Elizabeth Raine and John Squires write: Jesus…suddenly finds himself in a position where, faced with this challenge, he has to make a choice. Does he stick with the tradition, thereby putting himself in the same position of hypocrisy that the he has just accused the Pharisees of, or does he admit to himself that he needs to put his money where his mouth is and acknowledge that the woman is right in the truth she is proclaiming? There is no... Read more
Mormonism and SF Special Issue of SFRA Review, vol. 51, no. 3, Summer 2021 Edited by Adam McLain Background Since its inception in the early nineteenth century, Mormonism has shot for the stars. With angelic visitors, planetary afterlives, and astronomical texts written by ancient patriarchs, the theology and history of Mormonism is ripe for analysis and criticism through the lens of SF. In addition to the beliefs, practitioners of the religion—the largest denomination of which is formally known as The... Read more
I had been meaning to blog about this for a while, when a blog post from John Fea prompted me to finally do it. Ironically, my draft post was about Syriac and his was about English documents including some that are in typeface. Here is his post to start with. You’ll see how the two connect: https://thewayofimprovement.com/2020/06/24/the-boston-public-library-needs-your-help-transcribing-anti-slavery-documents/ I have been following details about progress not only in OCR (Optical Character Recognition) applied to ancient languages and their alphabets (such as... Read more
I appreciated Jason Staples’ recent guest posts on Bart Ehrman’s blog. In them he discusses one of the many challenging issues of interpretation in Paul’s letters. What did Paul mean when he wrote in his letter to the church in Rome that “all Israel will be saved”? It took me far longer than it ought to have to rethink that text in light of Paul’s expectation that the end of history and dawn of the kingdom of God would come... Read more
The Amherst Papyrii feature psalms in Aramaic that show signs of having been originally composed in Hebrew. They aren’t from the Book of Psalms in the Bible, although they have a relationship to the psalms we find there. ASOR had a blog post about them a couple of years ago and ever since I’ve been meaning to blog about them. In particular I’m wondering whether anyone has set these ancient hymns to music. There is a wealth of potential inspiration in... Read more
Call for Proposals The Palgrave Handbook of Popular Culture as Philosophy Editor-in Chief: David Kyle Johnson The Palgrave Handbook of Popular Culture and Philosophy is an online first/living reference handbook of articles that treat works of popular culture as philosophy. The main goal is to identify and critique the philosophical ideas presented and arguments made by works of popular culture, such as films, television shows, video games, comedians, and graphic novels. Some already published examples include articles that evaluate... Read more
As someone interested in the study of religion including its intersection with science fact and science fiction, this interview with the author of a new book on the “unexplained phenomena” many people believe in is fascinating. Here are two excerpts that intersect particularly directly with my interests as well as with current events: I see conspiracy theories as arising out of that moment when the facts simply aren’t available to support your confirmation bias, so you have to make up... Read more
Although Doctor Who creator Sydney Newman wanted his show to be educational and avoid so-called “bug-eyed monsters,” the popularity of the Daleks in the second serial ensured that it would be better known for scaring kids into hiding behind the sofa. Adaptable as the science-fiction program is to fit a variety of other genres (e.g. the Western, screwball comedy, romance, period drama), horror dominates its cultural memory and ongoing practice. While there have been some critical essays over the years examining this... Read more
“State of Decay” continues what would turn out to be a trilogy of stories set in e-space. The story is set on a world where the way of life is reminiscent of Europe’s medieval period on Earth. The reason for this, we later learn, is that the rulers prohibit science and learning. Indeed, we are told that not only reading but “All science, all knowledge is forbidden by the Lords. The penalty for knowledge is death.” This is clearly a caricature... Read more
Call for Book Chapters: Jesuits in Science Fiction: The Clash of Reason and Revelation on Other Worlds Edited by Richard Feist (Saint Paul University, Ottawa, Canada) To be published by Vernon Press Science fiction authors have long drawn deep upon philosophy, theology, history, science and various other disciplines. In the early 20th century a distinct sub-genre of science fiction emerged and continues today; it deals with Jesuits (and the like) exploring and experiencing the clash of reason and revelation within in... Read more
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