I recall as a first year law student attending a lecture on music copyright by Clyde Spillenger. The professor played a recording of Sweet Georgia Brown by Bernie and Pinkard (the “Harlem Globetrotters song,” if that helps). He then played a folk recording of Hava Nagila (that one Jewish song that you know). He asked students to consider the respective similarities in the songs’ top-line melody (there were none), its chord structure (again no relation), and other...
The Root Issue: Failure to Listen In my previous blog post, The Art of Listening, I discussed the important and wise lesson behind one of my favorite biblical versus—Proverbs 18:13: “He who gives an answer before he hears, it is folly and shame to him” (NASB). If you have not already done so, I highly recommend reading through that previous post as this topic is in many ways a continuation of that [all too common]...
Thursday’s attack in Nice, France (le 14 juillet) follows a painful procession of recent attacks that have occurred throughout our world, many within the past month of Ramadan. France, still collectively recovering from Le Bataclan (and Hebdo before it) finds herself in a heartbreakingly familiar and now seemingly permanent state of alertness and grief. Elsewhere flags around the world appear to remain at a perpetual half-mast this summer. People all over are growing accustomed to...
Earlier this week, a friend of mine pulled out his phone and opened what looked like Google maps. Only, it looked more pixelated, and it showed not restaurants but Pokemon. I was introduced then to the new craze that is Pokemon Go. Pokemon Go is a virtual reality smartphone game in which players can find, capture, and battle Pokemon around the world. In the old games, you controlled a little character who would find a...
ATLANTA, GA – This past November (2015) the Cheesological Society had their annual meeting to discuss one thing: cheese, of course. At this annual meeting there was a session dedicated to the relationship between Mozarella and cheese. The two plenaries were given by Jack McGouda and N.T. Swiss. McGouda argued that Mozarella was such a special cheese, a cheese that was chosen long ago as the best sort of cheese. This cheese has distinct qualities...
For the past few years, I have been pretty intensely involved in a particular field of academics that generates a ton of monographs, books, and other book-like-things every year. One of the great ways us young academics can get our name listed along with all other rockstars of the Biblical studies field is to review one of these publications in a reputable journal. Other than writing really great blog entries with a devil-may-care attitude towards...
I received this invite for a cool conference opportunity from my friend Andrew: Good morning, and greetings from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, NC! I hope you are doing well. We at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary are pleased to announce the 2016 SEBTS PhD Symposium Competition on A Theology of Faith, Work, and Economics. The Symposium Competition is available to all current PhD students and will be hosted on our campus in Wake...
I once attended a funeral for a man (lets call him “Joe-Bob”) who was renowned in our little town in South Dakota for his regular place at the local bar. It was a unique affair with testimonials that praised Joe-Bob’s happy outlook on life, his ability to hold his alcohol, and his consistent appearance at the third seat down from the tap. Joe-Bob’s widow poignantly pointed out that, even though Joe-Bob was dying of cirrhosis...
I am pleased to say that my newest article has just appeared in the latest issue of Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal—the only academic journal devoted exclusively to the life and work of C. S. Lewis. My article is on C. S. Lewis’ (arguably) greatest work of fiction, Till We Have Faces, and looks at the potential influence of the biblical book of Esther on the novel. Below is the title and the abstract...
I first received the news of Howard Marshall, one of the most influential New Testament scholars in the world, passing away late Saturday night. Several blog posts are cropping up containing tributes and summaries of his life and work. In this blog post, I thought I might add a few personal notes about my experience of I. Howard Marshall I came to the University of Aberdeen to do a PhD in New Testament knowing that...
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