How Much of the Bible do Young-Earth Creationists Reject?

Last updated on: March 3, 2018 at 10:59 am By James F. McGrath

I have been meaning to blog about this topic ever since Hemant Mehta pointed out that there were young-earth creationists who were mocking flat-earthers for taking the Bible too literally. That hypocrisy continues, as Answers in Genesis just recently posted an article which says the following: Detractors of the Bible might point to passages like Isaiah 11:12, Revelation 7:1, and Revelation 20:8 to claim that the Bible teaches a flat earth. But the phrase, “the four corners of the earth,” must be interpreted within its... Read more

The Core of a University Education

Last updated on: March 3, 2018 at 11:02 am By James F. McGrath

Most readers of this blog will know that in March I stepped into an administrative role as Faculty Director of the Core Curriculum at Butler University. Even before that time – but much more since – I have been giving a lot of thought to something that most faculty know, but many students seem not to. The core curriculum at institutions with a strong liberal arts focus is not something unrelated to one’s major and one’s reasons for being at university, but... Read more

Caring for Your Faith

Last updated on: February 25, 2018 at 10:14 pm By James F. McGrath

Kerry Connelly writes: One of the things that’s most surprising about my seminary journey is the way my faith is being deconstructed. To be honest, sometimes it feels as if God is dying, and perhaps this is true. What I mean is this: old, tired ways of thinking about God, and even more important, the boundaries we as humans love to put around God, are crashing down around me. I am more and more convinced that the desire to be... Read more

Your Pick of Piccolo

Last updated on: February 23, 2018 at 7:12 pm By James F. McGrath

Somehow if one Googles “piccolo” the top result will tell you that “Piccolo is a very tall and muscular Namekian…” For those interested in the musical instrument, some results along those lines do also follow shortly after. There is in fact a lot of really wonderful music for piccolo. One example is Daniel Dorff’s “Sonatine de Giverny”: Another is Michael Daugherty’s “The High and the Mighty”: And here’s Willard Elliot’s “Fantasy for Piccolo and Piano”: All of the above pieces... Read more

Biblical Hebrew Vocabulary by Conceptual Categories

Last updated on: February 23, 2018 at 7:13 pm By James F. McGrath

Anyone who has learned a language has worked with vocabulary lists. Sometimes these are provided in a textbook, chapter by chapter and/or in an appendix. Sometimes these are handwritten and carried around in our pockets for convenience of review in between time spent with printed materials, as we seek to learn new vocabulary. Students of ancient languages will also be familiar with publications that list books by frequency, something that it is harder to produce for a living language in... Read more

The Pantheism and Panentheism Project

Last updated on: February 21, 2018 at 12:44 pm By James F. McGrath

The Pantheism and Panentheism Project, funded by the John Templeton Foundation, welcomes applications for summer stipends from scholars and writers who wish to spend the summer writing a paper for publication in a peer-reviewed academic journal, a reputable magazine (if they wish to write for a popular audience), or an edited collection to be published by a leading academic publisher. We offered £1000 each to 10 applicants in the summer of 2017 (see FUNDED PROJECTS for details on the output of the... Read more

David (and Bathsheba) in Song

Last updated on: February 27, 2018 at 6:56 am By James F. McGrath

There is a lot of music about King David, the Biblical character, as well as much more that purports to be by him. My most recent discovery in this subgenre is by Greek composer Eleni Karandraiou, and it is especially interesting, since it is a setting of an 18th century Greek work about David, making it doubly if not triply historically interesting. Turning to another composer’s setting, there is a wealth of information online about Milhaud’s David (op.320), including an online exhibit of letters... Read more

Spit Out False Antitheses

Last updated on: February 25, 2018 at 10:06 pm By James F. McGrath

A while back I had someone appeal to the text in Revelation about being lukewarm as part of their attempt to bolster a false antithesis. What I should have pointed out in response (but alas failed to at the time) is that there are more than two ways to understand that famous text. And so, whatever you think that text means (and it isn’t as obvious as some think that it means that it is better to be avidly for or against something... Read more

Camels in the Eye of a Needle

Last updated on: February 22, 2018 at 10:21 pm By James F. McGrath

Someone I know drew my attention to an exhibit at the Micro Wonder Museum near Budapest in Hungary, precisely because one of the minuscule works of art is an Egyptian scene – specifically, camels and a pyramid – in the eye of a needle: I am certain that the artist, Mykola Syadristy, was aware of the biblical saying about it being easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich person to enter the... Read more

Cloning Jesus

Last updated on: February 26, 2018 at 10:20 am By James F. McGrath

I am sure I am not alone in not expecting theological insight from PZ Myers. But lately he has been sharing things that are on target, and in one recent post in particular, he focuses in on a topic of crucial theological and scientific importance, and one that is certainly of universal interest: what happens if someone tries to clone Jesus? Now, let me immediately follow up by noting that Myers failed to fact-check the story that came across his... Read more