Dale Tuggy recently offered a counterargument to the claim that Trinitarian thinking is correct, or at least a useful image of God, because without a plurality of persons there cannot be mutual love. By way of response, Tuggy said that one could do the same with forgiveness and say that God cannot be eternally forgiving unless there is someone to forgive, and thus there must be an eternal sinner in the godhead if this logic is sound! What do others... Read more
A while back Facebook reminded me (and several other people) of a meme with a quote from me from a couple of years ago: A friend responded by pointing out passages in Joshua in which the ESV renders the command as one to cling to the LORD. And so here’s what I wrote in response to that: There is definitely a place for clinging – but I think that both you and the author of Joshua would probably agree that a... Read more
I don’t think I’ll propose a paper, but I am incredibly interested in attending this conference, which connects directly with my course on the Bible and music. As always, I’m eager to make that area of teaching also a focus of my research more than I have thus far. Perhaps putting together a panel about some aspect of this topic would be an idea. Anyone else interested in at least discussing and brainstorming? Check out the call for papers and... Read more
This post began when I saw a piece about the cleverness of some methods of cheating. I think such articles (yes, there is more than one of that sort of thing) more than just amuse while providing a cautionary tale for educators. They illustrate that often the students who are most impressive in their dishonest ingenuity are not “stupid” in any sense of the word. They are clever and smart but scared. They know that their success in the future, and... Read more
Here is a small selection of choral music by Lithuanian composer Vytautas Miškinis, setting a variety of scriptural texts to music. His output of religious music is remarkable, as well as beautiful and moving. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_7zApVJrdo Read more
Established in 2014 at Emory University, Sacred Matters is a web magazine of public scholarship that undercuts conventional understandings of religion and reimagines the boundaries between religion and culture. As a digital publication, Sacred Matters provides a forum for innovative scholarship by taking advantage of the Internet’s capabilities to deliver audio, video, images, and text and facilitating new ways of organizing and presenting commentary, opinion, and analysis. We are always looking for contributors wanting to reach a popular audience with original ideas in a... Read more
Indiana Jones and Philosophy: Call for Abstracts Lots of explicit mentions of religion in this call for proposals of chapters… Call for Abstracts Indiana Jones and Philosophy Edited by Dean A. Kowalski The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series Please circulate and post widely. Apologies for cross posting. To propose ideas for future volumes in the Blackwell series please contact the Series Editor, William Irwin, at [email protected] Abstracts and subsequent essays should be philosophically substantial but accessible, written to engage the intelligent lay... Read more
I’ve been meaning to blog about this topic since Paul Davidson wrote his post back in 2016 asking whether Luke’s Gospel reflects an encratite perspective, i.e. one that views sexuality of any sort, even within marriage, as negative and to be given up. Read his post and see what you think of his arguments based on Lukan redaction and wording: Luke’s Surprising and Oft-Ignored Views on Marriage and Resurrection I’m not sure whether or not he’s right about this. But recently... Read more
Matthew Collins adapted something from the realm of math for application to biblical studies and religion. He shared it on Facebook, and I asked for permission to circulate it. I adapted it slightly more to fit its new application better, but the vast majority of it is his and/or his source’s. Are they a crank? Use this scoring system to find out: (NB: This is stolen from mathematics and slightly edited, but I think it works for bible/religion too.) 1... Read more
It is exciting to be able to share that the Mandaean Book of John: Critical Edition, Translation, and Commentary will be available in San Diego at the AAR and SBL Annual Meetings in November. There will be a review panel about the book. Here are the details: S25-139 Mysticism, Esotericism, and Gnosticism in Antiquity 11/25/2019 9:00 AM to 11:30 AM Room: Sapphire 400B (Fourth Level) – Hilton Bayfront Theme: Esoteric Religious Groups in Antiquity Joint session with the AAR Traditions of Eastern... Read more
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