The Cambridge History of Christianity’s most recent volume has the best bibliography (114 pages!) on the Reformation period that I have yet seen. I recommend it highly.
Popularity: 13% [?]
In Anthony Kronman‘s Education’s End: Why Our Colleges and Universities Have Given Up on the Meaning of Life (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007), p. 35, he asks:
In what sense, and in what way, can the question of what living is for be made an appropriate and useful subject of academic instruction? today, in most of our colleges and universities, it is not, in fact, a subject of organized study, and one might infer from what I have said that this is because th question by its very nature precludes it — that it is too personal to be studied in this way. But the question of life’s meaning has not always been neglected as it now is. Once upon a time, and not all that long ago, many college and university teachers, especially in the humanities, believed they had a responsibility to lead their students in an organized examination of this question and felt confident in their authority to do so. They recognized that each student’s answer must be his or her own but believed that a disciplined survey of the answers the great writers and artists of the past have given to it can be a helpful aid to students in their own personal encounter with the question of what living is for–indeed, an indispensable aid, without which they must face the question not only alone but in disarray.
The consideration of life’s chief end and purpose has not only left the academy in its abandonment of an education in the classical disciplines, but it has also left the home in too many cases as well. Of course, the chief end and purpose of life can only be discerned in any definitive sense as we understand our place before the Creator, as the Westminster Catechism so famously stated. If “the answers the great writers and artists of the past” do indeed have something to contribute, as indeed they certainly do, perhaps we should begin here.
Popularity: 5% [?]
It’s time to grab a bucket and start bailing.
I think it was D. L . Moody who famously quipped that the Church is like boat: in order for a boat to be what it was created to be, it must be in water. But if too much of the water gets in the boat it will sink. Similarly, in order for the Church to be what she was created to be she must be in the world. But if too much of the world gets in the Church, she will sink. Okay, so this analogy only goes so far and is admittedly flawed. Don’t miss his point, though.
James Twitchell’s Shopping for God: How Christianity Went From In Your Heart To In Your Face (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2007) traces part of the problem to an idea conceived by a man named Mel Stewart. Actually, Mel just capitalized on an idea he saw while driving one day: a moveable type sign in front of a church. Heretofore churches did not typically have large signs since religion was considered private and signage was too public.
He added flourescent lights. He added larger letters. Twitchell thinks he turned American churches on to the idea of branding, the topic which the remainder of the book seeks to address. A fascinating study of the business of church marketing in America.
Popularity: 20% [?]
This free offer in the form of an unabridged audio book from Christianaudio.com has just been brought to my attention by our friends over at Said at Southern. Just enter the code OCT2007 to download the audio book for free. The free download changes every month so if you follow this link to the offer after October, 2007, you will likely find a different offer than the one mentioned here. You can also listen to interviews with the following authors:
Popularity: 5% [?]
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 (Ï€Ïοσοπον/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.
Popularity: 17% [?]
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.
Popularity: 14% [?]
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
Popularity: 10% [?]
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.
Popularity: 10% [?]
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.
Popularity: 13% [?]
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.
Popularity: 6% [?]
