Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Progressive Christian
Women in Religion
The A to Z of 2023

The A to Z of 2023

Last updated on: December 21, 2023 at 2:53 pm by James F. McGrath

0 Comments

The A to Z of 2023 2023-12-21T14:53:22-05:00 James F. McGrath

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

A year ago I was just returning from spending Michelmas term at Magdalen College in Oxford, at the halfway point in a yearlong sabbatical. I was happy to be back with my family after extended separation. I was wondering what it would be like, after spending time in the Bodleian Libraries’ David Reading Room looking at manuscripts and in the Duke Humphries library just because it is such a cool historic space, to relocate soon after the beginning of the new year to Milledgeville, Georgia. As it turned out, while there were no historic manuscripts I had gotten the photos I needed to of those while in Oxford, and while there was no existing collection relevant to John the Baptist in the library of Georgia College and State University, interlibrary loan meant that was not a problem in the slightest. The weather had grown cold in Oxford and it was cold in Indianapolis, making Georgia that much more invigorating. I took my first sabbatical in a spring semester not realizing how much the cold and longer night could be demotivating.

In addition to continuing writing and researching, I had the privilege of teaching a course on women in early Christianity for the first time at GCSU. I plan to offer it at Butler in fall 2024. ChatGPT made its appearance right during this time and I was briefly tempted to turn my attention away from John the Baptist to writing about this latest AI development. Instead, I decided to get students to use it and figure out what it was, what educators and everyone else ought to be worried about, what its shortcomings were, and how if at all we might harness it in positive ways for educational purposes. I talked with librarians about it, and encouraged my students to experiment with it and tell me how they used it. I told students they could earn points in other creative ways, by making artwork, songs, and memes. Of course found myself inspired to offer a parody song as well.

Some of the memes students came up with were absolutely brilliant. Here are a couple of my favorites, which I don’t believe I shared here.

ChatGPT ended up being a major focus of the Newell Scholar Lecture I gave at GCSU. That talk is on YouTube.

Since getting back to Butler, there has been an effort here as well to address the question of what to do with ChatGPT. You can find some of the resulting lesson plans on this site. I was so relieved that I managed to get the John the Baptist books wrapped up and submitted to the publisher before classes began. The most surprising thing was that I was pretty sure that I would then take some time off and not worry about what my next book project would be. Then I mentioned an idea in passing to my editor, and things quickly escalated so that now there’s another book in the pipeline. At last now finally I have just a couple of little things to contribute here and there, but several possibilities none of which I’m sure will go anywhere. I’ll say more about those at some point.

My book The A to Z of the New Testament came out in November and quickly got a lot of positive attention. I wondered what Eerdmans would think of my penchant for making silly videos including song parodies to promote the book, and to my surprise they were delighted! I talked with Jacob Berman (History Valley), Tripp Fuller (Homebrewed Christianity), Potential Theism, and many others about the book, a few of those interviews yet to appear. Rick Lee James shared a reading from the book on his podcast.

My book What Jesus Learned from Women appeared in Romanian translation. I hope to get a chance to travel there and give some talks related to the book in the not too distant future.

Blog readers, it has been quite a year and a half! I’m hopeful that more regular blogging will characterize the year to come. I had to focus on the sabbatical research if I was to have any hope of getting it done within the allotted time. But the fact that three of the four books that I have written since summer 2022 are aimed at a general audience, I hope you’ll believe me when I say that public scholarship remains a passion of mine, and that includes blogging.

There’s much more detail that I could go into about this past year, but I think that’s enough and captures the key points. How has your year been? What do you hope that I’ll blog about in 2024? Looking forward to writing more here for you, and the conversations that will ensue. Until then, have a merry Christmas and a happy new year if you celebrate those things!

Women in Religion

biblioblogging

2023 Year in Review

Patheos

Previous Post

December 19, 2023

John the Baptist Call for Papers

Next Post

December 27, 2023 The Church on Ruby Road

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"And to you!"

James F. McGrath

Make Evangelicalism Christian Again

"Thank You, I identify as "strange" wink, wink! Anyway, at this point we're not going ..."

Burke S

Make Evangelicalism Christian Again

"You are such a strange individual and so difficult to have a conversation with. You ..."

James F. McGrath

Make Evangelicalism Christian Again

"What you're suggesting citing these "rabbinical" interpretations you're favoring are just that - interpretations. There ..."

Burke S

Make Evangelicalism Christian Again

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 1 Corinthians 1 John 1 Peter 1 Samuel 1 Thessalonians 1 Timothy 2 Corinthians 2 Kings 2 Peter 2 Samuel 2 Thessalonians 2 Timothy academia Acts of the Apostles afterlife Akhaten Alcatraz American Academy of Religion Amos Anglican Arabic Aramaic archaeology art artificial intelligence astronomy atheism atonement Babylon 5 Baptists Battlestar Galactica Bible Biblical Studies Carnival biblioblogging Black Mirror Blade Runner Book of Job book review Buddhism Call for Papers China Christianity Christmas Christology Chronicles Coptic creation Daniel Deuteronomy Doctor Who Dune Easter Ecclesiastes economics education Eldad Keynan Enoch Seminar Ephesians eschatology Esther Evangelicals evolution Exodus Expanse Ezekiel Ezra fantasy Fringe fundamentalism Galatians games Ge'ez genealogy Genesis Gnosticism Gospel of Jesus' Wife Gospel of John Gospel of Judas Gospel of Luke Gospel of Mark Gospel of Matthew Gospel of Peter Gospel of Thomas Greek Harry Potter Hebrew Hebrews Hinduism historical Jesus history Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Holidays horror Hosea humor incarnation India inerrancy information literacy inspirational Intelligent Design Ireland Isaiah Islam Israel Italy James Jeremiah John the Baptist Jonah Joshua Judaism Jude Judges Judith Lamentations languages Latin Leviticus libraries literature Lord of the Rings LOST Mandaeans Mandaic memes Methodism Micah monotheism morality Mormons movies music mythicism NASSCAL Nehemiah new perspective New Testament news Numbers Orthodox paganism panentheism pantheism Patheos Paul and his letters Pentecostals Philippians Philippians 2:6-11 philosophy physics Planet of the Apes podcast politics Progressive Christianity Protestantism Proverbs Psalms pseudoscience racism religion Revelation Roman Catholicism Romania Romans Ruth scams science science fiction Secret Gospel of Mark Society of Biblical Literature Song of Songs Star Trek Star Wars Stargate Swahili Syriac Taoism technology Terminator The Handmaid's Tale The Hobbit The Matrix theodicy theology theory Timeless Titus tomb Torchwood travel TRON Uncategorized United Kingdom Westworld X-Files young-earth creationism Zechariah

Select a Month November 2026 October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 February 2007 January 2001

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

According to Ecclesiastes 2, what did the author try in search of meaning?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Pleasure, work, and wisdom Teaching, healing, and prophecy Worship, prayer, and sacrifice Fasting, solitude, and silence

Books by This Author Books by James F. McGrath

See All Titles »

Related posts from Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath

Family