Another biblioblogger asked me recently about the genealogies in the Bible, and how liberal Christians make sense of the unbroken line of names connecting mythical figures like Adam or Noah to historical figures like Hezekiah and Jesus, and where the dividing line is drawn. My answer to the last question was that there is no sharp dividing line, since the further back in time we go, the less evidence we have, and thus inevitably we don’t know exactly where we... Read more

Butler University has set up a blog for faculty and others connected with the university to post about their impressions of and experiences with the iPad. I just posted my own first contribution to that blog, which I gave the title “The iPad: Fun and Pedagogically Useful.” Read more

By a round-about means, a conversation on Facebook among bibliobloggers led to Tim Bulkeley offering a variation on the famous Dead Parrot Sketch from Monty Python’s Flying Circus. He wrote: Preacher: This Scripture, Sir, is not dead, merely sleeping, or somewhat lethargic. Congregant: No I tell you! It’s dead, deceased, karked it, it has kicked the bucket right out of the stadium… At which point I immediately thought two things. First, the phrase “It’s been nailed to the pulpit” crossed... Read more

The American Academy of Religion has made videos of presentations at the 2009 annual meeting available online. Read more

As a new semester draws near, we need to think about motivation, and this is a great talk on the topic. http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf Read more

I am grateful to Eerdmans for sending me a review copy of Jerome Neyrey’s latest book, The Gospel of John in Cultural and Rhetorical Perspective (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009). The book is made up of previously-published studies, most of which are fairly recent, but the earliest of which goes back some 30 years. As such, the book brings together a life’s work in the realm of cultural anthropological and rhetorical study of the Gospel of John. Neyrey’s categorization of the volume seems... Read more

I remember in my teenage years how I expressed my Christian faith with great zeal, little knowledge and even less wisdom. After all, Jesus didn’t pull any punches with the Pharisees, and Paul was outspoken and direct in his attacks on his opponents. Looking back now, I see this as yet another application of the Evangelical rule of interpreting Scripture by Scripture. Hard sayings that call us to bless those who persecute us and to love our enemies can be... Read more

Did anyone reading this DVR the concert “Video Games Live” which aired on PBS recently? I set it to record but it didn’t do so (at least not in viewable fashion), and am disappointed that my son missed it because of “technical difficulties.” If you recorded it, please let me know! Thanks in advance for your help! Read more

“We are strongNo one can tell us we’re wrongSearching online for so longBoth of us knowingWeb is a battlefield” — Pat Benetar (with the slightest of modifications) I had an interesting e-mail exchange over the past few days with an internet apologist who wrote a review of my book The Burial of Jesus. As it was behind a paywall, I asked whether I could be sent a copy. The first e-mail expressed “distrust” towards me and did not include the... Read more

Yesterday I had the privilege of participating in the 7th Annual ICI Instructional Technology Summit which took place at Butler University. In one session, I was one of several faculty from Butler who have been part of a workshop entitled “Transforming Teaching Through Technology.” My presentation (for which I shared the Prezi in an earlier post) was focused on electronic textbooks (or “nextbooks”). I mentioned the interactive Bible textbook I began working on several years ago, which I was pleased to... Read more