Digital Commons Network^™

Learning From Jesus’ Wife: What Does Forgery Have To Do With The Digital Humanities?, James F. Mcgrath

James F. McGrath

McGrath’s chapter on the so-called Gospel of Jesus’ Wife sets aside as settled the question of the papyrus’ authenticity, and explores instead what we can learn about the Digital Humanities and scholarly interaction in a digital era from the way the discussions and investigations of that work unfolded, and how issues that arose were handled. As news of purported new finds can spread around the globe instantaneously facilitated by current technology and social media, how can academics utilize similar technology to evaluate authenticity, but even more importantly, inform the broader public about the importance of provenance, and the need for …

Review Of The Sacrifice Of Jesus: Understanding Atonement Biblically, James F. Mcgrath

James F. McGrath

Article reviews the book "The Sacrifice of Jesus: Understanding Atonement Biblically," by Christian Eberhart.

Orality And Intertextuality, James F. Mcgrath

James F. McGrath

No abstract provided.

Slow Scholarship: Do Bloggers Rush In Where Jesus’ Wife Would Fear To Tread?, James F. Mcgrath

James F. McGrath

No abstract provided.

What Has Coruscant To Do With Jerusalem? A Response And Reflections At The Crossroads Of Hebrew Bible And Science Fiction, James F. Mcgrath

James F. McGrath

No abstract provided.

Review Of The Evolution Of Adam: What The Bible Does And Doesn’T Say About Human Origins, James F. Mcgrath

James F. McGrath

Article reviews the book "The Evolution of Adam: What the Bible Does and Doesn’t Say about Human Origins," by Peter Enns.

Obedient Unto Death: Philippians 2:8, Gethsemane, And The Historical Jesus, James F. Mcgrath

James F. McGrath

How Jesus Became God: One Scholar’S View, James F. Mcgrath

James F. McGrath

Dr. James McGrath's brief analysis of early Christology. Originally presented as a seminar paper at the University of Michigan, March 19, 2015.

Forward To The Son Of God: Three Views Of The Identity Of Jesus, James F. Mcgrath

James F. McGrath

James McGrath's Forward to: The Son of God: Three Views of the Identity of Jesus, by Charles Lee Irons, Danny Andre Dixon, and Dustin R. Smith. Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2015.

Woman At The Well, James F. Mcgrath

James F. McGrath

Dr. James McGrath's contribution to Bible Odyssey, a Society of Biblical Literature initiative.

Revisiting The Mandaeans And The New Testament, James F. Mcgrath

James F. McGrath

The Mandaeans have been known to scholars for as long as there has been modern scholarship. Thanks to advances in technology, you can now find some of their ancient texts online, and videos of their baptismal rituals on YouTube. Yet as fascinating as the Mandaeans are, and as much as modern technologies can facilitate greater familiarity with them, the amount of attention that they receive is surprisingly sparse – although there are encouraging signs that that is at least beginning to change.

“Did Jesus Die In Outer Space? Evaluating A Key Claim In Richard Carrier’S On The Historicity Of Jesus, James F. Mcgrath

James F. McGrath

The attempt to use later sources, interpreted in ways that are at best open to dispute, in an attempt to argue against what generations of skeptical scholars have concluded to be likely with respect to the early Christian sources, is never going to make mythicism seem more probable than the hard-earned and intensely-researched consensus of historians and scholars, namely that there was a historical Jesus of Nazareth.

Which John? The Elder, The Seer, And The Apostle, James F. Mcgrath

James F. McGrath

Dr. James McGrath's contribution to Bible Odyssey, a Society of Biblical Literature initiative.

Jesus And The Money Changers (John 2:13-16), James F. Mcgrath

James F. McGrath

Dr. James F. McGrath's Contribution to Bible Odyssey, a Society of Biblical Literature initiative.

Mark’S Missing Ending: Clues From The Gospel Of John And The Gospel Of Peter, James F. Mcgrath

James F. McGrath

The Gospel of Peter may be unique among early Christian Gospels in its embracing of those details towards the end of Mark’s story that other readers and authors both ancient and modern have found to be problematic, in particular the fear of the women and their failure to say anything to anyone.

Mythicism And The Making Of Mark, James F. Mcgrath

James F. McGrath

Carrier’s approach allows him to say that every single thing he finds in the relevant sources is “exactly what we’d expect” if mythicism is true – “as symbolic myth, every oddity is explained, and indeed expected.” This is because “they made this up” is compatible with everything that any text says – especially if one excludes in advance the possibility of using traditional critical methods and criteria for determining that some details may reflect actual historical events.

Polemic, Redaction, And History In The Mandaean Book Of John: The Case Of The Lightworld Visitors To Jerusalem, James F. Mcgrath

James F. McGrath

It is unclear whether there is anything of historical usefulness that can be gleaned from the details of the depictions of figures such as John the Baptist, Miriai, and Jesus in the Mandaean Book of John. This does not mean, however, that the text cannot provide useful information about the history of the Mandaeans, and of their interactions with other religious communities. By analyzing the evidence for redaction in certain key sections, and by distinguishing between core elements and peripheral additions to the stories recorded in it, it is possible to draw conclusions about the tradition history of the material, …

Mythicism And The Mainstream: The Rhetoric And Realities Of Academic Freedom, James F. Mcgrath

James F. McGrath

But when it comes to the mythicism proffered by people whose knowledge of relevant languages, historical texts, ancient cultures, and other such data is minimal or non-existent, and whose works consist only of web pages and self-published books, scholars are under no obligation to waste their valuable time on such matters any more than on the countless other topics which web sites and self-published books address, and which a quick perusal shows to be bunk.

Monotheism, James F. Mcgrath

James F. McGrath

James McGrath's contribution to the forthcoming edition, Vocabulary for the Study of Religion.

Explicit And Implicit Religion In Doctor Who And Star Trek, James F. Mcgrath

James F. McGrath

It has often been proposed that the original series of Star Trek reflected a modern, enlightenment perspective on religion, and that subsequent spinoffs like Deep Space Nine moved in a more post-modern direction. Doctor Who, the longest running science fiction show, provides an interesting basis for comparison. Both television shows offer similar tropes, and in both instances, the rhetoric that claims to explain away religion in scientific terms ends up treating it as literally true. Both shows depict our universe as populated with “natural gods” which are sometimes explicitly identified with the gods and demons of ancient human religious literature.

Professor Mcgrath Offers A Scholarly Take On Religion And Doctor Who, Marc Allen, James F. Mcgrath

James F. McGrath

Take TV viewers on trips through time and space for 50 years and you’re going to pick up some admirers—including some scholarly ones. That’s what’s happened with Doctor Who, the British series that is celebrating 50 years this month.Two of the show’s fans—Butler University Professor of Religion James McGrath and Andrew Crome, a lecturer in the history of modern Christianity at the University of Manchester (England)—have compiled a new book, Time and Relative Dimensions in Faith: Religion and Doctor Who, in which 19 scholars who also are Doctor Who fans weigh in on how the longest-running science fiction …

Monotheism, James F. Mcgrath

James F. McGrath

James McGrath's contribution to: The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Ethics. , 2015. Print.

He Shall Be Called A Nazorean: Intertextuality Without An Intertext?, James F. Mcgrath

James F. McGrath

Inexact quotations are a common phenomenon in Biblical intertextuality, and some suspected allusions are so fleeting and/or imprecise as to leave interpreters wondering whether an allusion was intended or not. But in at least one instance, Matthew 2:23, we have a reference to something unspecified prophets are supposed to have said, namely that “He shall be called a Nazorean,” which may not in fact have any intertext at all.

Review Of The Messiah: A Comparative Study Of The Enochic Son Of Man And The Pauline Kyrios, James F. Mcgrath

James F. McGrath

Article reviews The Messiah: A Comparative Study of the Enochic Son of Man and the Pauline Kyrios by J.A. Waddell (Jewish and Christian Texts in Contexts and Related Studies, 10; London-New York, T&T Clark, 2011)

Artificial Minds And Human Religions: An Illustration Of The Diversity Of Possible Intersections Between Religious Thought And Practice And Technological Advances, James F. Mcgrath

James F. McGrath

A survey of recent science-fiction would show that the theme of this paper -artificial minds and human religions -is one that is of significant interest in our time... Furthermore, science-fiction provides an opportunity to explore future possibilities, and exploring where technology might take us and how religious traditions might respond seems more advisable than waiting until developments actually occur, and then scrambling to respond.

Robots, Rights And Religion, James F. Mcgrath

James F. McGrath

If there is one area in which science fiction has failed to quickly become historical fact, it is in the field of artificial intelligence (A.I.). While some continue to prophesy that machine minds that are indistinguishable from human ones are just around the corner, many others in the field have become far more skeptical. All the while, there have been at least a few who have consistently found the whole idea problematic for reasons unrelated to our technical abilities, in particular the implications A.I. seems to have for our understanding of human personhood. For example, in his 1993 book The …

Reading The Story Of Miriai On Two Levels: Evidence From Mandaean Anti-Jewish Polemic About The Origins And Setting Of Early Mandaeism, James F. Mcgrath

James F. McGrath

New Testament scholars, drawing on Mandaean sources to shed light on the Gospel of John, may have done more harm than good to both Johannine and Mandaean studies. Nonetheless, approaches to the Gospel of John developed over the past 50 years have shed light on the Gospel’s Jewish context and the clues its polemical emphases can provide about the time and setting in which it was written. J. L. Martyn’s suggestion that the Gospel of John can be read on “two levels”, telling us about the context in which it was written while telling a story set in the time …

On Hearing (Rather Than Reading) Intertextual Echoes: Christology And Monotheistic Scriptures In An Oral Context, James F. Mcgrath

James F. McGrath

While recent studies of the New Testament have found the methods of intertextuality and orality studies to be fruitful approaches, there has been insufficient interplay between the two. This article explores the capacity of hearers of texts to pick up on echoes of familiar texts, stories, and songs. Using as an example Paul’s interpretation of Scripture in connection with the topics of monotheism and Christology, the article suggests that, in the absence of explicit and emphatic statements of the difference or distinctiveness of his views, Paul’s allusions to key monotheistic texts would have been understood to indicate Paul’s agreement with …

On Hearing (Rather Than Reading) Intertextual Echoes: Christology And Monotheistic Scriptures In An Oral Context, James F. Mcgrath

James F. McGrath

While recent studies of the New Testament have found the methods of intertextuality and orality studies to be fruitful approaches, there has been insufficient interplay between the two. This article explores the capacity of hearers of texts to pick up on echoes of familiar texts, stories, and songs. Using as an example Paul’s interpretation of Scripture in connection with the topics of monotheism and Christology, the article suggests that, in the absence of explicit and emphatic statements of the difference or distinctiveness of his views, Paul’s allusions to key monotheistic texts would have been understood to indicate Paul’s agreement with …

The Blogging Revolution: New Technologies And Their Impact On How We Do Scholarship, James F. Mcgrath

James F. McGrath

What follows below is the text of my presentation at the session on blogging and online publication at the Society of Biblical Literature 2010 annual meeting in Atlanta.