Bart D. Ehrman

Those who know, know that one of my favorite contemporaneous authors is Bart D. Ehrman (“, he said tautologically).  He is the author of Misquoting Jesus, God’s Problem, and most recently a book called Jesus, Interrupted.  He teaches early Christianity, the Bible, the historicity of Jesus, and similar topics at UNC-Chapel Hill.  One of the things I like most about him is his characteristically conversational tone of writing.  He is able to write undogmatically, and hence unpretentiously, I think, about subject matter that, for many, lies close to the heart.  He writes from his own educational background and personal experience, which allows his books a type of approachability that rivals the best writing today in his field, in my opinion.

There are times, in fact, when, after giving an historical description or theological question, he will present his own experience as a kind of cautionary tale, a bit of a caveat to the reader who might take his words too far, perhaps to their ostensibly logical or obvious conclusion.  For instance, in God’s Problem, he discusses the matter at great length of how the Bible deals with the problem of suffering.  At one point, he breaks off from this, to tell the reader that, though his own conclusions have led him to agnosticism, he wakes up, sweating profusely, in the middle of the night, wondering if he is wrong.  This kind of honesty is unassuming, and it is idiosyncratic of Ehrman to take a very deep or troubling subject matter and discuss it with the kind of tenderness it requires.

There are times, of course, where he is dogmatic, and that is to be expected: he is, after all, a professor.  But his dogmatism belies his true concern, I think, which is to communicate and teach those who are interested.  Some have written book responses to Misquoting Jesus, but his point is really not to stir up trouble.  His purpose, I believe, is to tell others what he has learned and for them to dwell on whatever that is, and to make their own conclusions, not just to take his at face value.  This, I think, is part of the essence of a good teacher: leading, but not demanding.

I have just started Jesus, Interrupted, a book about the Bible, again, which discusses the historicity, the inner consistency, etc., in a very scholarly way, I think.  (So far, at least.)  I will probably post a short, informal review when I am done.  Until then, check out his books; I think you’ll find him, at the very least, thought-provoking.

Talk soon,

Neal

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Happy Turkey Day!, 2008

I got home on Wednesday at around one in the afternoon (CST).  I was so excited to be back in Birmingham, my hometown, if only for a few days, to see family and friends and places around town.  Not to mention I’ve been driving my old car (my little sister drives it now) around, which has been amazing, really, b/c we don’t have a car up in Chicago.  Public transit (CTA or Metra), biking, walking, cabs, get us where we need to go.

In any event, it’s just so good to be back.  We went to Cocina Superior for lunch Wednesday, then went to my sister Mandy’s brand spankin’ new house (and her family) that night for dinner.  I miss seeing Mary Virginia and Anne Louise on a regular basis (check out flickr.com/nealtucker for pics of them, they are so cute).  We then had Thanksgiving yesterday, with my whole fam, Ash’s fam, and some of my cousins over at my parents’ house for lunch.  Which was so great.  Talking about Chicago, school, how bad the Lions suck – awesome.  We took the obligatory portraits, which I secretly love, b/c it catalogs life in a very memorable and meaningful way.  I mean, think about life without those awful, drawn-out, embarrassingly-difficult-to-organize portraits we take with 800 different digital cameras and the one uncle with his 1982 Holga.  Then what do you have.  It wouldn’t be a life worth living, that’s what.

So today, Steve and I got Hardee’s for breakfast and then went Black Friday “shopping.”  We went to Office Depot and snagged an inexpensive HP printer and ink, and some really cheap memory cards for cameras and phones (I wrote that sentence that way to display why Oxford Commas are necessary in other circumstances, because here, the printer and ink go together, and the memory cards are for both cameras and phones.  So there.).  Then we drove home.  That was our version of Black Friday.

When I got home, I did some research to find out how many 3.2 megapixel pictures (or my iTunes songs, for that matter) could fit on a 4 GB microSD card for my LG Dare phone.  And here is what I found.

How much music will fit on a memory card of a given size with a song of a given bit rate.

How many pictures will fit on a memory card of a given size with a camera of a given megapixel(s).
You may not need this info now, but it might come in handy later on.  Some day.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Because you listened,
Neal
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Weekend shopping foray update

I got a few of the things I posted about earlier in the weekend.  I got the boots and the printer.  However, the printer is actually a little better than the one below, because it’s a photo-printer.  It’s still HP, so that’s good.  And the best part about it all, Ash’s parents bought it all.  They didn’t have to, of course, but they did, which was amazing.  I had no idea they were going to buy my boots, so that was a great surprise.  I had been told they would buy the printer, but that was still awesome.

Here’s the printer.
So, in addition to Nordstrom’s (boots) and Best Buy (printer), we also went to The Home Depot and got our VERY FIRST CHRISTMAS TREE!  YEAYAYAY!  … yup.  It’s 4′-6″ tall, and it has lights already on it, for the lazy American in all of us.  Now all we need is Thanksgiving to come and go, and then the four weeks after that, and some ornaments, presents, and SNOW, and we’ll have CHRISTMAS 2008!!!  I think I might make t-shirts.

This is the closest thing to the tree we bought I could find on homedepot.com.
If anybody has any ornament ideas, let me know.
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In-Laws, Shopping with the

My in-laws are in-town this weekend.  They are staying with me and Ash.  Well, they are staying in the same building.  Our apartment building has rooms for temporary rental, like a weekend or a week or something, if you want.  You have to know someone that lives here, and if you’re reading this, it’s likely you do.  They do.  
They know us.  We know them.  It works out pretty well.

We’re going shopping today, because (1) it is getting effing cold, and (2) we need a printer.  With that being said, these are the things I am going to try and get today:

Boots – The North Face – probably something like these …

Goggles – The North Face maybe – you may laugh, but it gets so cold and snowy and windy up here that apparently you need ski goggles just to be able to fly high above all the mucky muck, feeling oh so proudly.  But they’ll probably be something like these …
Annnnd, finally, we need a printer, like bad.  There’s a “business center” (read, “computer lab”) in our building, which has like 5 or so computers, 2 printers, a fax-machine, and a copier.  The only thing that works consistently well is the copier.  SO, we are going to get one today hopefully, b/c it’s getting effing reedickulous.  I have to print stuff off all the time for school, and now I’m fed up.  Or however you spell “fed.”  In any event, here  is the one we are thinking of getting, over at Best Buy, probably a little like this…except we’ll be getting the whole thing, not this abbreviated, cut-off version you see below.  (In case you haven’t ever used a computer, click the image for full size.)
So, yeah, there ya’ go.  ’Til next time, pikcha me rollin…like this…  

B/c u lizened,
Neal
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