Those of us who have been paying attention since January 20th, and who believe that convicted felon and four-times-indicted psychopath Donald Trump should never have been elected President, know full well that our country is in a dangerous place. Some legal analysts believe we are in a Constitutional crisis, which seems abstract but actually affects […]
Bible
Recent Archaeological Finds that Illuminate the Social World of Early Christianity
Evidence from Roman Imperial times is constantly being unearthed in archaeological excavations around the Mediterranean. The newly-discovered structures and artifacts frequently hold information that can teach us more about the people of antiquity. Since the Christian (New) Testament has been so influential in the history of the West, scholars who study Christian Testament texts and […]
Unnamed Women in the Christian Testament: Celebrating the Contributions of the Invisible
In earlier posts, we have highlighted women whose names and some of their roles in the Jesus movement we know, many of whom have long been ignored in the history of New (Christian) Testament scholarship (and Sunday School stories): women from Paul’s letter to the Romans, Chapter 16 (the apostle Junia, the deacon Phoebe, the […]
Christian Leaders on Values and the Current Threat to Our Democratic System
As the November election looms, over 200 leaders in a number of Christian groups and denominations have issued a powerful statement linking our current “crisis of democracy” with values held by American Christians. The lengthy statement is comprehensive and argues, “Democracy stands embattled, facing new threats within our nation and new challenges around the globe… […]
Friday the 13th and the Heritage of the Goddess
This is being posted on Friday, September 13; there will be another Friday the 13th in December. Friday the 13th (F13) gets a bad rap. Believed by some to be the unluckiest day of the year, many people fear it – probably because both Friday, the day of the week, and the number 13 are […]
Ancient Papyri, Household Codes, Slavery, and non-Western Paul: A Sampling of Current Christian Testament Research
Last year, we reported on the First (2023) Global Virtual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature. And we have also discussed Biblical scholarship that has emerged from other SBL meetings (2017, 2020, and 2021). SBL, founded in 1880, is “the oldest and largest learned society devoted to the critical investigation of the Bible from […]
Uncovering Nympha: Scholarship and Female Leadership in the Early Jesus Movement
When one reads standard reference works about the New (Christian) Testament and the early Jesus movement one would almost never know that there is a woman mentioned in the letter to the Colossians. It has taken recent research by female scholars to uncover yet another woman who served the movement in the same ways that […]
Resources for Women’s History Month
In honor of Women’s History Month, here is a sampling of resources about women, especially focused on the early Jesus followers, the New (Christian) Testament, nascent Christianity, and the ancient (Western) world. We are grateful for the scholars (both male and female) who have brought women out of the shadows over the past several decades! […]
Biblical Scholarship: A Report on the First Global Virtual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature
The Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) tried something new in March 2023: holding a virtual global meeting. SBL was founded in 1880 and is “the oldest and largest learned society devoted to the critical investigation of the Bible from a variety of academic disciplines.” SBL holds an Annual Meeting in North America (which now draws […]
Barber, Sanders and Raising the Minimum Wage: Making the Moral and Practical Arguments
The Rev. Dr. William Barber II, known to Americans as the co-leader of the Poor People’s Campaign, a modern resurgence of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr’s final campaign, has founded a new center at Yale Divinity School, the Center for Public Theology and Public Policy. The Center’s mission is “to prepare a new generation […]