You scoundrels! How could you?

Through all my whining about the need for good fiction set in the patristic era, not one of you raised a voice to tell me about the novels of Michael Curtis Ford.

Maybe I can be excused because I live in a cave. But can you? These works are out from a major press, and they bear jacket blurbs from the likes of Victor Davis Hanson, James Brady, and even Newt Gingrich.

Just yesterday I finished Gods and Legions: A Novel of the Roman Empire. It’s a fictional treatment of the rise and fall of Julian the Apostate. And — get this — it’s narrated by St. Caesarius of Nazianzus, the brother of St. Gregory (whose feast we celebrate today). Gregory plays a starring role himself, launching the book with a letter to Pope Siricius.

Maybe patristics nerds miss Michael Ford’s works because they’re marketed as military fiction — and this one at least is an excellent example of the genre. I’m sure you’ve often wondered what it was like for Roman cavalry, on horses, to face off against their Persian counterpart, on elephants. Wonder no more. Read Gods and Legions. You’ll feel the fear of riding a panicked mount as it faces a bull elephant in full rush, topped by a tower of archers. I’m relatively ignorant of military terms and tactics, but Ford’s descriptions carried me along without ever bogging down in explanation. That’s no easy feat when a fourth-century narrator is describing siege machines that were quite familiar to terrorized cities back then, but are largely unknown to you and me.

Gods and Legions is military fiction, but theologically well informed. No, that’s an understatement. The theology is so important to the drama of this book that it can hardly be called a subplot. It’s the plot (which I won’t spoil by telling you why), every bit as essential as the battles. The main characters verbally spar over Trinitarian theology and employ eucharistic analogies at least as often as I do, and they invoke all your faves, from Irenaeus through Athanasius.

This book is an excellent companion to Adrian Murdoch‘s biography The Last Pagan: Julian the Apostate and the Death of the Ancient World, which I reviewed here.

I’m ordering Ford’s The Sword of Attila: A Novel of the Last Years of Rome, looking forward to a glimpse of Leo the Great. I’ll report to you afterward. You order his other novels, and let me know what you think.

In the pre-Christmas mail came Oxford University Press’s remarkable new The Sibylline Oracles: With Introduction, Translation, and Commentary on the First and Second Books. It’s a stunning work of scholarship and translation. The Oracles are a compilation. Some are Jewish, some Christian, some Jewish-Christian. Some are pagan and were cited by both Jews and Christians as confirming various prophecies. The Oracles were cited by many of late antiquity’s leading lights — Josephus, Justin Marytr, Augustine.

BMCR was right to call this new volume “monumental.”

Here’s a seasonal Oracle, from the new translation by J.L. Lightfoot:

When the … manless maid the Logos give a name,
Then from the east a star in fullest day
That brightly shines shall from the heavens beam
Announcing a great sign fo rmortal men.
Then great God’s son will come to humankind,

Clothed in flesh, in human form on earth…

He will fulfil, and not throw down, God’s law,
Wearing a matching likeness, and will teach.
To him will holy men bring gifts of gold,
And myrrh and incense, for all this he will do.

I’m holding in my hands two books that make me very happy: my own Companion Guide to Pope Benedict’s ‘The Fathers’ — quite useful for parish and home studies — and my friend Scott Hahn’s A Pocket Guide to St. Paul — your perfect vademecum for the rest of the Year of St. Paul (ends June 29, 2009).

They’re yours for the ordering …

PaleJudaica directs us to Time magazine’s interview with Paul Fredriksen, on the subject of her new book, Augustine and the Jews: A Christian Defense of Jews and Judaism, which I happen to be reading now.

What caused you to question the received wisdom?
Back in 1993 I was reading a work of Augustine’s attacking a Christian heretic. Usually when ancient orthodox Christians said terrible things about heretics, they found even worse things to say about Jews. Until 395, Augustine had not been much different, but here he was, writing about one of the flashiest heresies of his time, and marshaling as arguments unbelievably positive things about Jews. As I read further, my scalp tingled. I had been working on Augustine for 20 years and I’d never seen anything like this before. Not only could I establish that he had changed his position, but I could locate this shift in his thinking very precisely, to the four-year period when he also wrote his monumental Confessions.

Kevin’s reviewing a new edition of Epiphanius’s Panarion.

I just got back from a trip with Junior to Chicago. Despite the wind chill, we had a delightful time. By chance (?), I managed to attend a Mass celebrated by my spiritual director from many years ago, Father Ed Maristany, author of Loving the Holy Mass and Call Him Father: How to Experience the Fatherhood of God. I hadn’t seen him in years. Junior and I stayed at the apartment of my friend Gary Bilinovich, who manages the sprawling campus of St. Mary of the Angels Parish, and we ate, drank, and were merry with my oft-quoted buddy Andy. We also made pilgrimage to meet Nancy Brown and her family. Nancy is the author of The Mystery of Harry Potter: A Catholic Family Guide and many excellent resources on G.K. Chesterton.

Too much fun. Now I have to catch up on posts for you, because the postal mail and email brought many great tidings of patristic joy.

Those who read my book The Grail Code: Quest for the Real Presence will be cheered by Zenit’s report of an academic conference on the Grail held in Valencia, Spain (home to one of the Grail contenders). My co-author Chris Bailey and I rejoice whenever there is serious discussion of the Grail that doesn’t involve UFOs, healing crystals, or Mary Magdalene’s phenotype.

Adrian Murdoch beat me to announcing a provocative new study: Raymond Van Dam’s The Roman Revolution of Constantine. Adrian discusses shifts in the typological understanding of the emperor and provides excerpts from a review.

Here’s just what the pastor ordered — or will order, I hope. It’s the Companion Guide to Pope Benedict’s ‘The Fathers’, penned by none other than Your Humble Servant.

I wrote it for group study of the Holy Father’s audience talks on the Church Fathers, which are handily collected by the same publisher in a book titled The Fathers. It’s designed to be a six-week study, but it’s easily expandable to twice that length, if a leader is so inclined. There’s enough material to acquaint a parish or neighborhood group with the early Fathers, from Clement of Rome to Augustine of Hippo. The Companion Guide groups the Fathers by historical period, gives cultural and personal background, synthesizes the material that Pope Benedict presented, and suggests questions for discussion. I’ve keyed the Guide to page numbers in The Fathers.

Ambitious groups can supplement these materials with The Fathers of the Church, Expanded Edition and The Mass of the Early Christians.

The new book weighs in at 96 pages — for only $8.95. Yes, I said $8.95! The novelist Kurt Vonnegut once recalled an ad he saw for a sale on straw hats: “For prices like this, you can run them through your horse and put them on your roses.”

I’d rather that you used these books for discussing the Fathers in friendly groups in your home or parish. But whatever works for the betterment of mankind.

Amazon provides a sneak peak at the lovely cover of my upcoming book, co-authored with Chris Bailey (a reunion of The Grail Code team). The new one is Praying the Psalms with the Early Christians: Ancient Songs for Modern Hearts. You guessed it: it’s a collection of the Fathers’ reflections on the Psalter. It’s out in Spring, but of course it can be pre-ordered.

Here’s another blog review of Signs and Mysteries: Revealing Ancient Christian Symbols.

Karen Edmisten has reviewed my book Signs and Mysteries: Revealing Ancient Christian Symbols. She calls it “a great read … a great reference book” and “an exquisite piece of art.”

The St. Louis Review has posted a feature on Father Michael Giesler’s novel Grain of Wheat, which is set in second-century Rome. Here’s a money quote from the newspaper story: “I did that thinking of our society, because in many ways people have said, and I think it’s true, that there are some real similarities today with the Roman empire.”

Kevin reviewed the book at Biblicalia.

I blurbed it here.

Notlukewarm has posted a review of my book Signs and Mysteries: Revealing Ancient Christian Symbols.

The Catholic company has posted several reviews.