Prison, Solitary Confinement, Hermitage, and Social Distancing

Last updated on: April 7, 2020 at 7:31 am By James F. McGrath

People in religious traditions with major holidays in April this year are experiencing disruption. To some it seems surreal, but to others (as I’ll explain more about below) it may seem eerily familiar. While some clergy contemplate when and whether to put themselves in harm’s way to comfort those who are suffering and dying, other clergy have shown themselves willing to put others in harm’s way in order to ensure that the weekly offering is not impacted too detrimentally, and/or... Read more

Does Paul “Split the Shema”?

Last updated on: March 29, 2020 at 7:43 pm By James F. McGrath

Mike Kok blogged recently about some of my academic work on Christology and monotheism. He writes: The majority view is that Paul has “split the Shema”, so the divine identity includes the one God (i.e. the Father) and the one Lord (i.e. Jesus) as the source of all creation…The alternative position is advocated by James McGrath on pages 38-44 in his book The Only True God: Early Christian Monotheism in its Jewish Context (University of Illinois, 2009). McGrath argues that the reference... Read more

Elephantine, Leontopolis, and Gnosticism

Last updated on: April 5, 2020 at 6:35 am By James F. McGrath

There’s so much that deserves to be said, and deserves to be better known, about ancient Israel’s religious traditions prior to the monotheistic revolution that gave birth to Deuteronomy and the Torah, as well as the persistence of those traditions into later times. I hope in the near future to explore aspects of this in things I am writing. I believe there is a connection to the origins of Gnosticism, and will explain why as soon as I can turn... Read more

Paul APB 8

Last updated on: April 2, 2020 at 10:59 am By James F. McGrath

In this APB I share a clip about Rob Orlando’s movie Apostle Paul: A Polite Bribe in which he asks directly whether Paul was guilty in relation to the laws of Rome as they existed in his time. Even asking the question is important, since we so often equate whether someone was guilty of lawbreaking with whether they were wrong in a moral sense. But those are separate questions, even if our ideal is and should be to have the illegal... Read more

Guest Lecture and Academic Minute on Mandaeism

Last updated on: April 2, 2020 at 10:57 am By James F. McGrath

There are a wide array of things about the Mandaeans in this post – video of a lecture, an audio podcast, Mandaean art with explanation of what it depicts, and more. Let’s start with the recording of a guest appearance I made in Deb Saxon’s class on “Heresy” (extracanonical texts, Gnosticism, and so on): I also recorded an Academic Minute podcast about the Mandaeans. You can listen to it and/or read a transcript on The Academic Minute website. A Mandaean... Read more

#CFP Messengers From the Stars Conference On Science Fiction and Fantasy, Episode VI – “Fragments of Humanity”

Last updated on: April 1, 2020 at 9:34 pm By James F. McGrath

Science Fiction and Fantasy International Conference Messengers from the Stars: Episode VI – “Fragments of Humanity” School of Arts and Humanities, University of Lisbon November 26-27, 2020 CALL FOR PAPERS Science Fiction and Fantasy are acknowledged fields of inquiry that for long have allowed us to put to the test our contemporary perceptions of the world. As privileged means to question issues of aesthetic, ethical, political, social, economic, historical and environmental nature with great impact on contemporary societies, they have also promoted cutting... Read more

Barton Breen Quote About Inerrancy

Last updated on: March 28, 2020 at 8:30 am By James F. McGrath

Barton Breen gave me permission a while back to turn something he said into a meme, and I did so, but then things got chaotically busy for us all and so I neglected to share it. Here it is after some delay, for which I apologize. Of related interest: Who’s the “you” in the Ten Commandments? Read more

Gods of Star Trek: Picard

Last updated on: March 29, 2020 at 7:49 pm By James F. McGrath

Given that I am currently writing something about afterlife and resurrection in the Bible and in science fiction, the ending of the episode grabbed my attention. I had been taking notes throughout the season and planned on blogging about it sooner or later, but the right moment never seemed to arrive until now. Even now, I feel conflicted about the colonialism on the show, as we see Picard as one time failed yet still determined and in the end successful... Read more

RIP Krzysztof Penderecki

Last updated on: March 29, 2020 at 7:48 pm By James F. McGrath

You have probably already heard the sad news that Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki has died. Penderecki has set a number of biblical texts to music. Here are his settings of some Psalms: Here is his Dream of Jacob: Other works also have biblical connections, such as his Symphony No.7 themed around seven gates of Jerusalem. Indiana University shares this commentary along with a glimpse of a manuscript of his St. Luke Passion in their holdings: Penderecki’s St. Luke Passion was commissioned to... Read more

The Gods of Westworld Season 3

Last updated on: March 29, 2020 at 7:51 am By James F. McGrath

Season 3 of Westworld makes clear that the show will continue to offer much that those interested in the intersection of religion and science fiction and/or religion and technology need to ponder carefully and talk about. Dolores says in the first episode of the season: You had no god. But you tried to build one. Only that thing you built isn’t God. The real gods are coming. And they’re very angry. Marc Barham focuses in on the significance of the choice of title for the episode, “Parce Domine,” a Latin chant... Read more

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