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AR 25:33 - Can J.K. Rowling really be "canceled?"
In this issue:
HEISER, MICHAEL - unpacking his uncommon views on angels and demons
NEW RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS - a 'solid historical grounding for generations of scholars'?
SEX AND GENDER - this generation's most influential author rejected for defending biological sex
Apologia Report 25:33 (1,490)
August 18, 2020
HEISER, MICHAEL S.
Scholar-in-Residence at Logos Bible Software for the past 15 years, Heiser earned his Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible and Semitic Languages at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2004. He also earned an M.A. in the same field at Wisconsin, along with an M.A. in Ancient History from the University of Pennsylvania focusing on Ancient Israel and Egyptology. He maintains <www.drmsh.com> three blogs: The Naked Bible (biblical studies), PaleoBabble (weird beliefs about antiquity), and UFO Religions (how belief in ETs intersects with religion).
In "The Truth About Angels and Demons Is Staring Us in the Face," Louis Markos <www.bit.ly/3kY8Q06> explains that beginning in 2015 Heiser has argued [1] that: "God chose to work through a divine council of supernatural beings whom he created and over whom he holds full sovereignty. He intended for his council to also include human representatives who would meet at Eden, itself a nexus point between heaven and earth. ...
"Heiser has continued to flesh out the supernatural worldview of the Bible" to help us see it "through the eyes of the writers of the Old and New Testament as well as the Jewish and Greek writers who lived in the intertestamental period.
"Although Heiser presents his case and offers his conclusions in an accessible manner, his points are backed up by a mountain of textual, historical, anthropological, and linguistic research. Indeed, one of Heiser's great strengths is taking findings from esoteric, highly academic papers and helping ordinary, non-specialist readers understand their relevance for interpreting the Bible and seeing the overall shape of God's work in human history. ...
"In his overview of the study of angels between the period of Exile and the ministry of Christ [2], Heiser marshals his prodigious research to dispel two popular myths. First, he demonstrates that Second Temple Jewish writers, including the translators of the Septuagint (the Greek Old Testament) and the Qumran community that wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls, did not eliminate the language of angels as sons of god out of a fear of promoting polytheism. Their writing shows quite the opposite: a clear understanding that Yahweh is the only God but that he is surrounded by a divine council of supernatural beings who are often called gods. Second, he shows that the Dead Sea Scrolls do not embody a dualistic vision of good and evil as equal and opposite forces, but of angelic warfare between beings created by the omnipotent and always-benevolent Yahweh."
Most recently [3], "Heiser takes up the story of those fallen angels whom even the death of Christ could not redeem [and] dispels the myth, popularized in John Milton's classic poem Paradise Lost, of a single rebellion against God led by Satan before the world was created, a myth that has little actual scriptural support. ...
"What Heiser has to say about Satan will be familiar to many, but perhaps not his argument that the demons who seek to tempt, subvert, and possess human beings were believed to have their origin in the hybrid Nephilim that were born to the sons of god and daughters of men [see Genesis 6:1–4]. When those Nephilim died, Heiser claims, their disembodied spirits became demons. Another unfamiliar theme concerns the origin of the cosmic, political-territorial spiritual warfare we discover in the Bible. ...
"Though many readers might trip over the technical aspects of [his writing], Heiser keeps things moving and skillfully sums up his main points. I do wish, however, that he had been more sympathetic to modern spiritual-warfare advocates who share Heiser's concept of cosmic strife that includes a strong territorial element. ...
Markos volunteers: "Given that the vast majority of unreached people groups live in [the 10/40] window <www.bit.ly/30sshWx> and that persecution of the church is strongest there, it does not seem unreasonable to suggest that a territorial reign of evil (or stronghold) exists in that area of the globe, and that intense prayer on the part of believers may help break down demonic communication." Christianity Today, Jun 12 '20, <www.bit.ly/2Dio7Yk>
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NEW RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS
A Historical Introduction to the Study of New Religious Movements, by W. Michael Ashcraft (Philosophy & Religion, Truman State University) [4] -- reviewer Jon R. Stone (California State University–Long Beach) says the story begins with "early- to mid-twentieth century attempts by American Protestant theologians to account for the presence of novel religious expressions (or 'cults') in their own time. ... Dissatisfaction led almost naturally to the search for more accurate and ever more complex typologies (viz., church-sect-denomination-cult). But even then, typological approaches failed....
"From the 1960s to the 1980s, sociologists, most of whom had been accustomed to following the currents of secularization theory and many having spent their energies responding to anticultists, not only found it difficult to change course but found themselves being tagged as apologists by their detractors. By the 1990s, however, when history and religious studies added broader perspective and greater interpretive possibilities to this burgeoning field, the course seemed to widen.
Ashcraft "lays out the history of the field in five chapters that point to at least three different periods of development. The first period (chapter 2) was dominated by typological approaches to understanding new religions.... The second period (chapter 3) was driven by the counterculture, the cult wars, and sociologists' responses to the anticultists' charges of brainwashing. Additionally, Ashcraft divides the development of scholarship into macro- and micro-levels of analyses....
"In chapters 4 and 5 Ashcraft continues his historical examination of the two main trends (academic and apologetic) that had been the original germ of the field earlier in the twentieth century - two ever-warring approaches. ...
"The development of the apologetic wing of new religions studies - which Ashcraft calls 'Cultic Studies' as opposed to 'NRM Studies' - rallied around the perceived threat of the new and alternative religions.... By the late 1960s and early 1970s, concerned parents, ministers, and psychologists had all mobilized to take on these cults, chief among them being ISKCON (Hare Krishna), The Children of God, and the Unification Church (the Moonies). Conversions to these cults could not have been genuine, they asserted. ... Here, then, is where the battle lines were drawn. Indeed, the history of scholarship published during the 1980s and 1990s (chapter 6) was driven by disproving the claims of the cultic studies wing of the field, resulting in a 'growing chasm between scholars in Cultic studies and scholars in NRM studies'.
"In a break from the historical narrative, Ashcraft turns to three main topics of continuing interest: violence (chapter 7); gender (chapter 8); and fieldwork (chapter 9). Each of these chapters reads like extended review essays with helpful historical context. ...
"[T]his this book is fun, and even a bit nostalgic, for those of us who came of age academically during the 1980s and 1990s (yes, we all have our Gordon Melton stories). Ashcraft's book will also give solid historical grounding to the generations of scholars studying new religions in the future.
"The last chapter offers a postscript of sorts. ... In fact, in the current digital age of hyper-reality, scholarship is being propelled by concerns over the fragility of culture and community - a world of constructed, contingent, commodified meaning. Religion, such as it is, has become largely self-referential." Nova Religio, 22:3 - 2019, p12. <www.bit.ly/30uie3b>
See also Carole M. Cusack's highly favorable review in Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies, 20:2 - 2019, pp261-263. <www.bit.ly/34fddOp>
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SEX AND GENDER
"JK Rowling and the Transformation of the West" by Murray Campbell (Aug 6 '20, au.thegospelcoalition) -- "JK Rowling has found herself caught up in cancel culture. ... She dared challenge the culture's narrative by tweeting that biological sex is real.
"Let's be clear, JK Rowling hasn't said anything radical. She has simply noted an established fact - a scientific, biological, and sociological fact. ... In today's western world, to affirm that women are women and that men are men is to speak heresy. ...
"The response to JK Rowling is a reminder however that not even pandemics and race-riots can dampen the ardour of those crusading for this latest chapter in the sexual revolution. ...
"Even as the Victorian Government plans to cement queer-theory into legislation, The Australian has published two important articles pointing out the suspiciously large number of girls on the autism spectrum who are being diagnosed and 'treated' to change their gender....
"Not even medicine is immune to popular social theory. Not even when it harms children. <www.14-yr-old mastectomy> ...
"The sexual revolution is part of a wider revolutionary campaign to smash and rebuild society." As Paul Kelly observes: "Those defying the authority are applauded because being 'true to yourself' is seen as the ultimate morality. ...
"The sun is slowly setting on the West, less because of emerging powers like Communist China but because (like Rome) we have chosen to destroy ourselves. Our inability to have a measured conversation about something as basic as sex-difference is a symptom of how far-gone things have become." <www.bit.ly/2BZlE4D>
In July 2019 our newsletter to Apologia donors focused on the harm done to children related to the treatment of gender dysphoria <www.bit.ly/2LK91O1>
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SOURCES: Monographs
1 - The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible, by Michael Heiser (Lexham, 2019, paperback, 432 pages) <www.amzn.to/2ERt7nm>
2 - Angels: What the Bible Really Says About God's Heavenly Host, by Michael Heiser (Lexham, 2018, hardcover, 248 pages) <www.amzn.to/2EQOWU6>
3 - Demons: What the Bible Really Says About the Powers of Darkness, by Michael Heiser (Lexham, 2020, hardcover, 320 pages) <www.amzn.to/31gIX2w>
4 - A Historical Introduction to the Study of New Religious Movements, by W. Michael Ashcraft (Routledge, 2019, paperback, 260 pages) <www.amzn.to/2PoEiG3>
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