#CFP Trajectories in the Interpretation of Scripture: Models, Issues and Prospects

Last updated on: February 6, 2019 at 10:41 pm By James F. McGrath

Call for Papers Trajectories in the Interpretation of Scripture: Models, Issues and Prospects Conference: 27th-28th June 2019, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. Proposals: Send a 250 word abstract for a 30 minute paper to Jonathan Robinson, [email protected] Deadline for proposals: 30th March 2019 Throughout the history of biblical interpretation sacred texts have been applied to new contexts to provide insight and guidance for contemporary situations. This always transforms the text. Sometimes, this generates a new text, as in the... Read more

ReligionProf Podcast with Martin Doblmeier: Backs Against The Wall – The Howard Thurman Story

Last updated on: February 5, 2019 at 3:54 pm By James F. McGrath

This week’s guest on the ReligionProf Podcast is Martin Doblmeier, and in this episode we talk primarily about his latest documentary, Backs Against the Wall: The Howard Thurman Story. Thurman is hopefully familiar to readers of this blog for his role in the civil rights movement and/or as author of books such as Jesus and the Disinherited. The new movie will be on the channel World this coming Friday, February 8th. It will also be coming to PBS stations around the... Read more

New Directions in the Study of Religion, Monsters, and the Monstrous Seminar #CFP #AARSBL2019

Last updated on: February 4, 2019 at 5:14 pm By James F. McGrath

The Monsters and Religion group at the American Academy of Religion has announced an ambitious five year period of analysis and discussion that will begin with the meeting in November 2019. I really like the topic for year four, and am hoping someone presents on how we construe religious others as monsters as part of a process of dehumanization that then facilitates public rhetoric, limits on religious freedoms, and even violence. Here’s the announcement from the AAR website: New Directions... Read more

Spem in Alium

Last updated on: January 29, 2019 at 4:45 pm By James F. McGrath

I still remember vividly my introduction to the music of Thomas Tallis. It occurred at a musical performance connected with a conference on Christology that took place at the University of Leuven in Belgium. Exploring Tallis’ music, one inevitably becomes familiar with the work Spem in Alium. What I failed to notice, however, until an article at Episcopal Cafe pointed it out, is that the text of this work is from the Book of Judith, a text that is in... Read more

I Can Twist All Scripture

Last updated on: February 2, 2019 at 9:49 am By James F. McGrath

The Zondervan Academic blog explains the significance of words of Paul that are often taken out of context: Just before Paul says, “I can do all things through Him who gives me strength,” he recounts some of the different circumstances he’s found himself in: he’s been hungry and well-fed, he’s been in need and he’s been well off, and he’s learned to be content, no matter what his circumstances are. Paul isn’t juxtaposing these circumstances to suggest that one is better... Read more

The Synoptic Student Problem

Last updated on: February 1, 2019 at 10:15 pm By James F. McGrath

I tell students regularly in class that, as a professor of New Testament, I have an advantage over professors with other areas of expertise when it comes to catching cheating and plagiarism. As part of our training, we are exposed to a question about the use of sources and puzzling out the relationship between written texts. If we are honest, in this regard the Gospels are not that different from examples of student work that we have all seen and... Read more

Star Trek Discovery: New Eden

Last updated on: January 30, 2019 at 9:03 am By James F. McGrath

The second episode of the second season of Star Trek: Discovery is bound to be a controversial one, but it shouldn’t be. The approach of the Original Series was to depict all StarFleet character as simply uninterested in religion, yet with sudden occasional expression of sentiments in places that then take the viewer by surprise. Discovery instead has characters who specifically self-identify as non-religious, or as pursuing a life based on science – but it also shows Christopher Pike to... Read more

Star Trek Exhibit at the Children’s Museum

Last updated on: January 28, 2019 at 3:49 pm By James F. McGrath

I’m very happy to share information that was provided to me about an upcoming exhibit at Indianapolis’ world-class Children’s Museum, and about the special $5 First Thursday evening on Feb. 7 when admission to the museum is just $5 from 4-8 p.m. Above is a special promotional flier about this $5 First Thursday night and about the exhibit itself. It looks like it is going to be superb – and not only for Star Trek fans, although especially for us.... Read more

ReligionProf Podcast with Helen Bond

Last updated on: January 29, 2019 at 7:16 am By James F. McGrath

This week’s podcast features Dr. Helen Bond, who is a New Testament professor at the University of Edinburgh and, as of recently, also the Head of School there. Her book The Historical Jesus: A Guide for the Perplexed was the textbook that I used in my course on the historical Jesus which I taught last semester. At one point, I thought it would be fantastic to try to give my students the opportunity to have her speak to them through a... Read more

#CFP Traditions of Eastern Late Antiquity 2019 Call for Papers #SBLAAR19

Last updated on: January 28, 2019 at 3:49 pm By James F. McGrath

The Call for Papers for the 2019 AAR Annual Meeting is now available! I am delighted to report that the Traditions of Eastern Late Antiquity program unit, which I co-chair, has been renewed and so will be continuing beyond the coming year. Here’s our call for papers for San Diego, which also includes a statement about the program unit’s focus and rationale: Traditions of Eastern Late Antiquity Unit Statement of Purpose: This program unit focused on Late Antiquity in the... Read more