Random Observations

1)  The books I read most frequently all have coffee stains.

2) You can't beat a good dose of Spoon, Rogue Wave, and Voxtrot.

3) Robert Jewett makes some interesting observations about the socio-cultural structure of the Christian community in Rome and the implications of honor-shame rhetoric in Paul's letter to the Romans. 

4) Joba Chamberlain is going to be a great starting pitcher.

5) Beware of fundamentalists floating in the blog world.

6) Related to #5, I'm losing count of how many times I've been warned about the supposed bogeymen at YDS who apparently will devour my first born, spit in my Corn flakes, tear out the pages of my Bible, and sacrifice goats during secretive nocturnal feasts honoring Dan Brown and the Green Party.

Wow!

Just when you thought airline travel could not get any worse, apparently you'll now have to pay for complementary water. This move is attributed to the now standard "bad economy" party line. I'm just not buying. It's easy to inflate prices and contribute the reactionary adjustments to rising gas prices, consumer spending habits, and the like. However, at the end of the day a lot of these price hikes are nothing more than good ol' fashion profit seeking. 

What? Never?

Looks like Tim Donaghy is making public what many people have suspected all along. This should come as absolutely no surprise to anyone who's ever watched a Lakers' playoff game, or for that matter a Patriots' game (had to get that jab in!). The Lakers-Blazers series from 2000 immediately comes to mind. Talk about a scam. I promise, the Finals will go 6 or 7 games! There is no doubt about it. In a related note, the Bulls miraculously nabbed the 1st pick in the upcoming draft.

Recent happenings.

I finished up Kenton Sparks' God's Word in Human Words. I'm going to read through some of the key chapters before doing any sort of review. It's incredibly thought provoking, and I especially recommend it for those who have grown up in the more conservative evangelical traditions and find themselves dealing with questions on inerrancy, biblical criticism at large, and the challenges of modern science and epistemology. I'm quite certain the book will be bashed by those with fundamentalist leanings. However, I think Sparks merits an audience and I find his "solutions" thought provoking, healthy, and timely. I definitely echo his call for a Christianity that is intellectually robust and inquisitive, and  agree that contemporary hermeneutics need to actively engage in dialogue with both the physical and social sciences.

On another note, we watched the newest installment of Indiana Jones. I'm close to boycotting anything George Lucas does these days! That man is running wild with CGI, and it's killing his product. It's like the proverbial movie star that gets way too much plastic surgery. And, I think the guy has no conception of "target audience." Jar Jar Binks? Young Anakin? And now, the monkey scene? Anyway, there's quite a few scenes filmed on the Yale campus, which makes things somewhat stimulating...at least until the movie's genre abruptly changes!

Tobit

Who knew ad fontes could possibly be so much fun? Better yet, and I think this would be a hysterical exercise, some brave soul should try to find conceptual/literary parallels between modern fantasy works (LOTR, Harry Potter) and Second Temple Jewish literature. If you want to get nuts (love that Costanza line!), broaden out your investigation to the Talmudic literature. If you want a great starting place, trace Jewish traditions regarding the demon Asmodeus.

PS. This all stems from some study I'm doing in the book of Tobit. Hopefully, more posts will follow! The author of Tobit (AT) presumably wrote during a time of increasing Hellenization and the romance novel combines ethical exhortation & wisdom instruction to stabilize Jewish identity as external pressures challenged group cohesion. I'm interested in how the AT's focus on burying the dead (and the purpose of highlighting such a practice) is echoed in early Christian literature.

Helio Sequence

In Dallas on Friday night. They'll be playing at the Loft - tickets are $12 at the door! Should be a great show.

Making the Move

I'm working on making the switch over to WordPress! It's just taking some time to get the dang thing down, particularly hosting/posting images. So, until then, I'll keep plugging away here (however lightly).