In the comments on a recent post, someone mentioned that a particular interpretation of the story of Abraham’s near-sacrifice of Isaac “does violence to the text.” Given that the text itself features the use of violence, and those who read violent texts like these are sometimes led to engage in acts of violence themselves, I found myself wondering whether some sort of “just war” theory might apply to Biblical interpretation. To put it bluntly, is it appropriate/moral to treat violent... Read more

One of my all-time favorite composers is Kurt Atterberg. While you can’t (to my knowledge) listen to my favorite piece online, you can listen to other beautiful works composed by him. Here’s one example: Read more

The Jewish Publication Society announced today that it has completed recording the JPS Bible in audiobook format. In connection with this, they are making podcasts available to listen to for free on their web site. Here’s the full press release: JPS & JBI PROUDLY ANNOUNCE GROUNDBREAKING RECORDING OF THE COMPLETE JEWISH BIBLEPhiladelphia, PA – For the first time ever, the new JPS translation of the Jewish Bible, the JPS TANAKH, is available in audio format. Produced and recorded for The... Read more

Here’s a classic clip of a scene from The Simpsons focusing on evolution and creationism. I have to admit I laughed out loud at the “soundtrack” for the creation exhibit… simpsons creationism vs evolutionby PigLips HT Daniel Florien Read more

The Panda’s Thumb shared some videos that provide very useful explanations of aspects of evolutionary biology, highlighting in particular how evolution has led to fruitful hypotheses, explanations and discoveries in biology, genetics, and other related fields. Here’s one example: Read more

As I posted on Friday night, the Cinema Show solo is coming along, and so all that’s left is to keep practicing it. Presumably the place to go next is the keyboard solo from In The Cage. I actually tried learning it by ear many years ago, and I’m surprised that at key parts I got the key and the notes largely right. Here are two YouTube videos of people playing the solo: I’ve not found that there is actual... Read more

The comment below left on a recent post deserves to be highlighted in a post of its own: I had heard the interpretation several times before that, despite the praise for Abraham in the text, the fact was that Abraham FAILED the test, that God wanted Abraham to make the ethical choice and refuse the order to do evil. After all, in Nuremberg the world decided that obedience is not an ethical act and the individual has the ethical responsibility... Read more

I have only begun to listen to it, but there can be no doubt that the recent episode of the UK radio program Unbelievable, which features Richard Bauckham and James Crossley discussing monotheism and Christology in earliest Christianity, is worth listening to. Click here to listen! Read more

I am delighted to be able to highlight further developments related to the Early Jewish Monotheisms project based at the University of Goettingen. The project is directed by Nathan MacDonald of the University of St. Andrews. Here’s the project description from its web site: The origins and development of monotheism in ancient Israel has been one of the most significant debates within the study of the Old Testament of the last thirty years. It has generated numerous books and articles... Read more

The National Center for Science Education regularly shares interesting links. Ones I found particularly noteworthy are the Vatican page with links related to biology and evolution, and the September 2009 issue of the Journal of Effective Teaching which focuses on evolution in the high school and college classroom. Read more