Today I will be appearing on a conference panel about the book I helped produce, The Mandaean Book of John: Critical Edition, Translation, and Commentary. I have several projects that I am juggling at the moment, but one that I am in the extremely early phases of is also one that I am incredibly excited about. Only time will tell whether its significance for a number of areas of religious studies will be as significant as I have begun to... Read more
Time to get back into blogging through classic Doctor Who episodes. Apologies for the long delay! In this episode, two ships collide, one being partially dematerialized at the time. This isn’t an uncommon scenario on Doctor Who – but in this case, it isn’t the TARDIS that is the partially-dematerialized ship in question! Early in the episode we get this exchange between Romana and the Doctor which in many ways sums up the entirety of Doctor Who: ROMANA: I don’t think we... Read more
Editors: Taylor J. Ott (Fordham University) and Shaun Brown (Villa Maria College) Theology and Pop Culture is currently seeking contributions for an edited volume from Rowman and Littlefield on the intersection of theology and Harry Potter. Essays should prioritize the books but may include or concentrate on the films, Fantastic Beasts, or The Cursed Child if appropriate. Essays should be written for academics, but avoid “jargon” to be accessible for the layperson. Contributions may be written from the perspective of any religious tradition. With... Read more
I have not only been meaning to blog about the Database of Religious History project for some time, but I have long been meaning to contribute to it. The Mandaeans ought to feature in this effort to show the connection between religion and place, between a tradition’s trajectory through time and its spread through geographic space. It is partly because there are such significant disputes and uncertainties about the Mandaeans’ movements in history, and partly because of not finding the... Read more
I confess that my initial reaction was to dismiss the idea that Joanna and Junia might be references to the same person. But as I resisted the temptation to merely dismiss, and pulled on the thread, I found it led me to discover a number of intriguing intertwined threads that are woven together so tightly that it seems unlikely to be a coincidence. For instance, the tribe of Benjamin (to which Paul belonged) was historically located in and around Jericho,... Read more
In the ReligionProf Podcast episode embedded above, I talk to Prof. Ruth Hayhoe, a specialist in comparative education who was recently involved in the production of a book in the field of biblical studies. The backstory is that Ruth is the sister of Suzanne McCarthy, whose writings on her blog I mentioned and linked to on my own blog often. Suzanne sadly died from cancer while working on a book about gender bias in Bible translation, and her sister Ruth,... Read more
I recently learned that Dr. Ben Schmidt made a website about gendered language in teacher reviews. Here’s the explanation on the website about what it offers: This interactive chart lets you explore the words used to describe male and female teachers in about 14 million reviews from RateMyProfessor.com. You can enter any other word (or two-word phrase) into the box below to see how it is split across gender and discipline: the x-axis gives how many times your term is... Read more
I’ve loved, and when possible helped organize, gatherings of bloggers at the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature. However, I gave up thinking of it as a “bibliobloggers” gathering long ago, since I am involved in AAR as well as SBL and know that there can be long stretches during which my own blogging fails to fit into that category, when there’s a lot about science fiction and little related to the Bible. Then I gave up thinking... Read more
The editors are currently soliciting abstract submissions for an edited volume focusing on Transgressive Women in Speculative Fiction. The interconnection of speculative fiction, transgressions against social norms, gender studies, and global perspectives is compelling because speculative fiction allows for a unique approach to social critiques. The worlds that are created in science fiction, fantasy, horror, and dystopian futures allow the genre to explore new or imaginative societies, detached from existing or historical social structures. Such an environment of speculation has... Read more
I thought I would share the thoughts that were part of my panel presentation as part of this year’s Spirit and Place Festival, just before the performance of John Rutter’s Requiem. My qualification when the panel was organized was the fact that I teach a course on the Bible and music, and love Rutter’s music. Before the event took place, I added additional qualifications as my father passed away and I attended a concert the following day for which my family already... Read more
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