Al Ahram is spotlighting the history of the Copts.
Author: Mike Aquilina
Verse-Case Scenario
Edward G. Mathews, Jr., reviews Christos Simelidis’s Selected Poems of Gregory of Nazianzus in BMCR.
Gregory of Nazianzus is one of the most consistently celebrated of the early Christian writers … However, this sustained popularity was generally due to his theological acumen and his extraordinary rhetorical skills, not to his poetry, which both Jerome and the Suda numbered at 30,000 verses (only about two-thirds of them have actually survived) …
Simelidis’ work is a revised version of his Oxford doctoral dissertation. It offers a lengthy introduction to Gregory’s poetry (pp. 21-102), critical editions of the Greek texts — no translations — of four of Gregory’s poems … This is an extraordinarily detailed and erudite study that ought to lay down the path for any future study of Gregory’s poetry. Gregory stands as a unique transitional point between classical/hellenistic poetry and Byzantine poetry.
Some of Gregory’s poems are available in English translation, in the Popular Patristics series: On God and Man: The Theological Poetry of St. Gregory of Nazianzus.
In Today’s Mail
Looks very interesting.
Vines Intertwined: A History of Jews and Christians from the Babylonian Exile to the Advent of Islam, by Leo Duprée Sandgren (Hendrickson).
The study of Jewish/Christian history in antiquity is experiencing a renaissance. Textual witnesses and archaeological sites are being reevaluated and revisited. As a result, author Sandgren asserts, the relationship between Jews and Christians has shifted from a “mother-daughter” paradigm to one better described as “siblings.”
Recognizing that Judaism and Christianity are what they are because of each other and were not formed in isolation, Sandgren provides readers and researchers with a comprehensive generation-by-generation political history of the Jews—from the fall of the First Temple and the Babylonian Exile through the rise of Christianity out of Judaism—to the conquest of Jerusalem by Muslim Arabs and the rise of Christianity out of Judaism, to the point where both are fully defined against each other at the start of the Middle Ages.
With a good subject index and a strong chronological framework, this book is a convenient reference work to this extended period of antiquity, with sufficient “bookends” of history to show where it began and how it ends. Making use of numerous contemporary studies as well as often neglected classics, Sandgren thoroughly develops the concept of “the people of God” and the core ideology behind Jewish and Christian self-definition. A ready resource for both students and scholars, pastors and laypeople, this accessible reference also includes a bibliography and an ancient sources index as well as a CD. The attached CD will have the entire book as a searchable PDF as well as a list of names of emperors, rabbis, and church fathers.
Irenaeus: The Comeback Tour 2010
Word has arrived of a newly-typeset edition of Irenaeus’s “Against the Heresies.” The text is that of the ANF, with the original page numbers embedded in the text. The only revision is to the introduction, to fill out some of the background on Pope Victor and St. Irenaeus; the new editors have removed Bp. Coxe’s anti-Catholic footnotes, while retaining the original numbering on the remaining notes. The book is available in softcover and hardcover.
Your iPod Is a Reliquary
If you’ve visited this blog more than twice, you know by now that I’m a big fan of Rod Bennett’s book Four Witnesses: The Early Church in Her Own Words. It’s a novelistic re-telling of the earliest Christian history, using the very words of the Apostolic Fathers. It’s one of the great “imaginative entries” into the world of the Fathers that I’m always recommending, especially for young Christians.
Here’s the great news: Four Witnesses is now available for download in a professionally produced audio edition. So you can do your daily aerobics with the Apostolic Fathers. You can drive with the Apostolic Fathers. You can cook with the Apostolic Fathers. The possibilities are innumerable.
Soldier Saint
BMCR reviews Nikos Litinas’ book Greek Ostraca from Abu Mina.
If you come here often, you know that the ancient shrine of Abu Mina is one of my odd interests. My post titled The Lourdes of the Ancient World attracted some notice. I followed it up with related posts here and here.
Those of you who share my interest, but also have a JSTOR account, can read more about the saint in a recent article published in Dumbarton Oaks Papers, An Officer and a Gentleman: Transformations in the Iconography of a Warrior Saint.
Owning the Apostolic Fathers
Wow! — Rick Brannan is producing an electronic, searchable, lovable Greek-English Interlinear of the Apostolic Fathers. He’s already posted screen shots and other enticing features. If there’s enough interest, it will be released by Logos. Please go show some interest!
New Books on the Fathers
In BMCR …
Benjamin Garstad reviews Roger S. Bagnall’s Early Christian Books in Egypt.
Scott Carson reviews Luigi Gioia’s The Theological Epistemology of Augustine’s De Trinitate.
Gerard O’Daly reviews Philip Rousseau and Jutta Raithel’s A Companion to Late Antiquity.
Lenting Library
Now I need to do a Lenten workout on pride. Happy Catholic is using one of my books for Lenten reading.
Of course, it could just be an extraordinary penance.
Patristic Digs
I’m behind in posting archeological news, and there’s plenty of it, from all corners of the world of the Fathers.
In Egypt, archeologists exploring under “the world’s oldest monastery” found “a cell for monks dating back to 400 AD with paintings in the ancient Coptic language.” Restoration is under way.
Israel has uncovered an ancient wine press as well as a Byzantine-era road.
Turkey is restoring a Roman-era church (dates are confusing in the story … lost in translation).
Syria has turned up a cave with evidence of Roman-era habitation. These were often hideaway worship spaces.
Patristics Going Platinum?
Some time back (here and here) I mentioned several odd instances of the Fathers appearing in modern English poetry. Before long, we had collected enough examples to fill a small anthology.
This week I noticed that, over time, we’ve accumulated some significant patristic pop songs. For example:
Dion’s The Thunderer (on St. Jerome)
Marie Bellet’s Late Have I Loved You (St. Augustine)
Bob Dylan’s I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine
If we want to stretch it a little, we can add Stray Cat Brian Setzer’s St. Jude.
That’s not enough for a K-Tel collection. Any other candidates?
Klass Times
The New York Times published an obituary for Phil Klass, whom I hymned in an earlier post.
He Disappeared in the Dead of Winter
I learned, from an obituary in our diocesan newspaper, that Fr. Christopher Rengers, OFM Cap., died on January 25. He was 92.
Fr. Christopher was a noted confessor, spiritual mentor — and author of some excellent works on the Church Fathers. He’s best known for his book The 33 Doctors Of The Church. He is the man who started, back in 1977, the custom of observing an all-night prayer vigil in the crypt church of the Basilica of the National Shrine on the eve of the March for Life. The event has grown since then. It’s quite huge now. He was a kind and gentle man, brilliant but childlike. He ended every conversation with a request to pray together with you. Such habits die hard, if at all. I suspect he’ll continue all these customs for the duration.
The 33 Doctors Of The Church includes excellent brief biographies of many figures from the patristic era, namely:
St. Gregory the Great
St. Ambrose
St. Augustine
St. Jerome
St. John Chrysostom
St. Basil
St. Gregory Nazianzus
St. Athanasius
St. Isidore
St. Peter Chrysologus
St. Leo the Great
St. Hilary of Poitiers
St. Cyril of Alexandria
St. Cyril of Jerusalem
St. John Damascene
St. Ephrem
The Real St. Valentine: Get Ready for V. Day
Today I spoke with the Great and Powerful Al Kresta about The Real St. Valentine. Watch us here. (OK, so I’m a little stiff. I was nervous.)
You’ll find a great — and FREE — graphic novel about St. Valentine at the website of Catholic Heroes of the Faith. It’s written by yet another hero of the faith, Carl Sommer.
Catholic Heroes of the Faith is building up an impressive array of free graphic novels, including three about subjects from the patristic era. Little kids with a patrological bent have never had it so good.
And don’t forget: if you register at the Catholic Heroes of the Faith website, you can download Perpetua’s Song for free.
A Little Bit Country, A Lot of Patristics
I just got back from Music City — Nashville, Tennessee — where I was featured speaker at Aquinas College‘s annual St. Thomas Aquinas Forum. This year’s theme was “Champions of Orthodoxy: The Fathers of the Church,” and I gave four talks. Among the other speakers was Richard H. Bulzacchelli, author of Judged by the Law of Freedom: A History of the Faith-Works Controversy, who delivered an excellent “how to” lecture on patristic biblical interpretation. I believe the good Dominican Sisters are making the talks available on CD.
I traveled with my lovely daughter Mary Agnes, who runs my book table. We ended up stranded in Tennessee because of the snowstorms. There was no storm in Nashville, so the extra time made for a great vacation. We went out for a night on the town with Bill and Marie Bellet. Marie is a country and Gospel singer, and I’m a longtime fan. She must be the only country artist EVER to set a Church Father to music. Check out “Late Have I Loved You” on her album Ordinary Time. You’ll come to know and to believe: St. Augustine was born for the Grand Ole Opry.
While in town, we also enjoyed a leisurely lunch with Michael Gilstrap, who is the U.S. representative of Rome’s Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, a charity well worth a portion of your tithe.
The highlight of the trip was lots of time spent with my former colleague Joan Watson, who’s now working in campus ministry and catechetics at Aquinas College. You probably remember her as the blogger Joan in Rome.
The college is an amazing place. Parents and prospective students, take note!