Footnoting Blogs in Academic Publications

Last updated on: July 31, 2015 at 12:33 pm By James F. McGrath

Christopher Skinner asked a really great question on the Crux Sola blog: Do online resources belong in academic footnotes. Chris offers a qualified “no.” I would suggest a qualified “yes” instead. Several people who responded to the question rightly pointed out that even the best blog posts are more like conference papers than articles – not the fully fleshed-out or complete and polished arguments and ideas scholars traditionally publish in print, but the draft versions we share at conferences and in other venues,... Read more

Et YouTube, Brutus?

Last updated on: July 31, 2015 at 11:02 am By James F. McGrath

Via He Has A Wife You Know. Reminiscent somehow of the sacred selfies I shared recently. Read more

Belief informs Behavior

Last updated on: July 31, 2015 at 8:19 am By James F. McGrath

Ben Irwin wrote recently on his blog: If your theology leads to behavior that is unloving or unkind, chances are there’s a problem with your theology. Belief informs behavior. Your actions are shaped in part by your theology. In which case, the ultimate test of any rule or doctrine is not, “Does it cohere intellectually?” but, “Does it encourage me to be more loving to others?” If “love is the fulfillment of the law,” then any law which does not lead us to be... Read more

What Really Happened To The Dinosaurs

Last updated on: July 31, 2015 at 6:45 am By James F. McGrath

Just because it’s punny. And because it makes as much sense as this person does: Read more

The Paranormal Conspiracy

Last updated on: July 30, 2015 at 10:54 pm By James F. McGrath

I’m happy to be able to participate in the Patheos Book Club about Timothy Dailey’s book, The Paranormal Conspiracy: The Truth about Ghosts, Aliens and Mysterious Beings. A quote on the front cover describes the book as a mix between Mythbusters and Frank Peretti. In reading the book, I saw plenty of the latter, but nothing whatsoever of the former. The book surveys a range of unusual phenomena old and new, from purported reincarnations to UFOs to the Cicada 3301 cryptography... Read more

#GenCon Thursday

Last updated on: July 30, 2015 at 6:39 pm By James F. McGrath

I attended several seminars and similar events today at Gen Con. As a Trade Day participant, I was able to enter the exhibit hall before the crowds. I bought some game books that looked promising for teaching purposes, and debated buying one about the persecution of heretics in the Middle Ages. The salesperson turned out to have belonged previously to a Gnostic church in California, and so we may talk more about my work on the Mandaeans. There was an... Read more

Lewis’ Space Trilogy

Last updated on: July 30, 2015 at 9:14 am By James F. McGrath

I recently reread C. S. Lewis’ space trilogy, Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength. Not that long ago, IO9 asked why they are not compared with Dune. The truth is that, while both series feature religion prominently, Lewis’ writing seems that little bit too heavy-handed in its Christian religiosity – even though it also features Greek gods and Merlin. But perhaps that is just me being overly sensitive, as I think of Lewis as someone who writes about theology,... Read more

Love Your Neighbor More Than Your Theology

Last updated on: July 30, 2015 at 6:27 am By James F. McGrath

What Daniel Kirk said recently on his blog speaks for itself, but click through for the context, and see Fred Clark’s further thoughts on the subject. Read more

#GenCon 2015 Trade Day

Last updated on: July 29, 2015 at 10:30 pm By James F. McGrath

Today I attended Trade Day at Gen Con for the first time. There were a lot of interesting presentations which focused on the intersection of education and gaming. The first morning session discussed ways that games may be used in non-meaningful ways in education, and how to make the game element meaningful by ensuring that it relates directly to learning objectives, and that students have had the rationale for the game’s inclusion explained to them explicitly. It mentioned gamification of... Read more

How To Grow A Church

Last updated on: July 29, 2015 at 9:19 am By James F. McGrath

I was struck by the headline that a man had “grown a church” – entirely from trees – in four years. Apparently he had some high-tech help. But I soon thought that it would be interesting to compare what is involved in growing what many people call a “church” today – i.e. a building – with what growing a church really ought to mean, i.e. growth of a congregation. Often the aim of churches is to have lots of people convert... Read more