Can Fundamentalists Understand the Bible?

Last updated on: July 2, 2019 at 5:17 pm By James F. McGrath

This blog post started out as being about the old canard that non-Christians supposedly cannot understand the Bible. That claim is often justified by appeal to a passage that the Christians who make the claim, rather ironically, have misunderstood. By the end of the process of putting the post together, I found myself thinking that the relevant question is whether fundamentalists can understand the Bible. And it soon became clear that that question applies equally to Christian and anti-Christian fundamentalists.... Read more

Good Omens and the Bible #CFP

Last updated on: July 9, 2019 at 7:45 pm By James F. McGrath

Meredith Warren is the perfect person to spearhead an academic project about Good Omens and the Bible. I spoke with Meredith recently about her latest book, Food and Transformation in Ancient Mediterranean Literature, which is about hierophagy or “sacred eating” as depicted in literature from ancient Greece, ancient Judaism, and early Christianity. I’m looking forward to releasing that podcast at some point in the second season of the ReligionProf podcast, probably closer to AAR/SBL in November at which the book... Read more

Dragons #CFP

Last updated on: July 2, 2019 at 2:58 pm By James F. McGrath

Although I do more with science fiction than fantasy, I love the latter genre, and was an avid player of Dungeons and Dragons when I was younger. I still will, given half a chance. And so let me take this opportunity to share a call for papers about dragons, as well as a link to a blog post by Brandon Hawk about dragons in the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew. Now that I think of it, I’m not sure that anyone has... Read more

Believing in John 20-21

Last updated on: July 2, 2019 at 2:50 pm By James F. McGrath

I should have realized it when I read that the disciple found the tomb with Jesus’ body no longer in it, and believed, but still did not understand that Jesus had to rise from the dead. I should have realized when I wrestled with the problem that the blessing pronounced on Thomas can be construed as praising gullibility. Was the author of this Gospel really advocating belief without evidence? Could he not see how dangerous that was, and that it... Read more

Mandaean Book of John and Third Enoch Colloquium in San Diego 2019 #AARSBL2019

Last updated on: July 2, 2019 at 2:46 pm By James F. McGrath

The AAR and SBL Annual Meetings in November are still a long way off, but it has been delightful to see several things come together, and now for details to begin to emerge so that they can be shared. The AAR program book is now online and so you can search it and see what will be happening. Details can be found on the Enoch Seminar and 4Enoch websites, and more details will be forthcoming. But for now, here’s what... Read more

God, Gods, New Edens, and Imperfect Saints on Star Trek: Discovery and Beyond

Last updated on: July 2, 2019 at 2:12 pm By James F. McGrath

Another book chapter that I finished a draft of this summer is about gods in the Star Trek franchise. I managed to include a pretty good swath of examples – even from the animated series! The show is full of deities, and yet there is throughout a fairly consistent “humanist theology.” Those two things are sometimes felt to be in tension. But they aren’t really. Gods are the potential future of humanity. What they are, we can become. And indeed, we... Read more

Adoptionist Christology

Last updated on: July 2, 2019 at 12:43 pm By James F. McGrath

It was interesting that Trinity Sunday and Father’s Day coincided this year. I wonder how many churches took the opportunity to explore the tension between Jesus’ typically theocentric, “Father-focused” teaching, and the doctrine that makes him co-equal and co-eternal with the Father. My review of Larry Hurtado’s 2017 book has been published. Even Higher Christology in the Gospel of John: Frey’s Edinburgh Essay Christological Non-Starters: Part 1, “Adoption as Divine Son” Christological Non-Starters, Part 2: “Angel Christology” Capes on “YHWH Texts” and Jesus... Read more

American Abomination

Last updated on: July 2, 2019 at 2:40 pm By James F. McGrath

I was really struck when a discussion of the parable of the pounds/talents in my Sunday school class led to a discussion of whether the master in the story was asking his servants to do something illegal/immoral, and this in turn led to a discussion of usury, which led us to Ezekiel 18:13. I was wondering what I should post on July 4th, and found that I had this draft post and thought I would revisit it. On July 4th... Read more

Mythicism and Diametrically Opposed Ideological Propaganda

Last updated on: June 27, 2019 at 1:16 pm By James F. McGrath

One of the scholars that I had the pleasure of meeting at the conference I attended in Romania is Anna Oracz from Poland. In seeking to connect with the academics I met there through sites like academia.edu, I discovered that Oracz has written a review of Rene Salm’s denialist take on the village of Nazareth. Her conclusion is summed up well in this sentence: “anybody seeking an honest evaluation of the evidence in “The Myth of Nazareth” will be disappointed.” As I mentioned in a... Read more

Do Unto Others’ Texts And Traditions As You Want Done Unto Yours

Last updated on: June 27, 2019 at 12:33 pm By James F. McGrath

I’ve suggested in the past that the Golden Rule is a good guide to interreligious interaction. Ironically, people who subscribe to it as a core principle in their lives, having been taught it through their religion, sometimes feel that their commitment to that religion means that they should approach the religious ideas of others in a manner radically different from the way they want their own to be treated. I still think that the Golden Rule applies here just as... Read more

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