Chris Attaway recently suggested that ” Fundamentalism…is when social function becomes so important so as to discourage or even forbid real knowledge.” He compares it to playing Unfair Mario, a Mario game that I was previously unfamiliar with. Click through to try it. I laughed out loud. The point of the comparison is that the game is one of arbitrary obstacles and traps, and one may learn ways of avoiding them, but without there ever being a rationale for why one... Read more
Via Doctor Who and the T.A.R.D.I.S. on Facebook. Read more
Charles Häberl has shared an entry he wrote for Religion Compass, “Mandaeism in Antiquity and the Antiquity of Mandaeism,” on Academia.edu. If you are interested in the Mandaeans, then not only this new upload, but many other things he has shared, will be of interest to you. Read more
I found myself feeling somewhat dismayed reading Michael E. Smith’s grumpy post about e-books at Publishing Archaeology. One of his complaints is about the inability to cite a specific page number in e-books. He asks “Is it no longer considered important that a reader be able to cite a specific page number in a book?” I think the answer is clearly “no.” If a resource is available digitally, then one can easily search for a phrase and find a reference.... Read more
In several recent posts at Vridar, the blog has been focusing a lot of attention on Thomas Brodie’s work. One can find there all the tactics one will expect if one is familiar with mythicism. For instance, they bring up Geza Vermes’ suggestion that the reference to Jesus as a carpenter in the Gospels could reflect a misunderstanding of a rabbinic technical term for a learned individual. They ignore the question of whether that suggestion has been found persuasive (including, in more recent publications by... Read more
Hemant Mehta shared the above video. It really does a great job of showing some persistent elements in the outlook of the show, although obviously no show with so many writers and such a long history will be entirely consistent. Fans will enjoy the overview of old and new, and the connections and continuities. But those interested in the philosophy of the show, and its treatment of religious and moral themes, will also find a lot to discuss. Hearing the... Read more
On the Bowdoin College website, there is a podcast featuring Jorunn Buckley. Here’s the description: Assistant Professor of Religion Jorunn Buckley, the world’s leading scholar on the Mandaeans – an endangered Middle Eastern religious sect – talks about how she became involved in human rights work on their behalf. Click here to download it and listen! In response to a question asked in a comment on another post, I would also like to mention the fact that, at present, the... Read more
Brian LePort has posted two wonderful blog entries about stereotypes regarding denominations, as indicated by Google search autocomplete data. I thought I would check what happens when I type in the labels that I wear – American Baptist and progressive Christian. Neither has anything for the entire phrases (such as “Why are American Baptists” or “Why do progressive Christians”). But here’s what it suggested based on partial or similar phrases: Apparently American Baptists are insufficiently in the public eye to... Read more
Another reason why amateurs are less likely to come up with innovative and plausible new interpretations of data is the fact that amateurs and hobbyists are rarely fully acquainted with the range and depth of scholarship on a given topic. I learned today that Bryan Lewis has created a comic illustrating something that is the common experience of would-be doctoral students and amateur thinkers alike: Rarely if ever is an idea completely new. If you think that mythicism, for instance,... Read more
Larry Hurtado has a post on scholarship and why he is suspicious of those who claim to have come up with a definitive solution to something despite not being trained in the relevant skills, languages, etc. I’ll quote it at length, since it says a lot that is important: I have to say that it’s curious that someone with no training in a given field, lacking in at least some of the linguistic competence required (both relevant classical language and... Read more
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