Volume X (Summer 2005) of the Journal of Religion and Popular Culture is online. The volume has a number of interesting articles, including articles on South Park, Dr. Phil, as well as the portrayal of Islam in popular culture. Check it out.

There are also a number of book reviews. Especially worth noting is the review of Bryan Stone’s Faith and Film: Theological Themes at the Cinema by someone called Tyler F. Williams.

In his most recent installment of his must-read “NT Apocrypha” series, Phil Harland explores Jesus’ attitude toward children. Most are familiar with Jesus’ positive attitude toward children presented in the synoptics in Mark 10:13-16, Matthew 19:13-15, and Luke 18:15-17 (“Let the little children come…”).

In contrast to this kid-friendly Jesus, Phil brings up a passage from the Acts of Thomas in which the risen Jesus provides some advice for the newly married. Jesus tells a newly married couple to avoid “filthy intercourse” so that you won’t “be weighed down by cares… for children, the end of which is destruction.”

Since I have three kids (and I enjoyed the process of contributing to their conception), I guess I’ll stick with the biblical Jesus!

The latest edition of the Review of Biblical Literature has a number of Hebrew Bible related reviews, as well as some other relevant reviews in the area of hermeneutics and Septuagint studies. Noteworthy are the two reviews of M. Christine Tetley’s The Reconstructed Chronology of the Divided Kingdom. The eight-page review by Andrew Steinmann is quite thorough and uncovers a number of faulty assumptions in Tetley’s work, while Jennifer Singletary’s review also highlights some methodological problems. It appears that the mysterious numbers of the Hebrew kings are still a mystery!

• T. J. Betts, Ezekiel the Priest: Custodian of Tora. Reviewed by Brandon Fredenburg
• Irmtraud Fischer; translated by Linda Maloney, Women Who Wrestled with God: Biblical Stories of Israel’s Beginnings. Reviewed by Yael Shemesh
• M. Christine Tetley, The Reconstructed Chronology of the Divided Kingdom. Reviewed by Jennifer Singletary and Andrew Steinmann
• Josephus; Translated by Étienne Nodet, Les Antiquités Juives: Livres VIII et IX. Reviewed by René Bloch
• William Loader, The Septuagint, Sexuality, and the New Testament: Case Studies on the Impact of the LXX in Philo and the New Testament. Reviewed by Mark McEntire
• Brian K. Blount, Can I Get a Witness?: Reading Revelation through African American Culture. Reviewed by Danielle Sigler
• Brown, Michael Joseph, Blackening the Bible: The Aims of African American Biblical Scholarship. Reviewed by Danielle Sigler

The Da Vinci Code received its highest honour to date when it was featured on Sunday’s episode of Family Guy. The baby, Stewie, stayed up all night and read it — I figured they were going to make more of it, but that was about it! (I was researching my religion & popular culture course while watching, of course!)

Don’t Press the Red Button!!!!.

I warned you… (via Allthings2all)