Our new podcast episode is out! You can find it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Anchor, or wherever you get your podcasts. Check it out, subscribe for weekly episodes every Wednesday, and please give us a rating and review! During this Coronavirus pandemic many of us are practicing social distancing, self-quarantining, and sheltering in place. It’s a stressful time existentially and economically, and as a result, what we eat might not seem like much...
Here we are isolated from one another in our homes and apartments in an effort to stem the spread of COVID-19. Naturally, there’s been lots of questions back and forth of how to stem the virus and what should remain open and what should be closed until a later date. Then comes the questions of what to do with our worship services. Do the services keep going (similar to the times of the plague in...
Our new podcast episode is out! You can find it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Anchor, or wherever you get your podcasts. In this episode we discuss the difficulty of doing church and being the church in the midst of the present Coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19). To what extent is virtual communion valid? Given the mandates around the world to practice social distancing, and in some sectors sheltering in place, what does the communion of...
We are thrilled to officially launch The Two Cities Podcast. You can find it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Anchor, Breaker, Radio Public, and a few other podcast platforms. Please subscribe and write us a review as it helps spread the word! Today we are launching three episodes to kick off the podcast. Here are the short descriptions of each episode. Episode 1 – Parasite (Movie Review) – Parasite (dir. Bong Joon-ho) is a...
We are so thrilled to announce that coming soon in the next few weeks we will be launching The Two Cities podcast! Be on the lookout, and be sure to subscribe and spread the word when the new pod arrives. We began this blog back in the summer of 2011. Back then blogs were very popular; everyone had a blog and everyone blogged about everything. Blogs still exist, of course, but their dominance has been...
Recently I co-wrote a chapter with Dr. Neil Shortland in a volume on the Harry Potter series dedicated to culture, politics, and international relations, called Cultural Politics in Harry Potter: Life, Death and the Politics of Fear (London: Routledge, 2019). The chapter we wrote is about how Voldemort’s strategy for immortality is much like how terrorist groups operate; it’s called “Al-Qa’ida and the Horcruxes: Quests for Immortality by Violent Extremist Organizations and Lord Voldemort.” Here...
The final season of Game of Thrones began this past Sunday on HBO. I find it very intriguing that they chose this past Sunday of all days because it was Palm Sunday. If you don’t know, the title “Game of thrones” refers to the machinations, backbiting, and betrayal involved in this medieval fantasy game of politics in the ascent to the Iron Throne. In this light, I can’t help but reflect on the juxtaposition of the...
A Saudi journalist was on the radio the other day commenting on a striking familiarity he noticed about recent media coverage of American Trump supporters. He described it in one word: Orientalism. I immediately understood what he meant. Edward Said gave shape to the concept of Orientalism as a predominantly “western” (European and American) way of “othering” Arab and Asian peoples by exaggerating and distorting exotic differences in ways that suggest iconoclasm, backwardness, incivility, and...
It’s been seven months since I have been involved in Biblical-Academic pursuit. In that time I’ve transitioned to a fairly normal blue-collar job, taken up interest in a career path in fitness (shameless plug: if you’re looking for coaching, I do Powerlifting, Bodybuilding and General Fitness!), got engaged and started planning a wedding. My primary focus has shifted away from scouring through libraries to making long-term financial goals, figuring out how to plan a date...
We live in a world full of interesting moments that are captured forever on the internet. Different worlds can collide. For example, the recent viral video of Justin Bieber serenading Dr. Barry Corey, president of Biola University, was captured by paparazzi. While the rest of the world wondered about the “random guy,” the Biola community found this moment of viral fame for Dr. Corey quite amusing. I’m grateful for Dr. Corey’s response in this interview...
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