This Week in Word from the Bird

Masculinity Crisis, The Bible and AI, 1 Corinthians 8:6, Death of Alexei Navalny, and Women in the Ministrae

Big week ahead my friends, I’ve been a busy boy, and this is what I’ve got for you!

Monday: Revisiting the Masculinity Crisis (Paid Subscribers)
I’ve been long interested in discussions about masculinity and manhood in Christian and secular discourses. Being a man myself, I have to admit that negotiating the world is a little confusing for the best of us. In other words, being a dude is not always easy! Here I offer reflections on recent remarks on masculinity from the Pope and a feminist commentator.

Tuesday: Jesus and Monotheism. (Free Sign-Ups)
New Video on 1 Cor 8:6 about how Paul splices Jesus into the shema of Dt 6:4. Big christology mic drop right there!

Wednesday: AI and Bible Translation (Free Sign-Ups)
What is the possible impact, for good or for bad, of AI on Bible Translation? Can AI fast-track our ability to make the Bible available in every language?

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Thursday: On the Death of Alexey Navalny (Paid Subscribers)
The death (murder!) of Navalny comes, ironically, while Tucker Carlson engages in a publicity campaign for Russian Dictator Vladimir Putin, and runs around Moscow saying how much better Russia is compared to America. It’s all red meat for Christian Nationalists.

Friday: Women in the Ministrae in Bithynia (Paid Subscribers)
Sometime around 111-13 AD, Pliny, the governor of Bithynia (north shore of modern-day Turkey) wrote a letter to the emperor Trajan about what to do with people denounced as “Christians.” Along the way, Pliny makes a fascinating statement about women church officers, as ministrae, at one point. But what is ministrae?