I thought I would share here on the blog a few brief questions and answers I wrote about my new book for the purpose of providing interested journalists with a press kit. I also observe with considerable delight that my book is available just in time for Women’s History Month. I suspect that some readers of this blog might have connections with universities, seminaries, churches, and other organizations that would be interested in hosting a talk by me about what... Read more
Before getting to the piece that gives its title to this post, let me start by mentioning a Dan Gardner worship song I learned in the UK, “Come, Sing a New Psalm.” You can listen to it on YouTube. It is interesting because it raises the question, can one write and sing a new Psalm of David as the song’s lyrics imply? My initial instinct, like yours, is to say “no.” Yet the Psalms that are labeled “of David” in... Read more
It was great to have a Zoom conversation with Joe White yesterday. Joe is the creator of a new app called Polybook and I’m really excited about what it does, in particular its potential for use by students and educators in particular. Perhaps the best way to introduce Polybook is by way of Joe’s Twitter account. His Twitter user name is “Joes2ndBrain” and in our conversation he mentioned one of the many impetuses that led to the creation of Polybook... Read more
Special Issue CFP / Mormonism and SF (March 1, 2021) Mormonism and SF Special Issue of SFRA Review, vol. 51, no. 3, Summer 2021 Edited by Adam McLain Background Since its inception in the early nineteenth century, Mormonism has shot for the stars. With angelic visitors, planetary afterlives, and astronomical texts written by ancient patriarchs, the theology and history of Mormonism is ripe for analysis and criticism through the lens of SF. In addition to the beliefs, practitioners of the religion—the largest... Read more
The next issue of Biblical Archaeology Review will be out in a few days. It includes an article by me about the story of the woman accused of adultery found in John 8 in some manuscripts. I repeatedly found in working in my forthcoming book that asking what Jesus learned from women, both his family and friends and those he only met briefly, unlocked possible meanings in the text that not only I but interpreters in general had missed. I... Read more
Every year around this time Butler University holds a fundraiser. I always do what I can to support it. Why is it worth your time to give to Butler University? In short, I couldn’t do the things that I do that you value were it not for them. The things I share on my blog emerge directly from the kinds of things I read to prepare for classes and to write books and articles. Some of them are inspired directly... Read more
I felt as though my recent class about the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, its use in online debates about homosexuality, went better than ever before, and I am eager to reflect on why. I think some of it had to do with my frankness in talking about some of the difficult and disturbing aspects of the stories, which included as a pairing to Genesis 19 the intentionally similar story in Judges 19. We began with an article that is... Read more
It was interesting to see the quick backlash when Rep. Lauren Boebert tweeted that you cannot just rewrite the Constitution. Of course you can, and conservatives like Boebert are constantly emphasizing the 2nd Amendment which of course is by virtue of being an amendment a “rewrite.” But when a text comes to be regarded as sacred, as including a political document, people regard it as sacrosanct even as they live in ignorance and misconceptions regarding what it actually says. One... Read more
If you have ventured to offer any hint of criticism of Donald Trump, or of the Capitol insurrectionists, or Fox News, or anything else that is ideologically similar, you will have heard these sorts of retorts. “What about BLM protests? What about Clinton? What about mainstream media? What about…? What about…?” The rhetoric of Trump-supporting conservatives online has increasingly fallen into predictable patterns, with few if any more frequent and widespread than the use of the logical fallacy tu quoque,... Read more
This isn’t a post about Les Miserables (although I could easily see myself turning my experience in class that the post is about into a parody song). Education has seen significant changes as we have adapted to the pandemic, and reflecting on the moments when things unfold very differently as a result is an important step towards evaluating what we’ve learned through these times and what we need to make sure we don’t forget if things ever get “back to... Read more
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