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That the view that suffering is due to sin is still prevalent, even in traditions that have the Book of Job, just goes to show how tenacious that way of viewing things is. It is easier to accept the view of Job's friends (even if one accepts as authoritative the Book of Job, which condemns them for not speaking truthfully about God), than to deal with the mystery and uncertainty that Job came to embrace. Â Â Read more
As a result of a comment on my blog, I’m wondering whether there is any book that focuses scholarly attention on those places in the Bible where authors assume the pre-scientific understanding of that time. The firmament, bees from a lion corpse and other references to spontaneous generation, taxonomies of animals, celestial movements, and so on. Is there such a book? If not, would it be worth putting such a volume together? I know that John Walton’s work (e.g. Genesis... Read more
A writer, as the old saying about reporters goes, is only as good as his or her sources. Whom does Ken Ham quote for information about dinosaurs? Take a look at this: That’s right. He goes straight to one of the leading authorities on dinosaurs in recent years, namely Michael Crichton, author of Jurassic Park and The Lost World. In case you think this is photoshopped, you can see the text of “What Really Happened to the Dinosaurs?” on the Answers in... Read more
Of course, humans seeing this are thinking “Verily you fill your frying vats with oil. My bucket overflows…” Read more
I had this parody of the song “Bring Him Home” from Les Miserables drawn to my attention at a rehearsal this week. I am confident that even those of us with high voices will appreciate the humor. Read more
Brian LePort may have ended up calling us something rude in British English (he’ll probably fix it), but his question is still an important one. He is asking when the best day is for an evening gathering of bloggers at AAR/SBL, or whether a lunch or breakfast would be preferable. Click through and chime in on his poll, if you are going to AAR/SBL this year and want to attend! Here is a painting of a previous year’s dinner, in... Read more
Brian Le Port posted about the annual bibliobloggers' gathering for this year's SBL and AAR annual meeting in Baltimore. I think that it is high time that we fully included the AAR folks. And so let's start calling it the SBLAARggers Gathering. We agreed in the past that #SBLAAR is a better hashtag to use, since AARSBL sounds to Brits as though you are swearing. But now the possibility of a pun on bloggers makes it seem that much clearer... Read more
Yesterday I posted about theology and epic fantasy. Today we cross over (at least partly) into science fiction, with an article that talks about the roots in classic mythology of several Star Wars monsters. In the first part of their article “Drawing on the Imagination” on the official Star Wars blog, Tim Veekhoven & Kevin Beentjes focus attention on a range of monsters inspired from a variety of culture’s classics. But those with Biblical roots are given particular attention. Click through... Read more
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