I have for some time been reading the journal of David Brainerd through the posting of his journal entries on this blog. For those of you who don’t know of David Brainerd, read about him here. The final entry in his journal was on October 2, 1746:

Friday, Oct. 2.

My soul was this day, at turns, sweetly set on God: I longed to be with him, that I might behold his glory. I felt sweetly disposed to commit all to him, even my dearest friends, my dearest flock, my absent brother, and all my concerns for time and eternity. Oh that his kingdom might come in the world; that they might all love and glorify him, for what he is in himself; and that the blessed Redeemer might see the travail of his soul, and be satisfied! ‘Oh come, Lord Jesus, come quickly! Amen.’

Note from Jonathan Edwards: Here ends his diary. These are the last words that are written in it, either by his own hand, or by any other from his mouth.

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Some more new acquisitions of interest:

Lee Palmer Wandel, The Eucharist in the Reformation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006). Given the centrality of the eucharistic debate among the Reformers, the author seeks to compare and contrast Lutheran, Reformed, and Catholic views as understood in the XVI Century. The author is professor of history at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, and has published previously on Zwinglian theology and Zurich history.

Uuras Saarnivaara, Luther Discovers the Gospel: New Light upon Luther’s Way from Medieval Catholicism to Evangelical Faith (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2005). This is a new English translation of a work originally written in Finnish in 1943, and published in Helsinki, Finland, in 1947. It looks at the influence of Augustine, Staupitz, and Scripture on the development of Luther’s thought on justification up to the end of 1518.

Michael J. Colacurcio,

Godly Letters: The Literature of the American Puritans (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2006). I have not yet had opportunity to look much at this volume, so if any of you have input, feel free to comment. The TOC indicates the the author focuses particularly on Bradford, Shepard, Hooker, and Johnson. I look forward to the epilogue: “God’s Altar”: The Fall to Poetry. The author is professor of English at the University of California at Los Angeles.

Michael Wheeler,

The Old Enemies: Catholic and Protestant in Nineteenth-Century English Culture (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006). From the introduction: “Divisions between Catholics and Protestants have been a feature of English history since the Reformation. Even into the industrial nineteenth century, age-old theological disagreements were the cause of religious and cultural conflicts. [This book] asks why these ancient divisions were so deep, why they continued into the nineteenth century, and how novelists and poets, theologians and preachers, historians and essayists reinterpreted the religious debates.” Hmmm…

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When library patrons don’t amuse us (such as might happen here), librarians just amuse themselves (such as might happen here).

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While clearly catering to the many (??) younger male librarians of the world, the Ms. Dewey search engine is attempting to draw information seekers through a more — shall we say — ‘visually appealing’ search engine.

Fill in the blanks: Like most _____, however, Ms. Dewey quickly ceases to be _____ and just becomes rather annoying. I’m married and work with women who read this blog so I obviously must leave the evaluation to you.

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The BiblioTech Web blog, a helpful place to stay up-to-date on how technology is changing libraries, has posted this :

Okay, so the idea is perhaps valuable. But it won’t fly for the mere reason of its name: “citizendium?” Clever, but not helpful. Thanks, Jason, for pointing this out to me.

Kudos, by the way, to Scott Pfitzinger who runs the BiblioTech Web site for keeping me informed on the intersection of librarianship and really cool technology.

Your thoughts on Citizendium, my dear readers? Will it work? Is it worth it? is it possible to have such a project with the same authority as a reputable print series? Pros? Cons?

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