These are the show notes for Fern Seeds and Elephants
Wall Street Journal Article
I mentioned an article in the Wall Street Journal in the introduction to this podcast. It is entitled “Why We Lie” and was published in the Review section on My 26, 2012. The link below currently works, but the Journal may decide to make this article available to subscribers only.
“Why We Lie” as found in the Wall Street Journal
Biblical Criticism
The type of Biblical criticism discussed goes under the general name of Form Criticism. Here is a link to the Wikipedia article on Form Criticism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Form_criticism
Here is an excellent on-line series of articles that focuses on the issues raised in The Da Vinci code and hence in Form Criticism. The author is Rev. Mark Roberts, a Presbyterian pastor and Biblical scholar.
http://www.markdroberts.com/htmfiles/resources/davinciopportunity.htm
For those who like to read and study books, I can heartily recommend “An Introduction to the First Three Gospels” by William Barclay. It is quite thorough and well-written, and it refers extensively to actual examples from the Gospels to illustrate Mr. Barclay’s points. A link to it at Amazon is found below. It is somewhat expensive new – you might consider buying a used copy, though (I did to get the current edition).
Introduction to the First Three Gospels
Allusions and References in the Essay
Since Jack was speaking to an educated audience at Cambridge who were being prepared to be priests in the Church of England, he assumed that he and they would share a common knowledge of theologians and Biblical passages. This may not be the case with all his readers – it certainly wasn’t the case with me – and some kind and knowledgeable person has put together the web page below that explains his allusions in more detail. (Thanks to William O’Flaherty for this tip).