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Who was Jesus anyway? After twenty centuries, there is not much anyone can agree on. The four canonical gospels don't measure up to modern standards of biographical writing, and - outside of this material - there is precious little contemporary evidence, apart from a few glancing mentions of Jesus or the movement centered on him.
Jay Parini -
I've been teaching full-time for 41 years at small colleges, and I can't imagine what it would mean for me or my colleagues to be armed with handguns or rifles instead of books and a thorough knowledge of our chosen disciplines.
Jay Parini
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The United States is truly remarkable, a nation founded on a set of Enlightenment ideals so beautifully expressed by the Declaration of Independence and codified in the U.S. Constitution. We should feel good about our ideals, even when we don't quite manage to live up to them.
Jay Parini -
One of the first courses I ever taught at Dartmouth was on the Bible as literature.
Jay Parini -
As a Christian, I try to meditate or pray at least once a day, however briefly.
Jay Parini -
I have written about some truly great writers - John Steinbeck, Robert Frost, and William Faulkner. Faulkner and Frost were the very peaks of American poetry and fiction in the 20th century.
Jay Parini -
I envy Muslims their practice of regular and genuine prayer. It's a beautiful practice that enriches their daily lives.
Jay Parini -
American politicians who dwell on American exceptionalism only dishonor us by suggesting we play dumb to our past.
Jay Parini
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Each year in early spring, during the season of Lent, which begins on Ash Wednesday and concludes on Easter, a plenitude of books, magazine articles, and television shows about Jesus appear.
Jay Parini -
Within the Christian tradition, fundamentalism arose in the 19th century as an effort to push back against modern' readings of the Bible that suggested everything in the text wasn't true in some literal sense.
Jay Parini -
I have a mystical bent, and I pursue daily meditations that follow the liturgical calendar - what are called the 'daily offices' of the church.
Jay Parini -
It's time that Americans dealt seriously with guns, getting in place strong and appropriate measures - there is no excuse for anything but the strictest controls.
Jay Parini -
So who is Jesus? For me, he's the central character in the greatest story ever told. It's a story about a gradually realizing kingdom that lies inside of us.
Jay Parini -
The stories about the life and teachings of Jesus were mainly told in Greek, the original language of the gospels.
Jay Parini
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It's probably incorrect to say that Islam is 'a religion of peace,' as some politicians like to say. Overstatements like that don't clarify anything.
Jay Parini -
In the Dead Sea Scrolls, there are many Aramaic texts from the time of Jesus, so one can get a pretty good idea of what the language of Jesus looked liked.
Jay Parini -
For the most part, I think of PC as meaning Plain Civil. You treat people the way you'd like to be treated yourself, and that means not using language that is demeaning.
Jay Parini -
The core of the Jesus message is what has made him relevant for twenty centuries.
Jay Parini -
God is God, but he has various names in different languages, and each strand of monotheistic religion has multiple ways of describing the godhead.
Jay Parini -
With the Patriot Bill in place, the NSA no longer needed to get a warrant from a judge to tap into anybody's electronic information. A Surveillance State that would have boggled the mind of Orwell was born.
Jay Parini
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I've spent a good deal of time in the Middle East over the years, lecturing at universities in places like Egypt, Jordan, Israel, and Morocco.
Jay Parini -
As 'Possession' progresses, it seems less and less like the usual satire about academia and more like something by Jorge Luis Borges.
Jay Parini -
Then I studied theology in college, and when I was getting a Ph.D. in literature, I took courses in New Testament studies and studied Greek versions of the Gospels.
Jay Parini -
Among the disciples of Jesus, it seems most likely that at least Philip was bilingual in Aramaic and Greek.
Jay Parini