Ahhh. About time.

RSS feeds and alerts in an academic serials database.

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“O excellent! I love long life better than figs.” –Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, 1.2.35

The Daily Star Egypt is reporting that the mummies of Antony and Cleopatra have likely been found at a Ptolemite site near Alexandria. Zahi Hawass, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, also announced that they may have found the remains of Queen Hatshepsut in Al Deir El Bahari. Oh, and they discovered four hidden doors inside the Great Pyramid. In other news…

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Stephen M. Hildebrand, The Trinitarian Theology of Basil of Caesarea: A Synthesis of Greek Thought and Biblical Truth (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2007) is, despite its rather impressive title, a readable, understandable, and helpful evaluation of the most prescient points of Basil’s theological contributions. Hildebrand’s discussion of Basil’s thought as evidenced by his choice of words in argumentation rightly revolves around two sets of words: homoouisios/homoiousios (ομοουσιος/ομοιουσιος) and prosopon/hypostasis (προσοπον/υποστησις). The first set refers to the famous debate on the “substance” (ousia) of Christ and whether it is similar to (homoi-ousia) or the same as (homo-ousia) that of God the Father. Hildrebrand clearly and consisely outlines Basil conversion from the former to the latter. The second set indicates the debate over the position of Christ in the Godhead. A thoroughly enjoyable read if you have interest in the history of theology. Knowledge of Greek is helpful, but not required since the terms are transliterated.

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Princeton University’s WordNet defines society as “the fashionable elite.” If that’s true, then I have no idea why the Evangelical Theological Society accepted my application for membership. I’m neither fashionable nor elite. But neither, come to think of it, are most theologians. I am excited about being a part of this organization, however, and I hope to contribute some form of a substantive paper in the next couple of years. Maybe something on the pastoral nature of the Genevan Consistory? Any ideas for an ETS paper that would somehow include theological librarianship?

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As promised, here are the other two books I mentioned on Friday. The first is The Other Calling: Theology, Intellectual Vocation and Truth (Malden, MA / Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2007) by Andrew Shanks, the Canon Theologian for Manchester Cathedral. Shanks identifies the true calling of an intellectual as a form of priesthood — Melchizedek priesthood, to be exact — in what I deem a misguided venture to unite “intellectuals” as a religiously multicultural ‘priesthood of all thinkers’ in which the “priests” come from “every different sort of given religious background,” (p. 1). Though his theology of contemporary priesthood is overly open-minded, his discussions of the moral responsibility of intellectualism are really quite though provoking. He writes in Chapter 11, pp. 199-200:

What is an intellectual: how exactly are we to define the moral vocation inherent in the privileges that derive from a good education and a receptive mind?

It seems to me that there are three basic options: the choice is between (a) various forms of militant intellectual elitism, (b) a perhaps justifiable ‘sophistry’, or (c) priestliness. So, to recapitulate:

• The first option, for militant elitism, involves intellectuals organizing with a view to themselves, as an elite group… Platonist philosophic politics in the Straussian sense is one model of this; the Enlightenment secularism of groups like the Parisian philosophes is another…
• The second option, for sophistry, involves intellectuals who are altogether less clubbable in their specific capacity as intellectuals… Rather, it is simply a principle of inner self-distancing… And most ‘postmodernist’ thinking may also be said to belong to the same category.
• The third option, however, for priestliness, involves intellectuals, so far as possible, completely immersing themselves in the life of a catholic community. When it comes to criticizing the prevailing mindlessness of the ‘world’, in other words, such thinkers do not just inwardly to withdraw from the world… On the contrary, their thinking is none other than an intimate, loyalist critical engagement with the life of a particular moral group, which, in the fullest possible, non-sectarian sense, itself belongs to the world.

He then reveals his empty hermeneutic by assigning this third option to the biblical priesthood of Melchizadek. Odd, I know. If you can get past this entirely misplaced theology of priesthood, Shanks actually has some helpful things to say about the responsibilities of intellectuals in thoughtfully engaging the mindlessness of the world.

I don’t watch the television show Survivor because it seems to me merely to be a revisiting of junior high. I do know, however, that they filmed a season in the incredibly beautiful Vanuatu. I doubt they ever made reference to John G. Paton, missionary whose autobiography is now on my reading list (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 2002), originally printed in 1886. The publisher’s blurb:

[Paton] was ordained as a missionary to the New Hebrides in 1858. This group of thirty mountainous islands, so named by Captain Cook, with its unhealthy climate, was then inhabited by savages and cannibals. The first attempt attempt to introduce Christianity to them resulted in John Williams and James Harris being clubbed to death within a few minutes of arriving in 1839. The difficulties that confronted Paton were accentuated by the sudden death of his wife and child within months of their arrival. Against the savagery and the superstition, despite the trials and tragedies, Paton persevered and witnessed the triumph of the gospel in two of these South Sea islands.

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Two carts of new books rolled by this afternoon, out of which I have four to highlight. I shall give you two today and two more on Monday (I can’t be late for dinner tonight!).

I first heard Gordon McConville lecture during my M.Div. days when he came to my seminary to visit one of his former students, a former student who happened to be my professor. Most of what he had to say was above me, and probably still is. His God and Earthly Power: An Old Testament Political Theology, Genesis–Kings looks to be a readable history of the political/theology history of Israel from Genesis through Kings.

From the first chapter, “Classical Education in Colonial America,” of Michael Meckler, ed., Classical Antiquity and the Politics of America: From George Washington to George W. Bush (Waco: Baylor University Press, 2006), William Ziobro of Holy Cross College writes:

[Thomas] Jefferson contrasted the prevailing attitudes of Europeans toward ancient languages with those in the nascent United States of America. “The learning of Greek and Latin, I am told, is going into disuse in Europe,” Jefferson wrote. “I know not what their manners and occupations may call for: but it would be very ill-judged in us to follow their examples in this instance.”

He further discussed the political merit of historical studies, especially ancient history, at all levels of public education. “History,” Jefferson wrote, “by apprising them [students] of the past will enable them to judge of the future; it will avail them of the experiences of other times and other nations; it will qualify them as judges of the actions and designs of men; it will enable them to know ambition under every guise it may assume; and knowing it, to defeat its views.” — p. 13-14

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One of the best parts about my job as a theology librarian is perusing new acquisitions before they reach the stacks. These four books piqued my interest as they crossed my desk this morning:

Scot McKendrick, In a Monastery Library: Preserving Codex Sinaiticus and the Greek Written Heritage. Distributed for the British Library. 48 p., 20 color plates. 8-2/3 x 9-1/2. Written 1600 years ago and discovered in a monastery on Mount Sinai in 1859, the Codex Sinaiticus is one of the earliest codices and for many scholars is the pre-eminent scriptural codex — hence its designation with an Aleph (“first”) in critical apparatuses. This recounting of its history and significance is a short and enjoyable read.

John Mark Mattox, Saint Augustine and the Theory of Just War, Continuum Studies in Philosophy (London/New York: Continuum, 2006). It surprised me to learn that the author is an active Lt. Colonel in the United States Army, only because we don’t tend to equate scholarship with the military. This work on Augustine’s just war theory, however, does not fit that preconception. It is a readable, responsible and informed treatment of Augustine’s approach and conclusions. It will be one to which I refer students for its descriptive accuracy. I wonder if the work’s hesitance to be prescriptive is in any way influenced by his active-duty status in the Army…

Although there is much in Augustine’s theory of just war that the author finds intellectually appealing and of contemporary applicability, this exposition is, nevertheless, intended to be a descriptive interpretation and analysis of his theory, and not necessarily an attempt to advocate his views in all of their particulars. (Preface, x.)

Because the author is a serving officer in the United States Army, it should be noted that the views expressed in this work are those of the author and are not necessarily those of the Department of the Army or any other United States Government entity. (from the Acknowledgements page).

Two thematically arranged collections of essays by the Lutheran scholar Robert D. Preus: Doctrine is Life: Robert D. Preus Essays on Scripture and Doctrine is Life: Essays on Justification and the Lutheran Confessions, both edited by Klemet Preus (St. Louis: Concordia, 2006). I have learned much from Preus’s Theology of Post-Reformation Lutheranism (1985) which I read for a Th.M. seminar on post-reformation developments. These particular volumes intrigue me for their discussions of the hermeneutics of the Formula of Concord (chapter 9, Essays on Scripture and a handful of chapters in Essays on Justification.

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In Cervantes’ Don Quixote, Sancho Panza (Quixote’s squire) describes the insatiable and indiscriminate appetite of Death in one of his classic sanchismos:

By my faith, Señor,” responded Sancho, “you mustn’t trust in the fleshless woman, I mean Death, who devours lamb as well as mutton; I’ve heard our priest say that she tramples the high towers of kings as well as the humble huts of the poor. This lady is more powerful than finicky; nothing disgusts her, she eats everything, and she does everything, and she crams her pack with all kinds and ages and ranks of people. She’s not a reaper who takes naps; she reaps constantly and cuts the dry grass along with the green, and she doesn’t seem to chew her food but wolfs it down and swallows everything that’s put in front of her, because she’s hungry as a dog and is never satisfied; and though she has no belly, it’s clear that she has dropsy and is always thirsty and ready to drink down the lives of everyone living, like somebody drinking a pitcher of cold water. — Trans. Edith Grossman (New York: HarperCollins, 2003) p. 590.

Compare that with John Donne’s classic poem, Death Be Not Proud:

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul’s delivery.
Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell;
And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than thy stroke; why swell’st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.

Sometimes it takes the Easter season to turn the Sancho Panzas among us back into John Donnes.

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While surfing Early English Books Online (our library recently purchased perpetual access), I found this anonymous ballad on the resurrection of Christ penned somewhere between 1658 and 1664. I’ve retained the original punctuation and spelling, though I have converted the typeset to modern lettering. Have a blessed Easter Day!

A most Godly and Comfortable Ballad of the Glorious
Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, how he Triumphed over Death, and Hell and Sin,
whereby we are certainly perswaded of our Rising again from the Dead.
The tune is, Rogero.

What faithful froward sinful man,
so far from grace is fled;
That doth no in his heart believe
the rising of the Dead?
Or why do wicked mortal men,
their Lives so painly frame,
Which being dead they do suppose
they shall not rise again.

For why if that the dead indeed,
which now consuming lies,
Shall not by God be rais’d again,
then Christ did never rise:
And if so be our Saviour sweet,
did not rise from the death,
Our Preaching is of no effect,
and vain our hope on earth.

If Christ rose not again I say,
then are we yet in Sin,
And they that fall asleep in him,
no part of joy shall win:
Of all the Creatures Living then,
which God on earth did frame,
Most wretched are the states of men,
which spend there days in vain.

But Christ is risen up from death,
as it was right and meet,
And thereby trod down death and hell
and sin under his feet:
And that the same to simple men,
the plainer might appear,
The glorious rising of the Lord,
his word declareth clear.

When he within the Grave was laid,
the Jews did watch-men set,
Lest by his friends his Corps from thence
should secretly be fet:
A mighty stone likewise they did,
on his Sepulchre role;
And all for fear his body should
away from thence be stole.

But in the dead time of the night,
a mighty Earth-quake came,
The which did shake both Sea and Land
and all within the same:
And then the angel of the Lord
came down from heaven so high,
And rol’d away the mighty stone,
which on the ground did lye.

His face did shine like flaming fire,
his cloaths were white as Snow,
Which put the watch-men in great fear,
who ran away for woe;
And told unto the high priest plain,
what I do now rehearse,
Who hired them for money straight
that they would hold their peace.

And say quoth he his servants came,
whom he sometimes did keep,
And secreetly stole him away,
while ye were fast asleep;
And that Herod hear thereof,
we wil perswade him so,
That you shall find no hurt at all
wherever you do go.

But faithful Mary Magdalen,
and James here Brother too,
They brought great store of oyntment
as Jesus were wont to do;
Who rose up early in the morn
before that it was day,
The body of the Lord ‘t anoint,
in Grave whereas he lay.

And when unto the Grave they came;
they were in wondrous fear,
They saw a young-man in the same
but Christ they saw not there:
then said the Angel unto them
why are you so afraid?
The Lord whom you do seek I know
is risen up he said.

Then went these women both away
who told these tydings than,
To John & Peter who in hast
to the Sepulchre ran:
Who found it as the woman said,
and then away did go,
But Mary stayed weeping still,
whose tears declard her woe.

Who looking down into the grave
two angels there did see,
Quoth they why weeps this woman so,
even for my Lord quoth she:
And turning then her self aside
as she stood weeping so,
the Lord was standing at her back,
but him she did not know.

Why doth this woman weep he said,
whom seek’st thou in this place?
She thought it had the gardiner been,
and thus she inews her case
If thou hast born him hence she said
then tell me where he is
And for to fetcht him back again,
besure I will not miss.

What Mary then our Saviour said.
dost thou lament for me
O Master livest thou again
my soul doth joy in thee:
O Mary touch me not he said,
e’re I have been above,
Even with my God, the only God,
and Father whom we love.

And oftentimes did Christ appear,
to his disciples all;
But Thomas would not it believe
his faith it was so small
Except that he might thrust his hand
into the wound so deep
And put his finger where the sphear
did pierce his tender side.

Then Christ which know all secrets
to them again came he
Who siad to Thomas here I am
as plainly thou may’st se
See here the hands which nails did pierce
and holes are in my side
And be not faithless thou man
for whom these pains I bide.

Thus sundry times Christ shew’d himself
when he did rise again
And then desended into heaven
in glory for to reign
Where he prepares a place for those
whom he shall raise Likewise:
To live with him in heavenly bliss,
above the lofty Skies.

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Though not read by Augustine himself, his On Christian Doctrine is being offered as a free audio book by Christian Audio for the month of April, 2007. Normally over $20 for a download, it is free this month if you use coupon code APR2007. They pick a different free download each month and it can be viewed here.

Disclaimer: I don’t know these folks and I receive no moolah for this link. I just thought you may want to listen to a little Augustine while jogging tomorrow.

HT:Challies Dot Com

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