Why Do Mythicists Care So Little About Facts and Details?

Last updated on: July 4, 2013 at 2:16 pm By James F. McGrath

Neil Godfrey has a post which claims that I’m unconcerned with facts and details. And unsurprisingly, his post has little interest in facts and details. It repeats Richard Carrier’s claim that mythicism is embraced by individuals like Thomas Thompson (who has distanced himself from mythicism) and Kurt Noll (whose contribution to Is This Not the Carpenter? is rather wonderful and does much to undermine mythicism). He also claims that I am somehow ignoring the plain words of what Brodie wrote, even... Read more

How To Win At Bible

Last updated on: July 4, 2013 at 11:50 am By James F. McGrath

Fred Clark has a post about one problematic but very popular approach to using the Bible, namely as a sort of card game in which clobber verse is pitted against clobber verse. He writes: But the problem, in her inquisitor’s eyes, is that this passage is not itself a clobber-text. He reads the Bible like a child playing the old card game of “War.” He puts down his card — a clobber-text from Leviticus. And now it’s her turn to... Read more

An Evolutionary Creationist’s Declaration of Independence

Last updated on: July 4, 2013 at 8:03 am By James F. McGrath

This seems particularly fitting for the occasion of 4th of July and an ongoing interest of this blog (it is authored by Mike Beidler, and first appeared on the blog Rethinking the αlpha and Ωmega: An Evolutionary Creationist’s Declaration of Independence (Apologies to Mr. Jefferson) In the BODY OF CHRIST, February 26, 2010. The unanimous declaration of theistic evolutionists in the Evangelical Christian community. When, in the course of Christian history, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the... Read more

Happy 4th of July!

Last updated on: July 4, 2013 at 12:02 am By James F. McGrath

New Pages at Exploring Our Matrix

Last updated on: July 3, 2013 at 8:37 pm By James F. McGrath

Some of you may have experienced slow load times or error messages on this blog in the past. The cause was apparently my sidebar widget which shared interesting posts elsewhere. If the RSS feed that it was trying to pull failed to respond, the widget would wait for it and the blog page would fail to load. But many of you enjoy the “interesting things elsewhere” items that I share from other blogs. And that sidebar has been useful to... Read more

SBL Program Book Available

Last updated on: July 3, 2013 at 4:58 pm By James F. McGrath

Thanks to Dan McClellan for pointing out that the Society of Biblical Literature 2013 Annual Meeting program book is now online. Below are details of the two sessions in which I’m presenting, and I’ve included links in the titles of my papers to the abstracts for them: S23-228 Metacriticism of Biblical Scholarship 11/23/2013 1:00 PM to 3:30 PM Room: 349 – Convention CenterTheme: Academic Freedom and Biblical Studies James Linville, University of Lethbridge, Presiding Jeffrey Morrow, Seton Hall University A Biblical Method... Read more

Building a Church in Minecraft

Last updated on: July 3, 2013 at 3:15 pm By James F. McGrath

A young and creative individual in my church, David Peacock, created this in Minecraft: It is a rendition of the building where my church meets, Crooked Creek Baptist Church. Here is a photo, for comparison: I am very impressed with the likeness, and the creativity in doing something like this. It got me thinking about changing media and changing ways of doing things, and how it relates to churches. In a sense, building a church building in Minecraft is not... Read more

Abiding Questions

Last updated on: July 3, 2013 at 10:43 am By James F. McGrath

In working on my conference paper on lightworld visitors to Jerusalem in the Mandaean Book of John, I've been looking up related passages in the Nag Hammadi texts. Below is a passage from “The Sophia of Jesus Christ,” which always strikes me, because the response of Philip on behalf of the disciples describes something that would sound just as apt on the lips of any seeker after truth today. And he said: “Peace be to you, My peace I give... Read more

Jesus vs. Mandaean Lightworld Figures in the Great Treasure

Last updated on: July 3, 2013 at 7:31 am By James F. McGrath

Here are another couple of excerpts from the Great Treasure or Ginza Rba, which are relevant to my conference paper on depictions of lightworld visitors to Jerusalem in the Mandaean Book of John. They are also related to one another. First here is GR 1.199-200, : If he harasses you, tell him: “We belong to you.” Yet in your heart do not confess him, and do not fall away from the words of your Lord, the Exalted King of Light.... Read more

Using Jesus

Last updated on: July 2, 2013 at 10:04 am By James F. McGrath

David Hayward wrote the following on his blog today: Everyone with any sense knows that we accept the acceptable words of Jesus and appropriate his unacceptable words in altered forms. That is, we use his sayings if they are agreeable, and we reject or theologically undermine the ones that aren’t. I think an interesting question to ask is how long this has been going on. In the New Testament Gospels, we actually see sayings being added, dropped, and modified. And... Read more

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