I shared this last year and then forgot about it for a year, as we do with most things Christmasy. Whether it is your first time or your hundredth time seeing this, I think you’ll enjoy this Star Wars/Dr. Seuss mash-up. And I feel like I had better get started sharing some of these classics from years past, since any day now I expected to be inundated with lots of new holiday videos, images, and music! Read more
The religions of the world are becoming increasingly aware that what unites them in ethics is greater than what divides them in theology. — Damien Keown and John Keown, “Killing, karma and caring: euthanasia in Buddhism and Christianity” in the Journal of Medical Ethics 21 (1995) 265. Read more
I just recently started meeting with some colleagues and a student in a Greek reading group. I suggested to a colleague in Classics that it might be interesting to read Philo of Alexandria together, and she got very excited about the idea, and some other colleagues in Religion also expressed an interest. And so lately, I have felt disconcertingly like I am back in Greek class, wondering why the verses that I end up with when it is my turn... Read more
Mandaean texts like the Book of John make reference to Jerusalem quite often – more often than one would expect if this religion had its origins in Mesopotamia, and so the very attention given to Jerusalem provides important hints about the history and geographical movements of the Mandaeans. Here are links to the passages which make reference to Jerusalem in the Mandaean Book of John: Chapter 20: obscure references in passing to John and the sun having “halos” or “wreaths”... Read more
Anthony Le Donne asked me to share this announcement about an upcoming speaking event of his: The Gospel of Jesus' Wife: A Discussion of a Recent Biblical Controversy Nov 12, 2012 Dan Brown's 2008 novel “The Da Vinci Code” had a controversial premise – that Christian savior Jesus married and had children. The fictional book sold more than 80 million copies and was turned into a hit movie. It also was widely condemned by many religious institutions.Two months ago the... Read more
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The title will probably attract grammar nazis in large numbers. But the wording is intention, indicating that what I play in the video below is almost “Christmas Time Is Here,” the classic jazz piece by Vince Guaraldi from the Charlie Brown Christmas Special. Alas, it is a bit rusty (I don’t play it that often apart from around Christmas time, for obvious reasons), but I’m posting it here in the hopes that I will later post an “after” to correspond to... Read more
In today’s class, we discussed how awareness of an earlier tradition of telling versions of the same story – as in the case of the Genesis flood story, paralleled in ancient Mesopotamian literature in the Atrahasis and Gilgamesh epics – can be important for understanding the later version of the story in question. Read more
I have mentioned before that Revelation 17:9-10 seems to me to provide decisive evidence against the futurist or “end times” approach to understanding the Book of Revelation. We got up to chapter 17 of the Book of Revelation in my Sunday school class yesterday, and so we focused attention on that particular set of verses – but also others. Babylon the harlot is explicitly said to represent the city of Rome (17:18), and the beast here comes to denote not... Read more
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