Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons^™

"Introduction" To Theology And Science Fiction, James F. Mcgrath

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

What is the difference between a god and a powerful alien? Can an android have a soul, or be considered a person with rights? Can we imagine biblical stories being retold in the distant future on planets far from Earth? Whether your interest is in Christianity in the future, or the Jedi in the present--and whether your interest in the Jedi is focused on real-world adherents or the fictional religion depicted on the silver screen--this book will help you explore the intersection between theology and science fiction across a range of authors and stories, topics and questions.

Throughout this volume, …

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

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

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

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

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.

Contesting Faith, Truth, And Religious Language At The Creation Museum: A Historical-Theological Reflection, Brent A. R. Hege

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

The Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky, attempts to demonstrate the flaws in contemporary science and to offer an alternative explanation of human origins and biological complexity rooted in a specific reading of the biblical narrative. This effort, however, is paradoxically rooted in the worldview of modern science and the Enlightenment. This article will examine the Creation Museum’s definitions of faith, truth, and religious language and will compare these definitions to those of mainline Protestant Christianity to uncover the historical and theological presuppositions of Creationist and mainline Protestant engagements with contemporary science.

Jesus Christ As Poetic Symbol: Wilhelm Bousset’S Contribution To The Faith-History Debate, Brent A. R. Hege

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Wilhelm Bousset, a leading member of the religionsgeschichtliche school and author of a seminal work on early Christology, Kyrios Christos, is typically regarded by reviewers of his work as a classic nineteenth-century liberal who sought a secure foundation for faith in the historical Jesus. However, this view of Bousset fails to appreciate the significant development of his theological perspective on the relationship between faith and history, a perspective that underwent a profound shift due to the influence of the English historian Thomas Carlyle and the Kantian philosopher Jakob Friedrich Fries. It is the influence of these two figures that enables …

The Only True God: Early Christian Monotheism In Its Jewish Context, James F. Mcgrath

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Chapter 5: "Monotheism and Worship in the Book of Revelation" is an excerpt from The Only True God. Copyright 2009 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. Used with permission of the University of Illinois Press. This excerpt, in whole or in part, may not be reproduced, distributed, photocopied or posted on-line without the written permission of the copyright holder.

Was Jesus Illegitimate? The Evidence Of His Social Interactions, James F. Mcgrath

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

This article examines the social status of the historical Jesus in relation to recent studies that place Jesus into the social category of an illegitimate child. After surveying the evidence with respect to the situation of such individuals in first century Mediterranean and Jewish society, we shall proceed to examine whether Jesus' implied social status (as evidenced by accounts of his adult social interactions) coheres with what one would expect in the case of someone who bore the stigma of that status. Our study suggests that the scandal caused by Jesus' association with the marginalized clearly implies that he did …