How did Jesus become a God?
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.
Why are books so big?
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).
Q and the Historical Jesus
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!
Typography by Ronnie Bruce
No real reason for posting this, apart from the fact that I liked it.
An Early Christian Refuge?
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…
N T Wright on Hell
I while ago I posted a video of N T Wright on Heaven. Time to redress the balance…
CYM Miscellenay
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.
Emic and Etic Viewpoints
How is it best to understand a group of people? Broadly, there are two ways in which the problem can be tackled: you can look at the way the community describes itself (an emic view); or you can consider the grouping entirely from the outside as a ‘neutral’ observer (the etic view).
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!
Anabaptists
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.
Religion Book by Andy Mangold
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.
Mysticism
I mentioned yesterday some spiritual themes from John’s gospel. A superb survey of this and the development of Mysticism generally is Thomas Merton’s “An Introduction to Christian Mysticism”. Be warned, though, that it is not a book but rather lecture notes for course run for novice monks. It means that it is a bit condensed to read, but the material is very good indeed.
You can read an excerpt here. The book is published by Cistercian Publications.
Herod’s Temple
“A retired farmer has spent more than 30 years building an enormous scale model of Herod’s temple – and it is still not finished” – A model of biblical proportions – Telegraph
The goal of reading
The goal of reading is the application, in our lives, of what we read. Not to learn it by heart, but to take it to heart. Not to practice using our tongues, but to be able to receive the tongues of fire and to live the mysteries of God. If one studies a great deal in order to acquire knowledge and to teach others, without living the things he teaches, he does no more than fill his head with hot air. At most he will manage to ascend to the moon using machines. The goal of the Christian is to rise to God without machines.
Elder Paisios the Athonite (1924-1994)
(Via Word from the Desert.)
Retreat Houses
There is a list of Anglican Religious Orders and you’ll have scroll down to the bottom to find the ones in the UK (unless you fancy a few days in the Solomon Islands!). Most of these houses have guest accommodation.
A map of (Catholic) Benedictine houses in this country can be found here and a more useful list is here.
A more general list of Retreat Centres (which are mainly not part of a monastic foundation) can be found at the Retreat Association website.
I go to Burford Priory, but they are in the process of moving at the moment as you’ll see from the website! If you’re interested in what the old place looked like, a load of photos can be found in two of my Flickr sets: Buildings and Grounds.
Contemplative Prayer
The one book I would recommend on contemplative prayer is Into the Silent Land by Martin Laird. It is short, practical and superb. Well worth a read.