Time and Relative Dimensions in Faith: Contents

Last updated on: June 10, 2013 at 12:22 pm By James F. McGrath

I am pleased to be able to share a list of the contributors and chapter titles for the forthcoming book Time and Relative Dimensions in Faith: Religion and Doctor Who: Time and Relative Dimensions in Faith Contents Acknowledgements Andrew Crome, Introduction Courtland Lewis, ‘Why Time Lords do not live forever’ Gabriel McKee, ‘Pushing the Protest Button: Doctor Who’s Anti-Authoritarian Ethic’ Kenneth Jason Wardley: ‘Divine and Human Nature: incarnation and kenosis in Doctor Who’ Tim Jones, ‘Breaking the Faiths in “The Curse of... Read more

Qmaha

Last updated on: June 10, 2013 at 11:22 am By James F. McGrath

No, the title of this post does not say “Omaha.” It says “Qmaha,” a term for a particular kind of Mandaean phylactery or amulet. It contains text, which is believed to ward off evil and illness, and iron needles which are thought to be effective protection against evil spirits. Brian Mubaraki kindly provided me with these photos, and I am very grateful. I will soon be sharing some other resources which he wishes to make available online, and am happy to be... Read more

Doctor Who: The Mutants

Last updated on: June 10, 2013 at 9:40 am By James F. McGrath

Doctor Who has a long history of exploring postcolonial realities, for which of course science fiction provides natural opportunities. “The Mutants” is just one of many episodes that fits into this category. But this one is particularly interesting to consider against the backdrop of Doctor Who’s British context and as a product of a British national television channel. In this story, the Earth had a vast empire which is now waning. The overlords from Earth had steered one of their... Read more

Blog RSS Feed Options

Last updated on: June 9, 2013 at 6:10 pm By James F. McGrath

Hello readers! There are two options when it comes to subscribing to the RSS feed of this blog. If you want to see the entire post in your feed reader, then you should use this one: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/religionprof/feed If you want to see only a short preview, then you should use this one: http://feeds.feedburner.com/patheosmatrix Thanks for reading! Read more

The Case of the Vanishing Tremors

Last updated on: June 9, 2013 at 4:15 pm By James F. McGrath

Tony Burke drew attention to the publication of an interesting article about the Secret Gospel of Mark: Roger Viklund and Timo S. Paananen, “Distortion of the Scribal Hand in the Images of Clement’s Letter to Theodore,” Vigiliae Christianae 67 (2013): 235-247. The article is based on material which had previously been made available online by one of its authors, Roger Viklund. And so you can see there, even without a subscription to the journal, what the gist of the argument is: the... Read more

Gentiles and Crap

Last updated on: June 9, 2013 at 1:36 pm By James F. McGrath

As we continued working our way through Hebrews today in my Sunday school class, the mention of the curtain (separating the holy place from the most holy place or “holy of holies”), and the lack of mention of the temple (the author focuses instead on the tabernacle), led us to a broader discussion of the temple in the New Testament. In talking about the possible meanings of the action of Jesus in the temple (sometimes called the “cleansing of the... Read more

Does God Have a Place in Science Fiction?

Last updated on: June 8, 2013 at 10:24 pm By James F. McGrath

Anyone who reads this blog regularly probably thinks the answer is obvious. But the question is asked afresh and explored well in an article by Damien Walter in The Guardian with the same title as this blog post (HT John Morehead on Facebook). It includes great quotes such as “Any sufficiently advanced technocrat will be indistinguishable from God” and “Religion is a battle ground, and walking away from it only concedes the war to your opponents.” Read more

Happy Birthday, Colin Baker!

Last updated on: June 8, 2013 at 8:00 pm By James F. McGrath

Today is Colin Baker's 70th birthday. And so, to mark the occasion and express my appreciation, I thought I would repost some thoughts I shared when I blogged about “The Twin Dilemma”: When Colin Baker took on the role of the Doctor, something marvellous occurred. More than ever since the first regeneration, there were moments when one could really have believed that this was truly the same character that had featured on the show in its beginning. At times Colin... Read more

Nazareth in the First Century

Last updated on: June 8, 2013 at 4:15 pm By James F. McGrath

It seems that Richard Dawkins may be right about infectious memes. But they aren’t just an issue for religious people. I have on multiple occasions encountered claims by atheists who insist that there was no village of Nazareth in the first century, often citing outdated or misunderstood archaeological data, or worse still, things written by people who are not themselves archaeologists and yet nonetheless feel they are qualified to offer a completely different interpretation of the existing evidence than professional... Read more

Doctor Who: Day of the Daleks

Last updated on: June 8, 2013 at 9:17 am By James F. McGrath

“Day of the Daleks” is one of the episodes from the Jon Pertwee era that I clearly remember seeing when I was younger. It may well be the first story I encountered which featured a temporal paradox – time travel from the future to the present in an attempt to stop something from happening, only for it to turn out that the time travelers actually caused the event in the first place. It is also the first episode I remember... Read more