In a recent re-reading of the classic graphic novel Watchmen (a reading spurred by the not-too-distant theatrical release), it was noticed that despite being written nearly thirty years ago near the climax of the Cold War, Watchmen holds its force still. The classic work written by Alan Moore with art by Dave Gibbons, recounts a […]
Led by Professor of Christian Ethics, Amy Laura Hall, a number of Duke Divinity students decided to give a little “toast” to those fine men and women at my lovely Alma mater (Go Duke!) who have found themselves worthy, in a time of great economic downfall, of bonuses. And I don’t mean a ‘wee’ Christmas […]
One year ago, Paste Magazine’s associate editor Rachel Maddux wrote a provocative article that asked the question, “Is Indie dead?” Comparing the question to the one TIME writer John T. Elson wrote forty five years ago concerning the more existential question, is God dead?, Maddux ties the theological question to the musical one: Elson wrote […]
In this interview, Gary Dorrien discusses the contemporary economic crisis, Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri’s economic perspective, and constructive theological responses to empire, including the implementation of his own theories of economic democracy.
Operator, give me information. Information, give me long distance. Long distance, give me heaven. . . . Give me Jesus on the line. —“Operator,” The Manhattan Transfer, 1975 What is the Bible? Most obviously, a book—hence its English name, from the Greek biblion, “book.” Like any book it consists (or used always to consist, until […]
If you could go back in time and genetically engineer Jesus—wave some futuristic gizmo over Mary’s womb and edit his DNA—would you do it? Would you trust a large, for-profit corporation to do it? In 2001, David Quist and Ignacio Chapela of U.C. Berkeley announced in Nature that transgenes—chunks of DNA artificially transferred from one species […]
I’ve been thinking about zealotry. Religious zealotry is as common as pig tracks: the very word zealot derives from a militant first-century Jewish group resisting Roman occupation. There is plenty in this department to expose, reject, and confess. But what is saddening and disturbing me at the moment is the zealotry of a group that I […]
Kazmir commented on my previous post, “Any speculations about why white American evangelical Protestants are so slow in catching up with the rest of the world on the issue of climate change?” Good question. Such a good question that my reply is big enough to be a post. First, let’s keep in mind that according […]
When it comes to science, Christians are too often on the defensive: the Earth is so stationary (stamp foot), we are not descended from monkeys, and so on. Or else we can be heard elaborately explaining why science is OK by us after all — a project with which I have much sympathy. But one […]