This arrangement of Silent Night by Stephen Paulus was featured on Performance Today recently, and it is stunningly beautiful and hauntingly moving. And from the same episode of Performance Today, here is advice from Fred Child and Tesfa Wondemagegnehu on how not to have your performance of Silent Night crash and burn towards the end: Read more
Someone left a comment on an old blog post I shared on Facebook, saying they thought that the massacre of the innocents was created to depict Jesus as having been predicted by Jeremiah. Here’s what I wrote in response: I doubt that Matthew thought that Jeremiah 31:15 was a prediction about Jesus, or was trying to claim that. The meaning of the text in its context is unambiguously clear, as is that of other texts Matthew quotes or alludes to.... Read more
I’m not sure whether it has always been true that the music in Star Wars is something that I notice only on a second viewing, or after hearing the soundtrack separately, or whether J. J. Abrams has the music feature less prominently than George Lucas did at key moments. But there is some truly wonderful music in the new film. Here are some of my favorites: Rey’s Theme: Maz’s Counsel: The Starkiller: Kylo Ren Arrives at the Battle: The Abduction:... Read more
For those who find the parody religion Pastafarianism funny, you won’t want to miss the FSM nativity scenes that were recently shared. Here’s a sample: Finally, a religion that gets what a manger is supposed to be for… On a more serious note, see the survey data suggesting that most people are not offended when they are wished “happy holidays” or something similar. Read more
Anyone familiar with Jewish mysticism will get why I thought for a moment that it was. And anyone who has to deal with America’s non-metric measuring system will find this guide to that confusing mystical realm helpful. Via Neil Carter on Facebook. Read more
Dale Tuggy shared this image on his blog, along with some thoughts on it: Tuggy’s comment on it is worth sharing: This argument kills with 8th-graders. But any adults should be unimpressed. I’ll wager that any adult can think of many written reports that are important evidence for all kinds of claims! Dear would-be Jesus de-bunker: kindly reflect on this fact. 0% of historians believe Batman is a real guy. And rounding up (to account for a very, very few... Read more
Several calls for papers came to my attention recently. One is a repeat of a call for contributions to a new journal of science fiction studies which I mentioned here previously. The second is a call for papers for a celebration of Star Trek connected with the fourth annual Pop Culture Colloquium at DePaul University in Chicago. I'm not sure if I'll propose a paper or round table, but I definitely should drive up and attend! Another is about proto-posthumanisms,... Read more
Jim Linville shared the poster above, which is a great opportunity for students of religion at any level to present their research at an academic conference. And answering the question “What Would Jim Do?”, here’s an academic conference LOLcat to accompany the call for papers: Read more
The call for papers for the 2016 Society of Biblical Literature annual meeting is now available online. Having joined the Digital Humanities program unit, let me highlight its call for papers here. DIGITAL HUMANITIES IN BIBLICAL, EARLY JEWISH, AND CHRISTIAN STUDIES A panel will be organized on the publication of collected essays by our group in the new series Digital Biblical Studies (Brill). A joined session will focus on Digital Humanities and Christian Apocrypha ; another session will focus on... Read more
I recently learned that there is an album in Norwegian featuring songs the lyrics of which are poems about the life of Christ. The vocalist is Morten Harket- perhaps known to some of you as the lead singer of A-ha. The video above is one of the tracks, a “Hymn to Joseph.” Read more
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