bock's blog

One of the issues between Jesus and our culture is the impression about Christianity formed by those who loudly claim to be  followers of him.  Nothing represents such a movement as much as the Religious Right in the USA. A recent assessment of the future of that movement has been published by David Kuo, who was deputy director of faith initiatives for the George W. Bush White House. He has just published an op-ed piece called "Not Your Father"s Religious Right." It is worth reading and reflecting on. Here is a key excerpt.

An interesting piece appeared today on the Crosswalk.com site. It is a statistical look at views of the younger generation of evangelicals. Here is a summary of what they see:

At times on PrimeTimeJesus, a post from a colleague will deserve and generate a response from a team member. Such is the case with Robert Webb's note of James Charlesworth's report on the Symposium held in Jerusalem that included consideration of the Talpiyot tomb.

The Jerusalem Post has an interview with James Charlesworth, the chair of the Jerusalem Symposium that discussed the Jesus Tomb. He calls for more study. Since he is on sabbatical in Israel until April and will try to see of the tomb can be reopned for study. The inter view three pages long in the Jerusalem Post and I have made a link in News We're Watching. He says gainging the right questions are important.

April DeConick of Rice University also reports on the Jerusalem Conference and her reaction to the Duke Conference.

Here is her report from January 22:

Some have asked my opinion of the Duke letter that is now circulating with signatures from several scholars who attended the Talpiot conference. Mark Goodacre has posted it on his blog. (DLB note: it is now on the Duke site which is where our link has it)

I think we can close the book on Jesus Tomb, Phase 2. The Christian Post has published a discussion of the Jerusalem Conference as well as noting the Duke Statement. The article can be seen in full on our "News We're Watching Site". It is the second entry from the Christian Post there (Dated Jan 23.08). It is called simply "Jesus Tomb Case Closed for Most Scholars".

Once again, let me welcome you to this new site. We plan to keep you up to speed on all things Jesus in the public square. We have recruited a team that will alternate a week at a time on the site. They also will chime in when anything big happens. We also will keep our eye on the news and put in the new sidebar things of interest.

The inscription of the name Jesus from Talpiot is said to be "grafitti-like". Well, here it is. You make the call.

Jesus Talpiot Inscription