Beloit College in the USA publishes a “Mindset List” at the begining of every academic year that claims to look “at the cultural touchstones that have shaped the lives of today’s first-year students.” This year’s list may be found here. Even better, take a look at Chris Heard’s commentary on the list here.
The list is (naturally) very American. It would be interesting to compose a list that would fit the Canadian context, eh? Any takers? Suggestions?
Bono is one of a number of celebrities who are getting behind a new “ONE” t-shirt. Proceeds from the sale of the shirts will benefit the battle against AIDS, extreme poverty, and bring fair trade to the country of Lesotho in Southern Africa (The shirts are made in Lesotho, one of the poorest developing countries in the world).
The EDUN designed shirts will be available at Nordstrom for $40 USD starting September 11th, 2006. For more information go to ONE.org.
Cambridge University Press released today a new book about Satan by a UCLA medievalist:
, Satan: A Biography (Cambridge University Press, 2006).
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Here is the book description from the publisher:
Christians traditionally think of Satan as Lucifer, God’s enemy, who rebelled against Him out of pride and then caused Adam and Eve to sin. But, as Kelly shows, this portrayal is not biblical but a scenario invented by the early Fathers of the Church which became the ‘New Biography of Satan’. The ‘Original Biography’ must be reconstructed from the New Testament where Satan is the same sort of celestial functionary we see in the Book of Job – appointed to govern the world, specifically to monitor and test human beings. But he is brutal and deceitful in his methods, and Jesus predicts that his rule will soon come to an end. Kelly traces the further developments of the ‘New Biography’: humankind’s inherited guilt, captivity by Satan, and punishment in Hell at his hands. This profile of Satan remains dominant, but Kelly urges a return to the ‘Original Biography of Satan’.
There is an interview with the author here, as well as an article in The Australian: Satan a victim of bad PR, professor says.
Sounds interesting, though I wonder if Kelly is being a bit reductionistic?
(HT Boing Boing)
The New York Times has an article (based on a BAR article) that challenges the connection between the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Qumran settlement entitled, “Archaeologists Challenge Link Between Dead Sea Scrolls and Ancient Sect.” Chris Weimer has also posted on this news article over at Thoughts on Antiquity, as has Jim Davila at PaleoJudaica; I thought I’d throw in my two cents worth as well.
Here is an excerpt from the article:
But two Israeli archaeologists who have excavated the site on and off for more than 10 years now assert that Qumran had nothing to do with the Essenes or a monastery or the scrolls. It had been a pottery factory.
The archaeologists, Yizhak Magen and Yuval Peleg of the Israel Antiquities Authority, reported in a book and a related magazine article that their extensive excavations turned up pottery kilns, whole vessels, production rejects and thousands of clay fragments. Derelict water reservoirs held thick deposits of fine potters’ clay.
Dr. Magen and Dr. Peleg said that, indeed, the elaborate water system at Qumran appeared to be designed to bring the clay-laced water into the site for the purposes of the pottery industry. No other site in the region has been found to have such a water system.
By the time the Romans destroyed Qumran in A.D. 68 in the Jewish revolt, the archaeologists concluded, the settlement had been a center of the pottery industry for at least a century. Before that, the site apparently was an outpost in a chain of fortresses along the Israelites’ eastern frontier.
While it is difficult to assess the strengths of their arguments based on a newspaper article, I’m not quite sure how finding significant pottery fabricating remains leads to the conclusion that the scrolls are not related to the site as well — especially considering that Magen himself thinks that the pottery associated with the scrolls came from Qumran.
The article’s conclusion is also a bit overstated:
Despite the rising tide of revisionist thinking, other scholars of the Dead Sea scrolls continue to defend the Essene hypothesis, though with some modifications and diminishing conviction.
If you want to read further, you can check out the BAR article here (subscription required to read the full article) or read Magen and Peleg’s more detailed essay in The Site of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Archaeological Interpretations and Debates, edited by Katharina Galor, Jean-baptiste Humbert, and Jürgen Zangenberg (Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah 57; Brill, 2006; Buy from Amazon.ca | Buy from Amazon.com).
For more reseources on the Dead Sea Scrolls, you may want to check out my resource pages.
Perhaps my title is a bit misleading… this post is not about how tall Jesus may have been (though if you are interested, he probably would have been just under five feet). Rather, it is about another Jesus sighting… this time on a shrimp. That’s right… Jesus’ face has been discovered on a shrimp. See the whole story here.
Here are some other Jesus sightings that NBC11 has noted:
They are missing some sightings, such as the Pierogi Jesus. I think my favourite is the Jesus inthe dental x-ray.