Friday, January 20, 2012

Bookforum - Why is religion still alive?

This interesting collection of links was posted by Bookforum on January 9th, so I am more than a little behind in my reading.

I especially enjoyed the Elaine Pagels Edge Master Class (from 2011) and the Julian Baggini article, as well as the review of the new Jesse Bering book.
  • Brian Ribeiro (Tennessee): The Problem of Heaven
  • From Review of Biblical Literature, a review of The Gospel "According to Homer and Virgil": Cento and Canon by Karl Olav Sandnes; and a review of The Bible in/and Popular Culture: A Creative Encounter
  • Is the Bible a reliable moral guide? (and a response).
  • No Christian should ever have a least favorite book of the Bible — all Scripture is God-breathed — but it is perfectly permissible, and even desirable, to have a favorite book of the Bible. 
  • An interview with John Shelby Spong, author of Reclaiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World
  • Why did Jesus talk in parables? What Jesus' unique (and often confusing) ministry shows us about our own stories. 
  • Fringe view: James F. McGrath on the world of Jesus mythicism
  • An interview with Miguel De La Torre, author of The Quest for the Historical Satan
  • Ronald Dworkin on Einstein’s worship, faith and physics, and religion without God. 
  • From The Pomegranate, a review of Sacred Terror: Religion and Horror on the Silver Screen by Douglas E. Cowan. 
  • Why is religion still alive? Elaine Pangels investigates. 
  • Julian Baggini sets out on a pilgrimage towards the truth, picking his way past the noisome swamp of New Atheist controversies, and skirting the forbidding crags of fundamentalism. 
  • A review of Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion and Naturalism by Alvin Plantinga. 
  • From New Humanist, a review of The God Instinct: The Psychology of Souls, Destiny and the Meaning of Life by Jesse Bering; some secularists believe that any communication with believers amounts to collaboration — Paul Sims isn’t so sure; and social scientist Olivier Roy has been tracking religion for three decades — Caspar Melville talks to him about his new book Holy Ignorance.

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