The clocks going back hold the tantalising promise of an extra hour in bed. But the modern attitude towards that champion of indolence, the sloth, shows that sloth is still very much a deadly sin.
Evidence to support the idea of a married Jesus is about as minimal as it ever has been.
mnd.ctrl
The Gospel of Jesus’ Wife, once thought to be authentic, has been revealed as a fraud. How did critical scholarship uncover the truth, and how can it further biblical studies?
The discourse about who is and isn’t welcome is taking on a disturbing new tone.
A protester outside the US Supreme Court of Appeal objects to gay marriage. An incident at a Cape Town university has raised issues of religious freedom.
REUTERS/Joshua Roberts
The furore around freedom of sexual orientation vs religious freedom at a South African university should lead to deeper thinking about Christianity’s historical role in promoting liberalism.
The method used, until recently, by a large proportion of scholars of the New Testament and Christian origins, is flawed.
Roberto Urrea
Traditions about Jesus cannot be separated out into the categories of early and late, primary and secondary, authentic or inauthentic, fact and interpretation. One might as well try and unscramble an omelette.
In elevating the status of animals, the Pope looks back to Francis of Assisi’s example and looks ahead to the prospect of environmental catastrophe.
Flickr/Enrique López-Tamayo Biosca
In suggesting the ultimate restoration of all creatures in his recent encyclical, Pope Francis is breaking with the weight of Western philosophical and theological tradition.
Can Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Dylann Roof be forgiven — and should they? Forgiveness is not an isolated, one-time act but a longer commitment to acceptance back into a community.
A miniature orc from the popular role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons.
Bart Heird/flickr
Australia has a form of secularism where religion is allowed in the public sphere. As long as religion remains one voice and one option among many, the nation will still be secular.
Forget evolution, just listen to the rocks.
Simon de Myle – Noah's Ark on Mount Ararat
The proposition that Easter is a 100% Christian affair is manifestly unsustainable. It shows an ignorance of history. Worse, it shows a failure to understand the way religious traditions work.
Conservative Christians and evangelicals might want to claim freehold over the Bible – but it’s a text for many readers, even atheists.
Bobby McKay/Flickr
Why does an atheist literary scholar need to know about the Bible? It’s a text with innumerable interpretative possibilities that allows readers to connect ‘the apparently unconnectable’.
As the first woman bishop prepares for her consecration on January 26, a row has erupted over another high-profile consecration scheduled for the following week. Libby Lane will become bishop of Stockport…
Today over 700 evangelical US churches now integrate MMA into their ministry programs.
Vivek Prakash/Reuters
“Can you love your neighbor as yourself, and at the same time knee him in the face as hard as you can?” American Christian Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) champion Scott “Bam Bam” Sullivan wonders in an interview…
“It’s not even that good a story,” quips Moses during Exodus: Gods and Kings, the latest biblical blockbuster to assault our cinema screens. I think Moses was being rather harsh on himself there; it’s…
What was the celestial body the three wise men followed 2,000 years ago?
epSos.de
The wise men were likely accomplished Greek astrologers, watching the stars for signs of a king’s birth. Technical terms used in the Bible’s description point to a real astronomical event.
In Cecil B. Demille’s The Ten Commandments, Charlton Heston’s Moses is presented straightforwardly as a man certain of his mission.
Wikimedia Commons
The term “reboot” means something particular in the movies. The metaphor is drawn from computers: a “reboot” restarts a machine whose software has malfunctioned. But in cinematic terms a reboot refers…
Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity