One could teach a whole semester-long course on musical settings of just one text, such as the Lord’s Prayer, and not run out of material. Indeed, one could probably do that for just one language or just one religious tradition and not run out of material, when it comes to a biblical text that has been set to music as often as the “Our Father” has. And if one includes allusions and references, the number increases exponentially once again. For... Read more
I was really struck by the article in Bible History Daily about how the story of Daphnis and Chloe echoes the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis. Here’s an excerpt: Written around 200 A.D. by the Greco-Roman author Longus, Daphnis and Chloe is a pagan pastoral romance that echoes the Biblical story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Daphnis and Chloe are simple country-dwelling teenagers in love. They are the adopted children of pastoralists indentured to a far off Master. In... Read more
Tonight will mark the beginning of a conference in Romania focused on New Testament anthropology, at which I have the opportunity to present on work related to my project about John the Baptist. It has been really exciting to find things that I think are genuinely new insights emerging out of my efforts to bring the Mandaean sources into the picture, and approaching it via the question of John’s assumptions about human nature really helped. I will say more about... Read more
First, here’s a call for papers about fantasy and the anthropocene. CFP (edited collection): Fantasy and Myth in the Anthropocene | Brian Attebery, Tereza Dědinová and Marek Oziewicz (Eds.) “Fantasy’s main claim to cultural importance resides, I believe, in the work of redefining the relationship between contemporary readers and mythic texts. … [If we take] myth … to designate any collective story that encapsulates a world view and authorizes belief, … fantasy offers a glimpse into the process by which... Read more
Eboo Patel wrote a while back: The key argument for identity politics on the progressive side is redress of historical marginalization. In other words, because so many groups in American history were excluded because of their identity (blacks, women, gays, immigrants), it is high time that we create both cultural and policy solutions that tip the scales in their favor. The key argument for identity politics on the conservative side is that religion shapes the lives and communities of traditionally-minded Christians... Read more
Many blogs and social media posts are highlighting the publication of a new book from E. J. Brill, the latest volume in the Digital Biblical Studies series. I’m one of the contributors – my chapter is “Learning from Jesus’ Wife: What Does Forgery Have to Do with the Digital Humanities?” The volume is open access, and so you can read and download the entire book from the E. J. Brill website. Larry Hurtado was very kind to single out my chapter among the... Read more
My guests on this week’s podcast are Deirdre Good, whom I had the pleasure to meet some years ago when I guest taught a class at General Theological Seminary in Manhattan, and Katie Day, who is the Charles A. Schieren Professor of Church and Society at United Lutheran Seminary. It is not surprising that I’ve had more connection with Deirdre given the significant overlaps in our research and teaching areas. Both are academics, and they recently worked together to produce... Read more
Another call for papers that has me excited, since I myself have increasingly gotten involved in, or at least tried to engage in, not merely analyzing and studying popular culture, but contributing to it. Have I mentioned that I have an idea for a graphic novel? It would have educational value, but part of the point is that I think it can potentially do more good if that is not known to be one of the aims behind producing it. But at... Read more
I was contacted recently by someone who was looking for a meme that illustrated how fundamentalist Christians, who claim to rely on “the Bible alone,” are thoroughly dependent on academic work on the Bible in ways that they either fail to notice or simply refuse to acknowledge. Two memes came to mind, which I had shared on my blog previously. But I also thought that perhaps I ought to turn something that I myself wrote back in 2010 into a... Read more
At one of the public lectures in this year’s Butler Seminar on Religion and Global Affairs, which has focused on religion, ecology, and the environment, someone in the audience asked the speaker whether humankind is a virus (specifically referencing Agent Smith’s statement in The Matrix to that effect). Thinking about it, I came up with my own answer: Human beings are the only species on planet Earth which has the freedom to choose whether to be a virus or not.... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In