Jeremy Thompson Catholic PhD in Biblical Languages, Programmer, Runner

Daniel McClellan and Doug Chaplin are two bloggers that I enjoy reading a lot.  They have both drawn attention to a relief effort being made by Richard Dawkins for the recent earthquake in Haiti.  Daniel is a little more hopeful; Doug is a bit more disappointed.  These are interesting takes on the topic, and I hope you will click over an read them.  I have to say that I find at Daniel’s assessment spot on and couldn’t agree more with this point (I would bold it and italicize it, but that might be overdoing it a bit):

First, I’d like to say that contributing to the relief efforts in Haiti is important no matter the motivation.

If you haven’t made use of the Red Cross’ opportunity to give through text message, I can’t think of any way that it could possibly be any easier.

I’ve been watching this whole Daniel Wallace thing expand into a full fledged controversy over the last couple of days.  And, Doug Chaplin has a nice bit of satire on the matter today.  I would love to cite the post in full, but I also want you to click over to Doug’s blog.  So, here’s an excerpt:

Among other links, Pat draws us to Dallas Theological Seminary’s Doctrinal Statement. And I made the mistake of taking the red pill and going down the rabbit-hole clicking on the link. I’m still trying to recover from the shock. I thought I was inoculated against fundyphobia, but apparently not. It not only takes them six articles to get to Christ, but you have to go through some very weird angelology to get there. The idea that this exceeding strange synthesis of various verses about (and actually not about – e.g. Isaiah’s oracle against the king of Babylon) angels and demons is the third article of Christian faith leaves me stranded between laughter and tears. Dan Brown, eat your heart out!

Now it might be that the main purpose of this statement of faith is nothing whatsoever to do with the way the seminary practices scholarship, but is there in order to garner financial support from the great unwashed who wouldn’t know a scholar from a snake-oil salesman …

I cannot help but agree with Doug’s final conclusion that according to Daniel Wallace’s definition of “Christian” I am no Christian either.  Unfortunately, I do not possess Doug’s gift of turn of phrase.  Be sure to check out Doug’s post in full.

I don’t want to give away the whole post, but you might like to check out Doug Chaplin’s comments on the KJV superiority challenge (this was new to me).  Doug lays out the KJV and NRSV of 2 Corinthians 6.11-13 side-by-side before giving this conclusion:

If your ear for the English language suggests the former is superior, I would suggest getting it syringed with communicative common sense as soon as possible.

Hilarious! “Syringed with communicative common sense…”  Why can I never come up with anything as clever as that?  Check out the whole post at the link above.

I checked out a post by Doug Chaplin today on problems with the idea of canon formation.  That post has the potential for sparking an interesting discussion;  however, it also reminded me of something I have forgotten to do, though I have been meaning to do it for a while.  I wanted to point my readers to Doug’s sporadic but ongoing series on the Church of England’s 39 Articles.  Being a Roman Catholic, I do come from a different tradition than Doug. Yet I find myself agreeing with him far more often than I disagree.  So, if theology is of interest to you, be sure to check out this worthy series.

No time to write on my own yet.  Maybe later this evening, but here are some interesting posts I’ve read today:

1. John Hobbins – Why believers must complain about and criticize biblical texts
2. Chris Brady – Want a date? Deny the existence of God
3. Doug Chaplin – The wrong question: James McGrath on Jesus as God – This is a must read post in my book.  Have to include a quote, “One also has to ask, theologically, what on earth would it mean to ‘know you are God’? Could you possibly be a real human being (or at least a sane one) if you thought you were God?”

Some Biblical Studies, some humor, some theology.  Hope you enjoy.