The occasion is a doctoral dissertation reviewed in BMCR. Adrian Murdoch, author of The Last Pagan, raises some good questions about the rise of Christianity and the decline of “paganism.” (I review Adrian’s book here.)
Year: 2009
Good Sam’s Museum
Israel has opened a “mosaic museum” in the West Bank, reports The Art Newspaper.
The $2.5m Museum of the Good Samaritan, housing nearly 50 mosaics and a collection of antiquities, was opened at the Christian pilgrimage site where the Bible’s “Parable of the Good Samaritan” is believed to be set. The site also comprises the restored Good Samaritan Inn, a reconstructed Byzantine church, and Second Temple-era dwelling caves.
The museum’s preserved and restored mosaics and other relics from the fourth to the sixth centuries originate from Christian, Jewish and Samaritan historic sites, based on themes in the parable, Dr Magen said. He also said that excavations at the site show it to be the location where King Herod’s palace once stood.
There’s a good chance the St. Paul Center will return, with Steve Ray, to the Holy Land in 2011. Maybe we can see this museum together.
Hat tip: Jim Davila of PaleoJudaica.
Grail Emerges in Portugal
My book The Grail Code: Quest for the Real Presence, co-authored with Chris Bailey, is now out in a second Portuguese edition — this one suitable for Portugal rather than Brazil. The cover’s really cool and spooky.
¿Habla Español?
A trusted friend directed me to a Spanish-language site on early Christianity, Primeros Cristianos. It includes good resources on the Fathers, the persecutions, Church growth, the catacombs, and much more.
Classics in Pittsburgh
Zee Ann Poerio of Excellence Through Classics asked me to spread the word about summer classics programs in the Pittsburgh area. I’ve been to ETC programs before, and they’re always very good. Some of them are geared to elementary school teachers, but Zee would love for more homeschooling parents and kids to be involved. If you need more information, contact Zee at zee.poerio@gmail.com.
JULY 22 – JULY 24, 2009
In collaboration with local, state, national, and international organizations including the Pennsylvania Classical Association, The Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, Wayne State University Press, Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, and the Primary Latin Project in the UK. Elementary and Middle School teachers will learn creative ways to bring the ancient past into the present through history, culture, language, art, food fashion, and technology. No previous background in Classics is required. Certificates of attendance will be issued and ACT 48 Credits provided for PA Teachers.
WEDNESDAY – July 22, 2009 11:00 AM – 3:00 PM TOUR, TEA with lunch, & CLASSICS TALK Following a tour, and tea with lunch, our Guest speaker Barbara Bell, Director of the Primary Latin Project in the UK and author of Minimus: Starting Out In Latin and Minimus Secundus will speak briefly about tea customs in the UK and will present a Classics talk in the Gilfillan Farmhouse at 1950 Washington Road, (Upper St. Clair) Pittsburgh, PA 15241. Built circa 1857 in the Greek Revival Gothic Architectural style, the Gilfillan Farmhouse is an historic landmark.
THURSDAY – July 23, 2009 10:00 AM – 3:30 PM THE MUSEUM AS A MULTIDISCIPLINARY RESOURCE Includes multiple presenters in collaboration with the Carnegie Museum of Art at 4400 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213. Highlights will include a Minimus:Starting Out in Latin training session for teachers by Barbara Bell, a Fashion Show of ancient costume by Norma Goldman, a scholar in ancient costuming and Pittsburgh native, Hands On Technology and Archaeology with Andrew Reinhard of Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, and Art, Mythology, and Ancient Coins by Zee Ann Poerio of Excellence Through Classics. (Includes lunch in Museum Cafe.)
FRIDAY – July 24, 2009 9:00 – 2:00 PM CLASSICS WORKSHOP & BOOK FAIR Book talks by Barbara Bell, Norma Goldman, and James R. Clifford, Jr.; Interactive technology presentations and classroom activities by Andrew Reinhard and Zee Ann Poerio; and Ancient Roman military exhibit by George Metz (Gallio Velius Marsallas) of Legion XXIV at the Barnes & Noble at 301 South Hills Village Mall, Pittsburgh, PA 15241 (Includes boxed lunch.)
Participants will receive free resources, giveaways, lesson ideas, and be eligible for door prizes at each event. Please visit the ETC website for updates and complete list of speakers at www.etclassics.org. Contact Zee Ann Poerio, at: zee.poerio@gmail.com for more information or to request a registration form. Registration is $25.00 for each event.
This Discovery Rocks
Adrian Murdoch tells of a just-discovered “underground quarry, decorated with Christian and legionary symbols as well as crosses that date to the fourth century. It seems to have been in use from the beginning of the first century.” Check it out.
… And Many More
To all our clergy readers: Happy Year of the Priest.
The Audio Couple
The St. Paul Center has posted audio of some of the TV series I’ve done with Scott Hahn — along with lots of Scott flying solo!
Saving the Monastery
While I was in Israel, Reuters reported on the happy resolution of a nasty situation I blogged on some time back.
Christian monastery in Turkey wins back land
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – One of the world’s oldest functioning Christian monasteries has won a legal battle to have land it had owned for centuries restored to it, after a Turkish court ruled on Friday it could not be claimed by the state.
The dispute over the boundaries of Mor Gabriel, a fifth-century Syriac Orthodox monastery in eastern Turkey, had raised concerns over freedom of religion and human rights for non-Muslim minorities in Turkey, a predominantly Muslim country and European Union aspirant.
In a statement, the Syriac Universal Alliance (SUA), a leading Syriac group based in Sweden, said a Turkish court in Midyat had reversed an initial decision by the land registry court to grant villages some 110 hectares (272 acres) of monastery land.
A Little Vindication
BMCR reviews Alden A. Mosshammer’s The Easter Computus and the Origins of the Christian Era (in the Oxford Early Christian Studies series). What’s it all about? It’s about …
… Dionysius Exiguus, the sixth-century putative inventor of Anno Domini dating. Skeptics … noted that Dionysius’ dating of the nativity was quite likely wrong … The Venerable Bede had observed back in the early eighth century that Dionysius’ dating of Christ’s birth contradicted biblical, annalistic, and patristic evidence, which favored the years BC 2/3. Most modern scholars thus have assumed that Dionysius willfully broke with tradition, and calculated his own (incorrect) nativity date.
Mosshammer effectively undermines this accusation in a lengthy, highly technical, and meticulously-argued study … That he largely succeeds is a testament to his clearly extensive knowledge of antique calendrical traditions.
The World’s Liturgist
Pope Benedict XVI has named an American, Dominican Father J. Augustine DiNoia, secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments. Father Gus (now Archbishop-designate Gus) has been with the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith since 2002, and before that he was the doctrine guy for the U.S. bishops. When I was doing newspaper work, he was the perfect source, peerless in clarity and brevity. When I’ve visited Rome with my friend Scott Hahn, Father Gus has always been a gracious and entertaining host. Catholic News Service tells the story of his well-deserved promotion and points us to sound files of his lectures.
Happiness and Knowledge
My two oldest daughters are happy and they know it. Their puppet video is part of some contest. I think they get bonus points if you view their video, and they get thrilled if you comment. So make them happier still!
Eldest now tells me that the grand prize is a guitar. I wonder if it comes with headphones.
UPDATE: my daughters say an explanation is in order. Their video is actually a parody of the work of a “screamo” group. Screamo is a combination of “scream” and “emo” (from emotional, with teen connotations). This helps, I suppose. I had thought it to be an exploration in epistemology, perhaps Augustinian for its emphasis on happiness. How do we know we’re happy?
All Lost in Wonder
Al Ahram posted a nice feature on the old lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The Pharos occupies a chapter in my book Signs and Mysteries: Revealing Ancient Christian Symbols, as it appears often in ancient Christian art and literature. Basil compared Athanasius to the towering wonder that cast brilliant light to guide wayfarers to safety. Athanasius, of course, was bishop of Alexandria.
There seems to be talk about assembling the lighthouse from the rubble.
Naples Explodes with Delights
The New York Times, of all places, regales us with early-Christian archeological finds in Naples, Italy. Tolle, lege: Deep in the Heart of Historic Naples.
Another day, we took an English-language tour at the catacombs of San Gennaro, the patron saint of Naples, which began behind the Church of Madre del Buon Consiglio and just past a courtyard overlooking clotheslines, lemon trees and scooters. Down below we walked, first seeing small chapels, which held the bodies of wealthy families; in one “cubico,” a haunting fresco from the sixth-century A.D. memorialized a family with a young child. The bodies of humbler citizens were placed in wall niches that are now empty. We walked through ancient arches amid a silent mustiness, and learned that this catacomb’s earliest use was in the second century A.D. Here, too, is the site of three early churches, the oldest dating to the fourth century; two of them were built underground. We saw a painting of Adam and Eve from the third century A.D. and symbols of Greek goddesses. Near the exit was a fresco of a bishop from the ninth or 10th century, found about a year ago.
Later, in the Sanità district, we toured the Catacombs of San Gaudioso — named for an African bishop who arrived in Naples in 439 — and saw skulls set into wall niches with frescoes below them depicting the dress of their owners’ professions: a judge’s robes, a knight with a sword. In the women’s area, the frescoes showed only long dresses: “The women had no professions, of course,” our guide explained.
You’ll find more up-to-the-minute Neapolitan archeological news here.
Patristics for the Kids
The animated feature The Story of Saint Perpetua is now available. It’s the first installment in the Catholic Heroes of the Faith series. I served as a consultant on this project, and I appear on camera in the soon-to-be-released companion documentary. Here’s the promo copy:
It is the year AD 203 in Carthage, North Africa. Perpetua, an affluent young mother, is charged with converting to Christianity and is sent to prison. But her freedom can be secured easily. All she has to do is offer one pinch of incense in honor to the Roman gods. With this simple act of devotion and loyalty to the Roman Empire she can regain her freedom and return to her son and a life of comfort. As her father pleads for Perpetua to consider the welfare of her child and the reputation of their family, she slowly makes her way to face the Roman proconsul and declare her final decision. What will it be? This inaugural episode of Catholic Heroes of the Faith presents one of the most influential, true stories of the Early Church.
Catholic Heroes of the Faith is a series of animated programs for youth ages eight and older, presenting the lives of true-life heroes of the Catholic Faith.
DVD Features:
– English and Spanish languages with optional English and Spanish subtitles
– Comprehensive leader’s guide in PDF with lesson plans, background information, and more
– Reproducible student handouts in PDF with discussion questions, puzzles, coloring pages, and more