I was sure that I had already blogged about this episode, The Curse of Fenric. But if I did, the post seems to have been lost. Does anyone remember reading a post by me about this episode? Or did I gather my thoughts but never share them? The episode “The Curse of Fenric” is considered one of the highlights of the final season of Doctor Who, and indeed of the entire Sylvester McCoy era. It is set during WWII, and... Read more
There is a paperback edition of my book The Only True God: Early Christian Monotheism in Its Jewish Context which continues to sell less well than the more expensive hardcover edition, at least on Amazon.com. I am not sure why that is the case. Meanwhile, the Kindle edition is on sale for only just over $15 on Amazon.com, and so I thought I should mention it! Read more
The plain reality is that far too many of us have mistaken child-like faith with childish faith. One is a matter of trust. The other immaturity. Reception of God’s kingdom isn’t dependent up[on] perpetual intellectual, psychological, and spiritual adolescence; rather, it’s dependent upon an abiding confidence and dependence. That’s what the kingdom is all about. — Carson T. Clark, “Miniblog #134: Child-like vs. Childish Faith” Read more
Here’s a video from a great young violinist whose music I enjoy: Read more
There is a rather bizarre post by Chris Hallq on his blog “The Uncredible Hallq” in which he takes aim at liberal Christians, and in particular myself and Fred Clark. He begins by arguing that, because fundamentalists sometimes acknowledge they were wrong, therefore the generalization is incorrect that inerrantists identify their own interpretation with “what the Bible says” and thereby end up in practice treating themselves as inerrant. Exceptions do not mean that generalizations are not essentially accurate. Todd Wood... Read more
There is something striking about the fact that the last episode of Doctor Who before its long period of non-production was called “Survival“. The DVD release of the episode includes a second disc with extras, one of which is a documentary “Endgame” about the show’s cancellation, about which I’ll say more after discussing the episode itself. The episode “Survival“ features the last appearance of Anthony Ainsley as the Master on the show, although he did subsequently record clips for a Doctor... Read more
Jim Davila mentioned an article (behind a paywall) about the depiction of the Sun, apparently as divine, in mosaics in Israel. There are quite a number of such mosaics, and the most common connect the twelve signs of the zodiac with the twelve patriarchs, and have God as the sun in the middle. Here is an example from the Beit Alpha synagogue: The Mandaeans identify Adunai, the God of the Jews, as Shemesh, the sun. It is an identification that... Read more
The news has been circulating for several days that congressman Paul Broun described evolution, the big bang theory, and embryology as “lies from the pit of hell.” Here is the video: In terms of initial plausibility, which is more likely: that the vast majority of the world’s scientists (including many Christians among them) who have helped provide insight into and treatments for countless diseases, to say nothing of other innovations, are all conspiring to spread a lie from the pit... Read more
Last week in my class “Faith, Doubt, and Reason” we began discussing Don Quixote, which the students had begun reading not long before. It was something of a puzzle to them what the connection was between the novel and the theme of the class. But the connections are there, and there are many of them. For one thing, there is the question of the relationship between faith and sanity. It is hard not to consider how Quixote's life was shaped... Read more
Rev. Tom Bartley reviews the book Undead by Clay Morgan, which in its exploration of zombies and vampires, and the stories of raising the dead to life in the Bible, turns out to be more about life than it is about death. Read more
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