Of the Burning of Books There is no End

Last updated on: October 10, 2017 at 10:09 am By James F. McGrath

Tim O’Neill, on his blog History for Atheists, has tackled another widely-held misrepresentation, namely that Christians in ancient times typically conspired to destroy and suppress secular and/or “pagan” literature. Here is an excerpt: What people like Nixey neglect to mention is the fact while some prominent clergy argued that the Bible and the works of the Church fathers were sufficient for a Christian’s education, other argued that all knowledge came ultimately from God and so “pagan” learning was a gift... Read more

Before Common Calendar

Last updated on: October 8, 2017 at 8:29 am By James F. McGrath

Doug Chaplin writes: For me, the biggest objection to replacing BC/AD with BCE/CE is that it is fundamentally dishonest. For better or worse, we have a global dating system because the world was pretty much conquered by Christian imperialist powers who could enforce European Christendom norms on the rest of the globe. Calling the time since the approximate date of Jesus’ birth “Common Era” as though this is a matter of mutual agreement, and nothing to do with a particular... Read more

Atonement #CFP

Last updated on: October 5, 2017 at 4:02 pm By James F. McGrath

St. Andrews has a history of putting together fantastic symposiums and conferences, and I was asked to spread the word about another one that is coming up in 2018. It covers a wide array of fascinating topics, and it will be great to see scholars who work on a variety of ancient Israelite, Jewish, and Christian traditions come together in conversation around these themes that intersect with and run through each of them. Read more

Romania the Outlier

Last updated on: October 4, 2017 at 10:31 am By James F. McGrath

As a follow-up to yesterday’s post about visiting Transylvania, here’s another bit of information that shows why Romania is fascinating. A recent survey suggests that more people in Romania believe in God – or at least, say they believe in God when asked on a survey – than in any other country in Europe. For more on these fascinating statistics, see Danut Manastireanu’s post about religious beliefs in the European Union, and Hemant Mehta’s posts about the statistics for the Czech Republic... Read more

Transylvania as a Study Abroad Destination

Last updated on: October 4, 2017 at 1:55 pm By James F. McGrath

Many of you know that I am planning on running a short-term study abroad trip next May to Transylvania (starting in Bucharest, ending in Budapest, and in between visiting Brasov, Sibiu, Sighisoara, Alba Iulia, and Timisoara). This is instead of my usual Israel trip, which has been suspended not because it is less safe to visit that part of the world than it has been when I’ve run the trip in the past, but because the perception of safety... Read more

Joshua Landis and Rima Shahid at Butler University

Last updated on: October 3, 2017 at 11:10 am By James F. McGrath

Above you will find the video recording of the first of this year’s public lectures in the Butler Seminar on Religion and Global Affairs, this year’s theme being “Religion, Refugees, and Migration.” This first lecture, “Moving from Majority to Minority: Middle East Refugees,” featured Joshua Landis as keynote and Rima Shahid as respondent. You’ll notice that Transylvania appears on the screen in Landis’ part of the presentation. I’m working on developing a short-term study abroad trip to that part of... Read more

Star Trek: Discovery – Episode 3: Context Is for Kings

Last updated on: October 9, 2017 at 11:46 am By James F. McGrath

This episode felt much too fast paced, skipping 6 months into the future, getting Michael Burnham onto a shuttle and then onto the U. S. S. Discovery (where several of her former crewmates are now crew members, including Saru, who is first officer) in the first few minutes. Michael is confined to quarters when not working, and her roommate (who has some kind of special needs) comments on her name, saying that the only other female Michael she knows of... Read more

How Star Wars Ends

Last updated on: September 30, 2017 at 11:01 am By James F. McGrath

Mitchell Dostine believes that we already know how Star Wars will end (assuming that there is an end, and not an endless string of Disney Star Wars movies that simply peters out several centuries from now without resolution). It will end in gray. The evidence, he suggests, is to be found in the prophecy and the idea of the Force being balanced, and the indication we’ve already been given that Luke Skywalker is determined to be The Last Jedi. The implication is... Read more

Marshall

Last updated on: September 30, 2017 at 1:23 pm By James F. McGrath

I was delighted to have an opportunity to watch the upcoming movie Marshall in advance of its release. The movie is incredibly timely, given the upsurge in attention in recent years to racism as a continuing problem in our society. The movie is about just one particular case that Thurgood Marshall tried while working for the NAACP, defending an African-American man accused of rape. He would later go on to become famous for his role in the case Brown vs. the... Read more

Re-Forming Reformed Fundamentalists

Last updated on: October 3, 2017 at 9:23 am By James F. McGrath

Allan Bevere writes: So, how can you tell if you are a re-formed fundamentalist of some stripe? There is currently no diagnostic test available, but allow me to offer some test questions that might indicate you have the affliction: 1. When you read something on a blog espousing a view akin to your former days, do you comment, not in reasonable fashion, but in anger and disdain for the view expressed. 2. When you hear an idea or a belief... Read more