(First question for John Hobbins) How do you go about relating your academic interest in Biblical languages and interpretation to your pastoral work? How do you understand the responsibility of Christian academics specialized in Biblical studies? What is involved in trying to “avoid ruining old churches” as an academic and a Christian? I remember someone once saying that their understanding of their role as a professor in seminary was to “minimize the damage” that graduates would do to the people... Read more

John Hobbins of Ancient Hebrew Poetry recently began a meme/blogathon in which two bloggers take turns asking each other up to ten questions. He went easy on me and asked me three, and I’ve since returned the favor. His answers will be found in the next three posts: (1) Relating Pastoral and Academic Work(2) Doubts, Passions and Hates(3) Blogging to the Tune of the Eurythmics Anyone else who decides to follow suit, leave a comment with a link to your... Read more

Undeception has shared a great chart (from Lawrence Boadt’s book Reading the Old Testament) contrasting the aims and methods of ancient Hebrew historians with those of modern Western ones: Read more

Louisiana has had it tough, and the last thing they need is for science education in the state, and as a consequence investment and support from those who value science and education, undermined. Yet a bill is in the process of becoming law in Louisiana that uses weasel words and slippery language to try to get pseudoscience into the schools. Science is all about critical thinking – if that were what this was about, the law would be unnecessary. The... Read more

(HT Unreasonable Faith) Read more

Lying for Jesus takes on dubious apologists’ claims (HT Debunking Christianity). Christians should listen to such critics, since no Christian should accept claims simply because they support their presuppositions. Jesus challenged the presuppositions of his followers regularly, and so if anything, the appropriate Christian approach is to be wary of teachers whose claims “tickle the ears”. Elsewhere in the blogosphere: Metacatholic discusses conservative Christians’ persecution complex. Giles Fraser on gay marriage from an Anglican perspective. eSkeptic broaches the topic of... Read more

“Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh! Wherefore if thy neighbor’s hand or his foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them away; and if thy neighbor’s eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it away” (Not St Matthew 18). Read more

No commentary needed… Read more

In the mid-season “finale” of Battlestar Galactica, entitled “Revelations“, there were indeed amazing revelations made. The identities of four of the final five become known to Cylons and humans alike. And as a result, both groups find Earth. It is a wasteland, still tainted by radiation, the landscape littered with the ruins of a civilization. Presumably our civilization, although who knows. Perhaps the humans and Cylons who’ve just arrived will make a fresh start, and they will be the ones... Read more

Today I received another solicitation to be included in a Who’s Who volume. This time it was Madison Who’s Who. As I have said before, this is nothing more than a solicitation of money in exchange to print your name somewhere. No prestige, no personal assessment of your achievement, is involved. Note the generic “Dear Candidate” at the beginning of this first (and apparently, indeed hopefully, final) invitation to register. If you get an e-mail like the one below, delete... Read more