This digital recreation of first century Jerusalem was shared by the Huffington Post together with a large number of real photos from modern Israel, all of which I understand are from the long-awaited IMAX movie about Jerusalem. Many of the photos are breathtaking, and so do click through and take a look! Read more
In 2010 I read a conference paper at SBL on the reference in the Gospel of Matthew to something prophets had supposedly said, “He shall be called a Nazorean.” I looked at it from the perspective of intertextuality, and also brought my work on the Mandaeans into the picture. Since I still have not found the time to turn the paper into an article, I have decided to upload the conference paper in a slightly edited form to my institution’s... Read more
This bit of musical humor came my way via Facebook. The text instructions are hilarious and deserve to be read, even though just looking at the notes will crack you up (literally and/or metaphorically) if you are a musician. Read more
Via BLT, I learned that, in addition to the well-known Brick Testament depicting scenes from the Bible in LEGOs, on Flickr there is a depiction of scenes from the Protestant Reformation in LEGOs. Here is an example: Read more
Since Tuesday is Constitution Day, and I will be gathering students from my course on “Religion and Freedom of Expression” soon for the first time to talk about Randall Bezanson’s book How Free Can Religion Be?, I thought I would see if there is interest in discussing the topic on this blog. As a starting point for discussion, here is a video which Hemant Mehta made and shared recently: That there are limits to religious freedom even in a society... Read more
A friend shared this screenshot from the movie Hellbound? on Facebook. I would dispute whether some of these texts clearly belong in the particular category in which they are placed (although if I recall correctly, in the movie the point of the chart was not to say that these prooftext support these views but simply to indicate that each view has prooftexts which seem at first glance to support it). I would also point out that the diversity of the... Read more
I asked recently about science fiction hymns. One response I got via Reddit made reference to Julia Ecklar (science fiction author as well as a singer-songwriter). Looking into her music led me to her new album Horsetamer, and one track on it in particular, “Shai Hulud,” which really is a hymn expressing the perspective of the faith of the Fremen in the Dune novels Frank Herbert wrote. It isn't the only one, but you can actually download the track “Shai... Read more
Hemant Mehta shared some interesting statistics and infographics about what Americans think about Syria, and how events there may be leading up to the “end times.” These statistics also give us in the process a good sense of how many Americans have never consulted a scholarly commentary on the Book of Revelation… Read more
Via IO9 I became aware of the Tumblr Calvin and Muad’Dib. Frank Herbert’s Dune series has some wonderful treatments of religious themes. Combining them with Calvin and Hobbes makes them even better, somehow. Enjoy these examples, and click through to explore more! Read more
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