In this very interesting article for "Youth and Policy" Naomi Thompson reflects on some of the outcomes of an international Symposium about ‘Faith and Spirituality in the Wake of Scandal’ that's been held at our faculty in June. www.youthandpolicy.org/articles/fai...

Better blacklist their future film appearances

This event really makes the connection between the worship music industry and Christian nationalism pretty unavoidable

So the schools on my island have gone from cutting back on extracurricular music as I grew up to now using music in a way that can be compared to "the TV drama Squid Game, where contestants play lethal rounds of musical statues" leaving an autistic student petrified www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

"we noticed how depressing your writing seems to be at the moment"

Such a tempting way to buy an ebook

Theoretically I'm behind projects like Libreoffice. In practice, I need it to stop doing things like this before it feels usable.

"we're your bank, please talk to our AI about your personal data" just seems an incredibly bad idea.

Holy shit. This guy saved a PNG to a bird. (he drew a bird into a spectrogram, played that sound to a starling, and the starling reproduced it back to him with enough accuracy he got his bird drawing back in their call's spectrogram) www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCQC...

#Podcast: Wie kann man eigentlich noch hoffen trotz der vielen Krisen in der Welt? Für "Hörenswertes im Bistum Erfurt haben wir Elisabeth Höftberger, Dominique-Marcel Kosack und @markporter.co.uk interviewt, die zu Hoffnung angesichts der Klimakrise forschen. bistum-erfurt.podigee.io/206-hoffnung...

There's an England/Spain extra time/bishop of Fulham mashup meme to be done somewhere.

Disappointed in whoever reverted this wikipedia image edit

New book chapter…

Is Ocado some kind of undercover vampire conspiracy?

Another lovely review of the book in @readingreligion.bsky.social readingreligion.org/978033406568...

The draft programme for this year's Christian Congregational Music: Local and Global Perspectives Conference: congregationalmusic.org/programme

🗓️ We cordially invite you to @tanyariches.bsky.social Monday Lecture on "Scandal or Crime? Media Narratives and Survivor Complaint Testimonies in Australian Megachurches" on the 23rd of June at 4:15 pm. Everyone is welcome and there is no registration required. www.uni-erfurt.de/katholisch-t...

Frustrating how no-one ever cites the publications that would boost my h-index. I just want one or two more citations of a couple of the less-popular articles... it can't be that hard.

Book Review of: For The Warming Of The Earth: Music, faith and ecological crisis, by Mark Porter, June 2024. SCM Press, ISBN 978-0-334-06568-5, 214 pages. RRP £40 (paperback)

Absolutely surreal to have lived through the Napster days and watched as the titans of industry moved hell and high water to lock down any possible chance that someone's song might get swapped online without giving the studios a cut and now those same people are just like "well we gotta steal music"

Such an interesting claim (from a doctoral thesis by Melanie L. Williams).

Excellent stuff, @markporter.co.uk!

'Carefully and clearly written debate' - order your copy here: scmpress.hymnsam.co.uk/books/978033...

Nice review of my @scmpress.bsky.social book in the latest issue of @greenchristian.org.uk magazine

Not the worst choice of nickname

I'm giving a Lecture in Heidelberg on 12th May as part @sfb1671.bsky.social www.sfb1671.uni-heidelberg.de/en/node/625

Service this morning decided we’re going to celebrate the fact that orthodox and western churches have Easter on the same date this year by praying the creed that we all share in common with the Filioque 🙈🙈

The list of university sackings below must now include Coventry, Derby, Hull and Lincoln. That's twelve universities getting rid of staff... in just ten days. Still nothing is done. 🇬🇧

Was gibt uns heute Hoffnung & wie können wir neue Hoffnungsnarrative für die von Krisen geprägte Gegenwart schaffen? Mit diesen Fragen beschäftigt sich @markporter.co.uk in seiner Forschung. Für uns hat er seine bisherigen Erfahrungen & Erkenntnisse zusammengefasst: www.uni-erfurt.de/katholisch-t...

New blog post... "Thing with Feathers or Sewer Rat? Approaches to Christian Hope in Times of Crisis" www.uni-erfurt.de/en/katholisc...

Spending a couple of months in Heidelberg as a guest of @sfb1671.bsky.social. Definitely picked the right time of year to be here.

Stock markets feel so weird. With a lot of things you'd look at a figure of 3% and decide it's small enough that it doesn't really matter. Equally, the idea that things are back how they were about a year ago doesn't usually feel like the worst thing to happen. Apparently here it's different.

Now I’m wondering what the women’s institute Supreme Court gets up to

This is terrifying theintercept.com/2025/03/31/g...

Germany Turns to U.S. Playbook: Deportations Target Gaza War Protesters - my latest @theintercept.com theintercept.com/2025/03/31/g...

Are most american scholars experiencing cuts to their travel funding right now?

If you're UK/Europe based and usually go to the annual AAR/SBL jamboree, I'd be intrigued to know what your plans are this year. Business as usual, or are you staying away? #AARSBL25 #SBLAAR25

A continually updated list of UK universities pushing redundancies. The scale is enormous and unprecedented. qmucu.org/qmul-transfo...

Posting that all your books can be found on libgen is beginning to feel a little like a marketing device at this point

How are there so many academics that are discovering libgen for the first time through the Atlantic? Is it because they always worked at rich institutions that always had the library resources they needed?

Wie wirkt sich die Klimakrise auf die theologische Forschung & die religiöse Praxis aus? Dazu forschen Nachwuchswissenschaftler*innen der @unierfurt.bsky.social & Universität Salzburg in einem außergewöhnlichen neuen Projekt: www.uni-erfurt.de/.../hoffnung....

My review of Cristina Rocha's book, Cool Christianity, for Politics, Religion & Ideology www.tandfonline.com/eprint/JDKGX...

I wrote a contribution to this volume on Amazing Grace – thinking about two different pandemic performances and the contexts and agendas surrounding them www.routledge.com/Amazing-Grac...

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From dust we come, to dust we return fleeting, like the wind, the wind which is the breath of God, the breath from which which we come and by which we shall return, to the face of our creator

Fairly uncomfortable with the idea of an era of rearmament. Maybe some kind of investment in defence is important, but this doesn't feel like an idea or narrative that is heading somewhere good.

Anti-migrant hate is flourishing in Germany’s ‘time of the cowards’ | Musa Okwonga

Seit letztem Jahr entwickelt ein gemeinsames Team der @unierfurt.bsky.social & Uni Salzburg ein Forschungsprojekt zu religiösen Hoffnungsnarrativen angesichts des Klimawandels. Am Wochenende fand unser 3. mehrtägiger Workshop statt - diesmal in Erfurt.

This is the first time I've had to promise that I'm not a scientologist in order to sign a work contract

Some reviews of SCM Press books in Transforming Ministry magazine this month I see! For the Warming of the Earth @markporter.co.uk 'Porter explores the tension between between the focus on worship and a focus on environmental issues in traditional services.' scmpress.hymnsam.co.uk/books/978033...