There are a wide array of things about the Mandaeans in this post – video of a lecture, an audio podcast, Mandaean art with explanation of what it depicts, and more. Let’s start with the recording of a guest appearance I made in Deb Saxon’s class on “Heresy” (extracanonical texts, Gnosticism, and so on): I also recorded an Academic Minute podcast about the Mandaeans. You can listen to it and/or read a transcript on The Academic Minute website. A Mandaean... Read more
Science Fiction and Fantasy International Conference Messengers from the Stars: Episode VI – “Fragments of Humanity” School of Arts and Humanities, University of Lisbon November 26-27, 2020 CALL FOR PAPERS Science Fiction and Fantasy are acknowledged fields of inquiry that for long have allowed us to put to the test our contemporary perceptions of the world. As privileged means to question issues of aesthetic, ethical, political, social, economic, historical and environmental nature with great impact on contemporary societies, they have also promoted cutting... Read more
Barton Breen gave me permission a while back to turn something he said into a meme, and I did so, but then things got chaotically busy for us all and so I neglected to share it. Here it is after some delay, for which I apologize. Of related interest: Who’s the “you” in the Ten Commandments? Read more
Given that I am currently writing something about afterlife and resurrection in the Bible and in science fiction, the ending of the episode grabbed my attention. I had been taking notes throughout the season and planned on blogging about it sooner or later, but the right moment never seemed to arrive until now. Even now, I feel conflicted about the colonialism on the show, as we see Picard as one time failed yet still determined and in the end successful... Read more
You have probably already heard the sad news that Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki has died. Penderecki has set a number of biblical texts to music. Here are his settings of some Psalms: Here is his Dream of Jacob: Other works also have biblical connections, such as his Symphony No.7 themed around seven gates of Jerusalem. Indiana University shares this commentary along with a glimpse of a manuscript of his St. Luke Passion in their holdings: Penderecki’s St. Luke Passion was commissioned to... Read more
Season 3 of Westworld makes clear that the show will continue to offer much that those interested in the intersection of religion and science fiction and/or religion and technology need to ponder carefully and talk about. Dolores says in the first episode of the season: You had no god. But you tried to build one. Only that thing you built isn’t God. The real gods are coming. And they’re very angry. Marc Barham focuses in on the significance of the choice of title for the episode, “Parce Domine,” a Latin chant... Read more
My colleague Paul Valliere (now retired) used to teach a course on the Psalms, focused on the words for the most part. If you add music into the mix as part of the history of interpretation of those words, the amount of material to be covered multiplies. In my course on the Bible and music, I have the rest of the Bible in the mix as well. And so I never feel that I do justice to any of it,... Read more
Ancient aliens is pseudoscience and science fiction. Ancient robots is something else. Adrienne Mayor writes about her recent book Gods and Robots: Myths, Machines, and Ancient Dreams of Technology: Who first imagined robots? Most historians believe that automatons were first developed in the Middle Ages. Some philosophers of science claim that it was impossible for anyone in ancient times to imagine technologies beyond what already existed. Other scholars assume that all animated beings in mythology were inert matter brought to... Read more
While it often happens even under normal circumstances, at the moment it is difficult to Google anything related to “Doctor Who” the television show and get results on that subject. Instead, the results are about the “doctor who” did this or that, some sacrificing their lives as they took care of patients suffering from the effects of Covid-19. You should read those articles. But if you’re interested in the television series as well, then what? There is perhaps no better... Read more
Yale University seeks to appoint a Postdoctoral Associate in ancient and pre-modern cultures and civilizations. This is a two-year position beginning in the academic year 2020-2021 and attached to Archaia: the Yale Program for the Study of Ancient and Premodern Cultures and Societies. Now in its eighth year, Archaia is a collaborative forum that brings together scholars and graduate students working on early and pre-modern cultures and civilizations at Yale in the Humanities and Social Sciences in addition to the... Read more
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