BioLogos has an incredible wealth of resources that it offers to churches on a daily basis. Among recent ones that caught my attention is a sermon by Rev. John Ortberg on whether science disproves faith. I decided to turn a brief snippet into a meme to draw attention to it, but do read the rest. See also Jim Stump’s piece on whether belief in God is reasonable. I think the key point to emphasize is that, while it is indeed... Read more
Traditions of Eastern Late Antiquity American Academy of Religion Program Unit Traditions of Eastern Late Antiquity is seeking paper proposals for four sessions for the annual meeting in Boston in November 2020. 1) Middle Eastern Christianity and Others in the City of the Late Antique East (co-sponsored with Middle Eastern Christianity) The Middle Eastern Christianity and the Traditions of the Late Antiquity East Units invite paper proposals that analyze Middle Eastern Christians in the city. This call is open to broad... Read more
Initially I had thought that I might not have much to say about “Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror.” At least, not about religion. The episode has plenty of interesting elements, but I didn’t initially think that there was much to connect it with religion. Then I realized that inventors and prophets are essentially in the same category, visionaries. I began To explore this by thinking of prophets as inventors of worlds. But even then I realized that I was introducing... Read more
Here are recordings of the Brown Bag talk that my colleague Frank Felice and I recently gave at Butler University on the subject of a book that we’re writing together, Theology and Progressive Rock. I’ve shared both a video and a Powerpoint version, since I wasn’t sure which was likely to be preferable. If you enjoy them, let me know, and please share one or both and/or this blog post. And please do let me know what you found particularly interesting,... Read more
This fellowship opportunity at the University of Cambridge came to my attention via jobs.ac.uk: Gonville & Caius is one of the oldest and largest Colleges of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1348, it combines the best of Cambridge tradition with twenty-first-century teaching and research. Caius’ beautiful Old Courts are located right in the heart of Cambridge. The College is home to an academic community of around 780 undergraduate and postgraduate students, together with 110 Fellows and almost 200 staff. Gonville &... Read more
A sermon at Crooked Creek Baptist Church by Rev. Joy Amick got me thinking about the story of Job’s wife in different ways than I had before. Job’s wife has an extremely brief role in the story, and typically we have understood her in an entirely negative way. This is partly due to assumptions we make about her and about Job, partly due to things we neglect to consider, and partly due to how a crucial word in the story... Read more
I became aware not long ago of a very cool call for papers for an edited volume, Being A Girl: Representations of Female and Feminism in Doctor Who: The casting of Jodie Whittaker as the 13th Doctor in 2017 caused a great uproar among Whovians. The casting of a woman in a traditionally male role brought forth supporters and critics. Questions fans asked included: Was the Doctor male? Would a woman change the series? With Whittaker now entering her second season as... Read more
The Doctor Who episode “Fugitive of the Judoon” starts off with a fairly straightforward premise by series standards—“a platoon of Judoon near the moon“—but gets wibbly wobbly timey wimey by the end. And since my own life got timey wimey as I traveled to Australia, and given the big reveal in this episode, I thought I’d blog about this one right away, and come back to the one before it, which I’ve still yet to blog about, “Nicola Tesla’s Night of... Read more
I recently found myself wondering how one might attempt to explain Star Trek V: The Final Frontier within the framework of the narrative. According to the movie, in the center of our galaxy, in a place where paradise was believed to be located, a being dwells that knows about all living things’ mythologies and God-images, and yet cannot escape that world without being taken on a starship. Does this not seem to cry out for an explanation? It can certainly... Read more
I’m sharing this poster for an upcoming presentation at Butler University, related to a book project that Frank Felice and I are working on. Do have a listen as well to this performance of one of Frank’s song cycles: Tangentially related is this podcast on the patron saint of musicians: https://www.episcopalcafe.com/2fab-st-cecilia/ On a related note (pun intended) Steve Wiggins wrote: Listening to someone else’s music is taking a stroll through her or his head. Someone once gave me a disc... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In