Christopher Douglas
@crddouglas.bsky.social
American literature, Bible scholarship, Christian Right, apocalypse now and then. Univ of Victoria. My latest: "What If God is a ‘Pagan Amalgam’: Marilynne Robinson and Historical Bible Scholarship"
https://academic.oup.com/litthe/article/37/2/67/7208648
https://academic.oup.com/litthe/article/37/2/67/7208648
OK, academic publishing Bluesky, I need some help identifying a potential press for my current book project. I need a press that does good work in two different fields: 1) American Literature and 2) Bible / ANE scholarship. /1
September 15, 2025 at 10:34 PM
OK, academic publishing Bluesky, I need some help identifying a potential press for my current book project. I need a press that does good work in two different fields: 1) American Literature and 2) Bible / ANE scholarship. /1
34. In this struggle against God’s enemies there are no higher principles of truth or ethics that bind both sides together. One does not negotiate or compromise with Satan and his minions. They can only be defeated and made to surrender.
I included the MAGA Jesus photo in my article:
I included the MAGA Jesus photo in my article:
August 17, 2025 at 5:02 PM
34. In this struggle against God’s enemies there are no higher principles of truth or ethics that bind both sides together. One does not negotiate or compromise with Satan and his minions. They can only be defeated and made to surrender.
I included the MAGA Jesus photo in my article:
I included the MAGA Jesus photo in my article:
12. This Present Darkness and the NAR theology it inspired is about apocalypse as political and social combat, not waiting. It's part of a broader Christian Right theology of dominionism. For this, you need @profgagne.bsky.social's book, and graphic. www.routledge.com/American-Eva...
August 16, 2025 at 1:01 AM
12. This Present Darkness and the NAR theology it inspired is about apocalypse as political and social combat, not waiting. It's part of a broader Christian Right theology of dominionism. For this, you need @profgagne.bsky.social's book, and graphic. www.routledge.com/American-Eva...
10. Apocalypse sometimes located ellipses in the literary tradition and used them as invitations to expand in 'fan fictions.' So the goat god Azazel in Lev 16 becomes a son of God with illicit knowledge in Watchers. Peretti / NAR plucks Strongman from Jesus’ parable and makes him a demon commander.
August 16, 2025 at 12:21 AM
10. Apocalypse sometimes located ellipses in the literary tradition and used them as invitations to expand in 'fan fictions.' So the goat god Azazel in Lev 16 becomes a son of God with illicit knowledge in Watchers. Peretti / NAR plucks Strongman from Jesus’ parable and makes him a demon commander.
3. Unbeknownst to most of the conspirators, they’re all being sponsored and influenced by demons! For instance, a psych prof thinks her meditation puts her in touch with “the Ascended Masters, the Spirit Guides from the higher planes” and an “ancient god”. It’s actually demons like "the Strongman".
August 15, 2025 at 9:35 PM
3. Unbeknownst to most of the conspirators, they’re all being sponsored and influenced by demons! For instance, a psych prof thinks her meditation puts her in touch with “the Ascended Masters, the Spirit Guides from the higher planes” and an “ancient god”. It’s actually demons like "the Strongman".
2. The two heroes are manly men. A pastor who senses demonic activity, and a journalist who investigates the international conspiracy to buy the town college.
This is fan art, hosted on a Peretti fan facebook page. The novel has a lot of fans!
This is fan art, hosted on a Peretti fan facebook page. The novel has a lot of fans!
August 15, 2025 at 8:06 PM
2. The two heroes are manly men. A pastor who senses demonic activity, and a journalist who investigates the international conspiracy to buy the town college.
This is fan art, hosted on a Peretti fan facebook page. The novel has a lot of fans!
This is fan art, hosted on a Peretti fan facebook page. The novel has a lot of fans!
Hebrew Bible Bluesky, has anyone argued that in interpreting the mlk sacrifice as a child sacrifice to a posited god (who didn't yet exist) Molech, (rabbinic?) interpreters were ejecting part of God's repertoire into a new divine being in an analogous way to the creation of Satan out of stn?
August 10, 2025 at 5:26 PM
Hebrew Bible Bluesky, has anyone argued that in interpreting the mlk sacrifice as a child sacrifice to a posited god (who didn't yet exist) Molech, (rabbinic?) interpreters were ejecting part of God's repertoire into a new divine being in an analogous way to the creation of Satan out of stn?
This is what Mark Smith says about ‘the satan’ in Job and Zechariah. So my question is, why couldn't "Molech" be seen as a similar exteriorization of the mlk sacrifice that was once in YHWH's repertoire, among other ANE deities?
![function[s] to express divine judgement while the God who commissions them provides mercy and kindness, for example, to Job and the priest Joshua. In these texts, the figure of (the) satan may be seen as expressing the negative divine disposition toward humans within the godhead, while the figure of God expresses within the godhead the positive divine disposition of mercy and generosity toward humans. It is also evident that the satan figure is subordinate to God and ultimately derives his reality from God. In later Jewish literature, this figure is externalized from the godhead, becoming a figure dwelling not in heaven with the divine council but in the underworld. (Smith, Memoirs 118).](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:zvzy4l22ctzsuol2xxja72rd/bafkreie4bxvhfiprcuzrzac7qk3r2r3sve4xu5vydgzldlng3khpchhsva@jpeg)
July 3, 2025 at 6:32 PM
This is what Mark Smith says about ‘the satan’ in Job and Zechariah. So my question is, why couldn't "Molech" be seen as a similar exteriorization of the mlk sacrifice that was once in YHWH's repertoire, among other ANE deities?
He is now piecing it together through scientific mastery that includes geological time, the fossil record, ornithology, and the “war of nature” that he, like Darwin, has found here. This explains why McCarthy added fossils and birds to Samuel Chamberlain’s portrait of the judge. /7
March 29, 2025 at 6:13 PM
He is now piecing it together through scientific mastery that includes geological time, the fossil record, ornithology, and the “war of nature” that he, like Darwin, has found here. This explains why McCarthy added fossils and birds to Samuel Chamberlain’s portrait of the judge. /7
Scholars who have championed a gnostic approach to Cormac McCarthy’s novels see Blood Meridian’s judge as an “archon” or subordinate ruler who aided the evil creator god in the world’s creation. /2
March 29, 2025 at 6:09 PM
Scholars who have championed a gnostic approach to Cormac McCarthy’s novels see Blood Meridian’s judge as an “archon” or subordinate ruler who aided the evil creator god in the world’s creation. /2
Proofs day. I finally figured out what the judge is.
February 13, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Proofs day. I finally figured out what the judge is.
One of my wtaf moments writing this paper was discovering that Wayne Booth had also written about Frank Peretti's This Present Darkness, calling it "not just weak" but "wicked." Also "undramatic" and "boring."
December 13, 2024 at 8:20 PM
One of my wtaf moments writing this paper was discovering that Wayne Booth had also written about Frank Peretti's This Present Darkness, calling it "not just weak" but "wicked." Also "undramatic" and "boring."
Well, all right ...
December 13, 2024 at 6:28 PM
Well, all right ...
This article has Many Interesting Observations, including:
December 13, 2024 at 6:14 PM
This article has Many Interesting Observations, including:
Looks like it's page proofs day. #apocalypsky
December 12, 2024 at 5:17 PM
Looks like it's page proofs day. #apocalypsky
As Bible scholar Carol Newsom says of a similar approach (which inspired mine), “MFT also offers biblical studies a useful tool for better discerning how different moral configurations existed side by side in Judean society.” /15
November 30, 2024 at 6:15 PM
As Bible scholar Carol Newsom says of a similar approach (which inspired mine), “MFT also offers biblical studies a useful tool for better discerning how different moral configurations existed side by side in Judean society.” /15
The other text my article examines is the Left Behind series, penned between 1995 and 2004, adapted for film 6 times, most recently with Kevin Sorbo just last year. /8
November 30, 2024 at 6:09 PM
The other text my article examines is the Left Behind series, penned between 1995 and 2004, adapted for film 6 times, most recently with Kevin Sorbo just last year. /8
The novel is egalitarian: the Father is an African American woman, the Spirit an Asian American woman, and the Son a Middle-Eastern man. /6
November 30, 2024 at 6:07 PM
The novel is egalitarian: the Father is an African American woman, the Spirit an Asian American woman, and the Son a Middle-Eastern man. /6
I find that William Paul Young’s The Shack (2007), made into a Hollywood movie in 2017, prioritizes the ethics of care, justice, and liberty. It’s a theodicy modelled on the Biblical book of Job. It’s about the abuse and murder of a child. /3
November 30, 2024 at 6:03 PM
I find that William Paul Young’s The Shack (2007), made into a Hollywood movie in 2017, prioritizes the ethics of care, justice, and liberty. It’s a theodicy modelled on the Biblical book of Job. It’s about the abuse and murder of a child. /3
Looking forward to this SBL session in a few weeks.
November 2, 2024 at 5:06 PM
Looking forward to this SBL session in a few weeks.
Okay, Cormac McCarthy bluesky. Help a guy out. Do we anywhere have a public list of the books in McCarthy's personal library? I'm particularly interested in whether he read this 1981 Harper paperback edition of The Nag Hammadi Library in English.
October 19, 2024 at 5:16 PM
Okay, Cormac McCarthy bluesky. Help a guy out. Do we anywhere have a public list of the books in McCarthy's personal library? I'm particularly interested in whether he read this 1981 Harper paperback edition of The Nag Hammadi Library in English.
Gen 1-3 Apocryphon of John
August 2, 2024 at 5:01 PM
Gen 1-3 Apocryphon of John
Well, they're weird as hell. They've turned out to be important for contemporary American fiction and religion because of an influential gnostic interpretation (via Hans Jonas) of Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, a pretty important work. I'm trying to synthesize three readings of it.
August 1, 2024 at 7:27 PM
Well, they're weird as hell. They've turned out to be important for contemporary American fiction and religion because of an influential gnostic interpretation (via Hans Jonas) of Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, a pretty important work. I'm trying to synthesize three readings of it.
Does this divine being exist in gnostic texts? Have you heard of him before?
July 31, 2024 at 7:45 PM
Does this divine being exist in gnostic texts? Have you heard of him before?