Dissenting Beliefs: Heresy and Heterodoxy in Fantasy #CFP

August 5, 2021 By James F. McGrath

A call for papers that may be of interest to some readers: Dissenting Beliefs: Heresy and Heterodoxy in Fantasy Name of organization: Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic contact email: Dissenting.Beliefs@gmail.com categories (up to 5): gender studies and sexuality, graduate conferences, interdisciplinary, religion deadline for submissions: August 31, 2021 Religious fantasy, for a great many readers, is synonymous with Christian fantasy; more specifically, it is understood as literature overtly reproducing biblical narratives within a fantasy world, such as C. S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia. Concurrently,... Read more

“I feel like I will read the Gospels with brand new eyes”

August 3, 2021 By James F. McGrath

Two things related to my book What Jesus Learned from Women. First, I will be on the Apocalypse Here podcast tomorrow, talking with Jon DePue and Laura Robinson about the book. You can watch it live on YouTube via this link. It will also be available afterwards for those who cannot be there. But the live video provides opportunity for chat and other things, so tune in live if you can. Second, Gloriamarie Amalfitano wrote a 5-star review of What Jesus Learned... Read more

What Jesus Learned from Women: Reviews, Guest Posts, Methodology, and More

August 2, 2021 By James F. McGrath

A new episode of Glenn Siepert’s What If podcast has been released in which Glenn and I talk about my book What Jesus Learned from Women. Have a listen—if you don’t already this is probably a podcast you’ll want to subscribe to and listen to regularly. I recently made a guest appearance on Pete Enns’ Bible for Normal People blog. There I explore some points of intersection between my book What Jesus Learned from Women and Enns’ work on the Bible’s... Read more

Christianity and Science Fiction Conference

July 29, 2021 By James F. McGrath

The website is now up, and registration is now open, for a conference that I am involved in organizing: Christianity & Science Fiction: A Virtual Event (11-13 October, 2021) The Michigan Center for Early Christian Studies, in partnership with the Department of Middle East Studies (University of Michigan), is pleased to announce a four-day virtual conference that explores the symbiotic relationship between Christianity and science fiction. The meeting is chaired by James McGrath, Gabriele Boccaccini, Jason von Ehrenkrook, Deborah Forger,... Read more

New Science Fiction Calls for Papers #CFP

July 27, 2021 By James F. McGrath

Two new calls for papers that will likely be of interest to some blog readers: Imaging Peace: Care-full Non-violence in Contemporary Sci-fi Narratives Type: Call for Papers Date: June 15, 2021 to September 30, 2021 Location: Maryland, United States Subject Fields: Film and Film History, Human Rights, Literature, Peace History / Studies, Popular Culture Studies In literature and popular culture, the non-violent approach is vastly underrepresented as a viable philosophy. This is problematic because the stories we tell shape the imaginary... Read more

More Biblical Music: Hebrew Love Poetry, John the Baptist, and More

July 23, 2021 By James F. McGrath

First, although not specifically about the Bible and music, music in Christian worship is a major focus in this upcoming event, a four day virtual revival that begins July 27th. Very Rev. Kim Coleman writes about this retreat, “History buffs will enjoy learning about the original Lift Every Voice and Sing: A Collection of African American Spirituals and Other Songs that is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year and was the precursor to the Lift Every Voice and Sing II hymnal many Episcopal... Read more

Brandon Hawk, Apocrypha for Beginners

July 20, 2021 By James F. McGrath

I’m grateful to Brandon Hawk and to Rockridge Press for a review copy of Hawk’s new book, Apocrypha for Beginners: A Guide to Understanding and Exploring Scriptures Beyond the Bible. The book does something important that no other book does in a comparable way, namely offering a succinct, affordable overview of the range of texts that can be categorized as “biblical apocrypha” in the broad sense. The book includes the Apocrypha/Deuterocanonical works proper, making clear that what is in that category... Read more

“To Your Tents, O Israel!” A Neglected Background to Early Christianity

July 13, 2021 By James F. McGrath

Those who have read my book What Jesus Learned From Women and/or have heard some of my recent presentations about Mandaeism (or Gnosticism more generally) will be aware of something that has come to the fore across several of my (otherwise seemingly unrelated) research areas. We focus on the Jewish context of early Christianity more than on its broader Roman context, and appropriately so. However, the broader heritage of Israel is generally neglected or mentioned only in passing when the Samaritans come... Read more

Psalms by George Theophilus Walker

July 7, 2021 By James F. McGrath

Time for some more biblical music for your enjoyment. Listening to a symphony by George Walker recommended by YouTube led me to his two Psalm settings. Here is “O Praise The Lord” (Psalm 117): Here is his setting of Psalm 96: Also listen to his violin sonata. For another Psalm setting, here is Herbert Fromm’s “Grant Us Peace”: For more biblical music, here is one of R. Nathaniel Dett’s Bible Vignettes, “Other Sheep”: Igor Stravinsky composed a work called Babel... Read more

Could John the Baptist Have Been From Nazareth?

July 2, 2021 By James F. McGrath

This post relates to the book project that I’ve taken the first steps towards working on as a major focus the academic year after next, on the historical figure of John the Baptist. There is a longstanding puzzle I’ve wrestled with, and recently had some ideas about, and having put them in writing in an email for someone who was interested in the topic, I thought I would also share them here. The Mandaeans use the term Nasoreans (Mandaic nasurai)... Read more