A blog post about Jesus’ encounter with the Syrophoenician woman was drawn to my attention. The blog in question is Wordgazer’s Words and has lots of interesting things on it. The specific post draws on lots of key scholars’ work on the historic and cultural context, and draws the conclusion: So how do we apply this story to our own lives? I think that for us today, this story is about how social and religious conventions can perpetuate racial and... Read more
Via George Takei on Facebook. Read more
HT Peter Hess on Facebook. Read more
How the article made it onto CNN, I have no idea. But they shared some silliness as though it were serious, mentioning a group that claims that each Hebrew letter is not really a letter but a word. That would mean, as one commenter pointed out, that Hebrew has a grand total of 22 words. Bryan Bibb offers a useful critique which points out how this absurd nonsense connects with more widespread views and desires related to the translation of... Read more
Marc Cortez recommends the above. I recommend this: Read more
My colleague Elizabeth Mix gave me the idea for this song, suggesting that a song on one of our core curriculum student learning outcomes, “Critical Thinking,” would work to the tune of “Eleanor Rigby.” Let me know what you think. The lyrics are in the video above (click on the image if it does not show up as an embedded video) as well as below: Critical Thinking Ah, look at all the bold assertions Ah, look at all the bold... Read more
HT to Jeff Carter for sharing the link to This Isn’t Happiness, which shared the above infographic. While the importance of science fiction is not limited to or even necessarily focused in its ability to accurately predict future science and technology, it should not be missed that it also does that – sometimes by inspiring people to develop the things imagined. Read more
I appreciate David Hayward’s cartoon which I’ve shared above. Of course, most people do indeed care as little about their food and what is in it as they do about the contents of the spiritual “food” they “ingest.” But those who’ve realized in any area of their lives the need to be discerning ought to see that that applies equally well across other aspects of their lives, including the spiritual and religious. Although the Bible has been used as a... Read more
I am delighted to be part of the Patheos Book Club on Garrett Glass’ novel Jehoshua: Signs and Wonders. Please do visit the Book Club page here, and what other Patheos bloggers like Tim Suttle have had to say about the novel. The novel offers a fictional account of Jesus (I will use that more familiar name, even though he is called Jehoshua throughout the novel) and the earliest decades of the phenomenon of Christianity. Glass sticks entirely to natural explanations... Read more
The above YouTube video is for an upcoming Christian movie (HT PZ Myers). It was shared by Answers in Genesis on YouTube, who will not allow ratings or comments. It is a movie about a parent challenging a biology professor to a debate about evolution, which really ought to end badly for the parent if the movie is realistic, or better still, result in the parent realizing that his and his daughter's faith do not depend on denying what biologists... Read more
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