Prophecy.edu

Click here (ynetnews.com) to read about a new 'Prophetic Academy' in the land that put Biblical prophets on the map...

Your thoughts about such an endeavor? Is prophecy something that can be taught? Or does it spring forth more organically (and/or, divinely)?

Digging for Jesus (and Family)

Click here (YouTube) to watch a brief video about recent claims regarding archaeological discoveries and their disputed relevance for earliest Christianity...

What kind of evidence would it take to definitively resolve such controversies? 

Return to Sinai

Click here (UNESCO) to view several pictures of the Saint Catherine monastery complex in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, a site which figures into scriptural stories about Moses, Elijah, and (at least indirectly) Jesus...

Your thoughts about the environment of this site, and its conduciveness to supernatural experiences?

Where is It?

Click here (biblewalks.com) to view some vivid pictures of the archaeological remains at Khirbet et-Tell (lit. 'The ruin of the mound'), which the excavators argue is Biblical Bethsaida, the fishing village referenced in the Gospels...

Do you think that this site would be receiving as much scholarly attention were it not potentially associated with Jesus? Why/why not?

Envisioning Lazarus

Click here (bible-topten.com) to view numerous portraits of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead (John 11)...

What are your observations/thoughts regarding how the very same Biblical story can be depicted in such varying manners and moods?

This Jesus Must Die

Click here (YouTube) to view a snippet from Jesus Christ Superstar which aptly captures some of the dilemmas faced by institutional powers facing disruptive peripheral intermediaries...

Road Trip?

Click here (biblewalks.com) to learn more about Sepphoris, the large and opulent Roman city located just 5K away from Jesus' boyhood town of Nazareth...

The Bible never states whether Jesus visited (and perhaps worked) here. Assuming that he did (for the sake of argument), what types of experiences and influences might he have encountered? How might it have shaped his later ministry?

Sculpting Shamanism

Click here (TheStar) to read about Inuit sculptor who's work is deeply informed by shamanism...

Do artists such as Mr. Ruben in some way help to keep these ancient traditions genuinely alive? Or are they able merely to capture glimpses of a lost world?

Exorcising One's Demons

Click here (about.com) to read a short article by a self-professed agnostic/atheist regarding the exorcisms of Jesus...

And click here (beliefnet.com) to browse an article by a Christian professor at Louisville Presbyterian Seminary...

What are your thoughts/observations about how each of these individuals approaches the matter? What are their respective insights and limitations?

A Crowded Cosmos

 

Click here (theoi.com) to view several of the ancient Greek (and later, Roman) daimones: supernatural powers/forces that (usually) did the bidding of the deities...

Any favorites?

Arabic Jesus

 

Click here (WaltersManuscript) to view pages from a gorgeous 17th Century illuminated manuscript of the Gospels by the Coptic Christian community in Egypt, illustrating several of Jesus' healing miracles...

What are your observations/reflections about the artistic style, and the theological values it conveys? Do you have any favorites?

Red State, Blue State ... Peru State

Click here (AFP) to read a quick blurb about how Peruvian shamans weighed-in on the U.S. Presidential election...

Genuine prophecy? Or good poll numbers?

Christian Vision-Quest?

 

Click here (YouTube) to view a scene from The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), a film directed by Martin Scorsese which portrayed a very human Jesus, subject to shaman-like rites of initiation...

What are your thoughts/impressions about this portrayal? Is it (potentially) accurate concerning what Jesus might have 'really' experienced in the wilderness? Is it disrespectful to traditional Christian interpretations? Why/why not?

Interview with a Shaman

 

Click here (shamanicjourney.com) to skim an interview with a Peruvian-Amazonian shaman, who discusses various powers and dangers involved with his vocation...

Does Javier seem to be content with his life's calling? Has he made peace with it?

Early Jesus(es)

• Click here to learn about the oldest known icon of the founder, fully half a millennium after his life.
• Click here to see an ancient fresco, a little closer to the original.
• Click here to learn about a possible (miraculous or fraudulent?) ancient-contemporary version.

What are your own observations and thoughts about this ancient religious iconography? About the controversies surrounding its authenticity?

The First Christmas

Click here (atlastours) for a brief overview about the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, the ancient-traditional site of Jesus' birth...

And click here (NYTimes) to learn about a recent international decision concerning the church...

Why do you think that religious pilgrimage to holy sites like this plays such an important (aspirational, even if not actual) role for believers? What does 'going there' achieve for the pilgrim?

African Divination

 

Click here (YouTube) to watch a short video from UNESCO about Ifa divination among the Yoruba people of Central Africa...

How do the actions/behaviors of the Babalawo (divination priest) generally compare/contrast with those of the Pythia? the Biblical prophets?

Know Thyself

Click here (delphioracle.net) to submit your questions to the (virtual) oracle at Delphi...

Do the responses give you answers? or more questions??

Ezekiel's Temple Vision

 

Click here (YouTube) to view a computer-generated description of Ezekiel's visionary temple, described in great detail within Chapters 40-48 of the prophetic book...

You thoughts about the size of the complex? It's symmetry? It's potential meanings for an exiled community?

Legacy of the Drum

Click here (sciencenordic.com) to learn about wooden drum fragments discovered in Greenland, which provide answers (and more questions) about the origins of this ancient, often shamanic, instrument...

Does music ever put you into something approaching an altered state of consciousness??

Ezekiel's 'Christian' Creatures

Click here (catholic-resources), and follow the links, to view various Christian interpretations of Ezekiel's prophetic-call vision as it later became applied to the Christian Scriptures' four Gospel writers...

Any favorites? What does such iconographic appropriation suggest about the conceptual fluidity of the prophetic texts?

Venerating Ezekiel

 

Click here (YouTube/NewYorkTimes) to view a short video concerning the traditional site of the prophet Ezekiel's tomb...

What prospects might this holy place hold for inter-religious dialogue and harmony? What possibilities might it entail for inter-religious strife?

Of Artifacts and Artifice

Click here (jewishvirtuallibrary) to read about the object pictured above: an ivory pomegranate once believed to come from Jerusalem's first temple of Solomon, which still stood at the time of the prophet Jeremiah...

Why do you think the public is generally so fascinated with such archaeological 'finds'? What motives (beyond the financial, of course) might be involved with their production/alteration?

Agayuliyararput

Click here (Smithsonian), and follow the links, to browse an exhibit featuring Yup'ik Eskimo masks from Southwest Alaska...

What general (as well as particular) properties of masks would make them effective tools for a shamanic culture? 

Jerusalem's Competition

Small silver calf and clay shrine, from Canaanite Ashkelon

Click on the following links (bibleplaces.com) to gain quick pictorial overviews of two sites in the southern kingdom of Judah that were operative, and evidently acceptable to a significant portion of the population, including around the time of Jeremiah:

Arad
Beersheba

What would have been some of the social benefits of centralized worship at Jerusalem, and Jerusalem alone (as the Bible frequently demands)? What would have been some of the drawbacks?

Suffering Shamans

All photographs the property of http://www.joeyl.com

Click here (joeyl.com) for a dramatic photo-essay on the Mentawai people of Indonesia, including their modern-day shamans...

Your thoughts/observations about some of the social dynamics involved with this community?

Wisdom of the East?

Click here (santacruz.patch) to read about the role of mind-altering substances within ancient Eastern religious traditions...

(cocktail party factoid: a slang term for cannabis, 'ganga', comes from Ganjika, a Sanskrit word meaning 'of the Ganges' River, where the plant was plentiful)

Your thoughts about the (ir)relevance of such substances for religious experience? 

Jerusalem's Waterworks

Click here (YouTube) for an informative (if somewhat noisy) overview of King Hezekiah's Tunnel under Jerusalem, which the 8th Century BCE Judahite monarch built to withstand the looming Assyrian onslaught.

This project was undertaken around the very same time of the prophet Isaiah's oracles in Chpts. 36 & 37 (on your midterm). I wonder if Isaiah ever got a look at this for himself...

The Oldest 'Bible'

 
Click here (wsrp) for a brief introduction to the Dead Sea Scrolls, the famous ancient library of Hebrew & Aramaic Biblical (and non-Biblical) texts...

What glimpses might we gain into the Qumran community that copied and preserved these texts, according to the website?

Performative Shamanism

 

Click here (YouTube) to watch a short but fascinating video featuring a Korean shaman (mudang) exorcism...

What dramatic actions/behaviors does the mudang undertake? What might these signify symbolically? What are your observations regarding the sensory surroundings of this ritual? Does this spiritual encounter entail a commercial aspect?

Northern Israel's 'Sinful' Sanctuaries

Click here (biblewalks) to view the archaeological remains of King Jeroboam-I's religious sanctuary at Dan (1-Kings 12), a site that was almost certainly dedicated to Yahweh, even though the (Jerusalem-centric) Bible severely criticizes it...

What might Scripture read like if the Northern Kingdom's version of events had survived?

Assyrian Shock & Awe

 

Click here (YouTube) to view a brief collage of ancient Assyrian stone reliefs, which decorated the palaces of the mighty kings during the days of Israel's 'writing' prophets...

What kind of societal values would such artwork have projected, both to fellow Assyrians and to other nations/peoples in the Ancient Near East?

aPORKalypse?!

Click here (huffpost) for a tongue-in-cheek (albeit still serious) look at one of the latest food security predictions to be making the rounds...

Why might it be, in your view, that economic supply-and-demand dynamics sometimes attract the spiritually-charged language of apocalypse and prophecy??

Visualizing Elijah & Elisha

Click here (flickriver.com) to view a small collection of Medieval Biblical illustrations depicting scenes from the prophets' careers...

Any favorites??

Animal Helping Spirits

Click here (animalspirits.com) to view and listen to some of the many animal spirits that are available to shamanistic cultures...

Which ones speak to you??

[download Real Player, if you cannot access the audio files]

Elijah's Environment

Click here (biblewalks.com) and follow the links to view some of the sites in Israel that are associated with the Biblical prophet Elijah...

Notice the various religious monuments that have been built over the centuries. What are your thoughts/observations about how such Scriptural traditions have been memorialized?

The stuff that dreams are made of...

Click here (dreamstudies) to browse an informative albeit somewhat idiosyncratic site (note the disclaimer) regarding dream cultivation and interpretation...

How might ancient spiritual intermediaries have invoked these types of methods in order to fulfill their social roles?

NASA's 'prophecy'

Click here (YouTube) to view a NASA scientist attempting to explain and dispel rumors surrounding the dreaded Mayan Calendar 2012 prophecy...

Do you think that scientific and religious cosmologies (as different as they are) can find any common ground for discussion? Or are they doomed to talk past each other?

Donkey: 1 Balaam: 0

Click here (YouTube) for a wacky-cartoonish take on the prophet Balaam!

How closely (or not) does this version adhere to the Biblical story? What humor and/or sarcasm do you detect in the original? What purposes might this have served for its ancient Israelite audience?

A Deadly ASC

Click here (petaluma360) to learn about a young American's literally fatal encounter with the 'Vine of Death'...

What are your thoughts/reactions to this incident? Could/should anything have been done (or not done) differently? 

Prophecy's Long Shadows

Click here (USAToday) to view a series of photos surveying this past week's growing protests against a movie (made by an American) that denigrates Islam's holiest prophet, Muhammad...

What are your reactions/thoughts about such widespread (and increasingly violent) anger? Is it indeed all about the Prophet? Are there other societal factors/frustrations involved?

Mind Your Elders

Click here (TimesofIndia) to read about a new study correlating supernatural beliefs with age...

What kind of possible explanations for such beliefs does the study discuss? Do you find them persuasive? Are they potentially cross-cultural, or culturally specific?

All Things Egypt

Click here (BritishMuseum) to browse a site with loads of information about ancient life along the Nile...

Anything in particular catch your eye, or otherwise interest you?

The 'Spirit-Vine'

Click here (YouTube) to watch a short video about a Peruvian shaman ritual involving ayahuasca, the powerful hallucinogenic plant sometimes known as the 'Vine of Death'...

What emic (actor-perspective) explanations are here provided about shamanism? What kinds of questions about the ceremony remain for you as an etic (observer-perspective) individual?

Majestic Prophets and Prophetesses

Click here (italian-renaissance-art.com) to view the Vatican's famous Sistine Chapel paintings of Jewish Testament prophets (and Greco-Roman Sibyls = female oracles) by Michelangelo...

What might Michelangelo's styles/depictions of these characters suggest about early 16th Century notions of Biblical prophets and prophecy? If you had only these paintings to go by, who/what would you imagine a prophet to be?

Shamans of the Khans

Click here (NBC) to get a glimpse of shamanism's resurgence in portions of Mongolia...

What factors are motivating some people to return to shamanic traditions? How might these behaviors interact with institutional religions, such as Islam and Christianity?

Shamanism Down South

Click here (Emory) to learn about a newly opened museum exhibition that explores relationships between artwork and shamanism, both ancient and modern...

What observations/thoughts come to your mind about how the curator has structured and described this exhibit?

Debasing Shamanism

Click here (Catholic Encyclopedia, 1912) for a century-old Christian perspective on shamanism...

How would you characterize the tone of this article? What kinds of presuppositions and/or beliefs seem to underlie its descriptions? What specific terms/labels stand out for you?

Defining Shamanism

Click here (YouTube) for a New Age take on an ancient phenomenon...

What are your initial reactions to this person's definitions and descriptions of shamanism? What questions does the discussion raise for you?