Today superheroes seem to be a running theme. The children’s talk at church focused on Batman. Then, various blogs touched on the intersection of religion and superheroes, comic books, etc. TheoFantastique focuses on gods that wear spandex and links to Christopher Knowles’ post about religion and DragonCon. Greenflame posted about religion and comic books as well as linking to an article on the SBL web site about video games and apocalyptic literature. As a footnote, the pastor suggested in an aside in his... Read more

I finally saw the movie The Road recently. It offers a profoundly disturbing depiction of a post-apocalypse world in which scarcely any living thing has survived other than humans, and even though many humans have died either by starvation or suicide, others try to continue to survive, whether by scavenging for any food they can find, or by turning to cannibalism. Perhaps what is most disturbing for the typical viewer is that scarcity has reduced life in the United States... Read more

Several bloggers have discussed the video below, and rather than commenting on all of their blogs, I thought I might as well share my thoughts here. I thought it was a joke when they said that proponents of the “gay agenda” are “sneaky” and then explained that their tactics include the following: They have books added to the library, the catalogue of which is online in most cases; and have things mentioned on notices sent home with kids which parents... Read more

An article on CNN’s religion blog mentions some arguments and explanations used by conservative Evangelical Christians to defend their support of, or association with, Glenn Beck, who is a Mormon. What struck me most, and made it seem worth sharing, is that the arguments in question are ones that have been used for a very long time – by Liberal, Progressive, social-justice, inclusivist, and any number of other strands of Christianity that conservatives usually denegrate. Just look at this excerpt: Many... Read more

Steve Martin performs the one song in the Atheist Hymnal (HT Jesus Needs New PR): Read more

Today is the second day of classes this semester at Butler, and the first day two of my classes meet. For everyone starting their semester, here is some music by Ralph Vaughan Williams to encourage and inspire you, courtesy of the Internet Archive. Serenade to Musichttp://www.archive.org/flow/flowplayer.commercial-3.2.1.swf The Lark Ascendinghttp://www.archive.org/flow/flowplayer.commercial-3.2.1.swf Fantasia on Greensleeveshttp://www.archive.org/flow/flowplayer.commercial-3.2.1.swf Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallishttp://www.archive.org/flow/flowplayer.commercial-3.2.1.swf The Wasps Overturehttp://www.archive.org/flow/flowplayer.commercial-3.2.1.swf There’s also a video of a concert which begins with Vaughan Williams’ “Valiant for Truth”: http://www.archive.org/flow/flowplayer.commercial-3.2.1.swf Read more

Thanks to David Stark for posting video of the recent National Geographic documentary “Writing the Dead Sea Scrolls” starring none other than biblioblogger Bob Cargill. Read more

The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c The Word – Losing His Religion www.colbertnation.com Colbert Report Full Episodes 2010 Election Fox News HT Jesus Needs New PR Read more

Having been asked not that long ago about video clips that bring together religiously significant moments from LOST, I want to share what will hopefully provide that soon: a YouTube video series that has just begun, focused on major themes on LOST (HT Nikki Stafford). The first is on DESTINY: Read more

Larry Hurtado announced on his blog that his review of James D. G. Dunn’s latest book has been published. He also shared a link to something he wrote about Martin Hengel’s impact on English-speaking scholarship. Nick Norelli shared recordings of lectures by Simon Gathercole on Jesus’ pre-existence. I still find Simon’s view unpersuasive. No amount of discussion of alleged parallels the the “I have come” language placed on the lips of humans and angels in other literature will be decisive, since... Read more