For some time I have been included as a participant at this year’s Spirit and Place Festival in Indianapolis. I will be part of a panel slated to talk about music and grief, in connection with a performance of John Rutter’s beautiful Requiem. At the time I got involved, I obviously didn’t anticipate that my father would die on October 18th, not long before this event. My thoughts on this topic have quickly been transformed from abstract thoughts about the... Read more
I am delighted that news has broken about some intiatives that I’ve been involved with at Butler University. We have new Esports and gaming space in the works for next year, but something even bigger planned for the not too distant future. I dare to imagine that a suggestion that I made to our vice president for strategy and innovation Melissa Beckwith, to the effect that they’d be better putting a game store on the lower level of the parking garage... Read more
In today’s video clip from Apostle Paul: A Polite Bribe, Rob Orlando suggests that Paul went to Jerusalem for the last time much as Jesus did, knowing that this could and likely would lead to his death. I think that this kind of vocation of martyr is so rare in our time that it can be hard for historians and scholars to know what to do with it. Does a filmmaker’s storytelling help you make sense of it, and get... Read more
The latest episode of the ReligionProf podcast features Rob Orlando. He and I didn’t manage to record the episode literally face to face while he was on campus during his visit to Indianapolis. But we did record it while he was in town, if via Zoom from a remote location. And so, as a special treat for blog readers, here is a video of the recording which is available in slightly edited form as an audio podcast above: I’ve got... Read more
Here is a collection of things related to the Book of Revelation and apocalypses (ancient and modern) that I’ve found interesting. Let me start with an image: Now for some links, starting with these from Bart Ehrman: https://ehrmanblog.org/secular-versions-of-the-coming-apocalypse/ https://ehrmanblog.org/revelation-as-a-blueprint-for-our-future/ https://cruxsolablog.com/2019/09/13/reading-revelation-in-context-quick-look-gupta/ Revelation, Lake of Fire, Judgement of Metaphor Let anyone with understanding calculate the number The Secret To Understanding Revelation This may be the best name I’ve come across for a book about Revelation (and Genesis): Living Between Two Trees https://academic.logos.com/what-is-empire-criticism/... Read more
Here is part 3 of my recap. Let me start with a few news items that relate to the liberal arts and other such matters connected with general education and core curriculum. First, in “Explaining the Value of the Liberal Arts,” AAC&U President Lynn Pasquerella (who also spoke at the day workshop in Washington, DC) says: Our nation’s historic mission was one of educating for democracy, and we now have an increasing economic—and therefore, racial—segregation in higher education and in our... Read more
Let me start this post with a quote from an alumnus of the Religion program at Butler University, something that he said on Facebook. Karl Hofstetter provides one of my favorite answers to the question “What can you do with a degree in religion?” This post began several years ago as I started collecting posts related to the different sorts of things that “biblical studies” can sometimes be in different contexts, a state of affairs that creates confusion among some... Read more
Tom McLeish wrote recently: It’s been a long and tiring century or more of fake news, but I nurture a precious hope (how can one live otherwise?) that the voices of evidence, reason and truth will ultimately prevail. One of the more persistent myths that have invaded our conversation, media and (very sadly) education, is the late Victorian invention that religious faith and science are necessarily in conflict. So prevalent and normalised is this assumption, that recent surveys in UK... Read more
The Genesis referred to in the title of this post is not the book in the Bible, but the band. Obviously the two are related. But they are not identical. I have started work on a book I have under contract, which I am writing together with my colleague in the Butler University School of Music Frank Felice, on Progressive Rock and Theology. This is a genre I love, but as I’ve dug into the genre through this lens, I’ve... Read more
There have been a number of blog posts about recent research by Elizabeth Schrader on Martha in the Gospel of John, and whether her presence is in fact an interpolation that caused some confusion and misidentifications related to the Mary mentioned alongside her in the majority of manuscripts. I think it will take a book-length treatment to explore how our portraits of the various women involved would change in light of this work. It probably won’t make sense for me... Read more
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