Steveawiggins

LATEST ARTICLES ( 4574 )

• Ethology Theology

  

  Prominent public intellectuals, we’re used to hearing, often lament the survival of religion into a rationalist age. As an obscure private intellectual—if I... Read more

  Posted on 18 March 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• St. Pat Tricks

  

  What does it say about a saint when the celebration of his day is excessive drinking? Virtue and vice, while not nearly as Manichean as sometimes made out to be... Read more

  Posted on 17 March 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Measuring Religion

  

  How do you measure the religiosity of a people? While the boundaries of the United States are somewhat porous, internally, we nevertheless still consist of... Read more

  Posted on 16 March 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Apes’ Asherah?

  

  As a part of my class on Ancient Near Eastern Religions, since we were dealing with the earliest textually recorded religions, I explored origins.... Read more

  Posted on 15 March 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Lovecraft Legacy

  

  History can be a funny thing. Take the way it treats some people. H. P. Lovecraft wasn’t famous in his lifetime. In fact, his isn’t exactly a household name eve... Read more

  Posted on 14 March 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Retrograde Motion

  

  How wondrous it feels, after a winter of dark skies, to see dawn beginning to break even before I crawl onto the bus in the morning. Read more

  Posted on 13 March 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Can of Worms

  

  A great variety of food comes in cans. My mind naturally turns to vegetables and beans, but “tinned meat” was a staple of my childhood, including the now deride... Read more

  Posted on 12 March 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Moral Money

  

  Yesterday I spent at the Mid-Atlantic Regional American Academy of Religion and Society of Biblical Literature meeting. Not a registered guest, I was there in... Read more

  Posted on 11 March 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Long Live Life

  

  Shortsighted and arrogant. No, I’m not describing Richard Fortey’s Horseshoe Crabs and Velvet Worms, but rather the collective human race. I love people—I reall... Read more

  Posted on 10 March 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Mere Monsters

  

  While my colleagues and I wait to hear if our monster session will be approved, my thoughts naturally turn to the taxonomy of monsters. One of the perennial... Read more

  Posted on 09 March 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Holy Haunted Book

  

  Religion is one of those words that defies easy definition. As I’ve suggested before, you know it when you see it, but trying to pin the idea down is a differen... Read more

  Posted on 08 March 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Seminary History

  

  Seminary is where you go to learn what they didn’t tell you growing up.  Many people have rather idealized views about clergy and somewhat untrained views... Read more

  Posted on 07 March 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Soul Library

  

  There’s a kind of trinitarian logic to the trilogy format. Long before Hegel’s model of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis, people have grouped things into... Read more

  Posted on 06 March 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Bible Search

  

  The Bible is, in many ways, not suited to internet study.  Let me explain: this artificial world of the internet is based on searchability. Read more

  Posted on 05 March 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Religious Laughter

  

  Reader’s Digest famously runs a feature, “Laughter: the Best Medicine.” I’m not a Reader’s Digest reader, and I’ve generally only seen it on coffee tables and... Read more

  Posted on 04 March 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Holy Seer

  

  Hands up, all who’ve heard of Veronica Lueken. Maybe one of you in the back? I have to confess to having been in the “Veronica who?” crowd until reading Joseph... Read more

  Posted on 03 March 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Making History

  

  We should learn from our mistakes. This is something of which historians are keenly aware. James Grossman, executive director of the American Historical... Read more

  Posted on 02 March 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Good Goddess

  

  This past week Asherah has been on my mind. Some of my readers will know that I wrote a book on Asherah, based on my doctoral dissertation. Read more

  Posted on 01 March 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Dream Time

  

  Like most people, I seldom remember my dreams. When I do, or when only the powerful feeling remains, I know that they are very emotional events. Something is... Read more

  Posted on 29 February 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Used Bookends

  

  There’s nothing like spending a Saturday in a bookstore. It is actually a rare treat these days with Borders gone and some of the smaller indies having trouble... Read more

  Posted on 28 February 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY