I’m very pleased to be able to say that my professor, Chris Rollston, has officially accepted a visiting professorship at George Washington University beginning in the Spring semester. You can read his announcement here, as well as his note of thanks to his friends, colleagues, and students, here. This marks the end of a...
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Dr. P. Kyle McCarter, the William Foxwell Albright Professor of Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at the Johns Hopkins University, has written a lengthy open letter in support of Dr. Rollston. He has published this letter both on his own personal website (here) and on Dr. Jack Sasson’s ubiquitous academic newsletter. With his kind...
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Bob Cargill has issued an open call for letters in support of Dr. Christopher Rollston. The first to respond is none other than Dr. Athalya Brenner herself, a Jewish biblical scholar at the University of Tel Aviv, Israel, and the editor and author of over 25 books on feminist and gender issues in the...
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In seeking liberation for themselves and subversion of the dominant meta-theologies, contextual theologies often do violence to or ignore other marginalized voices. For instance, Womanist theology—theology done from the experience of black women—has brought up the issue of where  black women fit into white women’s theology, especially in relation to the history of oppression at...
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It is no secret that Paul Ryan has been an enthusiastic devotee of the moral and economic philosophies of Ayn Rand. At a gathering of Ayn Rand acolytes in 2005, Ryan said, “The reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would...
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The previous post here I have dedicated as a “sacred space,” a place where students can share their appreciation for Dr. Rollston without appearing to be taking sides in the politics of this growing controversy. That, I think, is an important space. But the need for that space certainly does not negate the need...
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Much has been said over the past six weeks to disparage the character of Dr. Christopher Rollston as an academic and a Christian. But what has been painted is a distorted and ultimately false portrait of the man who has touched deeply the lives of countless students and Christians throughout his career. What follows...
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A lot has been written regarding the happenings at Emmanuel Christian Seminary in relation to what should have been a very uncontroversial blog post.1  The academic blogosphere has come to his defense, so I will let the biblical scholars tell you about Dr. Rollston’s superlative credentials and the responsibility of an institution to a tenured...
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Today, Inside Higher Education published an exposé revealing pieces of information surrounding Dr. Christopher Rollston’s plight at Emmanuel Christian Seminary. It brings to the forefront a letter written to Dr. Rollston by ECS President Michael Sweeney detailing several of the justifications for his (still pending) termination. It does not reveal the entire contents of...
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Much ink has been spilt recently over the treatment of a beloved professor of mine – namely, Prof. Christopher Rollston. Thom Stark has already shown how Prof. Rollston’s detractors are entirely lacking any kind of convincing argument...
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Dr. Paul Blowers has now posted a response to some of his critics over his public criticisms of and institutional maneuvers against Dr. Christopher Rollston. In the comment thread, Dr. Bob Cargill has identified Dr. Blowers’ post as a distraction from the real questions involving the purported disciplinary action taken against Dr. Rollston for...
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Since I wrote my analysis of the fiscally-driven controversy surrounding Dr. Chris Rollston’s anything-but-controversial Huffington Post article, several others have weighed in with support for Dr. Rollston: First, Bob Cargill engages ECS’s Paul Blowers here. Tom Verenna writes: “On Academic Integrity and the Future of Biblical Studies in Confessional Institutions” Jim West writes: “An...
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Before I begin with the story and mount my defense of Dr. Rollston against his cultured despisers, I need...
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You’ve heard it from the media, from your colleagues at work, from behind the pulpit, and out in the...
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In The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Zaphod Beeblebrox steals a technologically advanced spacecraft. He’s not actually sure why he...
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Once, when I was teaching music at a Christian college, I was trying to explain some arcane bit of...
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I’ve been thinking a lot about apocalypse. It might be because I’m reading The Walking Dead (a zombie apocalypse...
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What a long, strange trip it’s been.  I (successfully) defended my dissertation in May. It was an interesting if...
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This second part of my response to Richard Carrier will deal essentially with the interpretation of three texts: Daniel...
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Richard Carrier has responded to some of my criticisms of his pre-Christian Dying Messiah thesis. He cites my first...
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A commenter on my two posts on Richard Carrier’s Dying Messiah Debacle brought up the fact that Targum Jonathan’s...
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My first film, Note to Self, which won the Platinum Remi Award at the 45th Annual Worldfest Houston International...
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Richard Carrier has confidently stated that in some of the comments on his blog he has “refuted” “most” of...
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Mythicist Neil Godfrey has displayed perhaps one of the reasons he’s a mythicist: his poor reading comprehension. On the...
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UPDATE: There is a Part Two to this post here. If your head has been in the sand the...
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Not long ago, I had a dream in which I rediscovered what it was like to believe in God...
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A struggling Christian who shall remain anonymous emailed me with some questions about how to understand his struggles with...
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