Julia M. OBrien

I've recently returned from co-leading a group of seminarians on a 17-day trip to the West Bank and Israel.  It was an intense experience, and I'll soon start blogging and uploading photos.

Why bother reading the laws of the Bible if you're not going to live by them?

Over at the Lingamish blog, David Ker has been talking about marriage and about gender roles within it.

In a recent article in The Wall Street Journal, Karen Armstrong and Richard Dawkins respond to the question, "Where does evolution leave God?"   Not surprisingly, Armstrong answers in a way that respects religious belief, while Dawkins uses the opportunity to further disparage religion.

Last weekend, two biblical scholar friends and I visited the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore and spent time in an exhibit entitled "Shrunken Treasures:  Miniaturization in Books and Art." It features tiny books and objects from the museum's permanent collection.

My "What's your Earliest Memory of a Bible Story?" poll has been up for 6 weeks.  As of today 75 people voted.  Thanks for all who joined in.

Since I'm not a trained poll-crafter, I'm not sure if the results really provide fresh data or are skewed by my selection of stories. But the winners of the poll didn't surprise me.

Review of Kevin Roose, The Unlikely Disciple:  A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University.  Grand Central Publishing, 2009.

Right after I uploaded my last blog post on The Bible as Instructions, I found this comic in my local paper.  It fits!

My title at the seminary recently changed:  instead of "Professor of Old Testament," my business card now reads "Professor of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament."   This was my idea. Why did I ask for such a long, cumbersome title?

Last week, two colleagues from Elizabethtown College and I took a field trip to a reproduction of the biblical Tabernacle.  It's housed in the Mennonite Information Center in Lancaster, PA-- close to Amish tourist sites, a Target, and two outlet malls.