Tim Bulkeley has posted the latest Biblical studies carnival, including round ups of a number of series that have been unfolding over the past month, as well as other topics, such as the SBL decision to paywall Review of Biblical Literature. I had already agreed to write one more review for RBL and so will do so, but I don't anticipate volunteering to do so again unless that decision is reversed. Click through to see what else has been happening... Read more
Jesus says, “The apostles were stupid and lazy men, who wrote whatever they wished with a great deal of paper and ink.” The quotation comes from the work known as Dialogue of the Paralytic with Christ, which you can read on Tony Burke’s blog (in a shorter version that lacks this particular statement). I’ve been meaning to share the quote from this work for a while, in meme form, since it will draw attention to this otherwise little-known apocryphon. The longer form of... Read more
The second half of my Talk Gnosis interview is now available as a podcast (and the video is available to subscribers, who will get to see me put on my Fourth Doctor scarf at the end of the discussion, when the conversation turns from the Mandaeans to classic Doctor Who. Click through to have a listen, on the site of the Gnostic Wisdom Network! Read more
There is a very interesting set of upcoming events for those living in the Indianapolis area, focusing on the music of Arvo Pärt. On February 4th at 7pm, at St. George’s Orthodox Church in Fishers, Indiana, there will be performances of Pärt’s music, one choreographed with a dance performance by students from the Indianapolis School of Ballet, and also a presentation by Peter Bouteneff about the religious significance of his music. And then the following day there will be a meeting to... Read more
It stumbles on its wording a little. But I still think the new version is intelligible, and makes a nice point through humor. When someone puts down their phone and gives you their full attention nowadays, it is an expression of their utmost respect. We could also add a version of John 10:18: “No one takes my phone from me. I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, I have authority to take... Read more
Creationists can find 3,000 academics who will sign a statement against evolution. That’s not 3,000 academics in relevant fields, just 3,000 academics, including retired ones. I’ve yet to see mythicism show any sign of even coming close to that. And yet supposedly we are to believe that creationism’s 3,000 are irrelevant, but the 10 or so mythicist sympathizers show that the historicity of Jesus is “a theory in crisis”? I had the idea to make the above point a while back, when... Read more
The image above comes from Neil Carter’s blog, and I made a note of it as something to come back to at a later point. But then Kyle Roberts shared a quote from Neil Gillman, asking whether humans invent God or discover God. I appreciated his point that it is not necessary to give an either/or answer. On the one hand, no one ought to resist the conclusion that we project our ideals and our worst tendencies onto the divine, so that... Read more
If you haven’t heard yet, a statement has been issued by a group of hundreds of Muslim scholars, called the Marrakesh Declaration, on the subject of religious minorities in predominantly Muslim countries. After an extensive preamble explaining the context and background, the group does the following: Call upon Muslim scholars and intellectuals around the world to develop a jurisprudence of the concept of “citizenship” which is inclusive of diverse groups. Such jurisprudence shall be rooted in Islamic tradition and principles and... Read more
I really like the suggestion that Shayna Sheinfeld shared in a recent article, for using word clouds in a pre-test and then post-test in classes. If you ask students what they think, or think they know, about a topic, on the first day of class or the start of a new unity, and create a word cloud from their answers, and then do the same at the end of the semester or the end of the unit, you will be able... Read more
It has been interesting teaching my course on the historical Jesus again. Even in the few years that have passed since the last time I taught it, the strong shift in the academy away from an older approach to the subject has been very noticeable. Much of this is due to the impact of the work of scholars like Dale Allison (emphasizing the need to focus on the gist of Jesus) and Chris Keith (leading a charge to highlight the limitations... Read more
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