Day One The earth was a right old mess When God began to fashion Earth and heaven After the fashion Of an ancient near eastern divinity The sky and sea At the start of the thing A real mess But just the thing For a god to bless With order Made to order Order in the making Ordered to make itself right It was chaos But divine words were spoken Let light be Let it be Let it have... Read more
This information was forwarded to me, and I got the distinct impression that the hope was that we would circulate it further. And so here it is! Hi Everyone, I hope this email finds your 2020 off to a great start! I’m writing to formally announce our latest issue of the Journal of Effective Teaching in Higher Education (JETHE). Just over one year ago we published our first issue of the JETHE. We have been overwhelmed by the positive response... Read more
My review of Rivka Nir’s book about John the Baptist, The First Christian Believer, has been published by Reviews of the Enoch Seminar. Here’s how it ends: Despite its shortcomings, when Nir remains focused on a literary approach, the lens she brings to Christian sources often highlights interesting and neglected features of early Christian literature, such as intertextual connections and themes connected to specific characters. For this reason, there is a great deal in the book that will be of... Read more
Apparently the episode “Can You Hear Me?” is the first to feature a question mark in the title. Is that correct? It isn’t the first to feature gods, and given my interests, that’s where I’ll focus my attention. But given that the show has featured question marks even on the Doctor’s lapels and sweater vests and the like, I’m interested in the question mark as well. The episode begins even before the opening music sequence with a scene placed in... Read more
Courtesy of AWOL (Ancient World Online): New Open Access Journal: Journal of Religious Competition in Antiquity Journal of Religious Competition in Antiquity The Journal of Religious Competition explores interactions between diverse social groups of the Mediterranean basin in antiquity through the development of broadly comparative methodologies that delineate the ways in which this competitive interaction reshaped religious phenomena. The overall goal is to analyze dialogues between individuals or groups that illuminate the mutual competition and influence that was extant among... Read more
I want to share this call for panels and presentations at the National Humanities Conference which will be in Indianapolis this year. If you’ll be coming to Indianapolis and are a reader of my blog, plan on saying hello. Call for Proposals National Humanities Conference 2020 | Indianapolis, IN November 5-8, 2020 Deadline for submitting proposals: February 21, 2020 The Federation of State Humanities Councils and the National Humanities Alliance are excited to announce the 2020 National Humanities Conference, which... Read more
Today I feature a guest post from my friend Sam Friedberg. He wrote a response and commentary on the following email which was sent out by the president to supporters, and which has fortunately found its way to others: Sam Friedberg writes, “I’ve been a PERFECT PRESIDENT” I’d like some input from those who are more mature in their discipleship than I am please. I fully understand that the majority of practicing Christians support Donald Trump, and I understand the... Read more
Now that the finale to the series The Good Place has aired, there is so much reflection that deserves to be offered. I hope this will be a series we’ll continue to talk about, because it has real depth to it, both philosophically and emotionally. I might be biased. I’ve watched many recent episodes, and watched the series finale, together with my son. And so that may have primed me to react in certain ways. But I think I would have... Read more
I decided to combine my blog post about the latest ReligionProf Podcast with Matthew Korpman and some existing draft post content I already planned to blog about, for a good reason, I think – one of the links already included was to Korpman’s blog on Patheos, which he hasn’t been keeping up but which hopefully he’ll return to. Our conversation begins with and remains focused on Korpman’s recent book, Saying No To God, but is of interest even if you haven’t read... Read more
The choice of name for this episode of Doctor Who is striking to someone who studies ancient Christianity. Tertullian wrote a famous treatise “Against Praxeas” which was a pseudonym for a bishop. It has been suggested that the actual bishop Tertullian is writing about might be none other than Irenaeus. The nickname means something like “busybody.” And so why did the writers of Doctor Who choose as the title of this episode and the name of the alien pathogen that... Read more
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