In this week’s ReligionProf Podcast my guest is my Butler University colleague, Brent Hege. Brent and I share a lot of interests in common – not just theology in general, for instance, but particulars like Rudolf Bultmann and Paul Tillich, as well as the phenomenon of creationism, and other intersections between theology and science such as that which is the focus of this year’s Butler Seminar on Religion and Global Affairs (and a topic that we thought we’d get to... Read more
I was reminded a while back (actually, looking at when I first wrote a draft of this post, it was a couple of years ago, when watching the movie Carmel, which includes Josephus’ account of the Jewish war and other quotes from his writings) that Josephus claimed that his work was translated from Hebrew or Aramaic. It seems to me that that claim is worth thinking about in relation to the claim that there was a Hebrew Gospel of Matthew,... Read more
Vance Morgan wrote a while back: Those who are obsessed, as I am, with questions about what is greater than us often assume that the most important question is “Does God exist?” I submit that an even more problematic question is “What if God does exist, but has character traits entirely different from those we project heavenward?” The post as a whole focuses on the measures that human beings take to avoid thinking about such possibilities. Our thinking in simplistic... Read more
In a conversation with colleagues sometime last year, we had a conversation about appropriate word use and its impact on our vocabulary. It came up when someone referred to a “blind spot,” and another colleague said they had actually had a student complain about the term because it was disrespectful of those with visual impairments. I was shocked that this had been suggested, since “blind spot” is the technical term for an aspect of human vision that all human beings... Read more
John Polkinghorne writes: When I left the full-time practice of science and turned my collar round to become a clergyman, my life changed in all sorts of ways. One important thing did not change, however, for, in both my careers, I have been concerned with the search for truth. Religion is not just a technique for keeping our spirits up, a pious anaesthetic to dull some of the pain of real life. The central religious question is the question of... Read more
I have such a great appreciation for Neil Carter. Although he is no longer a Christian, he is regularly concerned that neither Christianity in general, nor Jesus, be maligned as a whole for things that are the responsibility of a subset of Christians who can be shown to have departed wholesale from Jesus’ teachings. For instance, he recently wrote the following in a blog post about what a church is for: They have internalized a theology that absolves them of... Read more
There have been several Christmas-related posts, some of which cover topics that are addressed every year around this time, but many or all of which either have enough new, or remain of such relevance, that they are worth sharing. The one I most want to highlight is Ian Paul’s explanation of why the idea that Jesus was born in a stable is wrong. There have been many such posts, and some circulate year after year, Christmas after Christmas. But this... Read more
This week’s episode of the ReligionProf Podcast features Karen Keen, who blogs at Reverent Sexuality. In it, we talk about her recent book, Scripture, Ethics, and the Possibility of Same-Sex Relationships. See also her response to a review by Sean McDowell, and now also part two of it, as well as the video she shared about Christian parents who came to rethink their views in light of their own children coming out. Keen also reviewed the book Modern Kinship, and wrote about... Read more
I have been meaning to blog about HumaReC for some time. HumaReC stands for Humanities Research and Continuous Publishing, and represents a Digital Humanities project related specifically to the New Testament, spearheaded by Claire Clivaz, a major figure in this field. But recently, when Ancient World Online drew attention to Sara Schulthess’ Open Access book on the site, about a trilingual manuscript of the New Testament, I knew it was time to rectify things and blog about the site. Schulthess’... Read more
The tenth episode of Jodie Whittaker’s first season as the Doctor is the season finale, and its title – “The Battle of Ranskoor av Kolos” – may not be especially memorable or striking. But this episode is certain to be remembered vividly, and widely discussed, by anyone interested in religious themes on the show. It is also going to be a focus of attention for anyone interested in the Doctor’s ethical values and the ways that the show engages with... Read more
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