The TOR website has posted an article by Brian Staveley, “Depicting the Divine in Epic Fantasy.” It explores the subject, focusing particular attention early on on Dante and on the movie Dogma. Dante is quoted in the article as saying, “The passing beyond humanity may not be set forth in words.” Yet, as Staveley notes, even poets who stretch words still use words, creating quite the conundrum: This is a problem. He is a poet, after all, and poetry tends to rely pretty... Read more
The Doctor Who comic book story “The Doctor and the Nurse” features a group that the Doctor calls “religious fanatics.” They encounter them on their home planet of Hipponensis 3. The Doctor explains that the Siblinghood of Saint Augustine, Physicist “are presentists. They believe the past and future don’t exist – just the present – so they have a hard time with time travelers. They think we’re con men.” In the story that precedes it in the collection, “The Hypothetical... Read more
No, this isn't a post about recent political happenings in the United states. Anthony Le Donne and Pete Enns both mentioned a TED Talk which suggests that our IQs are significantly higher than those of past generations, and offers some explanations as to why. Some would say that our obsession with TED Talks indicates that we're not as smart as we think we are. 🙂 But those posts resonated with something that I had been thinking about in connection with... Read more
Tom Verenna asked in a post on Facebook why angels wear clothing. I confess that I don’t recall ever hearing this asked, much less addressed. Surely conservative Christians ought to have answer to this question, since they believe that the Genesis 3 account is to be taken literally, and that the wearing of clothing is depicted there as a result of humanity’s fall into sin. And so were the angels who announced the resurrection to the women at the tomb... Read more
Michael Kruger has written a rather unhelpful response to a post of mine, which was in turn a response to an earlier one of his. He offers a condescending suggestion that I ought to “reread” Hurtado and Bauckham, as though I had not written a book of my own interacting with their views (The Only True God: Early Christian Monotheism in Its Jewish Context), as well as having blogged in detail about them. But perhaps this just confirms two things... Read more
Hemant Mehta highlighted this fascinating new comic book. In a manner that is typical of much supposedly secularist or atheistic science fiction, the story has people rebelling and fighting against “gods” and other such “outside actors,” but in the process, makes them literally exist as well. Here’s an example: It’s a theme I’ve explored before, especially in Star Trek and Doctor Who. Mehta provides some further details from Justin Aclin, one of the writers. Here is an excerpt: I think... Read more
Thanks to God of Evolution for this nice reminder that “what the Bible says,” and how it relates to what science reveals, is not monolithic and uniform, contrary to what young-earth creationists would have you believe. See too the discussion there of whether Genesis depicts creation as not merely good but “perfect.” Read more
I’ve heard a lot about THAT Camp, and there will be a meeting at AAR this year. For those who may not be familiar with it, THAT Camp is an “unconference” (yes, that is a thing) and its name stands for “The Humanities and Technology Camp.” It is a gathering with little or no agenda (the schedule still says “to be determined”) other than its heading and the provision of a place and time for people to meet and work... Read more
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The above Zen Pencils cartoon was accompanied by a reminder that October 16th is Blog Action Day, with a focus this year on human rights. Human rights are things that we as humans define. But we do so rationally, by declaring that the same rights, freedoms, and protections that we want, all should have. Looking to ancient texts will not get us to them – the collection known as the Bible both declares humans as made in the image of... Read more
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