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February 2021

February 19, 2021

There Is No Bible

I make the point regularly that there is no such thing as "the Bible." The...

February 22, 2020

#CFP Recovering Female Interpreters of the Bible: Society of Biblical Literature #AARSBL20

Two calls for papers from the Recovering Female Interpreters of the Bible program unit, for the...

October 2019

October 11, 2019

The Bible Is Not Written To You

Fred Clark sums up well one of the biggest problems with the way that many...

March 2017

March 26, 2017

Finding What We’re Looking For

A Facebook friend's father said the above in a conversation with a young-earth creationist, and fortunately...

October 2016

October 02, 2016

Genesis as Ink Blot

What do you think? Do you find this analogy which Daniel Eaton came up with...

August 2016

August 10, 2016

Origen vs. Ken Ham

This meme came my way via God of Evolution on Facebook, and I have been...

November 2015

November 21, 2015

The Permeability of Scripture

The Bible's edges blur into the world around it. There is no human encounter with...

October 2015

October 18, 2015

God’s Government

It seems that I have reached the point in my life where I am doing...

August 2015

August 31, 2015

The Fundamentalist Interprets Scripture (Sheep and Goats)

On the day of Biblical interpretation, the fundamentalist sits on his glorious throne, and separates...

August 22, 2015

Do the Fundamentalist Rocks Cry Out?

Fundamentalists say that the Bible must be trustworthy in everything it says - about nature,...

August 18, 2015

Biblical Inerrancy Makes No Difference

Last Sunday, my Sunday school class began talking about what it means to have a canon that...

July 2015

July 22, 2015

Biblical Scholars Fighting Creationism

Hector Avalos has a new article in The Bible and Interpretation about the need for Biblical scholars...

June 2015

June 06, 2015

Fundamentalists and Scholarship

I made the same point some years ago in a blog post. But the above...

February 2015

February 17, 2015

Repent of Your Approach to the Bible

The quote comes from the post "Correction" which appeared here on February 13th.

October 2014

October 29, 2014

Did Jesus Die in Outer Space?

Over the past several weeks I've been reading Richard Carrier's book, On the Historicity of...

October 19, 2014

Unlocking the Gospels

There is no way to "unlock" the Gospel of Matthew. It does not have hidden...

September 2014

September 17, 2014

Is Personal Bible Reading Bad for Christianity?

Paul Penley, in a guest post on Jesus Creed, discussed whether personal Bible reading has had...

August 2014

August 17, 2014

Scripture is Not Alone

The fact is that "scriptura" by its very nature is a book that people read, so...

May 2014

May 15, 2014

Scientifically-Tested Biblical Interpretation

Some people approach the Bible as though there were scientific tests that can be conducted...

April 2014

April 29, 2014

The Letter of James

The modified quote in my previous post was inspired by the discussion of the opening...

April 10, 2014

Betty Bowers’ Handy Bible Interpretation Guide

Via Mrs. Betty Bowers on Facebook. This is a new version of something of hers...

March 2014

March 24, 2014

The Bible, the Veil, and the Spirit

Mention was made in a Facebook conversation I had recently of Paul's reference (2 Cor....

February 2014

February 11, 2014

Beginning With Genesis

"The choice isn’t really between young earth creationism and scientific secularism, however. Or at least it...

January 2014

January 07, 2014

A Chorus of Voices

David Gowler of Emory University is currently writing a book about the reception history of...

January 04, 2014

Literal or Symbolic?

On Reddit I came across this wonderful bit of wisdom about interpreting the Bible, from...

December 2013

December 21, 2013

Have You Even Read Paul?

Fred Clark has a post that starts off being about the whole Duck Dynasty hullabaloo,...

December 12, 2013

Baffling Bible Passages

IO9 made a list of "The 9 Most Baffling Bible Passages." Some of them really...

December 11, 2013

A Mythicist Sympathizer’s Case for a Historical Jesus

A new article in The Bible and Interpretation concludes in the following way: Precisely because...

November 2013

November 19, 2013

Certainty-Seeking Faith

Kurt Willems shared the quote below from Greg Boyd's book Benefit of the Doubt: Breaking...

November 16, 2013

Progressive Then, Brutal Now?

This came my way on Facebook. I was going to just say "discuss" but I...

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