Someone in my Sunday school class asked whether we could celebrate communion next Sunday. I suggested the acronym BYOB would work, not just for “Bring Your Own Bottle” (although wine is one of the elements) but also “Bring Your Own Bread.” I’m glad that Zoomcharist hadn’t occurred to me as a possible word yet at that point. I got there after briefly toying with the idea of calling it Comm-Zoom-ion. But lame attempts at puns aside, have any readers of... Read more
They say that when something is on Wikipedia, that’s when it is official. But that wasn’t what clued me in that the news had broken about this. It was a Google Alert about when my name appears somewhere. I feel honored to have my volume singled out for mention as one the author of the volume on The Rings of Akhaten is looking forward to. I in turn am eagerly looking forward to reading that volume! You may recall that I... Read more
“The Horns of Nimon” is a Doctor Who episode that is of particular interest to those who study religious themes on the show. A character answers Romana’s question about what the Nimon is by saying, “The great god of Skonnos. They say he’s a terrible creature with awesome powers.” Romania says he sounds like an insecure personality to her, an interesting theological judgement that might be apt for a wide array of portraits of the divine. The character of Soldeed... Read more
I was delighted when I learned a while back (in a conversation with Deb Saxon on the ReligionProf Podcast) that Natalie Renee Perkins would be setting the Odes of Solomon to music in a contemporary style. Her album Songs of Your Truth is now available. You can learn more about the Odes of Solomon and about the album on Shirley Paulson’s blog. Below is a sample track, courtesy of YouTube, but I encourage you to explore the others, since the... Read more
In my Sunday school class and fellowship on Easter morning, which met via Zoom, I shared a thought from 1 Corinthians 12, observing that this text stands between Paul’s comments on the dividedness of the church in Corinth and their resurrection faith. Here’s the text I read: 12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so... Read more
Some thoughts on blog posts related to one of my major fields of research – Christology and monotheism – as they relate to things that have appeared on blogs in recent days. Let me start with Keith Giles’ post about Jesus’ words from Psalm 22 on the cross.  I agree with Giles that the widespread popular interpretation of Jesus’ words on the cross is misguided. But the “Messianic prophecy” approach he substitutes in its place is no better, especially given the... Read more
Brian LePort interviewed me on the topic of the ascension. I’m happy to be able to share the video with you below. These are the questions Brian posed to me: Explain to my students why I’m talking to you about this subject. In other words, what’s the focus of your research and academic career? This week my students will be reading the Resurrection Narratives in the (canonical) Gospels. They’ll notice that only the Gospel of Luke mentions Jesus’ ascension directly (though there’s... Read more
Lots of academics, and in particular historians, have been bristling every time someone calls the current pandemic and the crisis surrounding it “unprecedented.” Those who’ve studied history know all too well that this is not the first nor the last such event, nor one that is thus far or is likely to become unique in history in any meaningful way. It is worthwhile reflecting not only on why we view our own suffering as “unprecedented” when it is not, and... Read more
Teaching a course on the Bible and music leads me to encounter so much material that I can scarcely manage to blog about everything that is interesting – much less include it all in the class! The same is true of religion and science fiction, and many other subjects. But it seems especially true in the case of the Bible and music, because as I’ve said before, at every point of intersection there tend to be multiple settings of the... Read more
I didn’t manage to share Nina Paley’s movie “Seder-Masochism” in time for Passover when I first learned about it. This year I hope it brings some comfort and hope to those celebrating in ways that are not what they would have hoped for nor are accustomed to. I first encountered Paley’s delightful creative work through her musical adaptation of the Ramayana, “Sita Sings the Blues.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QkYOqI3jSM More about the Passover-related as well as the earlier project below! Seder-Masochism: Nina Paley... Read more
Select your answer to see how you score.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In