The Armageddon Factor is the episode that brings the Key to Time sequence of episodes to its conclusion. It also brings theology and ethics into the picture, and the mysterious identity and backstory of the Doctor. And so this is arguably one of the most interesting episodes in classic Doctor Who, marking a moment when the show revisited the idea that gave the show its title (as Ian said in that first story, “Who is he? Doctor who?”) and brought... Read more
Charles Allen writes, Now of course all of that could simply be about me and my subjective experience, or my faith community’s common subjective experiences. For the past 200 years some very devout and admirable people have been content to say that this is all their God-talk entails—it’s about how we feel, not about what’s real. But I’m not satisfied with that. For me, to say that all this simply subjective experience would seem to deny that the meaning and... Read more
I recently resumed my “reading” of Frank Herbert’s Dune series through audiobooks, after a longer hiatus than I care to admit. Over the course of Heretics of Dune, I kept finding quotations that are worth sharing. Two were conveniently already to be found online as memes, and so I will embed them below – and then share a few more thoughts about them below that, as well as other quotes. One thing that I found particularly interesting is how the sentiment... Read more
This is another blog post that existed as a draft for a long time. The earlier links that I placed in the draft were mostly about the Gospel of Mark, with several of them focusing on recent books about reading that text in context. The Zondervan blog had a post about one such book, and the Hendrickson blog had a post about another. I hope to get the chance to review the latter book at some point, and had already... Read more
I’m delighted to report that a publisher has accepted my proposal for a book with the working title, What Jesus Learned From Women. And so I’m returning to blogging about the topic, with a view to making quick progress on the manuscript, garnering feedback, and hopefully generating interest. Not all posts related to the topic will do all of the above. But I will definitely do all of them, and will include at least some glimpses not just of the broad... Read more
This week’s guest on the ReligionProf Podcast is Dr. Douglas Cowan. I’ve been a huge fan of Doug Cowan’s work on science fiction, fantasy, and other genres as they intersect with religion, ever since I read his book Sacred Space: The Quest for Transcendence in Science Fiction Film and Television. Now he has a new book coming out, Magic, Monsters, and Make-Believe Heroes: How Myth and Religion Shape Fantasy Culture. John Morehead also drew attention to the book last year, and... Read more
These devotional candles featuring the main characters from the X-Files grabbed my attention – not surprisingly, given my interest in the intersection of religion and science fiction, wanting to believe and science, skepticism and conspiracy theories, and so many other themes explored on the show. HT Hemant Mehta, who also blogged about a man who gave his parents a picture of Obi-Wan Kenobi and told them it was Jesus. See too Matt Brake’s podcast interview. And the Auckland Theology and... Read more
Today is Martin Luther King day, and the activity of King and other civil rights activists, the inaction and maintenance of the status quo by most Christians, and the outright racism and violence practiced by some, all illustrate a key point: actions put theologies to the test. Morgan Guyton wrote a post on that theme in connection with the anniversary of Columbus’ “discovery” of the New World, that deserves to be considered more generally and not just in connection with Columbus. And... Read more
One of the things that struck me when reading John Scalzi’s novel Redshirts was how much theology was woven into the fabric (of those red shirts). And the fact that the central character had attended an alien seminary and, despite some ridicule and suggestion that this primed him to believe ridiculous weird stuff, his character struck just the right balance between openness to the seemingly absurd and skepticism towards the seemingly obvious to get at a surprising underlying truth. Perhaps Redshirts is... Read more
Jonathan Bernier explains how historians’ judgment about Jesus’ historicity works: All historical argumentation is probabilistic. This is also to say that any and all historical hypotheses are subject to revision or dispute. Hypotheses subject to revision are hypotheses whose probability sufficiently approaches 1.0 that we can treat them as virtually certain. Such hypotheses include the hypothesis that Germany invaded Poland in September of 1939, or that Jesus of Nazareth existed. Such hypotheses are virtually certain not necessarily because there are... Read more
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