Merry Christmas! Here are some of my family’s favorite Romanian Christmas carols, with English translations of the words for those who may benefit from them. Enjoy! Romanian Christmas Carols in translation Good morning this Christmas Eve! Will you give us something or not? [repeat] We too have come We wish you a healthy year May the holy Lord grant us Pretzels and walnuts galore! Behold the Carolers are Coming! The flowers are white On the singers at... Read more
The Matrix Resurrections is so meta that most of it may be lost on those who never saw the original trilogy. It is the resurrection of the franchise, of Neo and Trinity, and of the Matrix as a virtual world within the films. The movie comments on itself as well as the earlier Matrix films in a way that is not just “meta” for its own sake but insightful. The analyst who is the architect of the new Matrix seeking... Read more
Luke’s Gospel is distinctive in many ways, but particularly noteworthy is its account of the infancy of John the Baptist. Indeed, the Gospel of Luke tells us a great deal more than the other Synoptics about John and his followers, and all that material stands out in some way. Luke drops the depiction of John as an oddly-dressed hermit and makes him more clearly an itinerant activist throughout the region of the Jordan River. Luke elaborates on John’s ethical teaching concerning... Read more
I had the opportunity to talk just these past few days with Niq Ruud about his book Only Love. Here is the interview: What led you to write Only Love? I think initially it was story which led me to write this book—because narrative is what sticks. I grew up in rather fundamentalist Christian circles which had me inherit a worldview that elevated the stories of scripture well above the lived experience those of us living in the modern world. It... Read more
Clif Hostetler wrote the following on Amazon as a review of my book What Jesus Learned from Women: The New Testament was written by men living in a patriarchal age that tended to discount the role of women in society. Nevertheless, the presence of women is acknowledged, and this provides a hint that their role may have been more significant than portrayed. If Jesus was truly human he needed to learn about his world from those he encountered in everyday... Read more
I provided an endorsement for Jonathan Bernier’s new book Rethinking the Dates of the New Testament. Here’s what I wrote, which you can find quoted on the publisher’s website: In Rethinking the Dates of the New Testament Jonathan Bernier offers a much-needed corrective to the tendency for the dates assigned to New Testament works to drift further and further in opposite directions due more to ideological preferences than evidence, or to be confidently placed roughly around the middle of a possible... Read more
I shared some thoughts in comments on this blog related to mythicism and historical method. First, here is what I said in response to a claim attributed to Robert M. Price to the effect that the criterion of dissimilarity and the criterion of embarrassment are in tension with one another: Saying that there was a reason for everything to be included or else it would not have is as true and as untrue in the case of the Gospels as... Read more
I make a point of committing to doing the final project along with students when I teach the Bible and Music. Sometimes I write a completely new song, other times I use an existing tune and create new words that paraphrase the biblical text. The text known as the Magnificat (Luke 1:46–55) took on new significance to me as I worked on my book What Jesus Learned from Women, seeing even more clearly how Mary’s words are later reflected in... Read more
Composer Delvyn Case has set the Elohist’s version of the story of Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac – in which Isaac is not spared – to music in a remarkable, powerful piece that words won’t do justice to, so let me be quiet and offer this recording of the world premiere for you to listen to: Words can of course nevertheless be helpful in framing and interpreting music, and this instance is no exception. Have a look at what Del says... Read more
I debated what would be best each time I watched part of the season-long Doctor Who story “Flux.” In the end I decided to blog about the whole all at once. The season combined the episodic multi-part storytelling of the classic show with the focus on season-long arc in the more recent series. It combined the recently-revived focus on the Doctor’s mysterious past that was such a focus particularly in the Sylvester McCoy era and its Cartmel Masterplan, but with... Read more
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