I didn’t sleep through class. But I did get an e-mail about a site called “I Slept Through Class“. The site offers students an opportunity to upload and download class notes. Are other educators aware of this? Do you think this is good news or bad? Will it encourage students to sleep through class, or to collaborate in ways that may in fact be helpful to their getting the most out of their college experience? Read more

Stephen Barkley has posted a review of The Burial of Jesus on his blog and on Amazon.com. Read more

It seems like the frenzy of interest in the possibility that Obama is the antichrist is increasing as election day draws closer. I’ve had more hits than usual on my blog today, most of them from people searching on search engines for keywords like “Obama Revelations 13”. Presumably they are looking for Revelation 13 rather than “revelations” in the generic sense. Most of them have ended up at my post “Left Behind with Obama“. I think that post remains useful,... Read more

There were two cartoons posted on blogs recently, related to the current economic crisis in the United States, that seemed worth sharing. The first is from the Kenyan Daily Nation (HT Kouya Chronicle): The second I found at Shuck and Jive: Read more

I’ve begun a “bloggersation” with Tom Verenna, on the subject of the existence of Jesus. I hope that in future posts, Tom will call me James. Otherwise, I’ll come back and edit this post and call him something more than simply “Tom”! 🙂 In his reply to an earlier post of mine to which I pointed him, to get the conversation started, he objects to my appeal to authority (pointing to the consensus of most historians) and to my pointing... Read more

In a discussion of The Burial of Jesus, which advocates the use of historical methods to investigate historical questions, I encountered the accusation that this approach reflects the “antisupernaturalism” of historians. I am convinced that this accusation is unfair, for two reasons. First, it is not simply historians who ask for more impressive evidence for more unusual claims. Few of us would treat claims made by individuals alive today, both of whom claimed to be pregnant, and one of whom... Read more

I won’t go into details about the book by John Kaltner, Steven L. McKenzie and Joel Kilpatrick, The Uncensored Bible: The Bawdy and Naughty Bits of the Good Book (HarperOne, 2008), both in order to allow readers to get the full possible enjoyment of the book, and to keep my blog G-rated. The book could be described as a survey of current scholarship proposing interpretations of various passages involving sex, toilets, S&M;, beer-making, depression, and various other elements that many... Read more

I want to highlight a new blog created by a librarian at Butler University, Brad Matthies, who is also a friend of mine. The title is “Black Belt Librarian”. It should warn you, before you go over there and start stirring up trouble, that the black belt is no mere metaphor. The Black Belt Librarian has already taken the time to blog about our recent discussion on campus about The Burial of Jesus, as well as the “big questions” that... Read more

If you are growing tired of attack ads as election day draws near, there is only one remedy: watch amusing attack ads that don’t feature any of the current presidential candidates, but instead feature famous philosophers. Here are two that a colleague in philosophy brought to my attention: Kant Attack Ad Kierkegaard in ’08 Read more

I received a question from someone who is reading my book, asking the following: I’m just curious if you’ve read two articles that argue against McCane’s thesis of a dishonorable burial. William Lane Craig (“Was Jesus Buried in Shame: Reflections on B. McCane’s Proposal,” Expository Times, 115, 2004, 404-409 ) argues against McCane directly, and Jodi Magness (“Ossuaries and the Burials of Jesus and James” JBL, 124, 2005) 121-54 argues that if Jesus was buried in a criminal burial area... Read more