In order to make paperback edition of the book (just released last month!) more attractive for course adaptation, I have prepared a modifiable (.docx) syllabus structured around the course. It can be downloaded here or from this page, which also … [Continue reading] about How the Bible Became Holy Syllabus
When the Center Does Not Hold
Centrifugal force, entropy, call it what you will, but life has a way of drifting. All those good habits and intentions slowly, subtly, but inexorably begin to crumble, like the masonry on my porch. Three times a year I usually find enough energy … [Continue reading] about When the Center Does Not Hold
Bad Prophecies
Prophets, according to the Hebrew Bible, cannot really afford to be wrong. Deuteronomy 18:20 in fact singles out accurate prediction of the future as a necessary characteristic of the future. Yet several of the prophets of ancient Israel - the very … [Continue reading] about Bad Prophecies
Race, Religion, and Ethnicity in Antiquity: Zotero Group
Last semester I taught a graduate seminar on Race, Religion, and Ethnicity in the Ancient Mediterranean (see here). As a class project we began to compile a relevant bibliography and provide some minimal annotations. That bibliography is on Zotero … [Continue reading] about Race, Religion, and Ethnicity in Antiquity: Zotero Group
Wikipedia in the Classroom
I have, in the past, used class assignments involving Wikipedia. These usually involved students identifying weaknesses in entries dealing with the subject of the class, making the changes in Wikipedia to remedy these weaknesses, and then tracking … [Continue reading] about Wikipedia in the Classroom