Scot McKnight blogged about Justo Gonzales’ commentary, The Story Luke Tells: Luke’s Unique Witness to the Gospel. It argues that “Luke” is in fact the “Lucius of Cyrene” mentioned in Acts, and also the Lucius mentioned in Romans (in this last point following Origen). If anyone here has read the volume, or looked into other attempts to argue that case, I’d be interested to hear your thoughts about it. Read more
The quote from Richard Rohr is adapted from his book The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See. Read more
As a New Testament scholar who has blogged about Rachel Dolezal, racism, and the appearance of Jesus, I found this amusing – not least because the father who spills the beans is not Joseph, from whom Jesus would have inherited half of his Middle Eastern characteristics, but God. It is from Don Asmussen’s Bad Reporter comic strip. HT Jerry Coyne. There actually appears to be a religious dimension to the Rachel Dolezal case, with blogger Libby Anne suggesting that her parents... Read more
DISAMBIGUATION: This blog post is not about penile substitution – for information on that topic, go here. Penal substitution is a phrase used to describe a particular view of the atonement, which says that Jesus took the place of the guilty in bearing God’s judgment due to them. Mike Bird (responding to William Walker) and Andrew Perriman (responding to Simon Gathercole) are among those who’ve blogged about the topic recently. If you are still unable to distinguish this from the surgical procedure mentioned... Read more
Tai Gooden recently wrote an article for The Mary Sue, “5 Theist-Associated Themes That Make Doctor Who Successful.” None of them are likely to surprise regular readers here, but I still thought the article was worth sharing. One theme that is mentioned in the article is unconditional love. The image below recalls a scene that is perhaps the most poignant expression of that theme on the show. And of course, if you haven’t done so already and are interested in this topic, take... Read more
I am sharing this image (which I came across on Reddit) because it contains a great pun on Philippians. There is no such verse as Philippians 4:28, and so there does not seem to be a deeper message hidden there. Feel free, if you are so inclined, to have a serious discussion of the serious issue of reproductive rights, despite the frivolous nature of this post. Read more
Daniel Gulotta drew to my attention that a Kickstarter campaign has been started to raise money to pay Bart Ehrman and Robert M. Price’s fees to appear together and debate whether there was a historical Jesus. If you think that would be money well spent, then feel free to contribute to it! Read more
I had the pleasure of hearing Paul Gitwaza speak on Saturday at the licensing ceremony for Emmanuel Musinga, who pastors a congregation of refugees that meets in the same building as Crooked Creek Baptist Church. He then made an unanticipated visit to Crooked Creek Baptist on Sunday morning and so delivered the morning message. That evening, he spoke at First Baptist Church in Indianapolis about the history behind the Rwandan genocide and his own work towards reconciliation. Then on Monday,... Read more
I often tell my conservative friends that their belief in an inerrant Bible is just as subjective as my subjective belief in an errant Bible. But they just can’t see it. They continue to shout the same refrain that their position rests on objective truth and mine subjective. These conservatives genuinely believe that they are the only truly rational ones and that we progressives pick and choose what is true without any rational basis. This is one of the great fundamental fallacies of fundamentalism.... Read more
I expanded my recent blog post about the experience of my son discovering RateMyProfessors.com into an essay for Inside Higher Ed. You can now read it on their website: “When My Son Discovered RateMyProfessors.com.” Read more
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