A while back Eboo Patel encouraged students to pursue degrees in the liberal arts for a reason that I had not heard used before: because of robots. His argument is that robots will replace most manufacturing and other skill-based jobs, and it will be those who have mastered the creativity and other thinking skills that humans can offer, but machines cannot, who are most likely to retain their usefulness in the technological future. This may or may not be good advice,... Read more
This is an exciting call for chapter proposals for an edited volume on theology and Margaret Atwood, which reached me via the Theology and Popular Culture blog as well as RelCFP: Theology and Margaret Atwood: The Handmaid’s Tale and Other Worlds (Call for Papers) Since the recent success of the TV series The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood—who has always enjoyed an enthusiastic “fan base” and coterie of admiring readers—has gained a renewed prominence and her work has entered into a kind... Read more
There is a letter to the editor in the Summer 2021 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review about my article there (“The Writing on the Floor”) based on my chapter in What Jesus Learned from Women about the woman accused of adultery: The Trial of Bitter Waters I GREATLY APPRECIATED James McGrath’s article “The Writing on the Floor” (Spring 2021), which did so much to explain the story in John 8:2–11. The author describes the woman in this story as a young, betrothed virgin who was... Read more
From GCRR Press GCRR Press is currently inviting papers for a themed article collection relating to the Gospel of John for inclusion in a proposed scholarly volume. Topics should preferably explore the Fourth Gospel in regard to the origins of Christian anti-Judaism/antisemitism, though other exegetical treatments from a Jewish frame of reference are welcome. By exploring this topic across time and place, this collection aims to provide an historical context for understanding not only the Jewish Jesus but the specific... Read more
YouTube introduced me to Philip Moody’s “Laguna Concerto,” and as with all music I enjoy, I looked to see what else was on YouTube. It offered me (among other things) this setting of the Lord’s Prayer: It also shared “Prayer” which is a title that always leads me to have a listen/take a look, since the text sometimes is biblical and sometimes is not. In this case it is Kyrie Eleison together with Psalm 23 in a beautiful work: Of... Read more
Okay, I am really excited about this call for chapter proposals, even though I really shouldn’t take anything else on. Those who have read my blog for a long time will know that I avidly blogged about the show when it was on, and then again rewatching it from start to finish with my son. The show has so much depth to it, that I’d be delighted to return to it. If you never watched or rewatched it, I highly recommend... Read more
Was Paul interested in the historical Jesus? One can answer “no” quite easily. The “historical Jesus” Was Paul interested in the life and teaching of Jesus? When framed in those terms the answer needs to be different. The complaint of mythicists (those who deny that there was a historical Jesus) seems to be that Paul wrote letters and not a Gospel, which is clearly not a valid complaint and has no bearing whatsoever on the historicity of Jesus. Yet what Paul... Read more
Some updates related to What Jesus Learned from Women as well as some other related links. First, a reminder that the paperback edition is 40% off for a limited time from the publisher with the coupon code JUNE21 when purchased through the Wipf & Stock website. Bible History Daily highlighted and summarized my Biblical Archaeology Review article on the story in John 8, which I explore in even more detail in my book. Jim Davila shared some thoughts about it. I really... Read more
With my interest in John the Baptist, I can’t believe that once again I had a clever money-making book idea too late to really seize the opportunity. Presumably everyone in North America is aware that cicadas will be emerging again after having lain dormant for 17 years. Readers of the Bible know that John the Baptist’s diet is supposed to have consisted of locusts and wild honey. Booksellers know that a biblical diet book, and/or a book on how to... Read more
This series of seminars is worth sharing: Forgotten Christianities – An Early Career Research Seminar Forgotten Christianities is a new initiative sponsored by The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH) through the ‘Critical Thinking Communities’ initiative and the Ancient World Research Cluster (Wolfson College, Oxford). For the purposes of this project, ‘Forgotten Christianities’ are defined as those Christian linguistic and ethnic self-defined groups which traditionally have been overlooked by mainstream academia including, Georgian, Syriac, Armenian, Ethiopic, Coptic, and Arabic... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In