The meme above was created by Christoph Clubbers based on a Facebook post by Thom Stark, who wrote: If God didn’t answer the prayers of six-million Jews who were slaughtered by Christian men, why is God going to answer your prayers for health, your prayers for prosperity, your prayers for safety, your prayers for wisdom for your President? The only prayers God and history seem to recognize are deeds. If God is going to do anything at all, God certainly... Read more
There is in fact a lot to be grateful for in connection with Donald Trump. And not just the fodder for Saturday Night Live skits that he and his administration have been providing. The underlying values of the so-called religious right are being exposed more clearly to public view than ever before. This comic by Mike Peters makes the point well. Read more
Traditions of Eastern Late Antiquity Unit Statement of Purpose: This program unit focused on Late Antiquity in the East aims to provide a home for the study of religious traditions that are rooted in Mesopotamia, Persia, and western Asia, particularly those parts that were outside the Roman cultural reach such as Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, and Mandaeism. While the unit will focus on late antiquity, many of these traditions, and particularly their extant texts come to us from much later periods, and... Read more
Urban C. von Wahlde, Gnosticism, Docetism, and the Judaisms of the First Century: The Search for the Wider Context of the Johannine Literature and Why It Matters. LNTS 512. London: Bloomsbury/T&T Clark, 2015. What follows are thoughts by me prepared for a book review session at the Midwest Regional Society of Biblical Literature conference: In this volume, Urban von Wahlde explores a number of key details that relate to and emerge from his long-term project of redaction critical analysis... Read more
An article in The Washington Post confirms the information in the graphic above. And going back further, CNN notes that three refugees from Cuba killed a total of three people in a terrorist attack, prior to new legislation being introduced in 1980 to screen refugees more thoroughly. Read more
My review of Max Stern’s book Psalms and Music is now available in RBL to SBL members. I inadvertently violated the SBL open access policy in sharing my last review on Academia.edu and so I will not be doing so this time. I will say that, while I did have some criticisms to offer (Stern uncritically embraces some fundamentalist Christian claims about rock music, for instance), the book on the whole has been extremely useful to me as I’ve prepared my course... Read more
CALL FOR PAPERS The British New Testament Society Annual Conference St Patrick’s College, Maynooth 31st August – 2nd September 2017 Proposals for papers are invited for the British New Testament Conference 2017 to be held in Maynooth, Ireland from Thursday 31st August – Saturday 2nd September. Paper proposals of not more than 300 words should be sent directly to the relevant Seminar chairs by Friday 21st April 2017. Proposals for the Simultaneous Short Paper session should be sent to the... Read more
Via Daniel Kirk on Facebook, who came up with the perfect hashtag to bring Elizabeth Warren and New Testament studies together. UPDATE: Daniel clarified that the hashtag was actually borrowed from Christopher Hays, and so that is where credit is due. His hashtag and Daniel’s tweet make a perfect combination, don’t you think? Read more
This is not satire, if you can believe it. Bryan Fischer writes: The Scriptures tell us that the eternal city of his coming kingdom will be surrounded by “a great high wall with twelve gates” (Revelation 21:12), each guarded by an angel so undocumented intruders cannot enter. Identification papers will be scrutinized carefully before anyone is allowed to enter through one of the great big beautiful doors that are built in this wall that surrounds the city. In John’s vision,... Read more
Kodály Zoltán’s choral work Jézus és a kufárok (“Jesus and the Traders”), based on the New Testament accounts of the temple incident. Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In