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Review of The Many Faces of Herod the Great by Adam Kolman Marshak
Read more: Review of The Many Faces of Herod the Great by Adam Kolman MarshakAdam Kolman Marshak. The Many Faces of Herod the Great. Eerdmans, 2015. 400 pgs. $35 (Paperback). ISBN 978-0-8028-6605-9. In The Many Faces of Herod the Great, Adam Kolman Marshak offers a fresh and compelling historiographical account of one of the more misunderstood figures in antiquity. While he agrees that Herod does, at times, play the…
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Review of Early Christianity in Contexts edited by William Tabbernee
Read more: Review of Early Christianity in Contexts edited by William TabberneeTabbernee, William, ed. Early Christianity in Contexts: An Exploration Across Cultures and Continents Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2014. 475 pages + 127 pages bibliography and indices. Hardcover. Retail: $42.99. In Early Christianity in Contexts, editor William Tabbernee provides an overview of early Christian history that focuses on the various locations and cultural contexts within…
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On the Other Side of the Yellow Brick Road
Read more: On the Other Side of the Yellow Brick RoadI recently went to watch the musical, Wicked by Stephen Schwartz, for the first time, and found it very entertaining and thought-provoking. The songs were catchy and the classic songs of “Defying Gravity” and “For Good” were great. The cast did a great job and they played and sung their parts wonderfully. If you’re not…
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Review of From Jesus to the New Testament by Jens Schröter
Read more: Review of From Jesus to the New Testament by Jens SchröterJens Schröter. From Jesus to the New Testament: Early Christian Theology and the Origin of the New Testament Canon. Translated by Wayne Coppins. Waco: Baylor University Press, 2013. xiv + 417 pp. Hardcover. $59.95. ISBN: 9781602588226. From Jesus to the New Testament is a translation of Jens Schröter’s 2007 work Von Jesus zum Neuen Testament….
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Let Us Keep The Feast: A Book Recommendation
Read more: Let Us Keep The Feast: A Book RecommendationIt all started with Chaim Potok—the 20th century Jewish novelist who wrote mainly about Orthodox and Hasidic Jews living in New York City, and is famous for such books as The Chosen and My Name is Asher Lev. I discovered his novels in college, and, after reading a few of them, I came to a…
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Is there such a thing as “the wrong side of history”?
Read more: Is there such a thing as “the wrong side of history”?This week as I was perusing my Facebook news-feed the following quote surfaced: “Humans motivated by lofty ideals are capable of inflicting great suffering with a clear conscience.” – Paul Hollander The concept intrigued me, but I was immediately curious about the original object of Hollander’s critique. Is he interested in the effects of “lofty ideals” as…
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Tradition, Scripture, History
Read more: Tradition, Scripture, HistoryAs a good Protestant I was always taught to be grateful for, but suspicious of the first, fiercely devoted to the second, and un-threatened by the third. When Tradition is found wanting it can be remolded; it is malleable where the other two are not. Scripture is cast in stone. It does not change and…
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Downertown Abbey
Read more: Downertown AbbeyMajor Spoilers Ahead. Do not read if you haven’t watched the Season 3 Finale. I have written before about my love for television watching, which is mostly due to the profession I have chosen. Currently I am working with patients who experience a traumatic physical event (car accident, fall, gun shot wound, etc.) from beginning…
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My First Twitter Battle: Jesus = Apollonius of Tyana
Read more: My First Twitter Battle: Jesus = Apollonius of TyanaI recently got into my first Twitter battle – and it was epic. Sometimes, when I am done pouring through old books and ancient citations, I do searches in Twitter for various subjects that I had been reading about. A few days ago that subject was Apollonius of Tyana. I quickly found a tweet that…
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The Great Crime: Reflections on Family, Suffering, and the Armenian Genocide (Guest Post)
Read more: The Great Crime: Reflections on Family, Suffering, and the Armenian Genocide (Guest Post)This year on the 24th of April, Armenia remembers the 97th anniversary of the displacing of 250 influential Armenian citizens from the Ottoman capital city in 1915. This event was the pivotal beginnings of what would be later called the Armenian Genocide. During the Genocide, which took place from 1915 to 1923, Turks massacred two…