Faith and Skepticism

Last updated on: November 9, 2015 at 6:34 am By James F. McGrath

Paul Malan recently wrote an article about skepticism and conservative religious views thereof. Let me provide some samples of how it approaches things: Companies have learned that organic and natural say more about the mind of the consumer than they say about the product, and they sell more potato chips when they use words that make us feel good about ourselves without thinking too hard. Conservative religions don’t sell potato chips, but they’re familiar with the technique. They use ambiguous labels like faith and belief to make us feel... Read more

Doctor Who: The Zygon Inversion

Last updated on: November 8, 2015 at 4:59 pm By James F. McGrath

“The Zygon Inversion” is an instant classic, one of those episodes that immediately adds itself to my list of all-time favorites -and possibly my absolute favorite episode, just because of the speech the Doctor gives at the end, which you can watch in the video below. Spoilers ahead. This episode concludes the two-parter which brilliantly introduced a situation reminiscent of modern political tensions and the terrorism that they can give birth to, with their seemingly insoluble problems. Can people actually step away from... Read more

Interpolation Mythicism

Last updated on: November 8, 2015 at 6:07 am By James F. McGrath

Commenter arcseconds made this useful observation in a discussion about whether Galatians 1:19 might be an interpolation, as mythicists hope: [I]t requires the existence of a copyist prepared to make clarifying interpolations, who thinks this clarification is needed, who actually made this interpolation, at a point where they could influence the manuscript tradition, and who managed to influence it so much it wound up in all extant manuscripts. That’s a figure with really quite specific properties we have to propose... Read more

Diagnosing and Treating Unreformed Fundamentalism

Last updated on: November 7, 2015 at 6:22 am By James F. McGrath

Allan Bevere wrote a blog post highlighting the problem of the fundamentalist who rejects one kind of fundamentalism merely to replace it with another. He writes: If there is one thing that can be asserted without proof (that’s a tongue-in-cheek comment meant for literary effect), it is that those who are reformed out of a habit or a movement tend to be the most rabid fundamentalists of them all. The most zealous anti-smokers are former smokers. Those who continually level angry... Read more

The Bible as Love Letter from Kierkegaard

Last updated on: November 6, 2015 at 6:07 am By James F. McGrath

Kyle Roberts wrote a response to my recent post about the Bible not being a love letter from God. Here is an excerpt: I’m currently co-authoring a commentary, so it may seem strange for me to come to the defense of Kierkegaard’s analogy. Aren’t I one of those who are dodging God’s Word precisely by writing academic commentary about it? But it seems to me the main gist of Kierkegaard’s point is that the way we relate to the Bible will evidence... Read more

Karol Szymanowski – Litany to the Virgin Mary

Last updated on: November 5, 2015 at 1:19 pm By James F. McGrath

How am I supposed to get work done, when I put on hauntingly beautiful music like this? Read more

Sandwalking with Jesus

Last updated on: November 5, 2015 at 6:02 am By James F. McGrath

Larry Moran posted on his blog an excerpt from a conversation we had on Facebook. The conversation showed that he is confused about what historians investigate, because he (like conservative Christians) thinks that “the Jesus of the Bible” – the one who performs miracles and so on – is the only one that matters. I am surprised how many people who are well-educated in other areas seem to stumble in relation to this basic point. There is no good evidence that... Read more

Ghazaros (“Lazar”) Saryan – Passacaglia in Memoriam

Last updated on: November 4, 2015 at 12:42 pm By James F. McGrath

I heard this work by Armenian composer Ghazaros (Lazar) Saryan on Performance Today yesterday, and it made an impression. I found it on YouTube and thought I would share it. Read more

Fundamentalism is Immaturity

Last updated on: November 4, 2015 at 6:15 am By James F. McGrath

This is from a post with the title “Inerrancy as developmental disability.” See also Bernier’s post on one of the ironies about inerrancy. Here is the larger context of the quote above: [T]he doctrine of inerrancy…is an attempt, vainly, to resist adopting the language of development in order to explain entities that have clearly resulted from development. The vanity of it is obvious when you consider the lengths to which inerrantists must go to support their views (consider Ken Ham’s recent... Read more

October 2015 Biblical Studies Carnival

Last updated on: November 3, 2015 at 9:08 am By James F. McGrath

Phil Long has posted the latest Biblical Studies Carnival, which includes a fascinating range not just of posts from the past month, but also details about the history of the carnival and its future. Click through and take a look! I’m particularly grateful that he has helped spread the word about the bibliobloggers’ and other religion bloggers’ gathering at SBL/AAR in November. As a reminder, it will be at 5:00pm on Sunday, November 22nd at Gibney’s Irish Pub (231 Peachtree Center Avenue NE)... Read more