Pat McCullough has a couple of posts on his blog in which he treats historical Jesus research as “futile.” If one is of the view that all attempts at knowing about the past are so complicated by our inability to infallibly separate memory from invention, or to attain absolute certainty, then by all means dismiss not just historical Jesus research but most if not all attempts to know about the past. But the reasoning that Pat uses is along different... Read more
The latest episode of Doctor Who, “Hide,” illustrates the classic tension in the show between offering scientific explanations for the seemingly supernatural, and positing the reality of the paranormal. Spoilers ahead. The episode presents itself as a ghost story. It has a haunted house, an apparition, and the Doctor and Clara turning up and presenting themselves as “ghostbusters.” There are quite a number of humorous points, including when Alec Palmer responds to the Doctor’s introduction of himself as “the Doctor”... Read more
Is this a leaked set of images from the Doctor Who 50th anniversary special? No, actually the Doctor at the end is Chris Brady, of the blog Targuman, in his new Facebook profile picture. Steve Caruso made the composite image and shared it on his Aramaic Blog. When I dress up in my regalia for commencement in a few weeks, hopefully I can get a photo taken, and then perhaps if I am lucky Steve will decide to do something... Read more
Actually, there are so many puns and transfers of symbols I can think of. Baptism as symbolic of having been boiled and raised again from the pot. They will know we are crustaceans by our love…. Read more
The BBC Doctor Who blog posted the above poster. Wow! Do you think we will actually hear the Doctor's name? If that is revealed, what do you think the show will do to preserve the character of the Doctor's mystery? Read more
Today in my Bible class the topic was apocalyptic literature – Daniel and Revelation. The student who presented included a segment of the above video on the number of the beast, and I thought it was worth sharing with a wider audience. I now have my lecture on this topic online, so that we can use class time to go into more detail. Read more
I came across this image on a Christian meme Facebook page: It had to get a mention here, since it brings religion and Doctor Who together. But I’m not impressed with what it does at the intersection. If the Doctor were to encounter the historical Jesus, surely he would have been the Galilean exorcist, teacher, and/or Messianic claimant that historians find at the core of the Gospel narratives. Not a figure who speaks more directly with the later Christological claims... Read more
I am ashamed to say that there was a time when I thought that what David Hayward depicts in the above cartoon was indeed what it meant to “preach good news to the poor.” Read more
Someone drew this to my attention on Facebook: Presumably the answer is this: If I were Jim Caviezel and got a call from my agent, of course I would answer! “Person of Interest” can't last forever. Read more
This quotation, often attributed to Karl Barth, came across my feed on Facebook this morning: “I take the Bible too seriously to read it literally.” Whenever I try to trace a quotation to its source, especially if the source is famous, and what I find are pages and pages of just the quote with no actual source for it ever appearing, I get suspicious. That is what happened in this case. I did find a Facebook page where someone said... Read more
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