I am posting here this morning a most informative document from my friend and fellow-scholar Greg Doudna, whose Ph.D. deals with the history and archaeology of the Dead Sea Scroll sectarian community (you can see some of his publications at this link). In January 1985, Greg visited and interviewed Dr.…
I met Billy Graham two times. The first was on his first London Crusade in March, 1954. It was his first crusade abroad and he went on to Holland, France, and Germany. I had just turned eight years old but I remember it well. In addition to preaching at Wembley…
I loved this essay by Bret Colasacco, one of J. Z. Smith’s undergraduate students in years before he retired. I found it quintessentially “Smith” and those of us who have taken that elevator ride to his office, or sat in one of his amazing courses, will identify with every part…
Religion News Service https://religionnews.com/2018/01/02/religion-historian-jonathan-z-smith-dies/ OBITUARY Religion historian Jonathan Z. Smith dies By Yonat Shimron | January 2, 2018 Religion historian Jonathan Z. Smith from a video series. Images courtesy of YouTube (RNS) — Jonathan Z. Smith, a historian and theorist of religion widely admired for his analytic rigor in…
Quintessential JZ Smith…if you never had the pleasure of hearing him…his Plenary Address to the American Academy of Religion in 2010. https://vimeo.com/20286150 You can read an informal fascinating interview with Mr. Smith (as Chicago professors are called–no titles please!) published in The Chicago Maroon in 2008 here. Don’t miss this one!…
“Well Socrates…but How shall we bury you? However you please, he replied, if you can catch me and I do not get away from you. And he laughed gently.” A sad day for so many of us who loved Jonathan Z. Smith as a teacher and friend. There was no…
And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her. –Jesus of Nazareth One of the more intriguing stories that Mark preserves is that of an unnamed woman who anoints Jesus’ head with an…
One of the special perks of having Dr. Shimon Gibson as our director at our UNC Charlotte sponsored Mt. Zion excavations is having him guide us about the Old City of Jerusalem. Dr. Gibson, or “Shimon,” as we affectionately call him, is not only an expert on the archaeology of…
Jacob Neusner, renewed scholar of the ancient Judaism, who so profoundly shaped the academic study of religions in terms of both method and content, died last October 8, 2016, on the Sabbath, at age 84. On the Jewish calendar that would be next Sabbath–called Shabbat Shuvah, which falls between Rosh…
In Memoriam: An Archive Post: My legendary and beloved teacher, Robert M. Grant, of the University of Chicago, has died. So many personal memories flood my mind and heart. I have many stories, experiences, and reflections which I will save for a future more personal post. For now I will…