There are things your minister, pastor, priest or preacher would love to be able to tell you, but cannot because of concerns about job security. I am not only thinking about the scandalous revelations that occasionally come to light, nor even the relatively minor fact that your pastor sometimes comes to the pulpit the same way all of us come to church at times – feeling less than inspired, having just argued with a spouse, or in some other way... Read more

The Biblioblog Top 50 list for June 2009 has been posted. Read more

I don’t have time to put together a post with a round-up of all the interesting posts around the blogosphere today, so I will simply point readers to the sidebar on this blog with posts I’ve recently read and chose to share. Someone found their way to this blog today by searching for “why are some churches saying obama is the antichrist and something about a fly”. And so I’m confident that whether you are looking for something very specific... Read more

This is a second repost of something I wrote on my old blog about Carl Sagan’s The Varieties of Scientific Experience, which are essentially a transcript of his Gifford Lectures. Sagan’s approach to religion is so thoughtful, level-headed, and rational that it is tempting to advocate “Saganism”, an approach to truth that is open to both the sciences and spirituality, and which acknowledges (as Sagan did) that the spiritual quest and the human effort to understand out place in the... Read more

There have been books about the “sufficiency of Scripture”, but yesterday as I was reading the Bible I happened across a verse which testifies to the insufficiency of Scripture. 2 John 12 reads: I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete. How are we to understand this Scriptural witness to Scripture’s... Read more

I am still wondering about the saying attributed to Jesus in various forms in various Gospels (and in Mark, denied as a false accusation), “I will destroy this temple and in three days rebuild it”. That something like this was the earliest form is most probable, and it seems to be authentic. The big question is what he meant by it. On the one hand, given the other evidence that Jesus expected the kingdom to fully dawn in the very... Read more

There is a post on the Doc Artz site with a delayed review of the Lost season 5 finale, and speculations about season 6 and the show’s ultimate end, interacting with many of the religious themes. It is definitely worth a look. Also of interest is Antiquitopia’s continuing review of Bauckham’s Jesus and the God of Israel. Bob Cornwall continues reviewing Philip Clayton’s book. April DeConick continues creating Jesus. David Ker suggests that Jesus exemplifies revolution rather than perfection. Suzanne... Read more

The title of this post isn’t an abbreviation for something rude. It is an abbreviation for a question that I was asked some time ago and which I think it is important to ask, at least as a mental and spiritual exercise, since it can tell us a lot about what we really believe, what is most important to us, and on what basis we believe as we do. What would it take to make you lose your faith? For... Read more

Mike Koke has a post on a subject that is not a world away from the subject of my most recent book, and which interacts with a couple of other blogs that have touched on the subject. And so I wanted to highlight it, even though I’m on the move and my blog is currently for the most part on “autopilot”! Read more

Someone on Yahoo! Answers asked the following questions: 1. Why do you believe in God?2. What’s the difference between Naive’ and Blind trust and Faith?3. Is it possible that religion is just a way for people to deal with lifeand non of it’s really even true?4. Is there really any such thing as pure and whole truth? I decided they seemed like interesting and sincere questions, so I answered them. Here’s what I wrote back in 2007: 1. I believe... Read more