Upcoming conference: Talking Points: Towards Nicaea and Its "Borderlands": Adventures in Explorative Redescriptions
@gerhardvdh57.bsky.social
The newest issue of Religion & Theology (vol. 33, nos. 1--2, 2026) is out and accessible online. brill.com/view/journal...
The first conference coming soon. The announcement and call for papers will soon be available.
Patrick Blanchfield in n+1 magazine, "You Can Just Do Things: You don’t have to learn any lessons you don’t want to," -- "You can just do things, sure, right until the game is up, and then you can’t." www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/...
You Can Just Do Things | Patrick Blanchfield
As ever, the horrors Trump embodies implicate more than just his singular odious person. His “habit of abusing power to force his will upon an uncooperative world”—in David Frum’s formulation over the...
nplusonemag.com
"A state defending itself against invasion is not engaging in brinkmanship by surviving. There is a moral difference between initiating force and resisting it. If that distinction collapses, so does international law." Peter Bach, www.counterpunch.org/2026/02/25/i...
Iran and Ukraine: Narrow World
If you think about it, the world’s not that wide. It only feels that way on maps. It gets pretty narrow at key pressure points like the thin ribbon of
counterpunch.org
Call for papers for the 21–24 November 2026 Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in Denver, CO, USA.
Call for papers for the Greco- Roman Religions Section for the November Annual Meeting of the SBL:
Munich 1938 all over. Appeasement ... and we know how that story ended. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/10/w...
Trump Eyes Greenland, and Europe Figures Its Best Bet Is a Negotiation
nytimes.com
More on the recent US actions in Venezuela from the editors of Commonweal, the magazine for social commentary in the Catholic tradition: www.commonwealmagazine.org/editorial-ve...
Trump’s Pyrrhic Victory
Trump has made clear his intention to turn the United States into a reflection of himself: a rogue nation with the methods and morals of a mob boss.
commonwealmagazine.org
Alongside Chris Hedges's essay, "America the Rogue State," read Peter Swanepoel's sober assessment of the application of "outcome-based morality" with respect to Venezuela as a harbinger of greater crises to come in our increasingly dysfunctional world: dailyfriend.co.za/2026/01/07/v...
Venezuela: The Seduction of Outcome-Based Morality - Daily Friend
Why moral clarity does not justify discretionary power.
dailyfriend.co.za
The newest issue of Religion and Theology is out: vol 32, no. 3--4 (2025). Attached the contents page of the newest issue plus the index of the whole volume [issues 1--2 and 3--4]. Check it out at www.brill.com/rt
Sessions of the Greco-Roman Religions Section at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature 22--25 November 2025 in Boston:
Apocalyptic reading with a kind of almost sliver of a silver lining at the end.. www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...
The newest issue of Religion & Theology 32, no. 1&2 (2025), just out ...
A discussion on scholarly journal editorship I am involved with - Keyan Tomaselli on the implications of the Academy of Sciences of South Africa [ASSAf] Statement on the Recognition of Editors and Peer Reviewers, and the whole scholarly value chain in academic publishing. doi.org/10.17159/saj...
Publishing as knowledge clubs: ASSAf Statement on the Recognition of Editors and Peer Reviewers
doi.org
Julie Schumacher Cohen, 28 May 2025: "We can grieve the Holocaust as an unfathomable act of human cruelty and mourn the way in which a people not responsible for it—the Palestinians—continue to bear an undue burden from its legacy." www.commonwealmagazine.org/gaza-israel-...
Catholic Guilt and Gaza
Insofar as Catholic neglect of the plight of the Palestinians stems from guilt about the Holocaust, it’s long past time to rethink how this guilt is addressed.
commonwealmagazine.org
New Testament Society of Southern Africa Supplement Virtual Conference 15 May 2025 The virtual conference will be held via Zoom online. us02web.zoom.us/j/3247885838... Meeting ID: 324 788 5838 Passcode: 730170
A lot of pep-talking for the coming fightback is taking place, and this one adds another bit to the programme needed: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Donald Trump, beware – this is what a global liberal fightback looks like | Timothy Garton Ash
From the Canadian elections to universities and civil society, the campaign to turn the tide against anti-liberal nationalists is well underway, says Guardian columnist Timothy Garton Ash
theguardian.com
The madness creep spilling over the border, as reported in the Toronto Star: www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...
Redirecting...
facebook.com
Towards a new civic morality: jacobin.com/2025/04/mele...
Jean-Luc Mélenchon: “We Need a New Civic Morality”
As he visits the US for the first time, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of La France Insoumise, writes about the collapse of triumphal capitalist narratives and sets out an alternative vision for humanity ...
jacobin.com
"Although he had a conservative reputation in his earlier years, Pope Francis used his role as a world religious leader to campaign against poverty and social oppression, directly challenging the appropriation of Christianity by figures like J. D. Vance." jacobin.com/2025/04/pope...
Pope Francis Was an Amiable Mold Breaker in the Vatican
Although he had a conservative reputation in his earlier years, Pope Francis used his role as a world religious leader to campaign against poverty and social oppression, directly challenging the appro...
jacobin.com
On the late Pope Francis who made migrants and immigrants a focus of his papacy: www.democracynow.org/2025/4/21/po...
Pope Francis’s Book Editor Robert Ellsberg on the Pontiff’s Life, Legacy & Care for Refugees
We continue our look at the life and legacy of Pope Francis with a focus on his advocacy for migrants’ rights and next steps for selecting his successor, with input from groups like SNAP, Survivors Ne...
democracynow.org
And another report on the passing of Pope Francis: www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a... Though not a John XXIII, I have read some of his pastoral letters and encyclicals, and I have been impressed by his social vision. I could think with them with my students.
Pope Francis, groundbreaking Jesuit pontiff, dies aged 88
Death of 266th head of Catholic church triggers period of global mourning and Vatican conclave of cardinals to elect successorLatest updates: tributes paid after Pope Francis dies aged 88
theguardian.com
Whatever you think of the institution, I did find him an inspirational figure www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news...
Pope Francis has died on Easter Monday aged 88 - Vatican News
Pope Francis died on Easter Monday, April 21, 2025, at the age of 88 at his residence in the Vatican's Casa Santa Marta.
vaticannews.va
Photo of conference attendees at the just past annual meeting of the New Testament Society of Southern Africa, 31 March to 4 April. The keynote speakers stand in the front row; I am behind Lily Nortjé Meyer, the current honorary president of the Society, in front.
Thom Hartmann in Alternet: "Democracy doesn’t 'die in darkness.' It dies when truth becomes a crime and silence becomes survival." www.alternet.org/alternet-exc...
Is this the moment American democracy finally broke?
The highest form of freedom in a democracy isn’t just the right to vote or protest — it’s the right to speak truth to power. To call out corruption. To challenge lies. To stand firm when the powerful ...
alternet.org