An Inconvenient Jesus

Last updated on: July 22, 2014 at 10:12 am By James F. McGrath

Frank Schaeffer has offered a blog post which seeks to highlight how unlike modern “Bible-believing Evangelicals” Jesus was. Here are some excerpts: Jesus certainly was not a “Bible believer,” as we use that term in the post Billy Graham era of American fundamentalist religiosity that’s used as a trade-marked product to sell religion. Jesus didn’t take the Jewish scriptures at face value. In fundamentalist terms, Jesus was a rule-breaking relativist who wasn’t even “saved,” according to evangelical standards. Evangelicals insist that you have... Read more

THE James McGrath

Last updated on: July 22, 2014 at 8:00 am By James F. McGrath

My friend and colleague Chad Bauman mentioned on Facebook about someone else who shares his name, but who has chosen – how shall I put it? – a different path in life. Out of curiosity, I checked to see what would happen if I typed in my name, with no added middle initial or other identifiers. I was pleasantly surprised to see that I am now the top result if you Google “James McGrath.” Even if that were the only... Read more

All the Days of My Life

Last updated on: July 21, 2014 at 10:11 am By James F. McGrath

From the blog TheologyGrams, which also shared the news that its humorous diagrams will soon be available in book form. The title will be Theologygrams: Theology Explained in Diagrams. Read more

Goethe Misidentified

Last updated on: July 21, 2014 at 8:57 am By James F. McGrath

On Facebook, I shared a photo of myself next to a statue of Goethe in Vienna. Facebook suggested I tag someone in the photo, and so I took a screenshot since I wanted to share Facebook’s suggestion with a wider audience: Personally, I don’t see the resemblance between the statue and my colleague Paul Valliere, but perhaps others agree with Facebook on this? Here’s the original photo: Read more

Smart Android Phone

Last updated on: July 21, 2014 at 8:13 am By James F. McGrath

HT Marc Cortez Read more

Trust in God and in the Human Mind

Last updated on: July 20, 2014 at 2:05 pm By James F. McGrath

I recently came across this meme image with a quote from Ken Miller. I also saw that Jerry Coyne (blogging about an interview Miller gave) is once again struggling to grasp the basic idea that not all people have the same ideas about God and theology. Of course, I am not sure that he wants to understand, and I suspect that his blogging on the subject is just an expression of frustration about the fact that he cannot simply dismiss one... Read more

Tone And Resonant Depth In Sound

Last updated on: July 20, 2014 at 11:30 am By James F. McGrath

One of the things we accomplished while in Romania was a visit to Reghin, the violin-making capitol of the country. We ended up buying my son a lovely handmade instrument from Simon József, whose family are into their fifth generation as luthiers (his grandfather was the first, and his grandson now helps with the work). Since such an instrument is unique, my son has the option of officially giving the violin a name. While he hasn’t chosen one yet (feel free... Read more

Where in the World is James McGrath?

Last updated on: July 21, 2016 at 6:40 pm By James F. McGrath

The answer to the question is that I am finally back home in Indianapolis. But if you were hoping that I was going to tease you with photos from my travels, here are some for you to try to guess where I visited, which I think may stump you! Read more

Theologically Punny Band Names

Last updated on: July 19, 2014 at 11:00 am By James F. McGrath

The latest from TheologyGrams. Can you think of any others? Read more

Worried to Death

Last updated on: July 19, 2014 at 8:07 am By James F. McGrath