2011-12-23

Alternative view of Christmas through A Hymn to Jesus (WoodyAllenJESUS)

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

by Neil Godfrey

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_SFdUJLebzU]

But do read Tim Minchin’s own take on his experience in producing this song @ I’m Not On The Jonathan Ross Show.

And the Lyrics have been transcribed by an online friend:

Jesus was a Jewish philosopher
Had a lot of nice ideas
About our existential fears
Much admired by his peers
Short and Jewish and quite political
Often hesitant and very analytical

Praise be to Jesus
Praise be to Woody Allen Jesus
Woody Allen Jesus! Continue reading “Alternative view of Christmas through A Hymn to Jesus (WoodyAllenJESUS)”


Argonauts of the Desert: a defence of an anthropologist’s interpretation of the Bible

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

by Neil Godfrey

In recent posts on Dr Philippe Wajdenbaum’s thesis I shared a few passages from the opening pages of his introductory chapter. One reader responded with a series of points with which I suspect many other readers concur. To sum up the tone and reduce it to its most concentrated essence the criticism appears to be this:

  1. Finding mythological parallels with the Bible a fatuous exercise since the parallelomaniacal human imagination is creative enough to find any parallel or pattern it wants anywhere it looks, and even where similarities are palpable, such as the flood stories,  these can be found around the globe and prove nothing about interdependence;
  2. any work from Europe that cites a Marxist and “invokes” any name connected with postmodernism, and especially a French! name (quick, reach for the Freedom Fries!) that is associated with structuralism (and by extension Jungian archetypes, let’s add) and is an inspiration for a thesis, is by definition, a failed sham of an intellectual enterprise.

I have posted on the works of many scholars in the past, some positively, some negatively and some a mixture of both. But I have begun with a clear positive bias for Philippe Wajdenbaum’s (PW) thesis so I am obligated to defend my initial forays.

Let me explain why I believe the sorts criticisms above are without warrant — at least until after one has heard and patiently assessed the arguments presented. Continue reading “Argonauts of the Desert: a defence of an anthropologist’s interpretation of the Bible”