The Pope Talking about Jesus

Every so often, I try to link you to things that make me laugh. (I'm not all that funny myself, so I do this to try to compensate.)


This time, I'm sharing two, yes, two links! What's more, they share a common theme: the Pope and Jesus. Take a look:


1. Over at The Onion, they've reported that the Pope will ease up on Jesus talk: "I'd like to think I can be an infallible ecclesiastical authority without ramming it down people's throats," the pope said. "I'm starting to realize what a huge turn-off that is."


2. In this YouTube clip, Jim Gaffigan (one of my favorite comedians) wants to talk to you about Jesus:

The Writing of Genesis 1

Here's a nice little video courtesy of The Friendly Atheist. Enjoy!

On Post-Christian Biblical Scholarship

Many I've the posts I've written so far have been expressions of things I already think. This post is different, though, because I think I actually have to write it in order to understand better what in fact I do think. It's about the hard work of making hunches and intuitions into an articulation of coherent thought, a task easier said than done.


I'm struggling to figure out how exactly to continue to do biblical scholarship as an ex-, or rather, post-Christian. (I say "post" because, while I no longer remain a Christian, I'm very much aware of the ways in which I continue to be shaped by my Christian upbringing.) The struggle has to do primarily with a perceived (and possibly actual) lack of models. 


In my experience as a graduate student, I've seen basically three kinds of biblical scholars. The summaries of these three types, given after the jump, are not intended to be biting criticisms, but only to indicate some of my discomfort with each of them.