Resurrecting the Middle-Eastern Jesus

Last updated on: October 6, 2014 at 2:41 pm By James F. McGrath

David Henson has blogged about the casting of Lebanese actor Haaz Sleiman in the role of Jesus in the upcoming miniseries “Killing Jesus.” He writes: Killing Jesus might have just killed White Jesus. National Geographic Channel’s new miniseries, Killing Jesus, has done what virtually no other mainstream Jesus film or television series has done. They cast a Middle Eastern man to portray a Middle Eastern man. Shocking, I know. The four-part miniseries, set to air in 2015, announced today that Lebanon-born actor Haaz... Read more

Moss and Baden on the Lastest Mythicist Nonsense

Last updated on: October 6, 2014 at 10:17 am By James F. McGrath

Via Candida Moss, I learned that she and Joel Baden have responded to – and appropriate poked fun at – the latest mythicist volume to appear, Michael Paulkovich’s No Meek Messiah: Christianity’s Lies, Laws and Legacy. After showing that Paulkovich’s list of 126 ancient authors he thinks should have mentioned Jesus, the list includes people who lived before Jesus, doctors, and various other kinds of authors who rarely mention their contemporaries of any sort. They do so with much humor,... Read more

Grammar, Music Theory, and Religion

Last updated on: October 6, 2014 at 8:28 am By James F. McGrath

The rules of grammar are often flouted by those who do not know them. But they are also often misunderstood by those who judge people who express themselves in ungrammatical ways. There is no static grammar, because languages evolve. There was a time when languages were rarely written, and even today speaking is more common than writing. We have developed spelling conventions so that words are written consistently. But there was a time when one might regularly find the same... Read more

More Biblical Than Left Behind

Last updated on: October 5, 2014 at 3:25 pm By James F. McGrath

Benjamin Corey nominated ten movies in the category “more Biblical than Left Behind.” One of them was Shrek, which features a talking donkey, as does the Balaam story. And so when Hemant Mehta drew attention to Corey’s post, he also shared this: Also Biblical is the girding up of one’s loins, and so here is a guide to how that was done, in case you never understood this Biblical idiom (HT Jeremy Myers): Read more

You May Take Notes

Last updated on: October 5, 2014 at 8:13 am By James F. McGrath

Times have changed. Technologies change. It isn't clear that just listening intently, and then photographing the board, helps you process the information as well as writing with your own hand. But it also isn't clear how much of our weaker processing when we don't take notes by hand is due to adapting to a new way of doing things, rather than something inherent. Have you ever taken notes like this? Have you had a chance to compare your own learning,... Read more

Doctor Who: Kill the Moon

Last updated on: October 4, 2014 at 10:51 pm By James F. McGrath

This season promised us a darker Doctor. I’m not convinced that it has delivered, if one is comparing to the Doctor at his darkest in the past. But I was delighted that the episode “Kill the Moon” featured less attempt at making the Doctor simply less kind and likeable, and made him instead harsh and demanding in a manner that he has often been in the past. We need more of the latter rather than the former, and certainly don’t... Read more

Humanity Left Behind

Last updated on: October 4, 2014 at 9:50 am By James F. McGrath

Fred Clark has posted again about the Left Behind movie. Here is a quote: You don’t need to be a seminary graduate to understand the theological problems with this story — you just need to be a human being. That’s the insurmountable problem for any attempt to make a movie based on LaHaye’s theological-sounding ideology. That movie will have to put human beings up there on the screen, but LaHaye’s theology and LaHaye’s story will not allow those human beings... Read more

When Abraham Met Socrates

Last updated on: October 4, 2014 at 8:21 am By James F. McGrath

In my first year seminar class “Faith, Doubt, and Reason,” students read part of Genesis and the Euthyphro dialogue before being asked in an assignment to retell the Abraham story, putting themselves in Abraham’s shoes and wrestling with the question of what makes actions morals. This semester, I had a student start the dialogue this way: Socrates: Abraham, what brings you to court today? Abraham: I tried to kill my son, Isaac. I thought that was a brilliant weaving together of the... Read more

Plagiarism Flowchart

Last updated on: October 3, 2014 at 7:11 am By James F. McGrath

Running Heads shared the chart above, aimed at journalists, but students could benefit from reading it as well. Read more

Saul of TARDIS

Last updated on: October 2, 2014 at 9:38 am By James F. McGrath

Someone recently heard me make reference to “Saul of Tarsus” and they thought I said “Saul of TARDIS.” I supposed talking so often about the New Testament and also Doctor Who, the two are bound to blur together. I’d love to see an image made that brings Paul the apostle and the TARDIS together under this heading, much like this image of Martin Luther: In the mean time, presumably these may do: But if you make something better, please do share... Read more