T.N.D. Mettinger is a senior Swedish scholar who has written what is perhaps the most recent academic treatment of dying and rising gods in antiquity. He states that the scholarly consensus is that none of these pre-date Christianity and that the few scholars who think differently are viewed as an almost extinct species. Although Mettinger himself admits to going against the consensus, believing there are as many as five pre-Christian accounts of dying and rising gods, he admits that two of the five are uncertain. Of the remaining three, one is said to live again but is never seen by anyone including the gods, while another appears in a report that is unclear. According to Mettinger, only one clear account of a dying and rising god predates Christianity. However, he adds that this account is so different from the Christian account that no parallel can be said to exist.

In summary, the consensus of todays scholars agree that there are no pre-Christian accounts of dying and rising gods, and the most recent treatment of the subject is from a scholar who disagrees but adds that none are parallels to the resurrection of Jesus.

Technorati Tags: ehrman, jesus, crhistianity

Liz Calder, the publishing director of Bloomsbury, the firm which has the rights to publish the Potter books outside of the U.S., said at a conference in India in May that the final book is likely to come out in 2007.

And last week, Rowling made comments on a British television station about how at least two characters (possibly even Harry…gasp!) will die in the book.

Drew Crum, an analyst with Stifel Nicolaus who follows Scholastic, said that once an official publication date is announced, that should be good news for the stock, even though this will mark the end of an amazing run of huge book sales for Scholastic.

Technorati Tags: Harry Potter, Rowling