There are many musical versions of the recommendation and tutorial for handwashing, trying to ensure that people spend enough time on the process. At this point the aim is no longer functional but primarily aimed at humor. But whether you need the actual tutorial at this point or not, or ever did, if you are a science fiction fan then these two tutorials – one derived from Star Trek and the other from Dune – will be useful or at... Read more
Many, many universities and colleges are shifting to online teaching in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Those of us who have taught online in the past know that the preparation to deliver a quality course in this format is laborious and takes time. But sometimes circumstances require us to (as an article in the Chronicle puts it) go online in a hurry, or as their new tutorial phrases it, preparing for emergency online teaching. Inside Higher Education also has an... Read more
Traditions of Eastern Late Antiquity was involved in multiple sessions at the American Academy of Religion annual meeting in San Diego in November, including the one with a panel focused on the Mandaean Book of John that I already blogged about some time ago, and from which Jim Davila shared his review of an important recent book by Michael Stone. Here is a brief glimpse of another of our sessions, based on notes I took during the presentations. In our open... Read more
There is a narrower as well as a broader sense in which the statement in the title of this blog post is true. In the narrower sense we can see very clearly how inerrancy comes up even today when anyone dares to suggest that slavery is inherently wrong. The response that it is accepted in the Bible and thus cannot be inherently evil is not just an ad hoc response. Inerrancy was developed by groups like the Southern Baptists (who... Read more
Max Curtis has an article on the Tor website about faith and religious symbolism in recent episodes of Doctor Who, with the title “Doctor Who’s False Gods and Cyber-Zealots Face a Devout Doctor.” In it he writes: There’s a reason why fanatical extremists have been ideal foils for Jodie Whittaker’s most devout of Doctors, and it’s not simply that the character and her travels have been recast in a religious light. More than ever before, she’s built on a sense... Read more
CFP: ‘Anthrodecentrism: Humans as Footnotes in Time and Space’ Conference day 12th June 2020 Catholic University of Paris This study day will consider changes in understanding of space and time that challenge traditional ways of situating ourselves as humans at the centre of our own world. In the Western world, our centrality was first called into question by the scientific exploration of the cosmos. The vast universe uncovered by Copernicus and Galileo came to supersede the reassuring geocentric model imagined by ancient... Read more
A Critical Companion to Terry Gilliam Edited by Ian Bekker, Sabine Planka and Philip van der Merwe Terry Gilliam is not only popular for being part of the Monty Python-troup but also for the movies he has directed in his own style, such as Time Bandits (1981), Brazil (1985), The Fisher King (1991), 12 Monkeys (1995) and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009). From dystopian to fantastic and magical settings, and worlds often populated by bizarre figures, Gilliam’s movies are united by their bizarreness in various ways. In this... Read more
This tweet definitely seemed to me to be worth sharing with a wider audience: That tweet came in response to another tweet which said (citing Fee and Stuart) “The text cannot mean what it never meant.” That in turn was in response to a use of that principle by John Walton, who wrote: If we read modern ideas into the text, we skirt the authority of the text and in effect compromise it, arrogating authority to ourselves and our ideas.... Read more
I’m working on developing a new short-term study abroad course focused on religion in Ireland, from before Christianity to Brexit and the looming possibility of the revival of the troubles. I’m thinking that something like the following would work well, but having access to a wide network of faculty, present and former students, and others who’ve traveled to the Republic of Ireland and/or Northern Ireland, it seems appropriate to crowdsource this. What other places would you visit on such a... Read more
With a project related to progressive rock and the Bible in the works, and the news having broken that Genesis will reunite for a tour, you’re probably expecting this post to be connected to that. It isn’t, at all, as far as I can tell. I just happened to come across several things related to the other kind of rock. And to be honest, I’d be hard pressed to decide which sort of rock I find most interesting, given some... Read more
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