Here is my 2025 Easter Post! 33 When it was noon, darkness came over the whole land[g] until three in the afternoon. 34 At three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”[h] 35 When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, “Listen, he is … Easter Post: Dating the Gospels

PHILOSOPHY (INDEX) How Johann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin Helped Us Rethink Ancient Thought RELIGION “The Next Quest for the Historical Jesus (2024)” Anthology by James Crossley (Editor), Chris Keith (Editor) – FINAL Updated Blogging Index

PREVIOUSLY: (Part 1) Martin Heidegger’s “Contributions to Philosophy (Of the Event)” As we continue with Heidegger’s Contributions book, we note it is not a linear development of an argument. Heidegger never intended it for publication. What I’m trying to show is his philosophy is not superstitious even though it uses theological language strategically. The later … (Part 2) Martin Heidegger’s “Contributions to Philosophy (Of the Event)”

SCORE 5/5 My thanks to Cambridge for providing me with a review copy of this book. PREAMBLE: LETTER TO PROFESSOR VINZENT Hi Prof Vinzent, My name is John MacDonald and I am president of the Secular Web. I recently posted a review of Prof Nina Livesey’s new book on the thesis of a fictional Paul and pseudonymous … Review-  The Letters of Paul in their Roman Literary Context: Reassessing Apostolic Authorship by Nina E. Livesey

Given that we are coming to the Season of Passover, it is appropriate to meditate on how the story of Jesus was formed to reflect Jewish scripture and tradition, and so is often unhistorical, e.g., Mathew invents stories about Jesus to portray him as the New and greater Moses. Moreover, Jesus is linked to the … Jesus: Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread

Martin Heidegger’s Contributions to Philosophy reflects his famous philosophical “turning.” In this work, Heidegger returns to the question of being from its inception in Being and Time to a new questioning of being as event. Heidegger opens up the essential dimensions of his thinking on the historicality of being that underlies all of his later … (Part 1) Martin Heidegger’s “Contributions to Philosophy (Of the Event)”

“We ask: How long then?  So long that it even reaches beyond our present, godless age (Heidegger, Elucidations of Holderlin’s Poetry, 211)” We are looking at a poet from the lens of our secular age, Heidegger’s and Hölderlin’s theological language conveying a message that is also available to a secular reader.  Hölderlin says “Gods who … Reclaiming Heidegger’s Holderlin for our Secular Age: An Interpretation of Heidegger’s Elucidations of Holderlin’s Poetry

Today on “X (Twitter)’ Kant Specialist Prof Anita Leirfall posted about the nature of being religious and here is my response: Jesus is speaking here of how his teaching is an innovation of the Judaism of his time: 43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ … What is Religious Life?

It seems that a straightforward reading of our New Testament sources does not equate Jesus with God as we would later see with the gospel of John and even later with the doctrine of the Trinity. For example, Jesus in desperate prayer in Gethsemane doesn’t seem to be praying to himself, just as Paul says … Is Jesus God? The Esther Allusion

This is my final post on Heidegger’s reading of Hölderlin’s Hymn The Ister in the lecture course of 1942. The measure of truth in Hölderlin’s river poetry is not found in the actuality of the geographical river, Hölderlin saying “Is there a measure on earth?  There is none (Hölderlin, In Beautiful Blue).”  Heidegger says we … (CONCLUSION) Heidegger’s Reading of Hölderlin’s Poem “The Ister”