From the daily archives:

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Martin Hengel dies: may God be good to him

July 2, 2009

According to Dorstener Zeitung (about the only news source I could find) Martin Hengel has died today.
Einer der weltweit bedeutendsten Experten für die Literatur des Urchristentums und antiken Judentums, Prof. Martin Hengel, ist am Donnerstag in Tübingen gestorben. Der evangelische Theologe wurde 82 Jahre alt, teilte die Württembergische Landeskirche in Stuttgart mit.
Hengel’s conservative historian’s approach [...]

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Don’t just blame the Zionists, Jim

July 2, 2009

Jim West (who according to his blog title du jour is now to be known by the Greek translation of his name as Jake the Dismal) draws attention to the ill-founded nature of many of the so-called facts about sites in Israel / Palestine.
I agree fully with Jim that many of these identifications serve a [...]

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Professional care, prayer and placebos

July 2, 2009

In a sense, this a second part to the previous post, following up the BMA decision that doctors and nurses should not offer to pray for patients. Ruth Gledhill’s post on that, together with the comments, reveal some of the heated reactions around that both from people who do and do not want to be [...]

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Secularists change their mind: hospital chaplaincy now a good thing

July 2, 2009

Yesterday the British Medical Association effectively voted to keep care and prayer distinct. As David Keen summed it up:

So the BMA conference recognises that the NHS is committed to providing spiritual care for patients, but doesn’t believe that medical staff should take the initiative in offering it.

In a post on the Wardman Wire he put [...]

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I am excited

July 2, 2009

Only two weeks to go for the release of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince . It seems like we’ve been waiting ever. Of course, sod’s law means I’m too busy then to see it before the weekend.

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