Sanders cont. (2&3)

Moving on- Outline and Politics.
Chapter two is very brief as Sanders gives an outline of Jesus’ life. He begins with the facts that are “almost beyond dispute”- a good way to begin. Here they are:

Sanders: Historical Jesus

I first posted on Sanders’ book, The Historical Figure of Jesus here, but it’s a dust-jacket review.  Here, I’d like to begin a more thorough and proper review.  The reason that I’m starting with Sanders is because he gives, I think, a good jumping point to look at the biblical issues I’m exploring.  Even though [...]

History animated

This is really fascinating – it’s the Civil War, as a map of battles and controlled territory in 4 minutes.  The interesting thing watching in the flow of animation is that you are never in doubt that the North will win.  More of history should be animated like this for teaching and for perspective.

Christianity, Antisemitism, and History

One of the books I got at Powell’s over Christmas was John Gager’s The Origins of Anti-Semitism. It’s a detailed and thoughtful reading of the Pagan and early Christian writings on attitudes towards the Jews and Judaism between 300 BCE and 300 CE (roughly). In typical fashion for a scholarly work, Gager sets [...]

Global Warming

Morning Edition (NPR) had an interesting report on the “global warming” effect (maybe better called the “Al Gore” effect) on environmental issues, that is, GW getting all the attention, now at the expense of other environmental issues. Although, environmentalists aren’t slow witted, so as long as peoples’ attention is piqued, they tie in their [...]

History of Violence

Edge.org has a video post (scroll to the bottom of that page) of Steven Pinker (my favorite linguist, although I’m behind on his books) discussing “A History of Violence” (he has a text version article on the same site; the video presentation was originally from TED.com). The basic premise is to debunk the notion [...]

Speaking of Faith

A couple weekends ago, I got to drive up for a quick trip to San Louis Obispo for the convention. On the way back, I left early Sunday and had one of the most beautiful drives down the coast ever. Something about the light gave a softness to everything that was wonderful. [...]

The importance of words to thought and deed

A recent post by Andrew Sullivan (The Atlantic Monthly) provided the following interchange between a reporter and the president:

Q Thank you, sir. A simple question.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes. It may require a simple answer.
Q What’s your definition of the word “torture”?
THE PRESIDENT: Of what?
Q The word “torture.” What’s your definition?
THE PRESIDENT: That’s defined in U.S. law, [...]

The Misunderstood Jew

Just finished the The Misunderstood Jew by Amy-Jill Levine. Levine is a Jew (raised as a Jew), who grew up in a predominantly Protestant area, and, ironically, is the Rhodes & Carpenter Professor of New Testament Studies at Vanderbilt. The book is an assessment of Jesus in his Jewish context, and the multiple [...]

Knocking

We watched a video last night entitled “Knocking“, a documentary on Jehovah’s Witnesses. It’s not expansive in it’s scope – it actually focuses primarily on the experiences of two families – but does give a brief outline of their history and beliefs. The DVD contains a “FAQ” about various beliefs more in-depth presented [...]