Yesterday I started a second semester postgraduate Linguistics course called Linguistic approaches to the Study of Narrative. I am going to try to do my final research project for this course on Ayaan Hirsi Ali's autobiography, Infidel, or consider the agency present in conversion stories. I haven't linked my interest in religion and academia in a long time, so I'm looking forward to this.



In the meantime I'm sitting here working on my readings… Continue

Just to clarify: I don't mean "going on a date with Jesus." I mean historically determining the dates of his existence, although I like to think that the title caught your attention.



I've been really battling with proof of his divinity lately. I'm not too concerned about proof of his existence. I reckon if he did exist he was probably a Ghandi or Mandela-type figure, so I'm not too phased about whether he existed or not, although there are plenty of scholars with a fair amount of… Continue

In the last couple of years I have experienced a gradual but rude awakening to the grizzly, spine-tingling reality of South Africa's religious situation.



The existence of Bible translations into KiSwahili, isiXhosa, Zulu, Chichewa, Tswana, Shona etc is frightening. African cultures notoriously cling to superstitions as well as ancestral and tribal beliefs. Combining this with Christianity is resulting in an ongoing history of bad ideas. I have covered many of these issues before, but… Continue