I mentioned previously that I’ve been reading Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy in order to review them, in particular the forthcoming third book, MaddAddam. I’ll be teaching my class on religion and science fiction this coming semester, and have been debating what novel or novels to include, along with the many short stories and The second book in the trilogy, The Year of the Flood, has the most interesting content from the perspective of the class. That’s the one I mentioned... Read more
The conversation about millennials and church decline continues – see for instance posts by Richard Beck, Bob Cornwall (and another), Tripp Fuller, Hollis Phelps, Eddie Kouya, Allan Bevere, Travis Mamone, Caris Adel, Ann Fontaine, David Hayward, Chris Attaway, and Shannon Barber. Many have suggested that this discussion is one that happens, if not every generation, at least frequently throughout history. Scot McKnight questions whether the evidence indicates that millennials are forsaking church at all. A lot of the posts are responses... Read more
My recent use of the term “parallelomania” (popularized by Samuel Sandmel) has sparked some discussion in the blogosphere. It’s All Random…Mostly expressed dislike for the term. Ian then responded, writing: I have some sympathy for just using the term ‘parallelomania’ as a term of skepticism. To say, yes it is fine to find parallels, but as long as you’ve only shown the parallels, you’re only relying on a kind of probabilistic innuendo to make your point: you have neither analysed the... Read more
I saw this headline on a post on the ISAW blog today: Job: Head Librarian I suspect that I am not the only person in my line of work whose first thought was that this will be some sort of interesting interpretation of the central character of the Book of Job, and only a second later thought that it is more likely a notification about an employment opportunity at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New... Read more
Yesterday was a momentous occasion. For the first time since moving to Indianapolis more than a decade ago, my family lives in a home connected to city water. It isn't that we moved. Citizens Water recently put a main on our street, where previous utility companies had not done so. And then Bedell Plumbing connected us to it. I cannot recommend Bedell highly enough. They were affordable, professional, cheerful and friendly, and fast. We are the first house to get... Read more
Just in case you didn't already know that. HT Approaching Justice Read more
I blogged today about a question that was intended to distract from a discussion of evolution and the shortcomings of young-earth creationism, and one person quipped on in a comment, ‘as the good Admiral would say…’ That reference was of course to the popular Admiral Ackbar “It’s a trap” meme. That in turn reminded me of a collection of 37 things only Star Wars fans will find funny that I saw a few days ago. And it included a couple of... Read more
A colleague drew my attention to one of the funniest things on the internet. There is something called “Blessed Quietness Journal” which lists its Editor-in-Chief as “Jesus Christ”! The most impressive thing on their web site is probably their long list of institutions that readers should not ally themselves with. The way it is formatted, it looks like the object of their ire is in fact the organizations whose advertisements are on the page! But seriously, click through to see... Read more
Joel Watts drew my attention to the fact that an individual named Tony Breeden, with whom I had been interacting on his blog, mentioned me on Facebook: My response was to ask whether, if I gave a simple “yes” answer and said nothing more, he would be satisfied and would return to the topic, or would then ask about what I mean by bodily, and by historical, and use other follow-up questions to distract from the topic at hand. Breeden... Read more
I am grateful to have been given the opportunity to participate in the blog tour focused on T. Michael Law’s book, When God Spoke Greek: The Septuagint and the Making of the Christian Bible. It is a book about the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Jewish Scriptures, and why you should be more interested in it than you probably are. In case you missed the blog tour thus far, Joel Watts started off the blog tour, followed by Andrew King,... Read more
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