Jim Davila drew attention to an article in The Times of Israel, highlighting some fascinating details in the new book The Fifty-Year Mission: The First Twenty-Five Years. The part of the article that really grabbed me begins with a quote from Richard Colla: “By the time they got into the alien’s presence, it manifested itself and said, ‘Do you know me?’ Kirk said, ‘No, I don’t know who you are.’ It said, ‘Strange, how could you not know who I am?’ So it... Read more
When I say “listen to” I don't necessarily mean that you should find everything he says convincing. I mean literally listen to him, in this recent podcast interview: Crispin Fletcher-Louis — Jesus Monotheism, Volume 1 Crispin's paper at the recent Enoch Seminar meeting “John the Jew” was one of the most stimulating, and he's shared it online: https://jesusmonotheism.com/jesus-equality-with-god-in-johns-gospel/ See also Jim Davila's final reflection on the conference. I am still thinking about a lot of the topics we discussed and... Read more
Feel free to make germane comments about the upcoming grand opening of the Ark Encounter… Read more
Richard Engel has a fascinating report about the much-needed repairs to the part of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher that is traditionally identified as the tomb of Jesus, and the historic way that this is resulting in collaboration between Christian denominations that have often fought more than they have cooperated. Click through to get the full story, with more video and interview footage, on the NBC News website. I really hope that they seize the opportunity provided by these... Read more
We live in an age unlike others, when more people outside of China have at least heard of concepts like qi. But it is not a result of greater religious or cultural education. It is a result of Words With Friends. Qi is a concept that one really ought to have heard about anyway. It is an important concept in Chinese medicine. It is analogous to the concept of the Force in the Star Wars universe. But it took the... Read more
After multiple weeks of travel, I am back home in Indianapolis. But I will continue to blog about the various places I visited, books I read while traveling, conversations I had while conferencing, and much else related to these travels. Other than my failure to comment as often as I normally try to, how has the blog felt these past few weeks, when it has been a combination of scheduled posts and posts written while on the go? More photos will... Read more
I came across this quote from Susan Shaw in an article by Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz about religion and liberal education. Read more
Commenter Ian offered this statement, which is inspired by something that J. S. Mill wrote: Every reasonable person will admit that some of the things they believe may be false, but nobody knows which things they are (or else they would no longer believe them). It is only through argument with contrary views that we can hope to discover which of our beliefs are mistaken. Read more
John Baez came up with a “Crackpot Index” for those who think they are geniuses with revolutionary ideas in physics. What do you say we adapt the list for the field of historical Jesus? How do you think the list below – adapted ever so slightly from Baez’s – works? What changes would you recommend? How would it apply to mythicists that you’ve interacted with? A simple method for rating potentially revolutionary contributions to historical Jesus studies: A -5 point... Read more
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