Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
Based on my reading of the first chapter of The New Threat: The Past, Present, and Future of Islamic Militancy by Jason Burke. . . . The turning point was in October, 1981, argues Jason Burke. Prior to the 1980s the most well-known terrorists were Leila Khaled and Carlos the Jackal. Religious agendas were very rarely found … Continue reading “The Origins of Islamic Militancy”
The first step to combating Isis is to understand it. We have yet to do so. That failure costs us dear. — Scott Atran in Mindless Terrorists? The truth about ISIS is much worse (The Guardian) We must fight their growing power any way, anywhere, we can. With words, with weapons, with sincere efforts at warm … Continue reading “ISIS: The First Step To Combating It”
Sometimes I discover the most curious things en route to learning something else. I can’t even remember why now, but for some reason, I recently stumbled upon the definition of pericope (peh-RIH-kuh-pee) at the Oxford Biblical Studies Online site. If you’ve read my posts on the Memory Mavens, you’re no doubt aware that I sometimes … Continue reading “What’s Wrong with the Word “Pericope”?”
Anthony Le Donne drew our attention on The Jesus Blog to a book he highly recommended as an introduction to Jesus studies for his seminary students, Jesus among Friends and Enemies. Because Le Donne was fired back in 2012 by Lincoln Christian University over his book The Historiographical Jesus in which he argued for a way of studying the … Continue reading “Introducing new students to Historical Jesus studies – 1”
Previous in this series: Plato’s and the Bible’s Ideal Laws: Similarities 1:631-637 (2015-06-22) Plato’s and Bible’s Laws: Similarities, completing Book 1 of Laws (2015-06-23) Plato’s Laws, Book 2, and Biblical Values (2015-07-13) Plato and the Bible on the Origins of Civilization (2015-08-13) — Book 4 of Plato’s Laws For Plato the ideal state must begin with the … Continue reading “Bible’s Presentation of Law as a Model of Plato’s Ideal”
Reflections on having completed Steven Pinker’s The Better Angels of Our Nature: The Decline of Violence in History and its Causes. . . . By the time I had completed the seventh chapter of Better Angels I began to feel my existence was somehow in a surreal place. Compared with most lives throughout human history mine has been fantastically … Continue reading “Better Angels of Our Nature”
The following response by Dr Hector Avalos to Dr Robert Myles‘ review of The Bad Jesus was originally posted on Debunking Christianity and is reposted here with permission. Dr Robert Myles and The Bad Jesus: An Androcentric Defense of Family/Household Abandonment? By Dr. Hector Avalos Dr. Robert Myles of the University of Auckland (New Zealand) has reviewed The … Continue reading “Hector Avalos Responds to Robert Myles’ Review of The Bad Jesus“
“What do the Charlie Hebdo murders and the rise of the Islamic State owe to Islam? It would be comforting to insist, as many have done, that they owe nothing at all; but Holland, in the inaugural Christopher Hitchens Lecture, argues that the truth is more complex. The best way to combat jihadism, he proposes, … Continue reading “De-Radicalising Muhammad”
“What do the Charlie Hebdo murders and the rise of the Islamic State owe to Islam? It would be comforting to insist, as many have done, that they owe nothing at all; but Holland, in the inaugural Christopher Hitchens Lecture, argues that the truth is more complex. The best way to combat jihadism, he proposes, … Continue reading “De-Radicalising Muhammad”
There is no need, when I have found the source, to follow the streams (John Bolland in Acta Sanctorum 1845: vol. 1, xx). — cited by Henige (2005) . In fact, the historiography of historical Jesus scholars is eclectic and often unconscious or uninformed of a specific historiography. (McKnight 2005, p.16) . In my recent … Continue reading “Understanding Historical Sources: Primary, Secondary and Questions of Authenticity”
This is the continuation of the previous post, Saving Jesus From Hypocrisy: Explaining Jesus’ temper tantrum and mudslinging. We have already seen how his teachings conform to Stoic concepts but what about his behaviour? Is he a hypocrite for teaching his followers to call no-one a fool only to subsequently turn around and call the Pharisees … Continue reading “Understanding the Emotional Jesus: temple tantrums, name-calling and grieving”
We have recently seen how Hector Avalos argues for the irrelevance of biblical ethics in today’s world but this post looks at how and why Jesus emerges for the first time as a supremely ethical figure in the Gospel of Matthew. Stanley Stowers (Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at Brown University) argues that the author of this gospel … Continue reading “Saving Jesus From Hypocrisy: Explaining Jesus’ temper tantrum and mudslinging”
I had long and often read and heard that the values of the Greeks and Jews were an entire world apart. The Greeks embrace the austere and the ribald gods, nudity, homosexuality, worldly wisdom, the arts, beauty and pleasure; the Jews embrace a caring yet moral god, modesty, family values, divine wisdom, spiritual pursuits. But read … Continue reading “Plato’s and the Bible’s Ideal Laws: Similarities 1:631-637”
Hector Avalos, biblical scholar and author of The End of Biblical Studies, has written a new book critical of New Testament ethics, The Bad Jesus. He describes this new work as the first systematic New Atheist challenge to New Testament ethics by a biblical scholar. What is meant by a “New Atheist”? In Avalos’s words: Insofar as … Continue reading “Why Does Jesus Never Do Anything Wrong?”