Yesterday after I got up and showered, I went over to the library to do some research on Psalm 58. I think I must've spent around 4.5 hours there taking notes, and I'd spent several hours doing the same on the preceding day. So currently I have about 25 pages of notes on it, and that's scheduled to go up again quite soon. Yikes. When I finished yesterday, I'd produced about six stacks of books that I'd used. Then I went to Subway to grab some dinner to bring back to my room. To the best of my recollection, I ate it and then took a bit of a nap before waking up and getting some reading done while finishing the second season of Arrested Development and then watching the entirety of the third. What fun! One book I started reading was The Jesus of Suburbia by Mike Erre. (That was probably more productive than the prior night's activities, which involved a major struggle against my computer to upload a slew of old family photos to Facebook.)
Then today I awoke and joined my friends Meghan and Sarah to go to the local Orthodox parish for Divine Liturgy. (First, of course, I spent some time playing with Meghan's kitty Panther while I waited for them to get ready.) It was a bit warmer in there than I'd anticipated, so I had to remove my suit jacket partway through. Also, I'd forgotten how fidgety I get when I have to stand still for great lengths of time. Eventually the Divine Liturgy ended and we had a brief lunch (lasagna!) before getting treated to a wonderful presentation by the Hieromonk Justin of Sinai, a monk from the world's oldest monastery, St. Catherine's Monastery in the Sinai Peninsula. Aside from being the oldest continuously inhabited monastery in the world (having never been destroyed through the past, say, 1400-1600 years), it's also famous for being built at the foot of Mt. Sinai around what's supposed to be the bush from which God spoke to Moses, and also for having an immense wealth of icons and manuscripts - including the Codex Sinaiticus, the famed fourth-century manuscript of the entire Bible that had such an immense impact on biblical textual criticism. The hieromonk Justin had some wonderful stories to tell about the monastery's relations with the local Bedouins, who are Arabic-speaking Muslims (unlike the Greek-speaking Christians of the monastery). The relationship goes back centuries and centuries, particularly since the local Bedouins are supposed to be descended from the soldiers who were originally sent to build and guard the monastery. During the recent unrest in Egypt, the police who had been guarding various checkpoints around the monastery all left their posts there. Since the monastery was then otherwise undefended, many of the Bedouins got their contraband Kalashnikovs out of hiding and themselves began protecting the monastery - just as their ancestors did over 1400 years ago. When the Bedouins have disagreements among themselves, frequently they turn the monastery's abbot/archbishop, whom they view as a sort of revered grandfather-figure. After the presentation, I took a moment to thank Fr. Justin (the hieromonk, not the local parish priest, who's also a Fr. Justin) for coming to visit us. Fr. Justin, by the way, is also the only American monk at St. Catherine's Monastery; he's originally from Texas, though he sure doesn't have a Texan accent, and is also a convert to the Greek Orthodox Church.
When that was all finished, I drove back from Meghan's house to my dorm, read some selections from a commentary on Hebrews, and then got some rest for a few hours. I think I woke up at around 6:00 PM. Then I spent some time looking at silly things on the Internet, went and grabbed supper from Subway, and now I'm back here to continue to take notes on a variety of books (The Jesus of Suburbia, and also several pertaining to Psalm 58) while I listen to a 2006 podcast episode in which Russ Roberts of George Mason University interviews Laurence Iannaccone (then also of George Mason) about Dr. Iannaccone's specialty, the economics of religion. Hopefully this will be a productive night.
Then today I awoke and joined my friends Meghan and Sarah to go to the local Orthodox parish for Divine Liturgy. (First, of course, I spent some time playing with Meghan's kitty Panther while I waited for them to get ready.) It was a bit warmer in there than I'd anticipated, so I had to remove my suit jacket partway through. Also, I'd forgotten how fidgety I get when I have to stand still for great lengths of time. Eventually the Divine Liturgy ended and we had a brief lunch (lasagna!) before getting treated to a wonderful presentation by the Hieromonk Justin of Sinai, a monk from the world's oldest monastery, St. Catherine's Monastery in the Sinai Peninsula. Aside from being the oldest continuously inhabited monastery in the world (having never been destroyed through the past, say, 1400-1600 years), it's also famous for being built at the foot of Mt. Sinai around what's supposed to be the bush from which God spoke to Moses, and also for having an immense wealth of icons and manuscripts - including the Codex Sinaiticus, the famed fourth-century manuscript of the entire Bible that had such an immense impact on biblical textual criticism. The hieromonk Justin had some wonderful stories to tell about the monastery's relations with the local Bedouins, who are Arabic-speaking Muslims (unlike the Greek-speaking Christians of the monastery). The relationship goes back centuries and centuries, particularly since the local Bedouins are supposed to be descended from the soldiers who were originally sent to build and guard the monastery. During the recent unrest in Egypt, the police who had been guarding various checkpoints around the monastery all left their posts there. Since the monastery was then otherwise undefended, many of the Bedouins got their contraband Kalashnikovs out of hiding and themselves began protecting the monastery - just as their ancestors did over 1400 years ago. When the Bedouins have disagreements among themselves, frequently they turn the monastery's abbot/archbishop, whom they view as a sort of revered grandfather-figure. After the presentation, I took a moment to thank Fr. Justin (the hieromonk, not the local parish priest, who's also a Fr. Justin) for coming to visit us. Fr. Justin, by the way, is also the only American monk at St. Catherine's Monastery; he's originally from Texas, though he sure doesn't have a Texan accent, and is also a convert to the Greek Orthodox Church.
When that was all finished, I drove back from Meghan's house to my dorm, read some selections from a commentary on Hebrews, and then got some rest for a few hours. I think I woke up at around 6:00 PM. Then I spent some time looking at silly things on the Internet, went and grabbed supper from Subway, and now I'm back here to continue to take notes on a variety of books (The Jesus of Suburbia, and also several pertaining to Psalm 58) while I listen to a 2006 podcast episode in which Russ Roberts of George Mason University interviews Laurence Iannaccone (then also of George Mason) about Dr. Iannaccone's specialty, the economics of religion. Hopefully this will be a productive night.
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