Father Z podcasted an Easter sermon of St. Augustine and relates it to the recent controversies at Notre Dame.
Year: 2009
I Catch Up to 2001
My beloved daughter gave me her old iPod when she got a new one. I can’t work to music, so I’ve been using it only when I exercise — but that’s meant a daily lecture on the Fathers. And so far I haven’t paid a penny. I burned through the Louth lectures right away. Then, on iTunes, I found free downloads by John Cavadini, Robert Louis Wilken, Jaroslav Pelikan, John Peter Kenney, and many others. I loaded up, and I haven’t heard even half of the material I found. If you have an iTunes account, it’s really worth your while to go searching after terms like “patristics,” “Christian history,” and “Augustine.”
Out of the Shadows
Al Ahram gives us a rare glimpse at an early Christian artwork on Mount Sinai.
Easter Reads
These are the books I mentioned on Chuck Neff’s Relevant Radio show, “Searching the Word,” today.
Easter in the Early Church, by Father Raniero Cantalamessa, O.F.M. Cap.
From Darkness to Light, by Sister Anne Field
The Awe-Inspiring Rites of Initiation, by Father Edward Yarnold, S.J.
Cross Purposes
I missed this when it appeared last week: Why Was Jesus Crucified?, by Larry Hurtado.
I leaned upon his excellent book The Earliest Christian Artifacts as I wrote Signs and Mysteries: Revealing Ancient Christian Symbols.
InJustinian?
It’s rather remarkable that someone who wrote a book titled Christianity in the Land of the Pharaohs (Routledge) is just discovering The Secret History of Procopius — and discovering it online, quite by accident. Thus, Justinian’s villainy arrives as news to her. Still, I think she goes overboard in her uncritical swallowing all of Procopius’ claims (“the full truth,” as she puts it). The Secret History reads like the blog of an anonymous disgruntled employee. There are probably grains of truth here and there, but there are surely equal portions of embellishment, exaggeration, and salacious inventiveness.
Unearthing Apocrypha
Alert from Jim Davila PaleoJudaica: “The book of 2 Enoch, previously known only in versions in Old Church Slavonic, has now been partly recovered in an earlier Coptic translation. The fragments were found nearly four decades ago and the transcriptions and photos have been sitting unnoticed for many years.”
He also points us to a nice profile of St. Jerome. (Don’t forget Jerome’s theme song, “The Thunderer,” penned by Rock n Roll Hall-of Famer Dion.)
Christ is Risen! Alleluia!
Easter Basket Case
Easter Sunday, from 9 to 11 p.m. (Eastern Time), I’ll be on KDKA Radio to discuss the new edition of my book The Companion Guide to Pope Benedict’s the Fathers. That’s 1020 on your AM dial if you’re in the Pittsburgh area, KDKAradio.com if you’re streaming. It’s a call-in show, so you’re welcome to join the conversation.
I’ll be speaking with the renowned Father Ronald Lengwin, who has been hosting his show, Amplify, since 1975.
Speaking of patristics: you may be aware that KDKA was the world’s first commercial radio station.
The Fathers and Fish: It Wasn’t Just for Friday
This (from the London Times) is just too cool.
In Ancient Rome lions ate Christians, so we are told. But what did early Christians eat? A lot of fish, according to recent research on bones from the Roman catacombs.
“The eating habits of Rome’s early Christians are more complex than has traditionally been assumed,” say Leonard Rutgers and his colleagues in The Journal of Archaeological Science. Their work was based on analysis of 22 skeletons found in the Catacombs of St Callixtus on the Appian Way, an area utilised in the 3rd to 5th centuries AD (although some of the skeletons were radiocarbon-dated to the 2nd century).
Holy Thursday
Louth and Found
Kind reader Matthew M. did a bit of Web archeology and found the lost Louth lectures:
Your question about the Louth lectures picqued my curiosity. I found the originals Dan Greeson had posted here, on the website of the lecture location:http://stgeorgecathedral.net/sermons.html (in Windows Media format). On that page are a number of other interesting lectures.
Since the wma format is inconvenient, I converted them to MP3 files here:
The Relevance of the Church Fathers today
Maximus the Confessor and Modern Science
It’s a Poet Thing
Dennis at The Campvs says Paulinus of Nola knew Catullus better than we do.
Free Patristic Audio
Commenter Stephan drives a truck and is looking for good patristic audio to keep him company in the cab.
The goldmine, of course, is the site of Maria Lectrix, which has a whole section dedicated to the Fathers in English translation. (And more linked here.)
iTunes U is offering good stuff from the Augustinian Institute, including lectures by John Cavadini, John Kenney, Lewis Ayres, and others. I don’t know if it’s possible to link to these, but if you have iTunes you know how to get the files. While you’re at iTunes, search on “early Christianity” and you’ll also find lectures by Thomas Oden (editor of the Ancient Christian Commentary series) and Darrell Bock, whose book The Missing Gospels I reviewed here).
Not too long ago, Sister Macrina posted links to some patristic audio.
I’ve posted some radio interviews and stuff.
A couple years back, a young Orthodox seminarian posted files of lectures by Father Andrew Louth, and I linked from here — but his blog has vanished. Anyone know where the files went?
Anyone know other sources of free patristic audio?
Albania Mania
BBC slide show: A patristic-era Albanian site with a baptistery, early-Christian mosaics and such.