I think this picture, which Arni Zachariassen shared, is supposed to illustrate the difficulty of choosing between universalism and the sort of particularism that believes that anyone who is not a Christian (however that is defined) goes to hell. I wonder whether the unattractiveness of both options ought not to provide encouragement to explore other options, such as annihilationism. Surely ceasing to exist would be better than either spending eternity with Hitler, or eternity knowing that people like Gandhi are... Read more

Jim Linville will be hosting next month’s Biblical Studies Carnival, and he is already soliciting not only submissions, but votes on what the theme should be. Place your vote! Read more

Bibliobloggers managed to do better research than major media outlets and determined relatively quickly the the lead codices that have been making headlines recently are almost certainly fakes. The images on them are identical to ones on bronze plates that the same person “found” once before, and the inscription on those was copied from a book by someone who did not know enough Greek to distinguish between alpha and lambda. Case closed? Pretty much – except that media outlets seem... Read more

Several posts related to the intersection of religion and sci-fi – some with a humorous bent – appeared on blogs I read today. Justin Topp looks at theology in Avatar, connecting it with environmentalism and Jürgen Moltmann, among other subjects.Steve Wiggins interacted with Cleverbot.Ross McKenzie mentions an article from last year on Klingons and M-Theory in Christianity Today. IO9 has secret photos of what sci-fi toys do when they think no one is looking, and it includes worship: Two blogs... Read more

Congratulations to the Butler Bulldogs for making it through the Final Four and into the championship for the second year in a row! Read more

I have been reading Paul Foster’s edition of The Gospel of Peter, and am grateful to E. J. Brill for sending me a free copy to review. Having reached the end of the introduction, which spans approximately the first third of the volume, it seemed best to stop and blog about this part of the book before proceeding. Foster’s book is a welcome addition to the relatively meager scholarly literature in English on this subject. The manuscript of P. Cair... Read more

Ricky Carvel explains why he finds Richard Bauckham’s book about supposed eyewitnesses behind the canonical Gospels, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels As Eyewitness Testimony, unpersuasive. Read more

Mark Goodacre shared a link to an article about UNC creating a “Department of Irreligion.” My favorite part was actually a bit tagged on at the end, stating that Bart Ehrman will be cancelling the remained of his book tour for his book Forged, since he no longer feels certain about who wrote it.  In related April Fools Day humor, Duke Newt reported that the lead codices contain the long lost Q document. Bob Cargill and David Stark preferred Google’s... Read more

Although it is April 1st, there are still serious things going on around the blogosphere. Exploring Our Matrix came in first in the Biblioblog Top 10 ranked by vote, and #4 in the Top 50 based on Alexa ranking. Thanks to everyone who voted and visited! In keeping with custom, Daniel McClellan has not simply caricatured me each time this blog has won, but caricatures the next-highest ranking blogger who has not been caricatured yet. This month it was April... Read more

I am delighted to be able to share the breaking news that a group of scholars, led by Prof. Herrmann U. Tichs of the University of Nirgendwo, has managed to crack the code on the lead plates that have recently been in the news, and has offered an initial transcription and translation. The text, if they have deciphered it correctly, reads as follows: Dear Diary, This year for my April Fool’s Day prank – wait ’til you get a load of this – I... Read more