I’m not sure how many of my blog readers took my advice and went to see the musical Amazing Grace after I blogged about it back in 2014. It subsequently made it to Broadway, and at that point several other Patheos bloggers mentioned it. Now its run is over, but a CD of the music is now available for pre-order on Amazon.com. I’m looking forward to owning a copy. I thought I should spread the word about it here too, for... Read more
This came to my attention via the Facebook page Science Meets Faith, and I thought it worth sharing here. “I am a Christian and recognize that the evidence for evolution is overwhelming. It is a discovery, much like Copernicus’ theory of heliocentricity, Newton’s theory of gravity and Einstein’s theories of relativity, and definitely not a wild, unsubstantiated guess, desperately propped up by scientists trying to find some godless answer to the questions they have. Those aforementioned theories accurately describe the... Read more
A provocative video by Michael Dowd. Don’t just fast forward to the commandments, as interesting and as important as they are. The introduction is also full of great insights and memorable quotes. Read more
I found myself reflecting recently on the language used in Star Wars of the “will of the Force.” If the Force were anything like a theistic personal God, of the sort that it is natural to view as having a will, then the provision of power to the Sith over against the Jedi would seem hard to understand – although one can always speak of the Force moving in mysterious ways. But if the Force is an impersonal…well, force, then... Read more
I don't always agree with N. T. Wright, but on this he seems to me to be spot on. There have been lots of debates about whether there are “other ways of knowing” besides the sciences. For me, the arts are clues that we do other things with reality besides know, and an indication that humans find ways to point to the mysterious and give voice to the ineffable. Read more
There was an interesting convergence around the topic of ancient people allegedly using computers this week. Of course, the example that the Daily Mail highlighted is old news to most of us, the modern eye seeing what is presumably a wax tablet in an ancient painting and thinking it is a laptop, and thus evidence of time travel or ancient aliens. But did you see this image? It looks like an ancient Greek archaeological site, doesn’t it? But in fact... Read more
I am delighted to have the opportunity to participate in the Patheos Book Club about Brant Pitre's recent book, The Case for Jesus: The Biblical and Historical Evidence for Christ. Pitre's book touches on a number of points that have been mentioned, or indeed the focus of sustained attention, on this blog as well as in my own academic work on Christology. I found myself both enthusiastically agreeing with points that Pitre made, and finding myself unpersuaded on others. The... Read more
I made a mock-up of a shirt that says “Sarcasm is my Spiritual Gift,” and learned that I wasn’t the first to think that such a shirt ought to exist. And in response to my blog post, the person who had previously sold the shirts via Teespring decided to make them available again. And so if you’d like to actually buy one – whether for yourself, a friend, or a person whose blog you read and who made you aware... Read more
I really liked yesterday’s Speed Bump cartoon, which may just be poking fun at the fallibility of human memory, and our penchant to forget names, even when we should remember them. But I wonder whether it reflects an awareness of the tendency of people in our time to forget that, in the Bible, God was said to have a personal name, probably pronounced Yahweh. The custom of not pronouncing the name was introduced so as to avoid its misuse (for instance, blurting it... Read more
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