Exploring Fan Fiction and Early Christian Writings
Finally! Words cannot describe how excited I am that this labour of love is finally published. For the last four or five years I’ve been working on this book continuously, while all of life—covid, changing jobs four times, moving countries—happened. And now it is finally out! I absolutely love the cover of the little baby […]
Demons and Vices in Early Christianity
Ever since my PhD days, I’ve been fascinated by how demons slowly seemed to get linked evil deeds. Spirits in the Hebrew Bible and spirits/demons in the gospels don’t actually seem to ever cause sin. Sometimes they are tricksy, and often they cause illness, death or destruction. But they hardly ever (never?) cause humans to […]
Tower of Babel in Science Fiction
I was asked a few years ago to write a chapter on the Tower of Babel in science fiction. This was great as I spent a few months reading and watching anything I could get my hands on! This was just as the first COVID lockdown hit, so it was an amazing distraction. There is […]
Jesus and Gender
Growing up in a Christian church, I often heard how counter-cultural Jesus was when it came to women. Jesus is so often cast as a first century proto-feminist. Now, that I have learnt more about the history and the culture of first century Palestine, I know this to be untrue. Yet this fake news persists. […]
The Samaritans
As a teacher you learn loads from your students. A few years ago, one of my students, decided that they wanted to look at nationalism and the New Testament. After some discussion, she decided that examining the Jew–Samaritan relationship would be useful for her project. Little did we know what new things her research would […]
Disability
I write a monthly article for Spectrum Magazine, an Adventist journal and website featuring Adventist and Christian viewpoints and news. This month I wrote some thoughts on the way the field of disability studies has informed biblical studies. I am by no means an expert on the topic (that honour goes to my friend Isaac […]
Positionality
I write a monthly article for Spectrum Magazine, an Adventist journal and website featuring Adventist and Christian viewpoints and news. This month I wrote on the concept of Positionality, which is basically the idea that everyone is positioned towards what they read and view: The idea behind it is simple: I am not neutral, and […]
The Haunting of Jesus: Reading Mark Through the Gothic Mode
The Journal of Interdisciplinary Biblical Studies just published my latest article on the Gospel of Mark. This article began way back in 2017, when I presented at a Halloween conference in Sheffield. I won the completely non-existent prize of best slide for my pigeon-attacking-Jesus-at-his-baptism photoshop. The article basically imagines what Mark would be if we […]
You be normal!
The Dutch Adventist Church creates a magazine, Contact, that goes to about 3000 people who are interested in the Bible. As some of these people have been receiving this magazine for quite a few years, the editors wanted to have a recurring theological column, meant for the long-time readers. This article should match the theme of the edition. […]
Exclamation Mark!
The Dutch Adventist Church creates a magazine, Contact, that goes to about 3000 people who are interested in the Bible. As some of these people have been receiving this magazine for quite a few years, the editors wanted to have a recurring theological column, meant for the long-time readers. This article should match the theme of the edition. […]
Climate Changers
The Dutch Adventist Church creates a magazine, Contact, that goes to about 3000 people who are interested in the Bible. As some of these people have been receiving this magazine for quite a few years, the editors wanted to have a recurring theological column, meant for the long-time readers. This article should match the theme of the edition. […]
Seeing is Believing: The Digital Bible and Bible Verses Online
The European Adventist Society of Theology and Religious Studies’s journal is Spes Christiana latest edition contained an article I wrote a couple of years ago. It analyses how reading the Bible online (i.e.. via Twitter) influences the interpretation of the text. Abstract Millions of Bible verses are shared on Twitter every year. This article examines […]
God in the time of Corona
The Dutch Adventist Church creates a magazine, Contact, that goes to about 3000 people who are interested in the Bible. As some of these people have been receiving this magazine for quite a few years, the editors wanted to have a recurring theological column, meant for the long-time readers. This article should match the theme of the edition. […]
Nostalgia, novelty, and the subversion of authority in “The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs”
Fan Studies Journal Transformative Works and Cultures published a special issue on Fan Fiction and ancient scribal cultures. The entire edition is an amazing read, exploring ‘the potential of fan fiction as an interpretative model to study ancient religious texts.’ I wrote an article dealing with the way early Christians tried to write new things […]
Blowing with the wind
The Dutch Adventist Church creates a magazine, Contact, that goes to about 3000 people who are interested in the Bible. As some of these people have been receiving this magazine for quite a few years, the editors wanted to have a recurring theological column, meant for the long-time readers. This article should match the theme of the edition. […]
Manifesting evil: Demons and physical monstrosity in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs
Way back in 2012, before I had even finished my PhD, I wrote this article. Publication took a while, it was extremely similar to Vogon bureacracy: Anywho, here’s an article on Monster Theory applied to second century Christian demons. The Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha it in December 2019. Abstract The interplay between […]
Unseeable
The Dutch Adventist Church creates a magazine, Contact, that goes to about 3000 people who are interested in the Bible. As some of these people have been receiving this magazine for quite a few years, the editors wanted to have a recurring theological column, meant for the long-time readers. This article should match the theme of the edition. […]
Powers nor Mights
The Dutch Adventist Church creates a magazine, Contact, that goes to about 3000 people who are interested in the Bible. As some of these people have been receiving this magazine for quite a few years, the editors wanted to have a recurring theological column, meant for the long-time readers. This article should match the theme of the edition. […]
Back to the Garden
The Dutch Adventist Church creates a magazine, Contact, that goes to about 3000 people who are interested in the Bible. As some of these people have been receiving this magazine for quite a few years, the editors wanted to have a recurring theological column, meant for the long-time readers. This article should match the theme of the edition. […]
Extreme Walking
More than a year ago I sent my manuscript of a popular book to Wipf and Stock. A long process of copy editing, editing, and proofing finally ended with the publication of Extreme Walking: Extrabiblical Books and the Bible.
Surprise!
The Dutch Adventist Church creates a magazine, Contact, that goes to about 3000 people who are interested in the Bible. As some of these people have been receiving this magazine for quite a few years, the editors wanted to have a recurring theological column, meant for the long-time readers. This article should match the theme of the edition. […]
Being Pure for God
The Dutch Adventist Church creates a magazine, Contact, that goes to about 3000 people who are interested in the Bible. As some of these people have been receiving this magazine for quite a few years, the editors wanted to have a recurring theological column, meant for the long-time readers. This article should match the theme of the edition. […]
Breath, Air, Spirit or Wind?
The Dutch Adventist Church creates a magazine, Contact, that goes to about 3000 people who are interested in the Bible. As some of these people have been receiving this magazine for quite a few years, the editors wanted to have a recurring theological column, meant for the long-time readers. This article should match the theme of the edition. […]
Spectrum Magazine Reviews Extreme Walking
Spectrum Magazine, an Adventist publication, just reviewed my latest popular book. The review is generally very positive, and highlights what I hoped the book would achieve: high readiblity, positive theology, and an engaging introduction to books that many Bible readers are unaware of.
In or Out?
The Dutch Adventist Church creates a magazine, Contact, that goes to about 3000 people who are interested in the Bible. As some of these people have been receiving this magazine for quite a few years, the editors wanted to have a recurring theological column, meant for the long-time readers. This article should match the theme of the edition. […]