Flotsam and jetsam (1/17)

• According to one CNN opinion piece, Facebook is on the way out. (HT)

But appearances can be deceiving. In fact, as I read the situation, we are witnessing the beginning of the end of Facebook. These aren’t the symptoms of a company that is winning, but one that is cashing out.

• David Sehat argues that we need to beware The Myths of American Religious Freedom.

Our self-conception is in fact based on a three-fold myth of American religious freedom that distorts the current debate about religion in public life.

• Matthew Flanagan offers the third installment of his series on the genocide of the Canaanites.

I noted above that in Judges and Exodus the command is expressed in terms of avoiding treaties and driving the Canaanites out. In Joshua and Deuteronomy the command is expressed in the language of “utterly destroying them”. The conclusion we have reached is that the latter is figurative language and the former is literal. If this is the case then the command was to drive them out and it was not to literally exterminate them.

• Daniel Kirk discusses memory and identity in religious communities.

Stories are powerful. And they are nowhere put to such compelling use as they are in religious ceremonies of remembrance.

• CNN gives 9 Reasons that Pope John Paul II Mattered. (Isn’t it great when we can boil a person’s entire life down to nine nifty points?) (HT)

• TC Robinson reviews Tom Schreiner and Matthew Crawford’s new edited volume The Lord’s Supper: Remembering and Proclaiming Christ Until He Comes (B&H 2011).

• Michael Gorman points out a  paper surveying three recent proposals about justification in Paul.

• And, Flavorwire shows off the libraries of the rich and famous. (Somebody needs to tell them that if your books are arranged by color, no one is going to believe that you actually read them.) And, if that doesn’t give you enough of a fix for your bibliophile tendencies, here’s a site devoted to Bookshelf Porn (i.e. photos of amazing personal libraries.

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