Tag Archives: Christianity

(Paul) Toledot Yeshu (Parting of the Ways)

Posted on March 9, 2022 by zjb

[The Wandering Jew, Samuel Hirszenberg, 1899] The scandalous and graphic lampooning of Jesus across the entire compendia of Toldeot Yeshu manuscripts gets the most attention. It is these set of images that tend to stick in the mind. But pulling … Continue reading →

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Pharisees (Matthew)

Posted on February 23, 2022 by zjb

Cutting through the imprecation, there are at least eight things that Matthew says about the Pharisees that are maybe or probably true. –They observe Shabbat punctiliously; they do not pick grain in the fields or practice healing or exorcism on … Continue reading →

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(Apocalypse Now) Parting Ways With The Jews (Gospel of Matthew)

Posted on February 22, 2022 by zjb

[[Caravaggio, The Inspiration of Saint Matthew (1602)]] [[I am isolating in this post passages from the Gospel of Matthew that speak to a parting of the way with Judaism in the formation of a new disciple community based upon the foundation … Continue reading →

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What Trypho Said (Justin Martyr)

Posted on February 17, 2022 by zjb

Here I reconstruct and recommend the figure of Trypho, how he and Justin Martyr met purportedly during the time of the Bar Kochba Revolt, what Justin Martyr allowed him to say in Dialogue with Trypho, and how they part ways … Continue reading →

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(The Capitol Building) So Much American Civil Religion & The Problem of Evil

Posted on February 24, 2021 by zjb

There before or very eyes, for most of us on television or online, was the reappearance of American Civil Religion. It was there in the wake churned at the Trump Insurrection at the Capitol, the inauguration of President Biden, and … Continue reading →

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I Do Not Understand American Christendom (2020 Elections)

Posted on November 5, 2020 by zjb

Now is as good a time to say it as not. I do not understand American Christendom, the underlying goodness and underlying depravity at the base of this majoritarian human phenomenon. I understand the myth of American exceptionalism, freedoms,  and … Continue reading →

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(Trump) How Not To Hold A Bible (Habitus & Hexis)

Posted on June 2, 2020 by zjb

(h/t Jim Watts and Iconic Books and to @drnelk at Twitter) Arguably, in these United States, a good president needs to know how to handle a Bible. President Trump is not a good president. With him, the Bible has no … Continue reading →

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(Notre Dame) It’s Moral To Risk Human Life (Coronavirus & Religion)

Posted on May 26, 2020 by zjb

We are in our society regularly willing to take on ourselves or impose on others risks — even lethal risks — for the good of society. We send off young men and women to war to defend the security of … Continue reading →

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(Russian Resurrection) Andrei Rublev (Tarkovsky)

Posted on April 28, 2020 by zjb

I don’t have to say a lot to say about Christianity and cinema in Andrei Rublev (1966) by the great Andrei Tarkovsky, master of the long-shot form of the time-image. Just one quick comment about the structure of the film and the … Continue reading →

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Christians & Coronavirus (March/April 2020)

Posted on April 19, 2020 by zjb

True to form, Jewish religious response to the Coronavirus has been dominated by problems relating to halakhic practice and communal structure; about God not so much if at all. With thanks to Adam Brett, I wanted to see what the … Continue reading →

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