Jim Getz will be hosting the next Biblical Studies Carnival – do send him your posts! Jim’s most recent post shared the following cartoon from David Hayward. In deciding what to call this post, I opted to allude to the usual English title of the Gita Govinda. Not only did the title seem strangely fitting, but there are surely parallels between the modern devotional practice surrounding coffee and the role of Soma in ancient Vedic religion. I suppose an alternative... Read more

Before the story, there was a human life, interconnected with other human lives.A human life lived before and with God.Through him stories were made, and at least some of the stories that came into being came into being in connection with him.In those stories would be life, and that life would be light for human beings.Another person, named John, came on the scene.His story fed into the story we’ve already mentioned –For many became inseparable from it –Although apparently John... Read more

I’ve occasionally found myself unable to visit my own blog in recent days, sometimes being met with an “operation aborted” message. I’ve looked into it and this seems to be caused by the “Followers” gadget that can be added in the side bar. So please do follow this blog, but until such time as Google fixes this problem, the followers will not be listed on the blog’s main page itself. Hopefully this will help fix the problem. Please do let... Read more

Part Three of Philip Clayton’s Adventures in the Spirit is about Panentheism. Chapter 8 offers an introduction to panentheism and the closely related subject of process thought. A cumulative case is made for why panentheism might be adopted as a theological framework rather than classical theism. Clayton realizes that for some the attractiveness of panentheism is self-evident while others fail to see what the attraction is: the former tend to be philosophical theologians rather than systematic or biblical ones (p.120).... Read more

Today marked the second (and final, although I’m not sure anything in my class is really “final”) of my Sunday school classes on Islam. We also touched on a number of key points about Baptist identity, which will make for a nice segue into what happens next: I’m going to take a break from teaching my class for the summer, while our pastor offers a summer Sunday school class on “Being Baptist”. I’ll be attending his class for its duration,... Read more

While the estimate that The Only True God: Early Christian Monotheism in Its Jewish Context will be available in July has vanished from the publisher’s catalogue, Amazon.com now lists the date as May 26th! There may only be a few more days to benefit from the pre-order discount Amazon is offering of 33% off. It has been good to see interest in the book’s subject matter staying alive in the blogosphere. April DeConick recently turned her blog’s attention to the... Read more

“The question of which scriptural teachings are “non-negotiable,” and which bear multiple plausible interpretations, continues to divide the church, as it has ever since Peter and Paul debated the circumcision and dietary laws.” — Marilyn McEntyre, “Dogma and Disagreement”, God’s politics Read more

I am quite sure that the number of people who have a deep desire to be able to read ancient languages on their Pocket PC is small indeed. But the fact that texts that should work are available online might lead one to hope. Yet most of the texts I’ve tried confront major issues. Aramaic and Syriac texts for Pocket e-Sword simply can’t be opened. Greek text files of Josephus and Philo show accented letters as little boxes. Is the... Read more

Cameron Horsburgh at Spirit Cry has posted a review of my book, The Burial of Jesus: History and Faith. Thank you, Cameron! Read more

Part Two of Philip Clayton’s book Adventures in the Spirit focuses on a (perhaps the) key concept for Clayton and many others seeking to relate religion and science, traditional theological concepts such as God and the soul on the one hand and data from physics and biology on the other: Emergence. Chapter 4 begins by noting that, while it has been common for theologians down the ages to use science to reconceive God, but in fact allowing science to dictate... Read more