I just watched the movie Seeking a Friend for the End of the World. It is a great movie to start the year with. It has Steve Carrell in the lead role, and is billed as a comedy. It does have amusing moments. But I would not classify it as a comedy. It is about the meaning of life, and is profoundly serious and moving. The movie focuses on two people who live in the same apartment building, but have... Read more
Miguel Conner has an article in The Examiner highlighting the various mentions of and views about John the Baptist in Gnostic sources. In it, he links to one of the chapters I translated from the Mandaean Book of John! There is a need for a detailed scholarly treatment of this topic. When G. R. S. Mead wrote The Gnostic John the Baptizer (which can be read online for free, since it was published in 1924), that was before we had... Read more
My colleague Marshall Gregory passed away a couple of days ago, and I thought it would be nice to mark his passing by drawing readers’ attention to some of his many articles which are available online. Himself an English professor, “Greg” (as he was know) was a champion of the Liberal Arts and passionate about pedagogy. His pedagogy seminar not only helped many of us who teach at Butler University to reflect and develop our teaching skills, but also forged... Read more
Abram K-J has posted a linguistically rich Biblical studies carnival, which starts off with a quote from Spurgeon explaining why carnivals are necessary. Click through to read it! Read more
On Facebook, Kristi Outler Byrd mentioned that she was trying to have read 81 books this year, and that #79, which she had just finished at that point, was my book The Burial of Jesus: What Does History Have to Do with Faith? (published by Patheos Press, and available as an ebook for only $2.99). She also said that she highly recommends the book. When I thanked her for her kind words, and said that I am glad that she... Read more
To welcome you to 2013, I give you “Blink to the Future” – a Doctor Who/Back to the Future mash-up. HT IO9 Read more
Happy New Year to all readers of this blog! (Obviously in saying this, I am simply wishing you happiness, and not trying to impose my calendar on you if you follow a different one, nor am I implying that my calendar is superior to yours.) I hope your year regenerates successfully… Read more
Via George Takei on Facebook Read more
HT Eric Whitacre Read more
My recent shared image of “The American Samaritan” and of a fundamentalist version of Proverbs 3:5 were not the first times this year that I rewrote parts of the Bible, whether to poke fun at those who take it to mean something other than it seems to, or to relate it in a more serious manner to something that it seems like it would have addressed, if those ancient texts had been written today. Here are a few other examples:... Read more
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