I will post a link from my blog to a full version of my conference paper soon, with primary texts and extra sections included that I do not have time to include in the actual presentation. I will post that on the day I actually read the paper, so that the link will be at the top of the blog, making access easier. But for today, let me move beyond the preliminary methodological background discussions I've shared thus far, and... Read more
This one goes out to everyone traveling to Chicago for the AAR and/or SBL annual meetings. There’s something special about listening to Chicago sing about going to Chicago when you’re going to Chicago… Read more
Yesterday Jim West shared a linkto an article which ties in directly to the question I have been exploring in a couple of recent posts. The article is “THE “SPRING OF THE YEAR” (2 CHRONICLES 36:10) AND THE CHRONICLER’S SOURCES” by Michael Avioz, published in the Journal of Hebrew Scriptures. In this particular instance, Chronicles provides information about the timing of events which is not mentioned in Kings and which is confirmed by a Babylonian source. When a text gets a detail right... Read more
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. Â Â 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
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