I found a variety settings of “When David Heard” from across time to be very useful in my class on the Bible and music. On the one hand, the text itself is interesting, and the choice to set it (sometimes in relation to historical circumstances that make it seem relevant) illuminates the interplay between ancient text and later composers and their historical context. On the other hand, the comparison allowed me to address the question of why older music often sounds... Read more
After starting with a reminder of what happened in the last episode, we are shown life in one of the giant ship’s solar farm levels, where people are trying to defend themselves against the scarecrows/cybermen. The Master and Missy ask the Doctor how many different ways he has died and whether he has any requests. They tell the Doctor that he was ten years trying to get to Bill, and he missed saving her by two hours. Now she will... Read more
Whatever one may think of the fruits of Barack Obama as a liberal Christian, the point here is that Republicans seem unwilling to judge these two candidates according to their fruits when it comes to how they characterize their religious affiliation. If nothing else, it seems that conservative religious people are applying Jesus’ saying about knowing people by their fruits in a very selective way. Either that, or they simply have a distorted view of what the fruits of each... Read more
Emma Higgs writes (in one post from a series the entirety of which is worth reading): As it turns out, diving all the way in to my deepest doubts and fears hasn’t led me away from Christianity, but instead has revealed a richness and beauty to the Christian faith I had never known. It now resonates on a much deeper level, and seems to speak more profound truth than it ever did before. This sort of faith can be difficult... Read more
The Society of Biblical Literature and American Academy of Religion conferences in November have their schedules available at least in draft form, and so I thought I would share a little about the sessions that I am involved in. I’ll be talking about the making of Canon: The Card Game viewed through the lens of the Digital Humanities, focusing on the technology that made it possible to produce it. More details follow below. I should also include a reminder that today is... Read more
You are probably aware that a solar eclipse will be visible across the United States on August 21st of this year. That’s the day after Gen Con, and also during Butler University’s Welcome Week for new students. Our Butler University librarians therefore put together a LibGuide about this year’s eclipse and about solar eclipses in general: http://libguides.butler.edu/c.php?g=34069&p=4563879. Vox shared some detailed maps and information from NASA, while Gizmodo highlighted the best places for viewing the eclipse, including the helpful map below. The view in Indianapolis... Read more
James Garth created the above questionnaire in response to those who complain that the question about religion in the Australian census were not detailed enough. Those recently-released census results are interesting, with a large number of people self-identifying as having no religion. If you were answering the spoof census above, what box would you tick? What other options do you think should be on there? Read more
I wasn’t sure when I started watching it if I was going to blog about Humans. I had wanted for a long time to watch the Swedish original, but hadn’t found the time. Now that the English version is available, I knew I ought to watch it. It had so many interesting elements, precisely the kinds of things that I talk about in my books and courses. But I thought that maybe I had covered these things so often that... Read more
There is no other reason I am sharing this other than that I think it is a wonderful piece of music. Please do let me know whether you enjoy it too! Read more
I just had a wild thought about the final part of the season finale of Doctor Who. Some have speculated that the Doctor is dying, given that he couldn’t use regeneration energy to cure his own blindness. Perhaps he used his own regeneration energy to save Missy from the execution machine. And so he may believe that the end is near for him, and if he is to regenerate, he will need help. What if he finds himself on Earth, in... Read more
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