Sojourners magazine has two pieces highlighting works of science fiction that explore religious themes: “This World and the Next” and “Spiritually-Inflected Science Fiction“. In addition, Paul Levinson has his latest post up about Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I love the way the show is exploring the parallels between programming an artificial intelligence and raising a child. A terminator from the future seems to be trying to develop its own Skynet, presumably before the original one can be developed. I... Read more

This chapter is subtitled “Can religious experience count as evidence?” and provides an interesting intersection between Ward’s book and my own recent one, The Burial of Jesus. Ward begins his chapter by writing “In most religions, there is an important place for experience. In fact, if there were no distinctively religious experiences, it is doubtful if religions would exist” (p.162). My own view about Easter (since there has been some confusion about it around the web) is as follows. First,... Read more

It has been a while since I’ve posted about scam e-mails, but a couple have made it past my spam filter in recent days, and so I thought it might be worth warning the gullible out there. If you receive either of these, please don’t be stupid enough to think that some random individual has singled you out to give a large sum of money to. It is a scam to get your personal information, and perhaps more. Below are... Read more

Here’s the first trailer previewing season 5 of LOST: HT IO9 Read more

There are two articles in Biblical Archaeology Review about Israelite origins by Anson Rainey: “Inside, Outside: Where Did the Early Israelites Come From?” and “Shasu or Habiru: Who Were the Early Israelites?” Since the Israelites, according to the Bible, are supposed to have spent time in Egypt, it is appropriate to be able to point to a number of posts about Egypt, too. Ferrell Jenkins has a post on temples along the Nile. Sepher Ha-Bloggadah is up to the first... Read more

The Burial of Jesus (and a recent review of it) have been mentioned on Lingamish. Just for clarification, the post there says: “his body later dumped in a common grave” – I think that something like this is what happened. “where the disciples then retrieved it and gave it a proper burial” – I am persuaded that the disciples wanted to do this but am also persuaded that they were unable to. Had they been able to, I think they... Read more

I joined briefly in a discussion on Theology Web, and one of the other participants has reposted some things I wrote and his reply on his own blog, The Gothic Theologian. Those interested in talking about 1 Corinthians 15, the resurrection, and related subjects, but who may (like me) not be “orthodox” enough for the discussion on Theology Web, may want to pay a visit to the Gothic Theologian instead! Read more

According to the time scale calculated by Bishop Ussher based on the genealogies in the Bible, the earth was created 6011 years ago tomorrow. Here’s why I think trying to calculate anything to do with history or science based on Biblical genealogies is a bad idea. And here’s a link to a review by Peter Enns of a book arguing the case for an old earth from an Evangelical perspective. HT Open Parachute Read more

I’ve decided to share an e-mail I received recently, for the interest/entertainment of readers: Dear Prof. McGrath, I am writng to you because from what I have read about you on the Internet you are interested in biblical prophecy in terms of research and verification. I have identified the two witnesses that are mentioned in The Bible in Revelation 11:3. The story is fairly long and detailed so I would like to say that I would be interested in talking... Read more

Nelson Moore has done a guest post on Chris Tilling’s blog Chrisendom, a review of The Burial of Jesus. Do take a look, as the review as a whole provides a nice summary of the book’s key points. I’ll just share the conclusion here: “The Burial of Jesus by James McGrath is definitely worth purchasing and reading. For those unfamiliar with how historical work is done in Christian academic contexts, McGrath provides a wonderful primer. If you are a biblical... Read more