2013-09-11T18:05:03-04:00

Today’s Bizarro comic addresses an interesting theological point. As human beings have found themselves seemingly under assault from forces of nature – volcanoes, earthquakes, floods, storms, etc. – they have sought ways to appease those forces. The idea that they might act mindlessly, that there might be no justice or injustice involved in the destruction they wreak, only blind apathetic processes, seems not to have occurred to anyone until relatively recently, presumably because the very fact of our existence and... Read more

2013-09-11T17:04:54-04:00

Although it might seem just like one more “Moses parts X” cartoon, today’s Non Sequitur comic actually gets at an interesting point, if you think about it. When people in modern industrialized nations talk about miracles, they often have in mind things like finding a parking spot, or finding one’s car after exiting (it may feel like escaping) the mall. So many people have no sense of what slavery could actually be like, and what liberation from an oppressive dictator... Read more

2013-09-11T10:40:10-04:00

The title is (I hope obviously) not asking whether Andrew Lincoln was born of a virgin. It is about the book which Andrew Lincoln has written, Born of a Virgin?: Reconceiving Jesus in the Bible, Tradition, and Theology. I had the privilege of reading the book in advance of publication, and have already mentioned it a couple of times here on the blog. Here is what I wrote for the purpose of providing an endorsement: There are topics which are such a... Read more

2013-09-11T08:47:14-04:00

In my First Year Seminar class “Faith, Doubt, and Reason,” I shared the thought experiment “What Would It Take To Make You Lose Your Faith?” That’s something I shared here on the blog previously, and because of the scenario it has come up in connection in recent discussions of religion and science fiction in general, or Doctor Who in particular. If you are a Christian, and in traveling through time or space in a TARDIS you discovered that some key... Read more

2013-09-11T07:47:23-04:00

HT IO9   Read more

2013-09-10T19:15:31-04:00

This is apparently the official poster for the Doctor Who 50th anniversary special. The BBC has released some additional details about the episode. A pressing question for some of us is this: What were the American Academy of Religion and Society of Biblical Literature thinking, scheduling their annual meeting so that it overlaps with such an important event?!   Read more

2013-09-10T11:33:50-04:00

In looking for songs to sing, I have recently listened more closely to Samuel Barber’s Hermit Songs than I ever had previously. Below are two of them that I particularly like, with the lyrics. First, here is “The Heavenly Banquet”: I would like to have the men of Heaven in my own house; with vats of good cheer laid out for them. I would like to have the three Mary’s, their fame is so great. I would like people from... Read more

2013-09-10T10:11:58-04:00

The prologue to the Gospel of Luke is unique among the Gospels. Its author provides a prologue indicating something about his aims and methods. This would have been a great opportunity to mention something like his receiving of divine revelation. Instead, here is what he wrote: Since many have undertaken to set down an orderly account of the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed on to us by those who from the beginning were... Read more

2013-09-10T08:27:43-04:00

I had someone ask me recently if I was a pantheist. I assume it was because of something that I wrote which had not been read carefully. The model of the divine that I find most resonates with me is panentheism. Obviously there are a number of different ways that panentheism can be understood and configured, from the view of God as relating to the cosmos as the soul does to the body in traditional Cartesian dualism, to God as... Read more

2013-09-10T07:19:43-04:00

“If we have the truth, [it] cannot be harmed by investigation. If we have not the truth, it ought to be harmed.” — J. Reuben Clark, leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Read more


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