You can pre-order The Only True God: Early Christian Monotheism in Its Jewish Context at a significant discount on amazon.com. I’m not sure what kind of offer University of Illinois Press has at SBL, but it is hard to beat 34% off the list price! Read more

Review of Jack Clayton Swearengen, Beyond Paradise: Technology and the Kingdom of God (Eugene, Oregon: Wipf & Stock, 2007). Review published in Teaching Theology and Religion 11:4 (2008) p.236. Jack Clayton Swearengen’s book Beyond Paradise: Technology and the Kingdom of God is intended as a primer on the ethics of technology and engineering from a Christian perspective. Apart from its final chapters, which offer a naively simplistic presentation of “the biblical response” (p.271) to the book’s subject, this volume succeeds... Read more

Call For Papers: The North American Undergraduate Conference in Religion and PhilosophyDate: Friday-Saturday, March 27-28, 2009Location: St. Francis University, Loretto, PATheme: “The Common Good”Deadline: 150 word abstract, February 13, 2009; complete submission, March 13, 2009Website: www.francis.edu/NAUCRP.htm CALL FOR PAPERSWe cordially invite undergraduates to submit proposals on matters pertaining to philosophy and religion for the third annual North American Undergraduate Conference in Religion and Philosophy. Submissions are encouraged from students majoring in all academic fields to include (but not limited to),... Read more

In a book chapter on oral tradition, I want to make reference in a section heading to some stereotypical set-up for a joke, where certain individuals who make regular appearances at this point in jokes walk into a bar. Who should I use in this illustration? If this were merely for a British audience, then it would be an Englishman, a Scotsman and a Welshman, perhaps. But if one wants the allusion to be clear for a broader English-speaking audience,... Read more

Scot McKnight’s forthcoming book The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible (Zondervan, 2008) is spiritual dynamite. In the book, Scot treats the Bible with a combination of honesty and devotion that is remarkably powerful, and while some may find his approach troubling because it challenges their cherished assumptions, I anticipate and hope that many more will find his honesty refreshing. The justice he does to the Bible’s diversity and development makes his approach appealing to those for whom... Read more

Historians do not know whether Judas really betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. On the one hand, betrayal by a trusted disciple is unlikely to have been invented, any more than denial by a disciple who became a prominent figure in the later church. But the sum of money may be derived from Scripture rather than knowledge of historical facts, and the discrepancies between Acts and Matthew leave us with uncertainty about whether one or neither had accurate information.... Read more

There is great difficulty fitting together the information in Matthew and Acts about Judas’ death and his connection with a field known as “The Field of Blood”. One has him buy the field, while the other has the authorities do so with his money. One has Judas fall headlong and burst open, the other has him hang himself. (To see the lengths to which some will go to harmonize them, click here). If we speculate and combine the two, we... Read more

Crypto-Theology asks whom Paul was referring to in 1 Corinthians 15, when he said some deny the resurrection of the dead. N. T. Wrong continues surveying the topic of visions of the resurrection. Phil Harland offers Jesus’ baptism by John as an event with a high probability of being historical. All those posts should be included in the next Biblical Studies Carnival, which will be at Metacatholic. Chris Brady doesn’t ultimately answer the question of animals having an afterlife, but... Read more

I’ve just been catching up on some of the TV shows I like to follow. New seasons have begun, but I’ve only just managed to watch the Heroes season premiere and that of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (which has already aired its third episode). Both seasons began with an increase in God-talk, all the more noteworthy since such language and imagery was already present to a significant degree in seasons past. My first reaction was to suspect that religious... Read more

Iyov memed me and so I have to tell you six unspectacular things about myself. 1) In my first “band” (yes, the quotes are necessary), the drummer didn’t actually have a drum set and used to bang on a chair. 2) As a child my sister’s pet turtle ate my pet goldfish. 3) I’m the only person in my department who has performed in Butler’s Eidson-Duckwall Recital Hall (I accompanied my son on the piano for one of his early... Read more