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
The image came to my attention via John Byron on Facebook. What is “biblical violence” in this context? How is it different from other kinds of violence? Or is it violence of “biblical proportions”? Read more
Discussing 1 Corinthians 15 in my Sunday school class a while back, I was struck by another way of understanding what Paul is saying in v17. Many have treated it as though Paul is saying that it is essential for salvation to believe in the resurrection. But it sounds to me that he is talking about the Corinthian believers’ faith in God, and saying that unless the resurrection is a reality, then their faith in God is in vain. One... Read more
Mike Kok, who has been blogging about the Gospel of Mark for a long time, now has a new blog. The change has been made both to offer a more accessible title in English, but also to indicate a broadening of scope. Mike writes: “I will write on topics such as Second Temple Judaism, the New Testament, ancient Christian literature, Hebrew Bible, Religious Studies, Theology, or whatever I am interested in at the moment.” Please pay his new blog, The Apostles’... Read more
As a result of the discussions among bloggers, I thought it would be interesting to try to blog my way through the Christology of the Gospel of Mark. What do you think – does that sound like a good idea? At any rate, before turning to that, there has been a lot that simply needs to be recapped from the blogosphere since my last round-up. Dustin Smith and Mike Bird have had some interesting interactions – both with the topic... Read more
The title of this post comes from something that a church member said in a discussion of spiritual gifts in Sunday school a while back. I think it would make a great t-shirt. While acknowledging that the phrase “spiritual gifts” adds things not present in the Greek used by Paul, we still explored what the English phrase might denote. Of particular interest, I thought, was the possibility that the spiritual aspect pertains not to the source of the gifts, but... Read more
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