Another illustration that emerged from my interaction with students at McCormick Theological Seminary had to do with the notion of an unchanging “original text” that we seek to get back to, or which we remember with nostalgia while rejecting things that we perceive as unpleasant or inappropriate changes or additions to it. But that is an illusion, both in religion and in fandom. The idea that we can get back to a pristine original version of what Jesus said, or... Read more
I have two reasons to blog about the Parable of the Sower. One is that I listened to the Octavia Butler novel Parable of the Sower as an audiobook recently, and then did likewise with the sequel, Parable of the Talents. The latter is not getting the attention it deserves, given its arguably prophetic insights, about which I’ll say more below. At the same time, I was reading parts Gerry Canavan’s book, Octavia E. Butler. Canavan had the privilege of being... Read more
One major focus of the questions students at McCormick Seminary asked in response to my book Theology and Science Fiction was about canon (and that was just based on what I wrote in the book, without them knowing that I had invented a card game to foster discussion of the subject in class!) One reason I think the subject of canon is particularly important is how it clarifies a key point about authority. George Lucas may or may not be... Read more
In the second part of my conversation with Ankur Gupta about our Artificial Wisdom project, we moved beyond the things you’ve heard us talk about before or read in our article (such as driverless cars). We are continuing to work on that, to be sure – and I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the call for abstracts for contributions to a volume about the ethics of autonomous vehicles. The deadline is coming up in November. It is also the... Read more
As I’ve been thinking about the topics we talked about when I visited Chicago recently, one that my mind keeps returning to is the question of whether one could ever write a “systematic” theology for a particular world, whether another planet or Earth as depicted in particular fiction. In some cases both would be possible: One could ask about theology on Krypton in the Superman universe, but also about a theology suited to Earth in a universe in which Krypton... Read more
The second episode of this season of Doctor Who made very clear that we’re in the same universe with the same Doctor, regenerated. There were a lot of references to the classic series, from the opening credits to the very end. Sure, it featured a space race that the Doctor found herself and her companions inadvertently in the middle of. That’s happened before on the show, more than once. But this time there was more of a self aware approach to the... Read more
I recently had the delightful experience of visiting McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, to speak to a class on “Science Fiction and Spiritual Imagination.” The class had been assigned my book Theology and Science Fiction as one of their textbooks. They also read Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower and Mary Doria Russell’s The Sparrow. The students (as well as faculty teaching the course) sent me questions ahead of time, and they were truly exciting and thrilling, because they showed... Read more
This call for papers came my way and seemed worth circulating: CALL FOR PAPERS for a topical issue of Open Theology Digital Humanities in Biblical Studies and Theology Edited by: Dr. Claire Clivaz, Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (Lausanne, CH), Vital-IT Dr. Garrick V. Allen, Dublin City University (Ireland) DESCRIPTION “Open Theology” (http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/opth) invites submissions for the topical issue “Digital Humanities in Biblical Studies and Theology”. The topic comprises all topics related to the digitization of biblical and... Read more
According to young earth creationists, Adam had a 24 hour day to name all the animals (Gen. 2:20). Fun fact 1: scientists estimate approximately 8.7 million animal species currently live on earth; millions more species are extinct. Fun fact 2: There are 86,400 seconds in a day. — Tentative Apologist (@RandalRauser) October 11, 2018 Randal Rauser made the point above in a tweet. I’m not sure that there is anything that needs to be added, except that this might be... Read more
Listening to N. T. Wright’s book The Challenge of Jesus (as an audiobook, checked out from my local public library via the Libby app straight to my phone) has given me a new appreciation for Wright’s work and conclusions, many or all of which are argued more thoroughly in others of his books, but in those contexts are not always woven together into story form in the manner they are here. I’ve noted often that the study of the historical... Read more
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