Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
This post is based on some of the citations in the early pages of Hercules-Christus, a 1947 article by Dutch Radical Critic Gustaaf Adolf van den Bergh van Eysinga, translated into German by Frans-Joris Fabri and posted on Hermann Detering’s RadikalKritik webpage. I have supplemented some of van Eysinga’s references in places. Other posts addressing … Continue reading “Hercules, a Fitting Substitute for Jesus Christ”
A novelist has the words to best describe it: Australia today is ground zero for the climate catastrophe. Its glorious Great Barrier Reef is dying, its world-heritage rain forests are burning, its giant kelp forests have largely vanished, numerous towns have run out of water or are about to, and now the vast continent is … Continue reading ““Post-Apocalyptic Fiction has been moved to Current Affairs””
My earlier posts on M. David Litwa’s How the Gospels Became History were not my favourites. Negatives about assumptions and methods tended to predominate. But I would not want that tone to deflect readers from the many positives and points of interest in the book. Chapter four discusses Jesus’ genealogies in the Gospels of Matthew … Continue reading “Review, part 5 (Litwa on) Jesus’ Genealogy and Divine Conception”
Some readers will be interested in what Martin Goodman had to say about Jewish concepts of the Messiah in the Second Temple era. As much as I’m tempted to add my own comments I will restrain myself. I have written enough of my own perspective on this question other times I have addressed “messianic expecations” … Continue reading “Messiahs and Eschatology in Second Temple Judaism”
Alternet has posted a useful guide for those too afraid to ask certain questions of atheists, of for those too cock-sure about atheists they don’t believe they need to ask them. It’s by Greta Christina, ‘How Can You Be Moral?’: Here Are 9 Questions You Don’t Need to Ask an Atheist — And Their Answers. … Continue reading “9 Questions Asked of Atheists”
For an annotated list of previous posts in this series see the archived page: Daniel Gullotta’s Review of Richard Carrier’s On the Historicity of Jesus Criticized for being Euro-centric and male-centric, these holistic-comparative theories have been almost universally rejected by scholars of folklore and mythology, who instead opt for theories of myth that center on … Continue reading “Continuing Gullotta’s Criticism of Carrier’s Use of the Rank-Raglan Archetypes”
Cathbad placed his hand on the woman’s stomach and prophesied that the unborn child would be a girl named Deirdre, and that she would be exceedingly beautiful but would bring about the ruin of Ulster. FROM THE TÁIN BÓ CUAILNGE A recurrent theme in stories about the Irish gods is that of the love triangle … Continue reading “Doing History: Did Celts Ritually Kill Their Kings?”
Weinfeld compared the Abrahamic promises that prompted his emigration from Mesopotamia to Canaan with the similar destiny prophesied for the legendary Trojan hero Aeneas at the outset of his travels: much as the descendants of Aeneas would someday found Rome (Homer, Iliad 20.307; Virgil, Aeneid 3.97-98), so Abraham’s descendants would become a great nation and … Continue reading “Comparing the Rome’s and Israel’s Foundation Stories, Aeneas and Abraham”
After the introduction (covered in my previous post) Russell Gmirkin divides chapter three of Plato and the Creation of the Hebrew Bible, “Biblical, Ancient Near Eastern and Greek Laws” into thematic sections: laws relating to homicide, laws relating to assault, to theft, to marriage and inheritance, to sexual offences, to slavery, to social legislation (concerning resident … Continue reading “Plato and the Hebrew Bible: Homicide Laws”
Continuing from the previous post on Stanley K. Stowers’ chapter, “Does Pauline Christianity Resemble a Hellenistic Philosophy?” . . . To pre-empt predictable objections Stowers begins with three riders: His comparison study does not make claims about origins; he is not arguing that Christianity began as a Hellenistic philosophy. Comparison or similarity does not mean … Continue reading “Early Christianity Looked Like a Philosophical School”
I have long been intrigued by the second century “church father” Justin Martyr identifying himself as a philosopher, not a “priest” or elder or bishop or other ecclesiastical type of title. He left it on record that he came to Christianity after surveying a range of other philosophies, not religions. Other posts addressing publications by Stanley … Continue reading “Earliest Christianity Did Not Look Like a Religion”
With the gospels in mind and thinking of them (for sake of argument) as biographical accounts of Jesus, how can we know if an ancient biography is about a genuinely historical person or if it is about a fictional character? Let’s leave aside for now the claims of postmodernists who argue that there is no essential difference … Continue reading “One Difference Between a “True” Biography and a Fictional (Gospel?) Biography”
Religion is more than the faiths most of us grew up with. Christianity, Judaism, Islam — these represent only one family branch of religion. If we want to understand “what religion is” and explore why it is that religion is so pervasive among humanity then it’s a good idea to have as complete a picture … Continue reading “Religion: It’s More Than We Often Think”
An inevitable question arising out of my preceding two posts that attempt to set out the fundamentals of Neil Van Leeuwen’s analysis of the nature of “religious belief/credence” is where extremist views fit in. This is a topic I’ve broached several times before from different perspectives and hope to again as I get through more readings from various … Continue reading “Understanding Extremist Religion”