be tricky, but several methods can help you make an informed judgment: Content-Based Clues: Lack of originality or specific detail: AI writing often struggles with personal experiences, emotions, and unique insights. Look for generic statements, clichés, and a lack of depth in the content. Repetitiveness and formulaic... Read more

December 27, 2023

The business of Christmas hopefully provides an excuse for taking a couple of days before posting my thoughts on “The Church on Ruby Road.” What follows assumes you have seen the episode. I very much like the latest regeneration of the Doctor, and I was glad that despite the wibbly wobbly timey wimey therapy provided by the bigeneration and the other Doctor settling down with family, there was still clearly a rich well of emotion at being the last time... Read more


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