Here is a first-of-the-year update on my speaking schedule.  If you happen to be in the area where I’m giving a talk – come!   For two of the events (Jan. 24 in Naples Florida; Feb. 9 in D.C.) I’d like to organize a small Blog Dinner, if anyone will be there.

 

Blog Dinner?  Wednesday January 24, Naples FloridaSee the event below.  Is anyone interested in having dinner, either because you’ll be attending the event or because you just happen to be around?  My idea is to have 3-5 people and to eat good food, drink good drink, and talk about anything you feel like talking about for a couple of hours.  The dinner will have to start late, 8:30 pm or so (I think), since I’ll be flying in only after my morning-long seminar.  If you’re interested, let me know via email, at [email protected].   The first five to reply get the lucky award.  If there aren’t two or three interested, we’ll put it off for another time.   There is THIS proviso though: I need to know about the dinner, one way or the other, within a week, by January 10, so if it doesn’t happen, I can go to my plan B.   No cost to attend, other than getting there and paying for your meal.
Thursday January 25, Naples Florida.   I will be giving a talk that evening at the Naples United Church of Christ, on my (soon-to-be-released!) new book “The Triumph of Christianity” (it hits the bookstores on Feb. 13).  The event is free and open to the public.
Friday-Saturday Feb. 2-3, Chapel Hill NC:This is a four-lecture series on The Triumph of Christianity for the UNC “Carolina Public Humanities.”  For this occasion, the books will be available (ahead of publication!) for purchase.  It requires a (paid) ticket, though, and I don’t know if any are available.  So check!  It’s at this website:  https://humanities.unc.edu/event/the-triumph-of-christianity-in-the-ancient-world-an-encore-presentation/   There is a lecture Friday afternoon, followed by a dinner, and then a second lecture that evening; the next morning there are two lectures. The dinner is a buffet-line kind of thing, nice but nothing fancy.  If anyone from the blog comes, we could arrange to sit together for the dinner hour.  Let me know!
Blog Dinner?  Friday, Feb. 9, Washington D.C.   Similar to January 24 in Naples:  I will be in D.C. for the event the next day (see below).   Is anyone interested in having dinner, either because you’ll be attending the event or because you just happen to be around?  Again, my idea is to have 3-5 people and to eat good food, drink good drink, and talk about anything you feel like talking about for a couple of hours.  If you’re interested, let me know via email, at [email protected].   The first five to reply get the lucky award.  If there aren’t two or three interested, we’ll put it off for another time.   No cost to attend, other than getting there and paying for your meal.
Saturday, Feb. 10, Washington D.C.  This is an all-day seminar at the Smithsonian, the same four lectures I’m giving in Chapel Hill the week before.  Hopefully they’ll be better this time.  Books will again be available for purchase and signing.   Again, it is a paid event.  It appears it is already sold out, but if you want to be put on the waiting list, go to the website: https://smithsonianassociates.org/ticketing/Tickets/Reserve.aspx?id=240871

Wednesday Feb. 21, Kennesaw, GeorgiaThis is an event I haven’t announced before on the Blog.  It will be a public debate with Mike Licona, an apologist and professor at Houston Baptist University, and the author of Why Are There Differences in the Gospels and The Resurrection of Jesus: A New Historiographical Approach. Mike and I have debated several times before, on the question of whether historians can demonstrate, on historical grounds, that Jesus was raised from the dead.  Mike says yes, I, well, say no.   This debate is on something else, whether the Gospels of the New Testament can be accepted as reliable.  You can guess what our answers are.  J   The debate will be at 7:00 pm at the Bailey Performance Center, Morgan Hall at Kennesaw State University.

So that’s *it* for January and February.  More than enough, for my taste!