The second day began with a look back on the first day of the first ever Enoch Seminar in this format, as well as the substantive content. Archie Wright suggested that even more attention probably deserves to be given to the differing degrees of interest in the garden/Adam and Eve story in different streams of Judaism. The issue of how evil is defined and the extent of interest is also important, as is the use of evil to motivate communities,... Read more
Here is my recap of the first day of the first ever Enoch Seminar meeting held completely online, which began yesterday. The first day began with opening ceremonies that offered a retrospective going back to the early 1970s with Bob Kraft’s seminar focused on the pseudepigrapha and the publication of Jewish pseudepigrapha that had been previously largely ignored by academics working in both ancient Judaism and early Christianity. John Collins and Amy-Jill Levine provided some interesting anecdotes about those early... Read more
I wrote something in a message to a friend that I thought might be worth sharing with blog readers as well: Doctrines are not supposed to be the object of your faith, God is. Thinking seriously about doctrine and subjecting your beliefs you serious scrutiny is one practical way of putting God first, showing that you are willing to seek God with your whole heart and when necessary smash a few of your long-cherished idols. Our sensitivity when our idols... Read more
I found myself thinking of the Bechdel Test as I worked on my book What Jesus Learned From Women, and contemplated mentioning it in the book. For anyone who may not be familiar with it, the Bechdel Test applies three criteria to a movie: (1) it has to have at least two women in it, who (2) who talk to each other, about (3) something besides a man. That’s surely a minimum standard to which any story should be held. The Bechdel Test... Read more
I was heartbroken to learn yesterday that my dear mentor, my doctoral supervisor at the University of Durham, my dear friend ever since James D. G. Dunn (Jimmy to his friends) has died. No one who has studied the New Testament at any level will be unfamiliar with the name. He is perhaps best known of late for his work on Paul, in particular his role in taking the insights of E. P. Sanders about ancient Judaism and finding a... Read more
I’m not sure how I missed that Arthur C. Clarke’s story Childhood’s End had inspired Pink Floyd to write a song by the same name. It is from one of their earlier albums, Obscured by Clouds, but I love all their eras from oldest to most recent, and so there’s really no excuse for me to have missed that. I’m sure I’ve heard the song before, but its name and source of title/inspiration wasn’t something that I’d become aware of... Read more
Via RelCFP: Special Issue of Interdisciplinary Literary Studies: A Journal of Criticism and Theory We invite essays that investigate the concept of hybridity within the Star Trek universe. Accepted essays will be published in a Special Issue of the peer-reviewed journal Interdisciplinary Literary Studies (Penn State University Press). Please submit essays of no longer than 7,500 words to http://www.editorialmanager.com/interlitstudies/. Select “Special Issue Article” before uploading your manuscript. Deadline for receipt of essays is October 5, 2020 Possible topics include hybridity and: The Anthropocene The body, embodiment... Read more
Ashley Darling wrote something so poignant, insightful, and on-target that I wanted to draw attention to it. Here is an excerpt: Certainty is not what we should seek as Christians. It is comforting but diametrically opposed to faith. Certainty is merely hubris and arrogance masquerading as discernment. One might say that they know the earth is only 6000 years old. Others might say that they know the second coming of Christ will occur this or that way. But they don’t,... Read more
Here are some excerpts from Paul Lakeland’s inspiring manifesto published in Commonweal: The many current crises in our world all have something in common. Whether they are humanitarian or economic, whether they are threats to democracy or to creation, there is a common thread running through them. Each in its own way exploits and thrives on division—between the rich and the poor, humanity and the rest of the natural world, citizens and immigrants, the relatively safe and the deeply desperate.... Read more
Paul’s discussion of the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit in his letter to the Galatians was pretty important in my trajectory as an interpreter of the New Testament epistles of Paul. I remember reading his lengthy discussion of salvation not being by works, only to arrive at his list of works of the flesh and to find myself baffled by his statement that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.... Read more
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