2018-01-08T08:18:50-05:00

Last updated on: January 8, 2018 at 8:18 am   By

The return of the X-Files for its new season was fascinating as it combined its classic conspiracy theory themes with up-to-date connections with current politics, science denialism, and fake news. The irony, of course, is that conspiracy theories are themselves one of the ways that the powers that be can sow distrust and shift blame – just think of the way that antisemitic conspiracy theories have served to shift blame for societal problems onto scapegoats not only in 20th century Germany but... Read more

2018-01-04T03:57:39-05:00

Last updated on: January 4, 2018 at 3:57 am   By

Until relatively recently, I had no idea that there was such a word as “Wikipediatrician.” But having come across it, I was inspired to revisit the question of how to view this widely-used source as an educator. The term is used by some to refer to those who are so immersed in online sources that they fail to consult other kinds of resources even when they need to. And yet the punny word sounds like it ought to be a doctor who seeks to... Read more

2018-01-02T23:07:24-05:00

Last updated on: January 2, 2018 at 11:07 pm   By

I was blown away by the 2017 Doctor Who Christmas special, “Twice Upon a Time, written by Steven Moffat. It begins with “Previously on Doctor Who” followed not by a recap of the last episode, but “709 Episodes Ago” and both original footage and new from the classic episode “The Tenth Planet,” which featured the first regeneration. Unfortunately holiday travels delayed my watching it and blogging about it, and so I apologize that I am only getting this onto my blog... Read more

2017-12-09T16:49:14-05:00

Last updated on: December 9, 2017 at 4:49 pm   By

I’ve come across calls for papers, presentations, book chapters, and a variety of other things before, but this is the first “call for games” that I’ve encountered, and so I thought I’d share it: Call for Games deadline for submissions: February 2, 2018 full name / name of organization: OneShot: A Journal of Critical Games contact email: [email protected] As culturally-significant artifacts, games have garnered an increasing amount of attention from academia as well as business, marketing, and other industries once... Read more

2017-12-31T23:09:48-05:00

Last updated on: December 31, 2017 at 11:09 pm   By

I wish all readers of this blog a very happy start to 2018! Read more

2017-12-09T16:45:11-05:00

Last updated on: December 9, 2017 at 4:45 pm   By

The Anthropological Study of Religious and Religion-Themed Mobile Apps (a call for book chapters): https://relcfp.tumblr.com/post/168244316584/call-for-book-chapters-the-anthropological-study Read more

2018-01-02T14:51:02-05:00

Last updated on: January 2, 2018 at 2:51 pm   By

The Bible does not literally say anything, because books do not literally talk, and the Bible as an anthology certainly doesn’t speak with a single voice even metaphorically. Jim Manchester said the words in the meme on Facebook, when sharing my blog post about biblical literalism. I asked for permission to turn what he said into a meme, and he agreed. Of related interest, I came across the blog of David Schell, who writes: For Biblical literalists, their interpretation is the... Read more

2017-12-29T06:14:54-05:00

Last updated on: December 29, 2017 at 6:14 am   By

I received this call for papers and thought I should pass it on, since I now there are blog readers who will be interested in it: We are pleased to announce the Conference on Religious and Philosophical Conversion in Ancient Mediterranean Traditions (CoRPC), which will take place at the University of Bonn from 25 to 27 of September 2018 (https://www.etf.uni-bonn.de/de/ev-theol/institute/corpc/startseite).   Steering Committee Kelley Coblentz Bautch (St. Edward’s University in Austin) Athanasios Despotis (Universität Bonn) Edith M. Humphrey (Pittsburgh Theological Seminary) Hermut Löhr... Read more

2017-12-29T08:50:08-05:00

Last updated on: December 29, 2017 at 8:50 am   By

Jonathan Bernier wrote in a comment on Facebook: In my experience, when it comes to biblical studies, “skeptic” is frequently code for “credulous towards heterodox claims.” That seemed like such an excellent succinct summary of the irony of so much self-proclaimed skepticism that it deserved to be shared with a wider audience, and so I am really happy that he gave me permission to do so. This came up, not surprisingly, in a discussion of a mythicist meme that circulates... Read more

2017-12-06T14:40:54-05:00

Last updated on: December 6, 2017 at 2:40 pm   By

A number of posts around the blogosphere have touched on this topic that has long been of great interest to me. To start with, Mark Ganville writes in his review of Lester Grabbe’s book 1 & 2 Kings: Grabbe traces the development of monotheistic Yahwism from a polytheistic context where Yahweh was one among many gods, a ‘son’ of El, to the monotheistic religion of the DH. Izaak de Hulster has blogged about the subject of his book, Figurines in Achaemenid... Read more

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