Today, a student said the following words to me: You were a really great God. I told the class that that is the best compliment I’ve ever received in my life. Let me back up a bit and give the context. In my First Year Seminar Class “Faith, Doubt, and Reason,” our most recent reading was Goethe’s Faust: Part One. I assigned the students to compose their own additional scene, whether inserted into the story or situated after the ending. One... Read more
Series with titles like “A Very Short Introduction” are very popular nowadays. This is an attempt to say a little about major themes in all four Gospels in the New Testament in about half an hour. It is skimpy but perhaps nevertheless useful for those approaching the Gospels for the first time. Read more
Bluegrass at Crooked Creek Baptist Church. That’s not our usual style. That’s me on the guitar on the left – which is not my usual instrument. I have scoffed at claims that the election of Barack Obama signaled the approach of the apocalypse. I’ve viewed similarly the doom and gloom predictions related to Disney buying LucasFilm and gearing up to make Star Wars Episode VII. But when my pastor proposed doing this song, which some might consider to be Country music, I... Read more
Another thought-provoking cartoon by David Hayward: David expresses astonishment that some Christians think that this image depicts exactly the way things should be. For me, the astonishing thing is that those same Christians think that they can imprison God in Biblical chains, even though the freedom of God is one of the many emphases running through those very texts which they are seeking to use to chain God down. Read more
Here I am continuing some preliminary reflections related to my upcoming conference paper (which I began in an earlier post). My research interests which intersect with the methodological question I raised in my previous post, about the discerning of ancient traditions and of independent traditions in relatively late texts, seem to revolve around Johns and Thomases. I’ve looked at the Gospel of John and the possibility that it could contain information which is not dependent on the other canonical Gospels, and... Read more
Jim West shared this image: Am I the only Doctor Who fan whose first thought was not about Zwingli or goldfish but the Sisters of Plentitude? Read more
I am taking an online course at Butler, offered to faculty who are gearing up ourselves to offer online courses. Here are some videos that were shared as part of the course, which I think offer important food for thought for educators. This classic bit of comedy makes the point that if you are going to university to learn information and expect to never use it but nonetheless to remember it after 5 years, then you are better off just watching... Read more
Nikki Stafford, whose wonderful blog became known to many of us during the era of LOST but also focuses on many other shows and topics, created Lostaholics Anonymous a while back. Have any readers of this gone back (as I still hope to do at some point) and rewatched the show from the beginning, knowing how it would end, to see what that would be like (and whether some mysteries sorted themselves out in the process)? Have you found another... Read more
Sandy disrupted things, but human beings endure and rebuild. And that is true in particular, it seems, of bibliobloggers. It was delayed, but not prevented, and now, at long last, the Biblical Studies Carnival – BLT edition, is here. Yes, there is bacon, lettuce, and tomato in it, as well as Bible, and blogging, and much more! Read more
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