Navigating the Intersections of Faith, Knowledge, and Reason.
Readings and interpretations is a category of articles focused on particular scripture passages and biblical texts. These articles provide commentary and insight for biblical texts by looking into comparative literary evidence, archaeological backgrounds, and linguistic particulars. Conclusions are reflective and inclusive of philosophical movements, literary theory, theology, and pop culture.
On Friday evening, our family celebrated our first Passover Seder in our home. We blocked a few hours on the calendar to dedicate to preparing food, setting the table, and enjoying some pre-dinner Passover drinks (which is apparently, a thing). My daughter helped me make coconut macaroons dipped in chocolate, which was so incredibly easy!…
This morning, I spent some time thinking about how to best observe the significance of Good Friday. I could not separate the concept of the crucifixion from immaculate love, so I decided to reflect on love by watching a musical that explores many aspects of love, in all its complexities, corruption, purity, and simplicity—Baz Luhrman’s…
It’s one day before our scheduled Passover Seder and in addition to picking up the few straggling items from the shopping list, we are slow cooking the brisket and making the charoset. Joshua prepared the root vegetables and seasoned the brisket in the morning so it was ready for a long day of slow cooking…
16—How many years I have studied the Bible as a scholar, resulting in to Masters degrees and one PhD. 12—How many years I have spent teaching University students about the Hebrew Bible. 0—Number of times I have tried to celebrate a year’s worth of Jewish holidays. This year, I was very accurately targeted with an…
I am reading the book of Leviticus and a few friends, so we have a topic of conversation to guide our weekly Zoom-meeting discussions. We’re taking it slow, but the questions come quickly. We have five Master’s degrees in Linguistics, Law, Chemistry, two doctorate degrees, and one doctoral candidate. We started by reading the first…
Why “literal” doesn’t always mean honest—and how a faithful reading begins with humility Ever since I went to seminary, I’ve become acutely aware of a phrase commonly heard among Christians: “I read the Bible literally.” Before seminary, I wasn’t unaware that the Bible was written in another language—but I hadn’t fully considered that it was…
While working on an essay about diversity, equity, and inclusion, I stumbled across this Ted Talk presentation by Janet Stovall, Sr. Director of Social Impact at UPS Foundation, is an advocate for inclusion in corporations, and an activist against racism. When she was at college, Stovall’s “Project 87” urged her North Carolina University to actively…
As a sequel to the interview on Creation Narratives, Dr. LePort invited me to respond to a series of questions about ancient Near Eastern flood narratives. You can view the video here. Read Brian LePort’s blog posting here. Erica Mongé-GreerDr. Erica Mongé-Greer is a writer, biblical scholar, and consultant passionate about the intersections of faith,…
With the sudden rise in interest for online lectures and interactive content, I was invited by fellow biblical studies scholar, Dr. Brian LePort, to an interview about ancient Near Eastern origin stories. The result was a recorded video used as a resource in a high school religion course. It was a fun project, and I…