The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts by Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman is an exciting read, especially for those of us who have questioned the historical and literal accuracy of biblical accounts before the time of the Kings. (1) The Jewish Encyclopedia does not make either claim, nor do many reputable academics. The reasons are numerous and easy to document.

As an historian of the early modern world, I frequently study and teach on the “wounds of modernity”—those assumptions, practices and values which still cause us to reel with their implications. Modernity values the measurable, efficient, impersonal, precise and technical. As humans we know that the most important things in life cannot be measured with such precision or given economic units of value.

Charles Scriven has offered his vision for what it means to be an Adventist, and I am feeling rather uncertain about it. In the opening chapter of his book, The Promise of Peace,1 Scriven acknowledges that the place from which he writes is not a neutral one, but that his writing reflects his life story.

When this former nun fled the convent and became a scholar of literature at Oxford, Karen Armstrong thought she'd put all things theological well behind her. But, as the saying goes, if you want to make God laugh, tell Him, or Her, your plans. Next thing you know, Armstrong was creating documentaries.

While working on a film in Jerusalem, the ancient city where Islam, Judaism and Christianity converge, the connections among that trio of faiths rekindled Armstrong's imagination and led to another new career.