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
The above a cappella rendition of Lorde’s song “Royals” has been getting a lot of attention. What some may not know is that the singers are Butler University students, connected with the female a cappella group Freshly Brewed, which I had the privilege to be the faculty sponsor for when Kathleen Marvin started it back in 2004. One of the great things about being an educator is seeing where the people you teach, and the organizations and movements they start,... Read more
Neil Godfrey posted about peer-reviewed journals and how the peer review process is imperfect, if not indeed deeply flawed, and thus even problematic studies manage to get through into peer-reviewed journals in the sciences. And if that is true in the sciences, surely it is also true in the domain of history. And so what does that tell us? That most mythicist writings are so very bad, so obviously flawed, so profoundly bizarre, that they cannot make it past even... Read more
In searching for images to go in my previous post about the Gospel of Mark, I came across two great images, both of which relate to puzzling aspects of that Gospel, and both of which were shared by Deane Galbraith in reviewing Maurice Casey’s wonderful volume, Jesus of Nazareth: An Independent Historian’s Account of his Life and Teaching. The first relates to Casey’s proposal that the Gospel of Mark as we now know it was a draft of a work... Read more
Michael Kruger wrote a blog post about Jesus as God in the Gospel of Mark. His argument is that, in the Scriptural citations towards the beginning of the Gospel (which the author of Mark, or the Greek text he draws upon, actually rewords), texts which in Isaiah and Malachi refer to the preparation of the coming of God are applied to John the Baptist preparing the way for Jesus. Thus, Jesus is God. When I was a conservative Evangelical, I confess... Read more
Rod Dreher shared a challenge aimed at combating religious illiteracy: offer a list of three books – and no more than three – that will together give an adequate introduction to a particular religion. Other bloggers have already responded. So which would I choose for my own liberal Christian tradition? There is a real sense in which, if the aim is to provide a history of this tradition, then my choices would be different. But if the aim is to introduce... Read more
I recently shared a recording of a song I wrote, “Creed,” from when we performed it in church. I’ve now added the lyrics in closed captioning, and so thought I should mention that. Read more
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