There certainly are those Jesus mythicists who would also deny that there was a historical Paul. But for many mythicists, perhaps the majority, the historicity of Paul and the authenticity of Paul’s letters is in fact important to their argument, since their case for mythicism focuses much attention on what Paul allegedly did not say about Jesus. There is an irony here. Some mythicists actually do use the same tricks to deny the historicity of Paul as are used to... Read more
After it came up on this blog a while back, I’ve wanted to return to the topic of the “Original Aramaic Lord’s Prayer.” Why? Because the thing that can be found online referred to in this way is not original, not Aramaic, not a translation, and not the Lord’s Prayer. Let me elaborate further. This prayer can be found online in a number of places, and stems for the most part from books like Prayers of the Cosmos: Reflections on... Read more
Should we refer to J. J. Abrams as in some sense a “theologian”? Last week’s episode of Fringe, “Forced Perspective,” which I only found the time to watch last night, is full of theology and philosophy. From a girl with remarkable precognition asking why God made her this way (and being reassured that God makes everyone and everything for a purpose) to discussions of fate and foreknowledge, the episode explored interesting theological and philosophical topics. Even in the Latin slogan... Read more
There is a web site featuring a magic button that makes everything OK. How did I not hear about this until today? You’ll find it at the appropriately-named web address http://make-everything-ok.com/ Click through and make everything OK! Read more
My collaborator on the Mandaean Book of John translation project, Charles G. Häberl of Rutgers University, is scheduled to present on “Digital Analysis of Mandaic Manuscripts” at the workshop “Ancient Religion, Modern Technology” to be held February 13-14 at Brown University. Some of the other presentations also look fascinating, covering topics from Syriac linguistics to ancient monotheism. Read more
The American Academy of Religion has issued the call for papers for the 2012 Annual Meeting in Chicago. Religion and Science Fiction has been approved for status as a Group, and so here is the core of the call for papers for that area. Click through for further information or to submit a proposal. Religion and Science Fiction: Call for Proposals This Group invites proposals that explore the intersections of religion and science fiction in ways that illuminate theoretical, methodological,... Read more
Via Religion CFP and NSRN online I learned of this call for papers: ‘Comics, Religion & Politics’ 4-5th September 2012 Lancaster University, UK Alongside the continued popularity of political themes in comics recent years have also seen the rise of religious themes entering into the medium. The aim of this conference is to explore the relationship between comics, religion and politics in greater depth, to show how through the unique properties of the medium comics have the ability to be... Read more
From Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal Read more
Michael Dowd has a blog post that reworks some fundamental tenets of Evangelicalism to be more in keeping with his own naturalistic and evolutionary faith. The whole thing is worth reading (and so I encourage you to click through to read it), but here are the key elements of his transformed creed: Reality is my God, evidence is my scripture, and integrity is my religion. I trust life. I trust time. I trust the truth. I know that Integrity is... Read more
Via Dănuţ Mănăstireanu I learned of a blog post by Richard Rohr entitled “Christian Conservatives seldom Conserve the Real Tradition” which seems to me to deserve to be widely circulated, read, and discussed. Rohr writes: Why do I mistrust so much Christian “conservativism”? 1) It usually wants to “conserve” a very recent version of history or Christianity (theirs!) 2) It is almost always tied to money and power, which seems very unlike Jesus. 3) It loves the status quo too much,... Read more
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