Last week, Bart joined Mindy Todd on The Point for a fascinating conversation about agnosticism. The discussion also featured insights from scholar of religion Stephen Prothero and Reverend Nell Fields of the Waquoit Congregational Church. If you’re curious to hear what Bart and the other guests have to say on the topic, you can listen to the full conversation here: The Point with Mindy Todd – Agnosticism

I’ve decided to excerpt a few bits of my book that is now in draft, to see what you think.  Here’s how I’m planning to being it (the start of the Introduction) ****************************** Most people I know are moved by news of tragedy.  A terrible earthquake, a drought, a famine, a flood, displaced people, innocent victims of military aggression, -- we feel pity for those pointlessly suffering and feel a desire, even an obligation, to help, for example by donating to disaster relief.  Almost never do we know the people in need; they are complete strangers, often in far-off lands, people we will never meet and possibly wouldn’t like if we did.  Yet we – at least most of us – want to help. This sense of moral obligation to strangers in need is unnatural.  It is not written into the human DNA nor did it exist in the ancient roots of our Western cultural heritage, either in Greek civilization from the literary and philosophical greats of Homer to Plato onward or in [...]

I'm just about finished (finally) with a reasonably polished draft of my next book, The Origins of Altruism: How the Teachings of Jesus Transformed the Moral Conscience of the West.  I would like to turn the moment into a fund-raising opportunity for the blog. Unlike our other fundraisers, where we suggest a donation amount but accept whatever a participant can pay, for this one we are asking for a set amount.  This will obviously not be for everyone.  If it’s something you don’t want to be involved in, no fears! The book itself will eventually be published and you can read it to your heart's content.  But if you want to see it in its pre-published state, here’s a chance. All the donations will go directly to support our charities; none will go to overhead or, well, anything else. There will be three donation tiers: Supporting Patron: $1000.  Those making a donation of $1000 will be given the opportunity to read a draft of the book and make comments on it.  I will consider the comments [...]

Are you interested in the amazing and important history of Jerusalem, from the ancient world till today?  I am!  I am pleased to announce a special event being put on by my Department of Religious Studies. a panel discussion of the new book by my colleague Jodi Magness: Jerusalem Through the Ages: From Its Beginnings to the Crusades.  It will be on Sunday November 17, 1:00, remote via Zoom.   I will be moderating the discussion. Many of you will know about Jodi.  She is one of the world's leading experts on the archaeology of ancient Israel, and has been my colleague at UNC since, well, roughly the beginnings of Jerusalem.    In all these years I have never heard her asked a question she could not answer authoritatively. This book is exceptionally good.  The people on the panel are all smart, interesting, and insightful.  If you're interested, here is the brochure announcing the event.  It is a fund-raiser for my department. We have a departmental fund that I myself started years ago called the Robert Miller [...]

A blog member recently asked me if I could post the pop quiz that I used to give t0 my New Testament class on the first day of the semester.  I say "used to" because I have stopped teaching the course, after doing so for 35 years (!), yielding it over to the capable hands of my colleague Hugo Mendez, to allow me to teach small seminar-courses instead here as I progress into geezerhood. I was simply going to refer the blog member to the post where I had given the quiz recently, and ... and I can't find where / when I did!  I'm sure I did! Then again, I'm sure I know where my glasses, keys, and phone are.  But so far as I can tell, it's been years since I did.  So -- well, here it is.  I think this is the post in which I *first* revealed the quiz to interested blog members some ten years ago.  [editor's note: Found it!  My New Testament Pop Quiz].  After some preliminary remarks, I [...]

I will be giving lectures on another glorious tour to some of the Greek Islands this coming May 14-26. This will be fantastic. Some blog members came with me on a similar trip last year, but to different islands. It was life-long-memorable. If it’s humanly possible, think about joining up! Space will be limited – so if you’re interested, check out the brochure I provide below at the bottom of the post. It will give you all the details you would need to know, and I’m happy to address any questions you have. Here is what I say about the trip in the description. ************************* The Greek Islands are some of my favorite places on earth. I’ve been on a number of occasions, and this Thalassa Journey is taking me there again. Wanna come with me? We will be island-hopping to some of the most scenic sites in the world – stunningly gorgeous landscapes and seascapes, incredibly beautiful villages and towns, museums, monasteries, churches, and archaeological sites: some of the oldest remnants of western civilization. [...]

In these massively troubling times (no need for me to itemize the issues) and the incredibly disturbing bifurcation of opinions, views, and perspectives, where very few people have even the slightest interest in listening to someone on "the other side," there is at least one thing that virtually everyone agrees on:  these are massively troubling times with incredibly disturbing bifurcation of ....   Well. right.  We can at least agree it's a mess. And what, I ask you, does that have to do with the blog?  Well, in short, nothing and everything. Over lo these many years, I have tried very hard to allow everyone to express their opinions on matters connected with the blog -- principally, the study of the New Testament, the historical Jesus, the origins of Christianity, the first several centuries of Christian literature and history, and cognate fields such as Hebrew Bible, early Judaism, Greek and Roman religion, with a touch of personal religious views and modern religion, etc. I have also tried very hard not to take sides on the social [...]

Most Christians turn to the Bible to some degree or another for guidance on their ethical views and perspectives on social agendas.  For those who read it closely, the Bible can be problematic ethically.  Most people realize there is a problem with the endorsement of slavery in the Bible (both Old and New Testaments); few have ever seen that there is also a problem with what today we think of a "family values." In my book The New Testament: A Historical Introduction, now in its eight edition with Hugo Mendez (Oxford University Press, 2024), I address these issues very briefly in a couple of those side-bar boxes I've mentioned in the two previous posts.  Here they are! ******************************  Box 22.12  What Do You Think? The New Testament and Slavery Many people who read the book of Philemon simply assume that Paul writes the letter in order to urge Philemon to set his slave Onesimus free.  After all, slavery is, and was, a horrible institution, and surely the apostle would have done everything [...]