The Holy Land Then And Now: A Comparison

Shortly after midnight on February 27, 1974, my great-grandfather left Lambert St. Louis International Airport with a church group on a flight bound for Tel Aviv, Israel. He spent the next week touring the Holy Land, stopping at popular pilgrimage sites and taking photographs along the way.

38 years later, in May 2012, Alyssa and I made that same journey from Kansas City. We spent about a week visiting many of the same sites my Pa visited, though I did not realize it at the time. Several months after we returned back to the States, my mom presented me with a flash drive for Christmas, loaded with—among many other family treasures—the entire collection of my great-grandfather's slides from Israel, converted into digital photos. Below are several photos that Alyssa and I took that later turned out to match the pictures taken by Roger Connelly between Feb. 27 and March 5, 1974.

Church of the Annunciation, 1974

Church of the Annunciation, 2012

Inside the Church of the Annunciation, 1974

Inside the Church of the Annunciation, 2012

Church of the Nativity, 1974

Church of the Nativity, 2012

Church of the Nativity, 1974

Church of the Nativity, 2012

Marble Manger at the Church of the Nativity, 1974

Marble manger at the Church of the Nativity, 2012

Megiddo, 1974 (Note the date palm tree at the center of the photo)

Megiddo, 2012 (Same date palm, left foreground)

Entrance to Capernaum, 1974

Entrance to Capernaum, 2012

Capernaum capital piece, 1974

Same Capernaum capital piece, 2012

Capernaum synagogue, 1974

Capernaum synagogue, 2012

On Lake Gennesaret, 1974

On Lake Gennesaret, 2012 (I don't think this is exactly the same view)

On Lake Gennesaret, 1974

On Lake Gennesaret, 2012

Entrance to Gethsemane, 1974

Entrance to Gethsemane, 2012

Near the Pool of Bethesda, 1974 (Note column in right foreground)

Near the Pool of Bethesda, 2012

The Pool of Bethesda, 2012 (Different angle)

The "Upper Room," 1974

The "Upper Room," 2012

Theological Insights from M*A*S*H

For years I've thought that a book needs to be written about M*A*S*H from a theological perspective. This evening, Alyssa and I were watching episode 7.16, "Inga," when we heard this little gem from Colonel Potter:

“Just remember: there's a right way and a wrong way to do everything, and the wrong way is to keep trying to make everybody else do it the right way.”

Now THERE's some practical theology for you.

Books for Sale—Cheap, Cheap, Cheap!

In order to make room for my ever-growing library of New Testament-oriented books, I am trying to get rid of some books that have been taking up space on my shelf for a while. If you see something you like, email me. If you're in the KC area, we can meet up and I'll just pass the books over to you. If you live far away, contact me and we'll work something out as far as shipping goes.

Like New—$5.00 
SOLD.

Used—$5.00

Like New—$5.00

Like New—$5.00

Like New—$5.00
SOLD

Like New—$5.00

Like New—$5.00
SOLD

Weekly Highlights (3.8.2013)

Here are a few blogs/news stories that caught my attention this week:

• First—before you do anything else—do yourself a favor and listen to Jon Felton and His Soulmobile performing a live set on Aux Send. Jon is a friend of mine, and his band's unique anarcho-Christian folk vibe is unparalleled. Listen to it, and maybe support the band by purchasing one of their awesome albums.

• Drewe over at Delving Into The Scriptures hosted the Biblical Studies Carnival for the month of February. If you've got some time on your hands, check out all the neat posts he has collected. 

• Check out ASOR's Weekly Archaeology Roundup for this week. Some interesting stories for the history buff.

• Lawrence Schiffmann briefly explains some elements of Qumran Sabbath law. 

• Ethics Daily has had a few good articles this week. Jenny Flannagan offers Four Ways to Eat More Ethically Now, and Brock Ratcliff questions the agenda behind the new History Channel miniseries, The Bible. 

• K.C. Hanson offers a list of 10 books in New Testament studies that influenced him personally. 

• Micah Murray cautions against "thinking biblically."

• Kendall Beachey reflected on the Cosmic Cathedral blog this week about the ethics of WWJD and reading John Howard Yoder's The Politics of Jesus. 

• Anthony Le Donne over at the Jesus Blog questions the sources behind Orson Pratt's justification of Mormon polygamy in 1853 by claiming that Jesus was a polygamist (that is, Pratt claimed Jesus was a polygamist, not Le Donne). See also Le Donne's follow-up post, "Jesus the Polygamist: Part II." 

• Finally, for the philosophers out there, check out Paul Horwich's opinion piece for the New York Times, "Was Wittgenstein Right?" Horwich wonders whether Ludwig Wittgenstein's assessment of the discipline of philosophy as useless and self-contradictory was in fact correct.

Calling All Theology/Preaching/History/Library Nerds!

My great-grandparents:
Roger L. Connelly and his wife, Mildred.

I have a big project under way, and I need your help! About a week ago, I was bequeathed the entire collection of sermons from my great-grandfather's preaching career (he was a United Methodist pastor). They take up about three large file cabinet drawers, and are variously written and typed. To help preserve them, I am planning to make digital scans and electronic transcriptions of each sermon. However, this would be at least a couple years of work for me alone (and I'm about to begin working on my master's thesis). I'm looking to my online community of friends to help transcribe my grandfather's sermons. Many hands make light work, and even if just 10 friends pitch in and help transcribe, we can have the entire collection done in no time.

If you're interested, please click this link to send me an email and I will in turn send you digital scans of however many sermons you think you could handle transcribing (probably best to limit it to no more than 3 at a time), as well as a sample transcription with formatting guidelines. There will be no pressure—get it done in your own time when you have a few moments to spare.

I can't offer any money in exchange for your help (I'm a student, after all). However, in return for your work, you will receive written credit once the sermons are compiled into a book. Plus, that whole bit about treasure in heaven. Yada yada.

Thank you all so much for reading, and thanks in advance for being willing to help out with this huge project.

Rob Bell Has a New Book Coming Out...

...And I'm looking forward to it. All dramatic pauses and triumphant, pathos-inducing background music aside, I really like this guy. He is genuinely concerned with the direction in which human culture and spirituality are headed, and is invested in exploring the language we use to discuss the Divine.

This, I think, is a good thing.

 

But did I miss something? When did he get old?

Weekly Highlights (3.1.2013)

Here are a few blogs/news stories that caught my attention this week:

• Joel Watts answers the question, "Who killed Jesus?" Hint: it wasn't the butler.

• Matthew Montonini has posted a collection of lecture videos featuring David deSilva speaking on the Apocalypse of John. 

• Rod Decker has compiled this really nifty bibliography for beginning Greek students, taking into consideration first-year newbies through seasoned third-year learners.

• Larry Hurtado asks how the Gospel of Mark survived, rather than being swallowed up in newer traditions.

• You've heard of the Markan Sandwhich? John Byron reports on the presence of intercalating life/death stories in the book of Genesis, also known as—you guessed it—the Genesis Death Sandwhich.

• Deane Galbraith gives a tip of the hat to a recent master's student thesis observing the presence of David and Goliath narrative elements in U.S. reports of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 

• Clearly not satisfied with just one big question, Joel Watts returns to ask, "Should you read the Bible from cover to cover?" He's a heathen United Methodist, so I'll bet the answer is "No."

• In honor of Black History Month, John Byron highlights Lemuel Haynes, the first African American bible scholar.

• Zach Hoag analyzes the similarities and differences between the Neo-reformists and the Neo-anabaptists in "Nuancing the Neos."

• Jim Rice offers up a good post about social media, prayer and the Anabaptist tradition as part of Union Theological Seminary's recent "New Media Project." Their website is definitely worth checking out.