Cardiff University has announced the following: Whoniversal Appeal: An Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Conference on Doctor Who, and its Spin-Offs (14-15 November, 2008) Visit the official conference page for more details. (HT IO9) Read more

Review of Stephen J. Nichols, Jesus Made in America: A Cultural History from the Puritans to the Passion of the Christ (Downers Grove: IVP Academic [InterVarsity Press], 2008). Criticisms from outside are easily dismissed. Those who criticize us in this way, we can reassure ourselves, simply don’t like us, or they are fundamentally opposed to our beliefs and values. Criticism from within a tradition or movement, for this reason, carries greater weight. And although Nichols’ book is described as a... Read more

Thanks to everyone who provided feedback on my question about self publishing. If I go ahead with publishing in that format, I’d love to have a photo of a first century Jewish tomb or ossuary on the cover. Does anyone have any that they may have taken on a trip to Israel, and which they’d be willing to allow to be used on a book cover, in exchange for the prestige of having their name listed on the back with... Read more

There seem to be two trends in publishing at the moment. On the one hand, larger presses are making cutbacks. On the other hand, there is a proliferation of self-published books and the process of publishing your own book is becoming cheaper and more convenient. Does anyone have thoughts on self-publishing? Has anyone done it and can recommend it (or recommend not to do it)? I have a very short book that I might try to publish that way if... Read more

I’ve made some links available on the Crooked Creek Baptist Church blog, allowing readers to compare different views Christians hold about the Bible, as well as get further information on the canon and other relevant issues. If anyone has suggestions about other resources (including your own blog posts – don’t be shy!) or better ways to arrange the material, do let me know. Also let me know if you think I’ve miscategorized someone – I obviously didn’t have time to... Read more

I’ve posted the video below before, but haven’t had the chance to watch it carefully and comment on it until now. Some of the most important elements are the following: 1) We learn that Dr. Marvin Candle is in face really an astrophysicist from Ann Arbor, Michigan whose name is Pierre Cheng or Chang. 2) A baby is there and crying. I doubt that detail is there for no purpose. Perhaps it is Cheng’s own child, and we will meet... Read more

Jim West pointed out this clip from “The Bible’s Buried Secrets” on YouTube. The documentary is controversial among fundamentalists, since it dares to present information that is common knowledge among all people who bother reading what Biblical scholars write. [shock, horror] Biblische Ausbildung has this great cartoon: Shuck & Jive has a Q&A; with Michael Dowd. Science and Religion Today talks about an astronaut’s faith. LisaJ promots a scientific mind. Peggy suggests where to find cutting-edge information on the biosciences.... Read more

I just finished watching season 1 of LOST. What a marvellous bit of television LOST is! Just like the Black Rock made us presume there was a rock rather than a boat out there in the “Dark Territory”, the naming of Aaron and the naming of the three-hour, two-part season finale “Exodus” was a false clue, pointing to the expectation that those on the raft were leading the survivors across the waters to freedom. But in this exodus, we find... Read more

Christine Wicker has been kind enough to include a link to my post about her recent book, The Fall of the Evangelical Nation, on her own blog. Since she only links to my blog and not the specific post, here’s a link to the relevant post for those who’ve come here from there looking for it. Welcome! Read more

There has been some discussion in the biblioblogosphere in recent days about the possibility that words of Christian prophets, which would have been understood to be the words of the risen Christ, became intermingled in the oral (and eventually the written) traditions about Jesus in early Christianity. The conversation began at Singing in the Reign and continues at Metacatholic and Sean the Baptist. The clearest evidence that I can think of for Christian prophecy being attributed to the figure of... Read more