Bob MacDonald has posted a reminder that it is time to submit your contributions and recommendations for this month's Biblical Studies Carnival. An obvious choice is to focus on blogging related to this month's Society of Biblical Literature annual meeting. Mike Kok was unable to make it this year, and so attended vicariously through our blogging about the conference, and offered a round-up. Jim West shared what I agree may well be the best tweet, maybe even the best statement,... Read more
David Hayward offers the above cartoon with a different perspective in the theology of Thanksgiving. Below are a few other cartoons in a similar vein by other cartoonists. Read more
Happy Thanksgiving!* *Some restrictions apply. This wish does not constitute a contractual obligation to provide you with happiness. Turkeys, yams, and cranberries are not eligible for this offer. Offer not valid on this date outside of the United States – especially in Canada. For more funny Thanksgiving cartoons like the one I included in this post, visit the blog of cartoonist Mark Anderson! Read more
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving in the United States. The name of the holiday is self-explanatory – or it should be. But in fact, it sits oddly beside the custom of “celebrating” Black Friday – i.e. making the day after Thanksgiving a day of special sales in which people have been trampled to death trying to get those bargain items. Black Friday also happens to be what some cultures call the day that in English is referred to as “Good Friday.” And... Read more
I find myself wondering how many people who defend their “faith,” and how many who say they have lost their “faith,” actually have or had faith. Let me immediately clarify that I am not referring here to the offensive and foolish suggestion sometimes made by some Christians that, if someone becomes an atheist, they must never have been a Christian to begin with. Nor am I referring to the equally inane suggestion sometimes made by some atheists that, if someone... Read more
Now that I am back from the conference I was attending this weekend, I could finally watch the Children in Need Doctor Who minisode, which is also the prequel to this year’s Christmas special. It is called “The Great Detective,” and it is followed by this trailer for the Christmas special itself, “The Snowmen“: Read more
David Hayward's latest cartoon illustrates one of the many ways… Read more
I’m back home safe and sound from the conference in Chicago. I expect that blogging not related to the conference will resume pretty much immediately, and I may try to go back and blog about some of the highlights which I have not managed to yet, if there is interest. John Dominic Crossan’s keynote address was great, on Eastern iconography depicting the resurrection. Simply meeting people for the first time face to face – such as Steve Wiggins, and Christopher... Read more
Yesterday morning was the first bit of genuinely free time I have had at the conference, and so I spent some time in the book exhibit and elsewhere, talking with friends. This rest was helpful in preparing for what lay in store that afternoon… First there was a session on mysticism, esotericism, and Gnosticism, in which April DeConick presented a fascinating argument that the category of “Gnostic” should not be set aside, and genuinely reflects a new current in religiosity/spirituality... Read more
The bibliobloggers' gathering last night at Kitty O'Shea's was great, and it included several bloggers who had never attended before, and the “coming out” of one whose identity had previously been obscure (not in the photos below). There were quite a number of “lapsed bloggers” in attendance – i.e. people who had not been blogging regularly if at all for quite some time. (That led me to discuss the theology of biblioblogging, and whether it is a case of “once... Read more
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