Mars has been in the news again a lot over the past year, as humanity’s robot explorer “Opportunity” was declared not merely defunct but “dead.” Meanwhile, the rover named “Curiosity” checked in before moving on from its current location. Puffs of gas that hints at the possibility of life, and the discovery of more water, have kept us intrigued. In some future short story or novel set on Mars, it would be interesting to explore how Muslims who find themselves on... Read more
Having recently finished a draft of a book chapter about canon in Star Wars (both in the fictional universe and in the franchise, and the relationship between the two) it was nice to have discussion of Star Wars be so frequent online in recent months, and especially to have The Phantom Menace get particular attention. The official Star Wars website had lots of content that was thought-provoking, and I’ll share some of that here, as well as much else… When... Read more
I thought I should share this chart which is more fitting and better in so many ways than a “pie chart” for depicting the religious diversity in Lebanon. I give you…the tabbouleh chart! If one looks at a more literal attempt to depict the religious diversity in Lebanon, you’ll see that the above is not an entirely inappropriate representation. The relevance of tabbouleh to getting along among the religions is also highlighted in this article. What’s your favorite variation on... Read more
I appreciated this article that Facebook friends drew to my attention in the Chronicle of Higher Education, raising the question of how one should cite the work of transgender academics who have published under different names. The truth is that this is a question that we’ve long faced, given the custom of women changing their names when they marry or divorce. Sometimes a book has been re-released with the name change reflected on the revised or reissued edition. The short answer... Read more
The first chapter that I completed a draft of as I developed my idea for a book on What Jesus Learned From Women was the story of the woman at the well in John 4. I previously wrote an entry on that subject for the Bible Odyssey website (and I had the very cool experience the last time I taught my course on the historical Jesus of a student reading the Bible Odyssey piece and finding it helpful, only to be surprised... Read more
I’m going to be teaching my Global and Historical Studies courses again this academic year: China and the Islamic Middle East in the fall semester, and South Asian Civilizations in the spring. It has been years, and although the history of these parts of the world and the major traditions that emerged in them hasn’t changed, it still feels daunting, although by no means as much so as it did when I first taught these courses. And it is also... Read more
I wanted to post this brief response to something I read about memory for a long time, but I forgot… On the one hand, I greatly appreciated this point made a while back by Hector Avalos when reviewing Bart Ehrman’s book: “In the end, we retain virtually the same list of historical claims deemed accurate by Ehrman before any emphasis on memory studies. Memory studies did not change anything on Ehrman’s list, and it is the standard tools of historical... Read more
I was delighted to learn that the Festschrift for Jimmy Dunn on his 70th birthday, Jesus and Paul, has now been released as a paperback, which makes it much more affordable. I contributed the first chapter, on one of the many topics that Dunn has devoted his attention to over the years, namely oral tradition and memory, and how the study of those processes should affect our understanding of the Gospels and the relationship between them. My chapter is called “Written... Read more
I am still debating whether to start my chapter about Mary Magdalene in the book I am writing, What Jesus Learned From Women, by trying to get jokes out of the way first. Q: What did Jesus learn from Mary Magdalene? A: How to be a good husband. I’m not persuaded that Jesus and Mary were married. But I won’t give the issue short shrift, but will explain the reasons for my views. For me, I think one of the... Read more
The Tech Edvocate made the claim that print textbooks will never go away, and that that is a good thing. One of the reasons particularly struck me: Research has shown that scrolling negatively affects the reader’s ability to comprehend texts in a deeper way. Students are able to get the gist of a text from both printed and digital texts with no problem, but if the activity requires deeper engagement with the text, then students´ comprehension will improve if they... Read more
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