Healthy Religion

Last updated on: September 8, 2016 at 11:08 am By James F. McGrath

Healthy religion, truly liberating religion says that wherever you find compassion at work, care for the sick and hurting, wherever you find people working for peace, welcoming the marginalized and disenfranchised, lifting up the downtrodden, caring for the most vulnerable, loving the enemy, working for the common good, there you will find God – that’s where God is. When we participate in this larger story, when we give ourselves to truly loving our neighbor as ourselves, we are living out... Read more

#SomeLivesMatter

Last updated on: September 10, 2016 at 11:46 am By James F. McGrath

What do you think? Is this a good way to use humor to poke fun at one of the objectionable implications of Calvinism? Read more

A Brief History of Crooked Creek Baptist Church (And A Pastoral Search)

Last updated on: September 9, 2016 at 10:45 pm By James F. McGrath

My church, Crooked Creek Baptist Church in Indianapolis, is searching for a new minister, most likely one who will serve in a bi-vocational capacity or shared with another congregation. Because I am involved in the search, I’ve put together a brief history of the church, which also includes information about the congregation and its demographics, the church facilities, and so on. If you or someone you know might be interested in serving as pastor of the church, please have them... Read more

My God Ate My Homework

Last updated on: September 9, 2016 at 10:40 pm By James F. McGrath

From Bizarro Comics. What do you think a religion professor’s reply should be to a student who tries to use this creative excuse? Read more

Philosophy Opening at Butler University

Last updated on: September 9, 2016 at 2:07 pm By James F. McGrath

There is a job opening in my department. Here are the details: Professor of Philosophy, Tenure-Track – College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Position Overview The Department of Philosophy, Religion, and Classics at Butler University seeks to hire a tenure-track philosopher with scholarly expertise that extends beyond the Anglo-American analytical philosophical tradition, with facility and teaching ability in continental philosophy and the history of modern philosophy. Teaching competency in one or more of the following is also highly desirable: environmental... Read more

Bloggers’ Dinner at #AARSBL16

Last updated on: September 9, 2016 at 1:47 pm By James F. McGrath

It is that time of year again, when professors of religion, biblical studies, and other such fields realize that they have to start preparing for the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion and Society of Biblical Literature in November. Of course, some just prepare on the plane – and some write their papers in the hotel bar after they arrive – but even they must look into booking tickets. And so it is time to organize this year’s blogger... Read more

What the Lord Requires

Last updated on: September 9, 2016 at 11:37 am By James F. McGrath

TheologyGrams has been quiet for a while. Then the pie chart above appeared. Let’s hope this is just the beginning of renewed humorous activity over there. Do you agree with the proportions in the pie chart? Why or why not? Read more

Siri, Pray For Me

Last updated on: September 8, 2016 at 6:04 pm By James F. McGrath

The last time my Religion and Science Fiction class met, we continued a conversation about Arthur C. Clarke’s story “The Nine Billion Names of God.” Since the story mentions motorized prayer wheels at a monastery in Tibet, I thought that focusing in on that detail might be useful, as a way of highlighting that readers – whether religious people or critics of religion – make theological assumptions about what God is like, what religious practices are valuable, and what makes them meaningful... Read more

Happy 50th Anniversary, Star Trek!

Last updated on: September 8, 2016 at 11:31 am By James F. McGrath

I’ve been rewatching Star Trek: The Original Series from the beginning lately. Although I still have Doctor Who episodes to blog about before I will be done with my blog through the entire classic series, it seems that on the 50th anniversary of the day when the first Star Trek episode to air on TV was broadcast, I should blog about that episode, “The Man Trap.” I have to say that the sexism that I knew full well was present... Read more

The Unsurprising Intersection of Islam and Science Fiction

Last updated on: September 7, 2016 at 10:17 am By James F. McGrath

IO9 highlighted what it called the “surprising” intersection of Islam and sci-fi. The only thing surprising, to me, was that this is described as surprising – and that seems to just be a case of a clickbait title, since the article itself explains why this should not be surprising. The long history of pioneering exploration in both philosophy and science in the Islamic world makes this a natural, and we have seen the exploration of Islamic themes by non-Muslim science fiction... Read more