Conservative Evangelicalism, Racism, Sex, and Violence

Last updated on: March 19, 2021 at 6:22 am By James F. McGrath

I’ve had so many thoughts running through my head as I’ve read the news about the shooting carried out in Atlanta by a conservative Southern Baptist, a born-again Christian named Robert Aaron Long. The victims were predominantly women of Asian ancestry. The man viewed himself as eliminating temptation. There is so much in this that is illustrative of the conservative Evangelical variety of Christianity. Yes, it tells people they should not kill, but it also tells them many other things that... Read more

Times Will Tell Podcast About What Jesus Learned From Women

Last updated on: March 17, 2021 at 8:11 pm By James F. McGrath

I am so grateful to the Times of Israel for the chance to record this conversation with Amanda Borschel-Dan about my new book, What Jesus Learned from Women. It was great to talk with someone, with a particular audience in view, that really knows what it means to talk about Jewish mothers and their influence on their sons! What Jesus Learned from Women is already beginning to be listed in a number of online booksellers and even some local bookstores,... Read more

Same-Sex Attraction, Mediterranean Culture, and Scripture

Last updated on: March 17, 2021 at 6:26 am By James F. McGrath

I have thought a lot about same-sex relationships as the topic intersects with the Bible and religion, and have blogged about it in the past. I don’t feel as though anything I read previously transformed my perspective on this topic quite as much as having sat in recently on a class about gender and sexuality in Islam, focused in particular on same-sex eroticism in Ottoman poetry. What’s the connection, you might ask? Think about it. The Greek world and the... Read more

#CFP Messengers from the Stars: Episode VI

Last updated on: March 15, 2021 at 12:25 pm By James F. McGrath

Messengers from the Stars: Episode VI Online Conference School of Arts and Humanities, University of Lisbon November 25-26, 2021 Nature and Overnature in SF and Fantasy Discourses Science Fiction and Fantasy are lasting fields of inquiring into today’s world. They have become privileged means to question issues of aesthetic, ethical, political, social, economic, environmental and historical nature with high impact on contemporary societies. They have promoted hot-button issues and rich critical debates in literature as well as in cinema, TV, and videogames among... Read more

What Jesus Learned from Women: First Amazon Review!

Last updated on: March 14, 2021 at 7:39 pm By James F. McGrath

The first customer review of What Jesus Learned from Women has been posted on Amazon. I hope others will follow but this first one is a very encouraging and meaningful start. Here’s a taste of what it says: The scholarship of What Jesus Learned from Women is strong, and it is also accessible for anyone who does not read biblical scholarship/criticism regularly…Dr. McGrath created a retelling of the lives of these women consistent with their culture offering a fresh perspective that does... Read more

Susan Bingham’s Chancel Operas

Last updated on: March 12, 2021 at 3:46 pm By James F. McGrath

I have said more than once that I think there should be musical exploration of the stories of women who made an impact on Jesus, who are the focus of the chapters of my book What Jesus Learned from Women. It turns out that there are more works along these lines than I was aware of! Of course I was aware (and had shared previously) some songs that relate. But there are a number of chancel operas (small-scale operas composed with... Read more

Red and Yellow, Black and White

Last updated on: March 12, 2021 at 3:40 pm By James F. McGrath

The news has been full of news about longstanding names and images being changed, their racist depictions and caricatures having at long last become unacceptable to a sufficient number of people. An American football team called the “Redskins” will change its name and logo from the current one, an ethnic slur aimed at indigenous people. A Dr. Seuss book that will no longer be printed had already been revised so that the Chinese character no longer had yellow skin. Teaching... Read more

Retelling Romans 4

Last updated on: March 10, 2021 at 2:57 pm By James F. McGrath

I am long overdue to return to something that I began doing more than 7 years ago on this blog. Read the introductory post and earlier posts below for the project to get a sense of what I had been trying to do in this series. To put it briefly, it is an effort to retell Paul’s letter to the Roman church in a manner that might help Christian readers today feel the same impact readers in Paul’s time would... Read more

Black Archive Battle of Ranskoor av Kolos Now Available!

Last updated on: March 10, 2021 at 3:03 pm By James F. McGrath

In an interesting convergence of timelines (to use an appropriate metaphor) I have another book that is now coming out. The topic couldn’t be more different from that of the other one I have been blogging about. This is my contribution to Obverse Books’ series The Black Archive which will eventually offer a single volume on each and every episode of Doctor Who to ever air on television. Mine, as blog readers know from my previous posts about it, is... Read more

What Jesus Learned from Women: Insights

Last updated on: March 8, 2021 at 2:10 pm By James F. McGrath

Jonathan Foye asked me some questions with a view to writing an article about my book, What Jesus Learned from Women for the Australian periodical Insights. I thought I would share my full answers here. But first a link to the article, which you should definitely read. Now for that conversation in full: 1) For those who haven’t heard about it yet, how would you describe the book? My new book What Jesus Learned from Women is an effort to take the humanity... Read more