The Nation (HT PaleoJudaica) has a piece about Guy Stroumsa’s book publishing Morton Smith’s correspondence with Gershom Scholem, which may shed light on the question of whether Smith forged the Secret Gospel of Mark.
Pomomusings is up to chapter 3 in Jack Rogers’ Jesus, the Bible and Homosexuality. Religion Dispatches discusses “Sex and the Seminary” (no, it isn’t a new TV show). Gumby the Cat has the perfect pie-chart on persecution and Pac Man. Michael Bird has a post on the Lord’s Supper (as well as one about this). Mark Goodacre tells you where to find the Abbott-Smith Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament available for free download in pdf format.
New Scientist has a piece on morality and our emotional reactions to scientific innovations. Douglas Anderson offers a perspective on the interaction of religion and science. Psychologists have been investigating spirituality and hapiness in children. John Whitfield is blogging On The Origin of Species as he reads it for the first time. V. V. Raman suggests that the conflict between the religious and atheists will never be resolved, because (among other things):
God is not so much an entity hiding somewhere like an Easter egg, to be uncovered by an eager searcher, but rather a deeply felt experience that humans are capable of. God, like music, is to be experienced, and no analysis of musical notes can prove or disprove the joy and ecstasy that comes from listening. Like the colors of the rainbow, God is a resonance in the conscious soul to an aspect of the world that instruments and theorems, syllogisms and scrutiny, can never unravel.
On the sci-fi front, Gabriel McKee shares a month’s worth of links, on subjects that include religion in Battlestar Galactica’s final season. IO9 has the latest news, including the commercial for the “enhanced” version of the LOST season finale from last year, which will air next Wednesday.
Finally, there’s a poem by Jacqueline Osherow asking whether the universe is God’s acrostic.
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