Julia M. OBrien

In his book America's Prophet:  Moses and the American Story, Bruce Feiler makes a bold claim: "Moses is bigger than Jesus."

I've just had an article published in the on-line journal The Bible and Interpretation.  It calls for biblical scholars to start talking more about why people should care about the Bible, not relying on the fact that they historically have.

This week, 60 Minutes ran a piece on firms that represent delebs:  dead celebrities.  Turns out there's a big business in merchandising Elvis, James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, and the most recognizable face of our time, Albert Einstein.

My step-daughter Brianne is in Japan for the year, teaching English. After reading my last blog post about the ripped Jesus, she sent me this photo.  What is this??

I've never thought of Jesus as meek and mild, but I also never imagined Jesus the way I saw him depicted on a billboard in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, a few years ago.

My daughter turns 21 today. In contemporary American culture, that’s a significant milestone. As of today, she can drink alcohol legally and the cost of her car insurance decreases significantly. She’s very excited about the former and I about the latter, but I’m sure there are other legal dimensions of turning 21 that neither of us has thought about yet.

My post on Reading Novels, Reading the Bible was picked up by Tim Bulkeley in his SansBlogue, which was picked up by Jim West in his blog, which was then commented on by various readers. That string leads me to clarify my point and restate my quest.

This summer has not been kind to my backyard garden.  After a few weeks of prolific production, my squash and cucumber plants succumbed to powdery mildew.  Now, just as they are supposed to ripen in full glory, my tomatoes (the bread and butter of my garden) are waging war with late blight.  It’s been too wet here in south central Pennsylvania.  Not hot enough.

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

As long as the word "Bible" is used to mean "definitive" or "instructions," is there any hope people will read it for its stories?  What chance do those of us who want to open up the reading of these writings have in the face of pop culture definitions?

That's the question that ran through my head as I pondered a display outside of Borders at the local mall.