I presume that professors in most fields get e-mails and/or packages with manuscripts from people who are sure they have incredible insights into this, that, or the other. Today I received an e-mail sharing a link to “The Ouzo Prophecy” and I thought I would share it, because it is just so amusing. The funniest part isn’t the beginning, which says “I am Bob the Baptist, precursor of the second coming of Christ, whose name is Tor.” No, something funnier... Read more
Eldad Keynan has a new article in The Bible and Interpretation, with the title “A Different Tomb in Lower Galilee.” It is an interested read, and I’m looking forward to meeting Eldad in person when I visit Israel later this month. Read more
I wrote this post after wandering into the midst of a conversation between a moral relativist and a moral absolutist. It was a thought-provoking experience. When asked if I believed there is an absolute truth, I had no hesitation in answering. As a critical realist, I am persuaded that there is indeed such a thing as objective truth, even if what we “know” as human being may at best approximate it. But what about morality? Do I believe in moral... Read more
Since Dănuţ Mănăstireanu offered a reminder that it is ascension day, and Ken Brown linked to some of my older posts on the subject and offered some thoughts and reflections of his own, I think it will be enough just to share a couple of my favorite quotes from scholars that are particularly relevant today. First, Keith Ward (The Big Questions in Science and Religion p.107): We now know that, if [Jesus] began ascending two thousand years ago, he would... Read more
Chapter 7 of Earl Doherty’s book Jesus: Neither God Nor Man turns attention to other characters in the Gospels and events that are not mentioned about them in the epistles: Judas’ betrayal and Peter’s denial, for starters. Presumably the first thing to note it that the latter completely undermines Doherty’s argument. Paul refers to encounters with Peter – a real historical individual – and thus if he can be a real individual without stories from the later Gospels appearing in... Read more
Joel Watts highlights that Ken Ham agrees with the logic of atheists. Ken sets up a logical chain which he has clearly linked together backwards. Since he can think of no reason to believe in God if there was no literal Adam and Eve, he tries to prove the latter so as to lead to faith in the former. Joel gets it just right: Both Ken Ham and atheists “have a god in mind which doesn’t exist.” The atheists presumably... Read more
Chris Brady announced the news on his blog Targuman that Dr. Richard Price, founder and CEO of Academia.edu, will speak at the Blogging and Online Publication session at SBL in November. His presentation’s title will be “Academia.edu: The Past, Present, and Future of Scholarly Social Networking.” Click through for more information. Have you used Academia.edu? Have you found it useful? I know from my own experience of collaborating on projects with people in other parts of the country/world, social networking has... Read more
Joel Watts has published the latest Biblical Studies Carnival. It’s an entertaining round-up of highlights from the past month’s biblioblogging. Take a look! Read more
(The above is a remake of a picture I made a while back. For a more serious treatment of the topic, see the recent article in the Huffington Post, “The Bible: As Relevant (and Misunderstood) as Ever.”) Read more
My colleague Brad Matthies has posted a review of the interesting-sounding book Among the Truthers: A Journey Through America’s Growing Conspiracist Underground by Jonathan Kay. For the record, he’s the one who connected that book’s focus with mythicism, not me. Read more
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