Last month I invited Blog Members who had published something in some way connected to the blog to tell all of the rest of us about it.  Many have done so!  If you, too, would like to make your written work known, please read very carefully the instructions in the original post:

https://ehrmanblog.org/have-you-written-something-you-would-like-to-advertise-on-the-blog/

 

Today I publish the second batch.  They are of various kinds and all sound interesting.  I have a stockpile of others submitted, and will get to them gradually over time.  For now: enjoy these!

Each one includes the name of the work, the author’s name, a description of what the piece is, and a link that can show you how to get a copy.  I will post these periodically in batches of about this size.

 

  1. Novel. Kristie Almighty: Across the Street, by Katie Younger
  2. Available at: https://www.amazon.com/Kristie-Almighty-Across-Katie-Younger/dp/B0851LLWXK/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=kristie+almighty&qid=1592158391&sr=8-1
  3. This is a novel I completed ten years ago. It is based on my years as a Fundamental Baptist who was originally raised Catholic. The characters were influenced by my time spent at a college in the midwest that was patterned after Bob Jones University (we were taught that Moody Bible College was liberal!). I was compelled to write the novel after years of a story brewing in my mind, that would serve as a sort of historical fiction depicting the nuances of American Christianity in the late 20th century.

 

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1) A speculative novel about Jesus of Nazareth.  The title is SON OF MARY, by R.S. Ingermanson.

2) Available at:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0863CSFDG

3) Two of the four gospels claim that Jesus of Nazareth was not the biological son of his legal father Joseph. Suppose this is correct, and then ask what explanation Mary gave for how she got pregnant. I suggest that no girl in her right mind would tell some story about an angel Gabriel meeting her and about the holy spirit impregnating her, because no parents or husband-to-be or village would ever believe such an outlandish story (Matthew 1:20 implies Mary didn’t tell this story to Joseph). Now imagine that Mary never gave any explanation at all, and ask what cruel things the village would say about her for the rest of her life.

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Thank you for this opportunity. I wrote a collection of speculative fiction (under a pseudonym) based on four different verse(s) from the New Testament and a novelette on my interpretation of why Judas betrayed Jesus. The book is called Pilate’s Wife.  Brien Szabo

Listed are the verse(s) then the story title:

Matthew 27:19 – Pilate’s Wife

Luke 8:43-48 – The Healing

Luke 9:49-50 – Simeon

Mark 14:51-52 – Naked into the Night

 

The novelette is titled, of Judas

Here is the link to the book on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Pilates-Wife-Christopher-J-Ford/dp/1542868777/ref=sr_1_89?dchild=1&keywords=christopher+J+Ford%2C+Pilates+Wife&qid=1592189936&sr=8-89

 

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  1. A book entitled “The Controversial Christian Prophetess Ellen G. White,” by Patricia Pryor
  1. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=patricia+guest+pryor&ref=nb_sb_noss
  1. This is a biography of Ellen G. White, the co-founder of the Seventh Day Adventists.

It is also a study of her alleged visions. My premise is that she suffered from Temporal Lobe Epilepsy.

The adventists connect Ellen White with the New Testament (especially the book of Revelation) and I explain how.

 

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  1. Thanksgiving prayer, a poem, is on the site “Tennis with the net up.” This site includes poetry that appeared in both my chapbooks, “Harvest Work” and “Love Songs.” –Russell King
  1. https://tennis-with-the-net-up.art/thanksgiving-prayer/
  1. This poem expresses gratitude in the religious terms that have come to resonate with me best, after having escaped my upbringing as a pastor’s kid in an evangelical protestant church. The site contains many religious-themed poems, including: As above, so below; Sanctuary; A forest walk; In the end; Meditation; The kids’ prayer; Revelation; Sacred spring; Seeking; Communion; Breaking free; Welcome, St. Francis; A sonnet on light; and The way.
  1. Much of the poetry was written while I ran a spirituality retreat center founded by nuns.  The theory was that the nuns wished to retire and have the center run by nonprofit professionals (I’m one), with the goal of making it a place for interfaith learning, communion and retreat. Like so much with organized religion, the reality turned out to be something else.

 

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  1. Is God Really Moral? You Decide, by Tim Zeak
  2. Available at: https://medium.com/@patim888/is-god-really-moral-good-you-decide-42549d271274
  3. It highlights several Old Testament stories that by any definition, are just not moral.  They include the story of Lot, slavery, 50 shekels of silver being the cost for raping a young virgin and instructions to kill all men, women, children, and cattle, but keep the young virgin girls for yourself. Many full quotes are included from the NAS version.

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  1. Article: “Why the Catholic Church Is So Conflicted about Sex.” By Daniel Kohanski. Published in The Humanist, Jan/Feb 2019.
  1. https://thehumanist.com/magazine/january-february-2019/features/why-the-catholic-church-is-so-conflicted-about-sex
  1.  This article is a brief overview of the history of religious attitudes toward sex, starting with the ancient Hittites and leading to an explanation of how Augustine codified the early Christian position on sex. I use this history to explain why both priests and laity in the Catholic Church continue to this day to have difficulty finding a healthy attitude toward human sexuality
  2. I adapted this article from a book in progress, After God: A Secular Review of Religion. It has a general chapter on the consequences of religion on human sexual attitudes, which I adapted to be more specific to the Catholic Church after new disclosures of sex abuse among the hierarchy.

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1) Book excerpt, “A Pluralist Paradigm of the Cross,” from A Life Lived & Laid Down for Friends: A Progressive Christology, by Don Erickson

2) http://www.revdonerickson.com/2020/06/a-pluralist-paradigm-of-cross-book.html

3) The excerpt offers a Buddhist-influenced view of Christ’s and Christianity’s central event, the Crucifixion. It suggests that Christ’s nonviolent choice to accept crucifixion instead of lead his disciples in a violent uprising epitomized compassion. The excerpt further argues that Christ’s compassionate act on the cross can be seen as embodying all acts of compassion across religions and time throughout time. Lastly, the excerpt puts forth that compassion, embodied in Christ but found in various religions and in countless earthly deeds, is in the end what saves us.

4) I am the minister of the Congregational Church of Plainville, Connecticut (UCC).