I only caught a glimpse of the news about the use of pepper spray on Occupy protesters at UC Davis while I was away at the AAR/SBL Annual Meeting. I learned more about it on the plane back, and already began reflecting at that time on how the incident relates to Star Wars. I have long assumed that the reason that droids are not allowed in the bar in Mos Eisley is not just that they take up space that... Read more
A new electronic, peer reviewed, open access journal in theology launched during AAR/SBL. Here is the information about the journal from its web site, http://www.sjut.org/journals/ojs/index.php/soma/: Soma is an international, peer-reviewed, open-access theology journal published online in the heart of Africa. The title, Soma, is a hybridized word. In Greek it is a noun. It means “body”. In Swahili it is a verb. It means “to read” or “to study”. This journal seeks to develop a body of theological knowledge, practice,... Read more
If you didn’t get a copy of Religion and Science Fiction at AAR/SBL, one of the people you can blame is Jim Linville, who apparently was one of those who snatched up a copy. But when it inspired him to make this LOLcat image, I don’t think anyone can be mad at him, or indeed anything but appreciative… It was great seeing Jim again at the bibliobloggers’ gathering and meeting Jim’s wife Mary. I was also glad to meet many... Read more
Religion and Science Fiction sold out at the AAR/SBL conference, and so the publisher has decided to make the conference discount of 40% off available to anyone who contacts the publisher and indicates that they would have liked to have purchased it with the conference discount but could not because it sold out. I asked, and they said that it is not necessary to have actually been at the conference to take advantage of this offer. So if you are... Read more
The session on religion and science fiction at AAR went well, and I will blog about that separately. But let me write my post now on one of the episodes I focused particular attention on in my own presentation on religion in Doctor Who: “The Daemons” from the Jon Pertwee era. Two bits of dialogue illustrate the perspective on religion and the supernatural in this episode (and some of the tension inherent in that perspective): JO: But it really is... Read more
Yesterday, after the subject had come up of Butler University having recently installed its new president, someone asked me why it is that universities have this custom of hiring a new president and then, some months later, having an “installation.” I thought for a second and then replied, “It is a technological metaphor. For the first hundred days or so, we were downloading our new president, and once the download was complete, we installed him.” Read more
The bibliobloggers’ get-together last night was delightful. It was great to meet some people for the first time, including Brian LePort, whom I did not recognize until he covered the lower part of his face (see the photo on his blog Near Emmaus to see why). Chris Brady took some photos and posted them on his blog. Before that, the Blogger session was interesting, with presentations by Chris Brady and by Richard Price, the creator of Academia.edu. I missed the... Read more
I’ve made it to San Francisco for the American Academy of Religion and Society of Biblical Literature conferences. I got to my hotel at 2am local time. I’ve already reconnected with good friends, and am looking forward to the bibliobloggers’ dinner tonight! Here’s the view from my hotel room: Read more
Here’s the new Doctor Who Children In Need video: And here’s the trailer for the Christmas special: Read more
I was invited at the last minute to participate in the Patheos Book Club discussion of Jeffrey J. Kripal’s book Mutants and Mystics: Science Fiction, Superhero Comics, and the Paranormal. Since I leave today for a conference (at which I will be speaking, appropriately enough, about religion and science fiction), I have had to rush through sections that I would have preferred to savor, and am churning out quickly a brief review when I would have liked to blog through... Read more
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