Data Over Dogma

Jeremy Steele, author and ordained United Methodist minister turned secular ritualist, explores reclaiming ritual without theology. He discusses why rituals matter beyond religion. He explains adapting sacred practices for solo use, the neuroscience behind ritual effects, grief and healing rituals, safety and cultural sensitivity, and playful, practical ways to experiment with ritual.

A take on the weeklong “America Reads the Bible” marathon and what its political theater reveals about performative piety. A close look at who read, what their participation signaled, and how organized prayer can mask power and profit. A deep dive into Saul’s death and the long history of labeling suicide sinful, with attention to cultural context and pastoral harm.

They challenge the King James Version's authority and trace its roots to earlier translations. Textual scholarship, manuscript finds, and translation choices are examined. Translation quirks spawn myths like biblical unicorns and conflated terms for the afterlife. Linguistic details in Greek reveal when 'god' might mean 'divine,' and how that reshapes readings of John and early theological debates.

A dive into the curious book 1 Esdras and why it was kept in some canons but not others. A close look at its overlapping stories, unique additions like the three bodyguards tale, and its place alongside Ezra–Nehemiah. A tour of the Masoretes' scribal work, vowel notation, cantillation marks, and the manuscripts that shaped the Hebrew Bible we read today.

They unpack the Maccabean revolt: Seleucid vs Ptolemaic politics, Hellenization, guerrilla warfare, temple rededication, and the Hasmonean aftermath. They trace how the revolt influenced apocalyptic literature, priesthood disputes, and later Roman takeover. They also revisit the prophetic critique, its focus on elite injustice and ritual hypocrisy, and a listener's corrective about violent or exclusionary prophetic texts.

They unpack Hagar’s story: her status as an enslaved handmaiden, the surrogate birth dynamics, her flight, and the near-fatal wilderness ejection. Then they trace the eerie tradition of chained angels from 1 Enoch into the New Testament, exploring who the Watchers were, what they taught, and what kinds of divine punishments the texts imagine.

They unpack the vengeance theme around Amalek, tracing its biblical origins and how leaders invoke it in modern wartime rhetoric. They examine the divine command to eradicate Amalek and the textual tensions that complicate literal readings. Then they survey the colorful, late traditions about the deaths of the apostles and critique the common 'nobody dies for a lie' apologetic.

They unpack the legendary Letter of Aristeas and the myth of the Septuagint’s miraculous translators. They explore why a Greek Bible was made and how translation styles vary across the Pentateuch. They probe Exodus 22’s ownership dispute language and the debate over Elohim as God, judges, or divine images in ancient legal practice.

They dig into the Song of Songs as unabashed ancient erotic poetry and debate whether it was ever meant as allegory. They unpack candid sexual imagery, racial and labor references, and possible female authorship. They also challenge Bible translation choices about the command to 'see God's face' and explore temple ritual, standing stones, and visual access to the divine.

Lincoln Blumell, a religious studies scholar and papyrologist who studies early Christian letters, offers a bold rereading of 2 John. He explains noticing an alternate ancient reading, uses papyrology and letter-formula evidence, and argues a dropped article may hide a woman named Eclecte as the addressee. The conversation traces grammar, scribal habits, and the possibility of a named woman leading a house church.