#CFP Jewish Science Fiction and Fantasy Books and Essays

November 3, 2021 By James F. McGrath

A call for papers via RelCFP: Hello, everyone. I’m editing a series with Rowman & Littlefield/Lexington on a line of academic books critically analyzing elements of Jewish science fiction and fantasy (that’s the series title). https://rowman.com/action/series/les/lexjsf As such, I’d love some authors with concepts to write about. So far, we have one coming out on Goliath, one on Yiddish fantasy prologues to films and sitcoms, and a short series on the history of all Jewish SFF. The call for books is ongoing–topics big or... Read more

Geeking Out With Maurice Broaddus and Ted Chiang, Christianity and Science Fiction Conference Videos, and More

October 28, 2021 By James F. McGrath

Very soon I’ll have an update to share about some of my own science fiction writing, with some stories I’m really excited about becoming part of projects that I’m delighted about in and of themselves. In the meantime, here are some videos, stories by others, and a few approaching submission deadlines for fictional stories which I wish I had the time to write something for, or had something ready to go that would fit, but alas I don’t. To begin... Read more

Recent Reviews of What Jesus Learned from Women

October 27, 2021 By James F. McGrath

Here are a couple more reviews of What Jesus Learned from Women that have been posted by readers. If you never visit the UK Amazon site you’ll miss this one from Craig Bach: There are many obvious examples of Jesus speaking with women, but put them all into context and a theme emerges – across Gospel traditions – suggesting that women played a very important role in Jesus learning and thus his ministry. Prof. James F. McGrath needs to be... Read more

Election, Priesthood, and Creation: A Plain Reading of Genesis 1-4 (and Beyond)

October 25, 2021 By James F. McGrath

My adult Sunday school class at Crooked Creek Baptist Church has read Genesis 1-3 together, often on the occasion of Evolution Weekend. Today, for the first time, we pressed on into Genesis 4, with the aim of carrying on studying the rest of Genesis and perhaps beyond. The expected questions came up. Why did God prefer Abel’s offering to Cain’s? Where did Cain’s wife come from? Who was Cain was afraid would kill him when he was driven out from... Read more

#CFP Journal of Gods and Monsters Upcoming Special Issues

October 20, 2021 By James F. McGrath

Via John Morehead: CFP Journal of Gods and Monsters Upcoming Special Issues The Journal of Gods and Monsters is a peer-reviewed, open access journal that seeks to explore the connections between the sacred and the monstrous. “Religion” can refer to the world’s religious traditions or to ideas that are religious in a substantive sense, such as God, demons, or death and the afterlife. However, the journal will also consider articles that explore the “religious” dimension of culture in a functional sense as relating... Read more

Conversations About Women in the Bible

October 18, 2021 By James F. McGrath

Let me begin with the delightful opportunity I had to talk with Jaime Clark-Soles and Lucy Peppiatt about our three books which intersect around the theme of women in the Bible. Our three books are Women in the Bible, Rediscovering Scripture’s Vision for Women, and What Jesus Learned from Women. I also recently recorded a podcast episode for the Two Cities podcast focused on my book What Jesus Learned from Women. Here’s the blurb for it: In this episode we’re talking about... Read more

QAnon Conspirituality and QAmerican Culture

October 13, 2021 By James F. McGrath

This isn’t the first time that I and other scholars in religious studies have turned our attention to anti-vaccination stances, QAnon, and other conspiracy theories, all of which have lots of religious connections and religious aspects. There’s more to be said about that in relation to some recent news items. Let me begin with a brief CBS documentary on the connection between rejection of mainstream knowledge in the Yoga/New Age/crystals sorts of communities and embrace of QAnon, anti-vaccination and other... Read more

Star Trek’s Post-Capitalist Society

October 12, 2021 By James F. McGrath

A great quote from an article by Usha Alexander about the near-utopian vision of Star Trek and the importance of imagining alternatives to capitalism if we are to make real-world progress. The world of Star Trek appeals so widely, I think, because it presents us with something colorfully short of a utopia, a flawed human attempt toward a just, caring, and individually enabling social order. It imagines a society based on a shared set of human values—fairness, cooperation, political and... Read more

AI Imaginaries: Artificial Intelligence in Literature #CFP

October 11, 2021 By James F. McGrath

This call for papers came to my attention: ACLA 2022 Annual Meeting June 15-18, 2022 National Taiwan Normal University Organizer: Dr L. Acadia (acadia@ntu.edu.tw) Submit a proposal: https://www.acla.org/node/add/paper Deadline: October 31, 2021 (11:59PM PST) Literature’s imaginings of Artificial Intelligence reflect ethical and social values, shape public hopes and fears, inspire technological development, and may even prefigure our futures. Humans are constructing AI: not only programmers through their coding, but also authors and readers through centuries of discourse, from ancient automatons... Read more

Michele Bachmann Cites Famous Social Justice Verse from the Catholic Bible

October 9, 2021 By James F. McGrath

Michelle Bachmann has done so many strange and dubious things with the Bible that at first this seemed like just another example. Here’s what she said when speaking recently: When you have government forcing private businesses to fire people because the people aren’t complying with what government says, then you’re denying people the right to earn a living. In the book of Ecclesiastes, it says when you deny someone the right to their living, it’s the same as murder, and... Read more