Sam Harris and “The End of Faith”: Faith and Intolerance (Part 6)
We’ve now come to the point in our analysis of Sam Harris’ book, The End of Faith, where we will look at the specific things he has to say about “faith.” ...
Category: Biblical Studies
Sam Harris and “The End of Faith”: A Biblical Scholar, He Ain’t (Part 5)
I’ve found that in the course of my critiques of books by atheist writers like Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris, that it is actually quite invigorating exerc...
Sam Harris and “The End of Faith”: Hear nothing good, see nothing good…at least not in Christianity! (Part 4)
It should come as no surprise in a book entitled, The End of Faith, that Harris refuses to even consider that there might be something to religion in general, a...
Biblical Intertextuality (Part 8): Jonah and A.I.
The final movie I want to discuss is the science-fiction film A.I. It is unique in that although it contains much of the same imagery and symbolism f...
Biblical Intertextuality (Part 7): Jonah, Pinocchio, and a New Creation
One of the things I loved to do when I covered Jonah in my 9th grade Old Testament class was show my class the movie Pinocchio by Roberto Benigni. I wouldn’t sh...
Biblical Intertextuality (Part 6): Five Biblical Themes in “The Matrix”
Given the basic plot of The Matrix, there are five essential biblical themes, one of which is a “Jonah theme,” that are essential to furthering the plot. The ot...
Biblical Intertextuality (Part 5): Jonah and The Matrix (along with a few other biblical themes)
As hard as it is to believe, The Matrix is 16 years old. As I sat in the movie theater, watching The Matrix for the first time, I had two distinct impressions. ...
Biblical Intertextuality and Jonah (Part 4): The White Whale, Moby Dick–Satanic or God-like?
It is ironic that the central question literary scholars ask concerning the identity of Moby Dick is virtually the exact same question biblical scholars ask con...
Biblical Intertextuality: Captain Ahab, the Diabolical Antithesis of Jonah (Part 3)
One of the main questions concerning Moby Dick is the exact identity of the white whale: is Moby Dick symbolic of God himself, or just symbolic of nat...
Biblical Intertextuality: Jonah in Moby Dick–Father Mapple’s Sermon (Part 2)
At various times in college, I attempted to read Moby Dick—I failed every time. My natural inclination was toward poetry, and Moby Dick was a novel…a long novel...