I came across this image on Facebook: It gets closer to the truth than what many people seem to think, including Dan Brown. But it is wrong about a number if points – not least of which is the generalization that all Christians think the Bible dropped down from heaven in its complete bound form. But some do seem to think that, or at least seem not to have thought about the implications of that not being the way things... Read more
The finale of Fringe was different than what Abrams and company did with the finale of LOST. Whether it was better or worse is debatable, but it was different in just about every way that it could have been different. And that makes it interesting. There are spoilers ahead, so if you have not seen it, go watch it first, or read on if you don’t care! The finale of LOST was all about the characters, with some resolution of... Read more
Just look at the description they gave of the episode, which someone shared on Reddit: Read more
There is a repost of a classic blog entry by Michael Spencer on the iMonk blog today which deserves to get widely read and discussed. I am reproducing the core of it below – click through to read the whole thing: This idea, of a great conversation taking place over time and culture, and then selected and presented for my benefit, has become my dominant idea of what is the Bible. It has proven increasingly helpful in a number of... Read more
I recently watched the Batman movie The Dark Knight Rises. It offers an interesting exploration of notions of good and evil and the possibility of redemption. If you have not seen it, be aware that some minor spoilers lie ahead. Batman fits into the category of the broken hero, the individual who fights evil, but who does so as one whose own methods and approach seem at times to skirt the boundary, gaining him opposition not just from criminals but from... Read more
Most of us have watched in horror and dismay as a small handful of people have spun conspiracy theories around the tragic shooting in Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Andii Bowsher has noted the connection with another sort of denialism, that which one encounters in Biblical studies. Andii quotes an article from The Guardian which I think is worth quoting at even greater length: The point is that when you freeze any moment of history, then analyse it in extreme... Read more
Because they are familiar only with famous sound bites, there are many people who do not know that Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., an American Baptist minister, was a liberal Christian not only in his concern for racial integration and social justice, but also theologically liberal. I recently had my attention drawn to this short video in which Martin Luther King speaks about the influence of Raushenbusch and the social Gospel: Yet he was at the same time one... Read more
I received this from the ARAM Society and wanted to share it: Mandaeism, 08-10 July 2013 (University of Oxford) ARAM Society for Syro-Mesopotamian Studies is organizing its Thirty Sixth International Conference on the theme of Mandaeism, to be held at the Oriental Institute, the University of Oxford, 08-10 July, 2013. The conference aims to study Mandaeism and its relationship to Near Eastern religions and Gnostic movements. The conference will start on Monday 08th July finishing on Wednesday 10th July at... Read more
Via IO9, I learned of a new interactive map of the Roman world: ORBIS: The Stanford Geospatial Network Model of the Roman World. http://orbis.stanford.edu/ You can set a starting and destination point (say Jerusalem and Tarsus, for instance), and find out what was involved in traveling between the two by various means of transportation, including what provisions would be needed and other such details we may neglect to think about. Click through to take a look and explore its features. Here’s... Read more
Today’s cartoon by David Hayward hits the nail on the head about a lot of Christianity today (as well as in other eras): So many evaluate the Christian credentials of individuals and groups based on how frequently they reference Jesus or the Bible or the word Christian, and how positively. But in a text which itself has been twisted, Jesus is presented as saying that many will call him “Lord” more than once and yet it will do them no... Read more
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