Last week in New Jersey some of the faithful flocked to see something strange and wonderful–the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe in a tree trunk. The story is reported here. Then there was the face of Mother Teresa in a bun in Tennessee. You can see that here along with an image of Jesus on a piece of toast, and here is an image of Jesus that appeared in a frying pan in England. I like this stuff. I... Read more
Over the last few weeks we’ve have some atheist trolls visiting the combox. I have attempted to answer some of their questions through a series of posts, and regular readers who are more learned than I am have also added comments. What has emerged from the discussions is how genuinely ignorant most of the atheists are about the things on which they wish to comment. I don’t mind a good debate and am happy to entertain questions and am willing... Read more
Go here for another one of the world’s great atheist contributions to world culture… Read more
In seminary we had to study modern Biblical scholarship, and one of my great blessings was that at Bob Jones I learned to be skeptical of the fundamentalists, but at Oxford I learned to be skeptical of the modernists. Both groups seemed to me to be like two madmen strapped back to back. Both the fundamentalists with their total rejection of modern scholarship and the modernists who seemed to scorn every traditional understanding of the Scriptures on principle, were unreasonable.... Read more
Guest blogger Ed Blanch writes for knotRED– the Intercollegiate Marxist Review. An activist with the Occupy Chick-Fil-A movement, he is also a member of Citizens for Rap Music. He comments regularly on the PETA website and blogs at There’s No Sky Fairy. Ed is a sophomore at North Jersey College of Technology majoring in media studies. It was really interesting in my comparative religions class to learn that there is practically no evidence that Jesus Christ of Nazareth ever really existed. My... Read more
It is easy to exchange convinced assertions: “The gospels are 100% God’s holy Word and every bit is historically accurate!” or “The gospels are fairy tales!” However there is a discipline called “Biblical scholarship” in which scholars do some very interesting work determining just which parts of the gospels they think are reliable and which they think are not. Their conclusions are, of course, debated. That’s what scholars do. Their work is fascinating, and continuing the discussion here of the... Read more
Are the gospels reliable as historical accounts? In an earlier post I wrote that the gospels are unique ancient documents. They are not written primarily as historical accounts by professional historians. Instead they are the collected stories, memories and experiences of the community of Jesus Christ’s disciples. Therefore we treat them as the documents they are: memories, anecdotes and stories of faith. On the one hand this type of story is not a professional, cross referenced academic work. Someone looking... Read more
Why does this “spiritual but not religious” lie get me so wound up? I think it is because there are so many levels of the lie packed into one little cliche. The first lie is the idea that somebody can be “spiritual but not religious” at all. How does one go about being “spiritual”? The only way I can imagine is that you give yourself warm feelings about sunsets and puppies and little children and Jesus carrying a lamb on... Read more
The more I ponder the “spiritual but not religious” cliche the more I see that it is not only creepy but also non-Christian. The essence of the Christian faith is sacrifice. First Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and our self sacrifice as we seek to emulate him and follow his command that “unless you take up your cross and follow me you cannot be my disciple.” So for “spiritual but not religious” we should really say, “spiritual but not Christian.”... Read more
Anyone who wishes to engage in a thoughtful and intelligent exploration of the Christian faith will have to ask whether the gospels are historically reliable. Can we believe that the stories in the gospels are a true and accurate account of the life of Jesus of Nazareth? In answering this question the first thing to understand is what kind of documents the gospels are. To do this we have to first say what they are not. The gospels are not... Read more
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Fr. Dwight Longenecker
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