Larry Hurtado has a well deserved reputation for his excellent work on the origins on Christian worship. As such, he has also made a welcome contribution to the debates over Christology in the earliest church. Happily, thanks to St John’s Nottingham, he can speak for himself.

I have a perpetual fascination with manuscripts, marginalia etc. which makes me a frequent visitor to Got Medieval.  And here is an answer to a question which has been gently at the back of my mind for a number of years: why are books the size they are…

“The question then becomes, I guess, why were medieval books the size they were?  And the answer to that is simple: medieval books were the size they were because medieval sheep were the size they were.”

Visit: Got Medieval: Why are books so big? (Google Penance).

A good example of current work on the Historical Jesus can be found at the Thoughts on Antiquity site, and in particular the short, ongoing series on Q by Chris Zeichmann.

I mention this as it is interesting to see the thought processes and methods behind this strand of New Testament work, regardless of your confidence in attempts to reconstruct a Christ who does not reflect current sensibilities!

A 2,000-year-old underground chamber has been discovered in Israel’s Jordan Valley.

The largest human-made cave in Israel, the 1-acre (0.4-hectare) space is thought to have begun as a quarry. In subsequent centuries it may have served as a monastery, hideout for persecuted Christians, or Roman army base, experts say.

Archaeologists working in the valley found the cave this past March when they came across a hole in a rock face.

As they were about to enter, two fearful-looking Bedouins appeared and warned the team that hyenas and wolves inhabited the cave.

Read more at National Geographic…

I while ago I posted a video of N T Wright on Heaven. Time to redress the balance…

A few links I said I would post.

For Gregorian psalm tones have a look at Chant Blog.

The site with the Orthodox podcast is Our Life in Christ. You can find their archives here, and subscribe to their podcast here. Another podcast worth listening to is A Word from the Holy Fathers.

If I’ve missed anything (or you’d like something else) please contact me.

It doesn’t take much thought to see that both views have their limitations, and ultimately a balance has to be found.

Anyway, if I were teaching the Faith Communities next year I would probably use this video to show how the activities of a group can often speak louder than their words:

Also, in true emic style I’ve rejoined Facebook. You can all line up to call me a hypocrite on Tuesday!

The best online source of information on the Anabaptists is the Anabaptist Network. The Martyr’s Mirror, which records many martyrdoms, can be found here. It is worth spending some time browsing it in order to gain an appreciation of the thought of the time. It was compiled in 1660.

The images from the book (some of which I used in the lecture) can be found here.

I’m a sucker for design blogs.

Andy Mangold has posted some useful graphics which illustrate the relative global strengths of the main world religions. The information is useful in itself, but the presentation is a good example of displaying what can be a boring list of numbers in a way that is easily understandable. I feel that good design is too often overlooked in presentations and, also, liturgy. There is no excuse, people.

Like I say, I’m a sucker for design blogs.