I had the privilege of being a guest on the Church of the Geek podcast. We recorded the episode just a few days ago, and it went live yesterday morning. Have a listen. I’ll embed the episode at the bottom of this post for those who cannot conveniently click through to listen on another site I’ve linked to. Meanwhile, here are some links related to Star Trek, the intersection of religion and science fiction in general, and other things that... Read more
Matthew Korpman writes: What Paul has done here is specified that although Jesus taught something, and although he is saying this based on his own opinion, it is nonetheless something which aligns with Jesus, even as it departs from what Jesus has explicitly taught. For Paul, the way to modify or ignore what Jesus said was by looking at the trajectory of Jesus’ overall teachings and using that as a judge for how to evaluate their place in each new... Read more
Three articles in very different venues, on very different topics, grabbed my attention for what they can help us to understand and reflect on when it comes to the quest for the historical Jesus. The first is in Christian Century, and it offers a contrast as well as advocating for a change by pointing out that there is no “quest for the historical Mr. Rogers.” The Fred Rogers of history is not a precise match with the person depicted in the... Read more
I had the phrase pop into my head at some point. I’m not entirely sure why. Most likely it is just because that’s the sort of thing that happens in my brain. You know the saying about meetings that should have been emails? (Indeed, you may recall me sharing a wonderful exploration of Star Wars meetings that should have been emails.) I found myself thinking about epistles that should have been emails. In other words, what things that Paul and... Read more
I was struck recently by the fact that 144 is double 72, the number of disciples that Jesus is supposed to have sent out at one point, according to the Gospel of Luke. Some manuscripts have 70, some 72, and I don’t have a clear sense that one or the other is much more likely to be original. Both 7s and 12s had symbolic resonances within Judaism. 72 is 6×12 and 12 has apostolic as well as Israelite resonances. But... Read more
My Sunday school class returned to the Gospel of John as part of our discussion of women in the Gospels, looking at the story about the Samaritan woman in John 4. One Sunday we spent clarifying what is likely the case when it comes to her life story, the “everything she ever did” that Jesus showed awareness of. Among other things it was observed how trips to the well were the ancient equivalent of “meeting by the water cooler.” I... Read more
As I’ve been writing about the Doctor Who episode The Battle of Ranskoor av Kolos I’ve been paying close attention to elements that casual viewers might miss, at least at a conscious level. The lighting (or lack thereof) in the episode seems particularly striking to me. The music is as well, even when considered within the context of a season’s worth of distinctive music provided by composer Segun Akinola, whose approach to composition is very different from the melodic-symphonic character of... Read more
Jayson Bradley wrote something so powerful and on target that I felt I should highlight it here on my own blog: Don’t tread on me Christianity in America is so entangled with patriotism and exceptionalism. When asked to shelter in place, Christians don’t think it’s odd to deck themselves out in G.I. Joe cosplay complete with AR-15s to storm a government building and demand their rights. But at the same time, they’re unflinching in their support of authority being misused against... Read more
I had the idea to create a playlist to accompany my book, What Jesus Learned From Women. Some of these individuals have been the focus of a lot of music, while others little or none at all. I think the mixed success that my efforts have met with says something about which stories resonate with composers as well as with worshipping communities. The ways that these women’s stories are turned into song also illustrates how their lives and stories are interpreted.... Read more
We finally wrapped up our study of the Gospel of John in my Sunday school class a while back. It seems like ages ago. This was when we were still meeting face to face, if that gives you any indication. There were a lot of really helpful things that came up in discussion as we neared the end, including many that I hadn’t thought of adequately or hadn’t approached in quite the way the class discussion led me to. And... Read more
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