On Labels and Scholarship: Secularism and Faith in L’Accademia

Up until a little over a year ago, I would have called myself an atheist, a secularist; I have no doubts that many scholars might identify with labels like those or others similarly linked to a lack of faith.  But I have wised up a bit since those days.  On the one hand, I don’t [...]

Subtle Revenge

What Really Happened at the last SBL Conference?

This heretofore secret photo has emerged showing some of our favorite bibliobloggers at the last SBL conference in Atlanta… I can’t be sure, but that might be James McGrath portraying Adam West…

Idiocy: Man Playing Real-Life ‘Frogger’ Hit by SUV

In what might be the biggest d’uh moment of the year, this bright beacon of hope for humanity didn’t seem to recall how the frogs went “splat” often before making it to the other side… A man has been hospitalized after police in South Carolina say he was hit by an SUV while playing a [...]

Reading and Writing in Babylon – Dominique Charpin, (trans. Jane Marie Todd)

I am looking forward to this book.  Here is the blurb:   Over 5,000 years ago, the history of humanity radically changed direction when writing was invented in Sumer, the southern part of present-day Iraq. For the next three millennia, kings, aristocrats, and slaves all made intensive use of cuneiform script to document everything from [...]

Robber Quits his Job? In this Economy?!

So much for the American work ethic… Robbery: You’re not doing it right! FULLERTON, Calif. — Authorities are looking for a man who tried to rob a fast-food drive-thru at gunpoint while wearing a plastic bag over his head but gave up when an employee shut the window and walked away. … A man with [...]

Egyptian Priests’ Names in Pottery

Pretty cool!  This is precisely why, as the slant always goes, one cannot “erase history”.  It is never true that the “victors write history” because, regardless of whether or not a community disappears–like the one below–they never vanish. Broken pieces of clay pottery have revealed the names of dozens of Egyptian priests who served at [...]

Aliens on a Mission to Destroy Earth in 2012? Nope.

Although, apparently, some 2012 conspiracy theorists would have you believe they were.  Thankfully, some people on the interwebs have been dissolving these rumors and setting people on the correct path (that is, the path with the most amount of supporting evidence). If you repeat UFO fiction often enough, does it eventually get reported as fact? [...]

Tim Bulkeley on Reading the Scriptures

Over at B&I there is a great article posted by Tim Bulkeley which I believe a lot of my friends and colleagues could benefit from.  I wish to address the issue of labels at some point; this article is a good example of why we need to be careful when making any cultural generalizations. The [...]

Falling Skies?

This looks good!  h/t to Joel Watts for the heads up!