Fred Clark has an excellent post highlighting the contrast between two different outlooks reflected in Acts 10:28, which reads as follows: You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile. But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean. On the one hand, Peter here is depicted as saying that it is against the Jewish Law – that is, unbiblical, contrary to Scripture, in violation... Read more
A comment left on this blog recently brought up the question of the Doctor’s monkishness. The episode “The Bells of St. John” isn’t the first time the Doctor has been a monk. Indeed, the first time he encountered the Great Intelligence, it was at a monastery where he had previously spent some time. In that case, however, it was a Buddhist monastery, whereas in “The Bells of St. James” it was a Christian one. He’s also come head to head... Read more
There may be older Christian hymns, but the oldest hymn accompanied with musical notation is surely the fragmentary one found at Oxyrhynchus: The Ancient Peoples blog provided a transcription and translation of the text: [?πρ]υτανηω σιγατω μηδ᾽ αστρα φαεσφορα λ[ειπ]ε [σ]θον[.].λει[…]ρ[…]ποταμων ροθιων πασαι υμνουν των δ᾽ ημων [π]ατερα Χ᾽ υιον Χ᾽ αγιον πνευμα πασαι δυναμεις επιφοωνουντον αμην αμην κρατος αινος […]δ[ωτ]η[ρι] μονω παντων αγαθον αμην αμην These lyrics have been translated as: … Let it be silent Let the Luminous... Read more
Patheos is doing a series asking us to explain “Why I am a…” in 200 words or less. I just wasted some of my word limit telling you that, so I'll get on with it. Before I was a progressive Christian I was a conservative Evangelical Christian, and before I was a conservative Evangelical Christian I was a fairly nominal Catholic. So the answer is multifaceted. I am a Christian partly because I was raised in a particular Christian context,... Read more
I had seen April DeConick mention on her blog the Easter musical performance, “Easter in Memory of Her,” for which she composed the script. I hoped that it might turn out to have been recorded and thus be made available to those who were unable to be present for its debut. Today April announced the good news that it was now on YouTube. Have a listen, and check out the program from the event for more details. Read more
Here's the information about the session on student blogging and students in the digital age that the Blogger and Online Publication section and the Student Advisory Council are jointly sponsoring: Blogger and Online Publication Student Blogging and Students in the Digital Age Mark Goodacre presiding Jack Collins, University of Virginia Academic Busking: A New Paradigm for Distance Learning and Online Content Creation (25 min) Joshua L. Mann, University of Edinburgh “We’ve Got the Power”: How Bibliobloggers Can (and Should) Make... Read more
Scot McKnight shared this Barna infographic: The survey seems to assume rather than demonstrate that those who take anything other than an inerrantist view of the Bible do not read the Bible as often as inerrantists do, if they read it at all. That seems to me to be inherently problematic. But even if correct, it is still misleading. The people who read the Bible without the constraint of a dogma about inerrancy are reading the actual Bible, while those... Read more
I previously mentioned the possibility of doing a cheesy Christian version of Rosanna by Toto. Here is my attempt to do something which I think could be taken seriously (although it might still end up being amusing simply because it is a reworking of a Toto song for Palm Sunday or thereabouts). What do you think? Hosanna I remember Sunday morning when we found you that donkey for you to ride Hosanna, Hosanna I thought that maybe this would be... Read more
I have heard countless poorly-informed Christians say that they reject evolution because it posits things happening through “randomness.” The objection is bogus. Randomness is less a feature of biological evolution than it is of casting lots and other things which, in the Bible, are said to be indicative of the divine will. If evolution is a problem from the perspective of your worldview because of randomness, then so are lots of things, including some mentioned in the Bible. Clearly the... Read more
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