This is the latest cartoon from David Hayward. Words are boxes. The great mystics and theologians of most religious traditions have always sooner or later reached the point of treating language not as a box to encompass and describe the divine, but as mere boxes used to point towards a reality that they cannot ever do justice to. Pictures and images are also boxes, of course, and David’s cartoon is likewise not seeking to capture, but to point beyond itself... Read more
Inspired by (and not to be outdone by) my recent effort to convey information literacy skills in song, my colleague Chad Bauman has written and recorded a song of his own. It is focused on the CRAP test, which is a mnemonic device for remembering key things to look for when evaluating sources. Have a listen – I think you'll get a kick out of it! And then please share it with librarians, teachers, and students that you know. Read more
An e-mail this morning from Digital Commons informed me about audio recordings of guest lectures at Asbury Theological Seminary which have been made available via their digital repository. Not all of them will be of interest to everyone, but some look like they are real gems (I haven’t listened to any yet), such as James D. G. Dunn on “The Excitement of New Testament Studies” or Gordon Wenham on “The Gap Between Law and Ethics in the Old Testament” or... Read more
There has been a lot of speculation, and many rumors, related to the next Doctor after Matt Smith. But today I find myself wondering whether there will be another Doctor. I wonder whether the BBC is not planning on ending the show’s run. Trenzalore, we have learned, is the place where the Doctor dies and is entombed, the place of “the fall of the Eleventh.” The latter could be a clever misdirection, referring to an eleventh legion, his moral fall,... Read more
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
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 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
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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
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
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