The blog Unreasonable Faith asked which Bible contradiction is the hardest one to explain away. I wonder whether the ability to harmonize the Bible – or, more accurately, to pretend its discrepancies have been resolved – isn’t simply one example of the human ability to hold to contradictory ideas. One can find instances of this which are connected with the Bible, such as when someone manages to harmonize the Bible’s difficult content with the claim that it is inerrant. But... Read more
Steve Chalke is an extremely well-known Baptist minister in the UK. He has had some really interesting things to say about the Bible recently, including the quote I turned into a meme above. In truth, there is nothing in the biblical texts that is beyond debate and questioning, and healthy churches are ones that create an environment which welcomes just that.The biblical texts are not a ‘divine monologue’; where the solitary voice of God dictates a flawless and unified declaration... Read more
I am grateful to Stewart for drawing this song to my attention, and to Brian Bowman for pointing out that those who point to this divinely-authored evidence can still say that they are citing the ‘Verse. Both come from a comment on this earlier post. The song is sung here by Kathy Mar, I believe, and is originally by Cat Faber. Here are the lyrics: The Word of God Lyrics and melody © 1994 by Catherine Faber From desert cliff... Read more
Diglotting has posted a brief review of Maurice Casey’s latest book, Jesus: Evidence and Argument or Mythicist Myths?, which is now available for purchase for Kindle, and will be available in print form in the next few months. I had the opportunity to read an earlier draft of the manuscript, and am looking forward to seeing the finished product. I wrote in notes I took at that time, “There is much here that is simply important evidence regarding historicity and... Read more
Doug Chaplin has posted about the extraordinary antitheses in Matthew’s Gospel. I disagree with his way of understanding them, and so thought I would write a post in response. I regularly tell my students that it is unlikely that these sayings should be understood as meaning “You heard God say in the past, but I disagree with what God said and have something else to say.” Not only is that unlikely to begin with, but the relationship between the things... Read more
Hemant Mehta shared this irreverent Facebook look back video for Jesus. I think it shows the real harm that popular forms of conservative Christianity has done to the reputation of Jesus. What kinds of things are included in the “look back”? Alleged miracles, for the most part, including especially more recent ones like appearing on toast or football victories. From my own progressive Christian perspective, if Jesus’ life is worth looking back upon and remembering today, it is for his... Read more
From Living the Questions. Read more
Bruce Gerencser shared a cartoon from Answers in Genesis on a recent post. It clearly had the labels the wrong way around, and so I fixed them: If anything reflects the activity of the eternal Word of God, it is the natural world, which no human being created or could create. And if there is anything that reflects fallible changing human opinions, it is the Bible, which is demonstrably the work of human authors, and whose varied viewpoints can be... Read more
This version of the Bayeux Tapestry telling the story of Star Wars was created by Aled Lewis. HT IO9 Read more
I confess that I don’t really know the music of the Indigo Girls, even though I have long been aware that “become one of the Indigo Girls” was an answer to the question “what can you do with a degree in religion?” Yesterday I heard their song “Closer to Fine” on the radio, and its lyrics immediately struck me. Here they are: CLOSER TO FINE I’m trying to tell you something about my life Maybe give me insight between... Read more
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