Heretical musings on religion and culture from a literary scholar
When asked in a recent interview (The Infidel Guy Show) about the evidence for the historical Jesus, Bart Ehrman threw out the tired line "No Serious/No Reputable Scholar doubts that a historical Jesus existed." Ehrman's support of the historical Jesus is used by apologists to show how even extremely liberal theologians like Bart cannot bring themselves to doubt a historical Jesus (the title of one blog post is "Atheist Stumped by Overwhelming Evidence for Jesus' ...
If you're looking for a late-summer read, check out the book "Jesus Potter Harry Christ." It claims that both Harry and Jesus are spiritual metaphors told in the literary form of historical fiction. The paperback is selling well on amazon, but we'd like to print hardcover copies - so we've set up a page on kickstarter.com where you can get a better deal and some great freebies by supporting the project. Thanks! Click here for the ...
A big part of the research I've been doing in the past decade has focused on historical Jesus research: how much of the gospel story is literature, and how much (if any) is based on firm historical fact. For my Master's thesis in comparative literature, I tied in this research with the fictional character of Harry Potter, to demonstrate that Jesus, like Harry, may have been a cumulative adaptation of many previous mythologies. Now that the ...
Danielle Tumminio, the Author of "God and Harry Potter at Yale" has posted an article at Huffingtonpost.com about Harry Potter and Christianity. I'm jealous, because the article is basically a timely tease for her book - and I'd love my own Huffpost article but haven't figured out how to exploit the system for self-promotion. (With the release of Deathly Hallows 2 next week, I think a lot of people will be searching for more info ...
Portland, July. 2nd, 2011 – Although the religious controversy over JK Rowling's Harry Potter series was a hot topic several years ago, as the 8th and final movie (Deathly Hallows Part II) comes out this month Christians and nonbelievers will collectively gasp in awe at the thrilling conclusion of this epic story. But a new book by comparative religious scholar Derek Murphy claims that the real threat of the HP series to Christianity ...
I've started using PunchTab on this site! Find out how you can win free stuff below! I found out about the new startup PunchTab (which recently raised $850,000 in startup funds to get rolling) from Tim Ferriss. Punchtab helps to increase site participation by offering incentives for your visitors to like, click and share your content. Right now it offers two basic features: 1) Loyalty Programs Punchtab gives your visitors rewards for doing things like visiting a page, ...
There's an interesting, if bizarre, article over at esquire about Harry Potter and Jesus Christ called "Harry Potter and the Hatred of Teachers: His political fantasy and ours." On first glance it seems to be a ridiculously obvious bid to draw Harry Potter traffic to a much smaller issue, (budget cuts on education and teachers) but I LOVE the opening line: "The release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 will be the final installment in ...
Recently in an online discussion of the historical Jesus and my book Jesus Potter Harry Christ, Hans Andréa from Harry Potter for Seekers responded to a question about Jesus' existence with an insightful commentary. Since I agree with Hans' conclusions regarding how and to what extent Jesus Christ existed or continues to exist, and since I couldn't find his post on Google (does Google index Yahoo group discussions?) I'm reposting it with some comments of ...
I wasn't going to blog about Osama bin Laden's death. Not only because I'm not very political, and I don't actually care much if Osama is alive or dead, but also because (due to an innate distrust of the American government) I can't help feeling that this is a new media scam to drum up Obama support (you killed him but then dumped his body in the sea? Really?). Even if pictures of dead Obama ...
I'm up late, procrastinating, Greek class tomorrow morning. Enjoy.
For immediate release: Apr. 29th, 2011: Daniel Radcliffe seemed to take it in stride last week when he found out he was not invited to the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. "I mean, I don't even know them," he told reporters, "Everyone thinks because we're rich and we have posh English accents that we must, like, hang out all the time. I'm happy for them, but I'm not that interested in the wedding." Apparently ...
The Deathly Hallows Part 2 movie (Harry Potter Eight) is coming out soon. There's been talk that Harry Potter is a Christ Figure. They've got it backwards: Jesus Christ is a Harry Potter Figure. Harry Potter Refutes Historical Jesus? John Lennon once said The Beatles were more popular than Jesus, a claim that ignited a public relations firestorm. These days, one could easily claim that Harry Potter is also more popular than ...
If you're interested in religious mythology, astrological symbolism, or supernatural folklore, grab my book Gods of Myth and Man. You can go buy it on Amazon.
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