douglas adams was our most accurate futurist

Our 8yo at the breakfast table this morning: “why don’t we all share how we hope to improve ourselves in the new year.”

So this is the new year eh.

That video clip making the rounds of “I can’t imagine raising a newborn without Ch*tGPT”…on one level this is just a snake oil salesman selling his “miracle” product (shame on Fallon, nbc), but on another, a deeply worrying further step in what CS Lewis called the Abolition of Man (=humanity).

Church this Sunday is going to be OFF THE HOOK. Get to talk about Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

brief tribute to walter brueggemann by brent strawn for @fortresspress.bsky.social

Someone on Threads noticed you can type any random sentence into Google, then add “meaning” afterwards, and you’ll get an AI explanation of a famous idiom or phrase you just made up. Here is mine

A literary 🧵 in John: Washing his disciples' feet: Jesus takes off his outer garment to serve (Jn 13.3). At the cross: Jesus' clothing is taken away in humiliation (Jn 19.23). At the tomb: the linen grave clothes are left folded up (Jn 20.5). What is this, one wonders, but divine dis-clothe-sure.

For preachers needing some literature to quote beyond Tolkien and Lewis @erinnewton.bsky.social

Our 3yo currently pronounces TYRANNOSAURUS REX as DINNER-WINNER REX and it is the best

In Colossians, Imago Dei and union w/ Christ come together in such wonderful ways 🤯. The letter draws on themes of fruit-bearing, increasing, filling, and more direct image-language, all related to union w/ Christ. Some observations... + (A re-post from X, b/c deleted and want to archive this)

Listening to the audiobook of Jane Mayer's 𝘋𝘢𝘳𝘬 𝘔𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘺 and, wow, she very much succeeds in making the Simpsons' Mr. Burns a recognizable historical figure.

My goodness 2025 is off to a good start.

20 days/20 books📚 that shaped my thinking on wisdom in Jeremiah Day 5: This is a great collection of writings from @KatharineDell24 re-examining how we think about 'wisdom' in the OT - includes a great chapter on Jeremiah.

Day 4: A profound wrestling with the symbolic/theological ‘worlds’ on offer in the poetry and prose of Jeremiah 20 Days/20 books that deeply shaped my approach to Jeremiah

Day 3: A lovely and provocative meditation on Jeremiah’s polyphony of genres from a trauma perspective 20 Days/20 books that deeply shaped my approach to Jeremiah

To celebrate imminent conclusion of dissertation work I’m going to do the 20 days/20 books thing but with books that deeply shaped my PhD work. This will be a little tribute of thanks for the amazing work of these scholars! Day 2 then. Hard to top this one:

As I conclude my dissertation writing I’m enjoying jumping back into a work that in a lot of ways inspired my take on wisdom in Jeremiah

Just happened upon these moving words from Walter Brueggemann: "Like the ancient prophets we are dispatched back to the good work entrusted to us. It is the work of peace-making. It is the work of truth-telling. It is the work of justice-doing... +

I will add: reading this kind of comment I often think about the inexhaustible store of silly ideas I must also possess

Form criticism when it had reached full strength seems to have held an inexhaustible store of amusing ideas (cc'ing @andyjudd.bsky.social): "The congratulation of Psalm 1 seems to be addressed to a pilgrim cured of come illness." (a biblical scholar; translation mine)

Every time I find another Twitter mutual or favorite follow pop up here, it feels like a little win. 🐦✖️➡️🟦🦋

In preaching Ruth for Advent I've realized how interesting it is to compare Naomi with Job. Both lose everything. Both become unrecognizable in their grief. Both assume God is to blame... Both are restored. Why? With Job it's hard to say. For Naomi, the answer is in the steadfast love of another.

11/10 recommend watching Home Alone with an 8 and 5 year old

Will likely be removing/shortening many footnotes to stay under word count max for the dissertation. Think I’ll just post the footnotes here.

So thankful for the enthusiastic response to my paper on a controversial subject!

A great mail day here! Excited for this @jasonstaples.bsky.social.

I'm realizing how little my musical listening habits have developed in the last DECADE. Anyone have a recent artist or song recommendation? In the past, I've usually bounced around between indie, folk, and alternative. But I can be fairly eclectic in what I enjoy.

Current morning read

One thing still missing to help this feel like the old twitter is some good Bavinck discourse. @graysutanto.bsky.social when are we going to see that pick up?

I made a feed for #SBL and #AAR discussion ahead of the annual meeting next week. It grabs a bunch of related tags and gives us all one place to look. Check it out and share it! Tags are not case-sensitive, including: #sbl #aar #aarsbl #sblaar #aarsbl24 #sblaar24

If all goes as planned, today i'm a month away from completing my dissertation... wild!

This from @oalannoble.bsky.social is very good newsletter.oalannoble.com/p/love-of-wh...

I thought you might like to see the dumpster fire I made :)

Almost time for that magnificent time of the year: #SBLAAR! Who else will be in San Diego next week?

Now that we’re all connected the discourse in this place will be taken up with fine exegetical points, textual criticism, linguistics, archaeology, intertextuality, biblical theology, and social criticism. It will be grand.

This essay has been on my mind as well

Haven’t seen this one yet… Give it a share if you would. Help me find out who else is on here. Reply if in OT/HB studies and I’ll add you. go.bsky.app/FFeqvaV

This place is starting to have some of the old twitter vibes in a good way... can it be?

This from Sandra Schneiders is golden: “The first Christian theologians… developed a theory of the biblical text modeled on the mystery of the incarnation and a theory of interpretation that corresponded to their theory of the text.”

Enjoying this thought-provoking set of studies from Richard Bauckham. What have been the most helpful works for you on the Gospel of John?

Ok. I’m new to this place—who’s active on here? Who are some of your favorite folks to follow? esp in biblical studies/theology.