Ruminations on biblical studies, technology, economics, and sports from Jason A. Staples
Christianity Today has posted a new article, Survey: Frequent Bible Reading Can Turn You Liberal,which details the surprising survey results pertaining to attitudes about consumption, social justice, terrorism, etc. The article suggests that consistent Bible reading pushes people leftward on some issues. For example: Some of the most interesting findings relate to moral attitudes. How [...] Read more »
I had the opportunity to teach a five-week course of “Introduction to New Testament Literature” at UNC-Chapel Hill this summer, and I took the opportunity to reexamine and revamp a few aspects of how I’ve taught that course (or have seen others teach it) in the past. In addition to a lot of fine-tuning and [...] Read more »
It’ll be very interesting to see what happens to Harold Camping‘s followers in the aftermath of his failed attempt to predict the “Rapture” (and subsequent end of the world). These people have embraced Camping’s prediction to the point of personally bankrupting themselves (like this 60-year-old retiree who spent his $140,000 life savings to buy billboards [...] Read more »
I suppose it’s about as good a time as any to deal with this popular misinterpretation, given Harold Camping‘s ridiculous prediction that the church will be raptured at 6PM on May 21 (time zone by time zone, no less!). Yet again, the passage in question deals with eschatology (the end times), a subject that has [...] Read more »
The marketing campaign for Bart Ehrman’s latest popular book (this time on forgery in the Bible) has picked up in earnest, first with a few interviews and now with a piece in the Huffington Post summarizing his thesis that “the Bible actually contains lies.” As usual, Bart isn’t actually saying anything new in this popular-level [...] Read more »
