L. P. Hartley wrote that “The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.” The photo below, taken roughly a century ago in Persia, of a Nestorian bishop and his secretary and servants, is so different from what most Christians in the English speaking world could ever imagine a bishop and his entourage looking like, that I think it helps make the point. Read more
Recently in my religion and science fiction class we discussed the attributes of God or a god, and what makes a being worthy of worship, using Star Trek and the Twilight Zone as points of reference, as well as traditional theology. I made a reference to The Princess Bride, asking whether we could ever know that a God is not the “Dread God Roberts.” In that movie, the role of the Dread Pirate Roberts became a franchise, passed from one person... Read more
Peter Chattaway shared this sneak peek of the upcoming Noah movie starring Russell Crowe: Compare what you see in the Answers in Genesis ark park and its anachronistic depiction of Noah’s workshop, about which Fred Clark recently posted: Of course, talking about “realism” in different types of depictions of a story that is not realistic is itself problematic. But when you are dealing with the text through creative storytelling, and you still manage to get more historical realism for the time... Read more
Joel Hoffmann announced that he is in the first episode of Bible Secrets Revealed, a new documentary series that airs starting tonight at 10 pm on the History Channel. Since I don’t know if or when I am in any episodes, that may mean that I ended up entirely on the cutting room floor, or whatever its digital equivalent is. We’ll soon see! Dan McClellan will be live-blogging the series. And Bob Cargill will be answering questions about it on... Read more
Jack Collins has shared a round-up of the recent conference about religion and Doctor Who. He has said that he’ll be sharing the paper he read at the conference soon. Read more
I mentioned my decision not to go to the 7:30 pm showing of “Day of the Doctor” in the Baltimore area while I’m there for the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature. I’m now going to the 10 pm showing. Anyone else who will be there and interested in going should get in touch with me – it makes sense to share transportation, and the more the merrier! I also have a... Read more
Eerdmans shared the above interview with James Charlesworth, talking about the excavations in Talpiot and the tombs found there, in connection with his forthcoming edited volume, The Tomb of Jesus and His Family?: Exploring Ancient Jewish Tombs Near Jerusalem’s Walls. For my own thoughts on the subject, see The Burial of Jesus: What Does History Have to Do with Faith? Read more
I suspect that this identifies one not merely as a Christian but as belonging to a particular subset of Protestantism. Via Christian Memes on Facebook Read more
“I always think that the clown and hero are different levels in the Doctor – there is no completely straight Doctor. The folk memory of Hartnell is he’s a cranky old man, but when you watch him he plays the Doctor as a stroppy child. Very twinkly and he’s not crotchety, he’s sulky, the way that an infant would be. Ian and Barbara are sort of his parents, indulging him to go and behave himself a bit better. The Doctors... Read more
HT Matthias Rascher Read more
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