Alright, well, it's been a month and a day since the last time I posted here. It's been a busy month, to say the least!
I've been finishing up things with classes. Just yesterday, I finished my History of Methodism final (in ten minutes, I might add, and I don't think I did half-bad); turned in a dictionary-style article I wrote about my denomination (also for my History of Methodism class); and completed and submitted a three-essay-question take-home final for my Exegesis of Hebrews class. That done, I have just one academic assignment remaining: a paper (7 or 8 pages in length) on my "theology of communication", due for my Foundations of Proclamation class. I hope to brainstorm heavily about it today yet, and then write like crazy (but hopefully coherently) tomorrow. I must turn in a hardcopy of the paper on Friday via the Seminary Post Office ('SPO') system to the professor, meaning I need to get it done by the early or middle afternoon. After that, academically speaking, I'll be totally finished: 1.5 years of seminary thus far complete!
Also, I've been working on an assortment of paperwork for my denomination's upcoming Pastoral Assessment Center (PAC), where I'll be assessed for four days (18-21 January 2012) to determine whether I can become an "approved candidate" for pastoral ministry. I believe that's the stage I'd then reach, I think. It's hard to tell at times. I've taken a variety of assessment tools: Taylor-Johnson Temperament Analysis, Grip-Birkman Blueprint, etc., in addition to providing detailed financial information (all of which, given my current situation, will be completely useless to them) and answering a series of written questions about my spiritual life. At this point, aside from remembering to request that a copy of my college transcript be sent to them, the only thing I have left to do on that front - I think - is to prepare a written devotional message, due on 24 December 2011. Then I have two books to read before the assessment: Phil Stevenson's
The Ripple Church: Multiply Your Ministry by Parenting New Churches (2004) and Christian Schwarz's
Color Your World with Natural Church Development (2005). I look forward to learning from the first of the two, at least. The second is a bit too... colorful (literally!)... to my taste (not a person to whom I've shown it has been able to resist laughing); to say nothing of the author's refusal to actually defend himself from what appear to be potentially justified accusations of heresy (Sabellianism/modalism, in this case). But, if there's something in there that I can find truly useful, I'll be happily surprised.
On another front, as I recall, the last time I posted here was the same day that I finished reading Barnabas Lindars'
The Theology of the Letter of the Hebrews. Aside from too much reliance on Dunn, it was... moderately okay. I can't say I was impressed. Later, around 22 November 2011, I finished reading Glenn C. Daman's
Shepherding the Small Church: A Leadership Guide for the Majority of Today's Churches, which remained just as awesomely fantastic throughout as it seemed when I first began it. I've taken comprehensive notes on it as well, so I'll be able to continue utilizing its many insights and practical suggestions throughout the rest of my life, given the opportunity. The same is true for the book I read afterwards, Albert Y. Hsu's
The Suburban Christian: Finding Spiritual Vitality in the Land of Plenty. Instead of being geared towards pastors or church board members, as was Daman's book, Hsu's is aimed toward the typical suburban Christian, and it has a lot of great things to say - though I can't imagine the average person being quite so thrilled to trudge through the initial survey of the history of the suburban phenomenon. I believe I finished Hsu's book around 26 November 2011. I also took comprehensive notes on it. Then I finished reading Alan J. Roxburgh's
Missional Map-Making: Skills for Leading in Times of Transition, which was assigned reading for my Equipping the Laity class. I honestly can't say I was remotely impressed by it. Some of my classmates felt like they got things out of it, but I just couldn't see it. All I found in the text was a man screaming about how everything in the world has changed, though frankly his assessments of both modernity and postmodernity seemed out-of-whack, nor did his aspersions on 'traditional' planning models (like that of Daman) seem remotely on-base. I read one review of Roxburgh's book that noted that Roxburgh seemed to be rejecting everything traditional, and then just repackaging the same stuff under a newer and trendier name. I honestly can't say I'd recommend Roxburgh's book, and I definitely don't think I'll ever have cause to read one of his others. Around the same time, I finished reading
The Preaching Life by Episcopal minister Barbara Brown Taylor. It was... okay. I can see why she's a noted preacher, but I just got too much 'mainline church' vibe from her, and that vibe always creeps me out, to be perfectly honest. I think I finished both Roxburgh and Taylor around 4-5 December 2011.
Then, later on the 5th, I also finished reading one of the textbooks for my History of Methodism class, Frederick A. Norwood's
The Story of American Methodism: A History of the United Methodists and Their Relations. Although dated - it was written in 1974, less than a decade after the United Methodist Church was formed (1968 - merger of the Methodist Church and the United Evangelical Brethren) - it was still quite good. The next day, I finished three more books. The first two books were commentaries on Hebrews that I was reading for my Exegesis of Hebrews class: Harold W. Attridge's
Hebrews: A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews (in the Hermeneia series) and Luke Timothy Johnson's
Hebrews: A Commentary (in the New Testament Library series). And then I also finished the other textbook for my History of Methodism class, my professor Ken Kinghorn's
The Heritage of American Methodism. All were worthwhile reads. Then, a couple days ago on 12 December 2011, I finished reading
Words Made Fresh: Essays on Literature and Culture by Larry Woiwode, which I received as part of an Early Reviewer program but was prevented from finishing by the demands of the semester until now. Looks like my review won't be so early after all!
And then this morning, I finished
The Poems of Prudentius, Vol. 2 by Aurelius Prudentius Clemens and translated by M. Clement Eagan as part of the Fathers of the Church series. Good stuff, though I'm not as impressed with Prudentius' metre as I was when I read the first volume. A number of long poems are included in this volume. First up is his
Apotheosis, a poem dedicated to defending the doctrine of the deity of Christ against a variety of errors, including the Sabellian heresy, non-Christian Judaism, and the Ebionite heresy. I here quote my favorite section of the
Apotheosis, lines 238-289 (taken from pages 13-15):
This our salvation is, our life and way,
Never to name the Father without the Son
And never to confess the Son as God
Without the Father's name, never invoke
The Father and Son without the Holy Spirit,
Yet not to make of them three separate gods
But to understand one God subsists in three.
The Son is not the Father, for we know
That of the Unbegot He is true Son
And Father may not be Son to Himself.
It is absurd to think that from Himself
The Father was begot as some outgrowth
Or new material of a sudden birth;
That God brought forth and made Himself this Son.
The names divine express naught vague or false.
The Father is the Father by begetting,
The Son is Son because He is begot.
Coequal with His Father and supreme,
How can their operation be the same
Unless the Son has all the Father's might
And in their essence Father and Son are one?
Some further go and this begetting probe,
If it is right for human thought to strive
To know this mystery beyond all time,
Beyond all ages and creation's dawn,
Which passes all man's wit to comprehend.
Since origins are difficult to grasp,
How shall to mortal man the power be given
To know what God did ere the world began,
How he the Word with no beginning framed?
This is revealed to us: the Word is God,
Of Father unbegot one perfect Son
Without beginning, yet originate,
Eternal with the Father, yet born of Him.
The Father was not severed in such way
That part of Him became the Son, nor did
His substance lengthen, dwarfing His Godhead,
As a transmuted portion formed the Son.
God changes not, nor does He from Himself
Take anything when He begets the Son,
Who is whole God from whole God, Light from Light.
But when is light without the light? When does
A shining light lack radiance, or when
Does flame diminish flame? When is the Father
And God and Light not God and Father of Light?
If once He was not Father and begot
In time the Son, a new mode He acquired.
Let us not think God's fullness may increase.
God and Father, light and glory, He was
For aye, nor was He Father afterwards.
Eternal with the Father Christ we hold,
Begot of Father who no father had.
The rest of the poem is really great too, even if Prudentius does briefly critique (though through assertion rather than argument) one or two minor positions I myself hold, such as traducianism with respect to the origin of the individual human soul. Moving along, his
Hamartigenia is a poem dealing with the origin of sin, and is mainly an attack on the Marcionite heresy, which held two opposing gods: the evil god of the Old Testament, and the good God of the New Testament. It has some fantastic polemic, and also some splendid material on free will. The next poem is the
Psychomachia, an allegorical epic that depicts all the virtues and vices as female warriors meeting on the battlefield (of the soul),
Iliad-style. It's pretty awesome, and at times the virtues dispatch their foes quite gruesomely. For instance, lines 417-431 (page 94) on Sobriety's victory over Sensuality:
Sobriety hurls from the cliff a stone
And gives the death-blow to her lying there.
As chance gave to the leader this strong bolt,
Who bears no weapons but her warlike sign,
Chance drives the stone to crush the breathing mouth
And with the hollow palate mix the lips.
The teeth within are loosened, and the tongue
All mangled, fills the throat with clots of blood.
The throat rebels at this unwonted food
And then spews up the lumps of broken bones.
"Drink now your blood after your many cups,"
The maiden chides, "let this by your grim fare
In place of all the sweets of your past life.
Let death's unsavory taste and this vile draught
Turn all the pleasures of your life to gall."
...Awesome. Anyway, the next poem is a two-book poem titled
Contra Symmachum ('Against Symmachus'), which is a reply to a man named Symmachus who petitioned the Roman Senate to once again start recognizing the old pagan faiths as valid and to restore the statue of the pagan goddess Victory to the Senate House. The first book is a lengthy attack on the old pagan gods, while in the second book, Prudentius offers direct responses to Symmachus' speech, which apparently is also still extant; I'll have to check it out sometime. The last work in the volume is Prudentius'
Tituli Historiarum ('Scenes from Sacred History'), which are a series of quatrains narrating biblical stories, as in this seasonally appropriate 28th quatrain about the angels greeting the shepherds (ll. 109-112; p. 188):
Light angelic bedazzles the watchful eyes of the shepherds,
Making known the good tidings that Christ has been born of a virgin.
They find Him wrapped in swaddling clothes, and His crib was a manger;
They exult with great joy and kneeling, they worship his Godhead.
Next up will also be another piece of patristic literature: the
Creedal Homilies of Quodvultdeus of Carthage (formerly commonly known as "Pseudo-Augustine"). I haven't yet begun to read any of the homilies themselves. They were delivered to
competentes (catechumens who were finally ready to 'take the plunge' together, so to speak) shortly before Easter as a final bit of instruction in the faith. I have, however, read the translator's introduction, and it's fascinating. He describes the overall site of rites associated with baptism in the Carthaginian church, and it must have been truly awe-inspiring. Imagine being part of this group clad in nothing but goatskins in the midst of a candle-lit church, presented to the congregation, undergoing yet further vigorous exorcism... How impressive an experience that must have been, and the goatskins are a fantastic contrast to the white garments worn for the baptismal day itself.
Anyway, while I haven't taken any notes yet on this second volume of Prudentius' poetry (though I fully intend to), I did recently
finally finish taking notes on Jerome I. Gellman's provocative book
Experience of God and the Rationality of Theistic Belief. He seldom goes about things the way I would, that's for sure. But I'm glad that I finally have a complete set of notes on that. And now I'm moving on to the note-taking process on another book I finished some time back: Michael F. Hull's
Baptism on Account of the Dead (1 Cor 15:29): An Act of Faith in the Resurrection (2005). It's a fascinating monograph dealing with
1 Corinthians 15:29, and the notes I'm taking will certainly be useful in future Mormon-Evangelical dialogue (since Mormons practice a sort of vicarious baptism on behalf of the deceased, largely inspired by Joseph Smith's understanding of this verse, allegedly revealed to him directly by God). I spent much of last night taking
extremely extensive notes on the first chapter, where Hull presents about forty different interpretations of that controversial verse. (Today I'm working on notes for the second chapter, dealing in a very meandering way with the literary context of the verse.) None of those interpretations, by the way, quite match up with the Mormon understanding.
Speaking of Mormonism, although I haven't had much time for regular blogging lately (including at
Study and Faith, other than the automated posting of selections from old Mormon literature), I have been getting involved with the local Mormon community. I attended their church's "three-hour marathon" (sacrament meeting, then Gospel Principles class, then Elders' Quorum) on 27 November 2011 and met the ward's three missionaries. I believe it was around 2 December 2011 that I met directly with the missionaries for some discussion, and then I attended the Lexington stake conference's Saturday evening session on 3 December 2011. Since then, I also attended the Nicholasville ward Christmas part on 9 December 2011, and I should be having another meeting with the missionaries this evening. I don't have time here and now to go into all the details of the things we've discussed, but I have done some reading that they requested: first, several chapters from the Book of Mormon (
Helaman 13,
14,
15,
16;
3 Nephi 1); and then also four talks by their apostles at General Conference (Jeffrey R. Holland's talk "
Safety for the Soul" [October 2009]; David A. Bednar's talk "
Watching with All Perseverance" [April 2010]; Jeffrey R. Holland's talk "
The Only True God and Jesus Christ Whom He Hath Sent" [October 2007]; and Jeffrey R. Holland's talk "
My Words ... Never Cease" [April 2008]). To be perfectly honest, I like Elder Holland less every time I actually listen to what he says. Remind me to get into the reasons sometime.
So that has things more or less caught up in my life, I suppose. After I get things taken care of this week, I'll have a free weekend. Sunday night (18 December 2011) I'll be going over to visit a friend who will be taking me to the Lexington airport sometime around 2-4 AM on the 19th; my flight out of here is at 5:50 AM. I'll be flying to Chicago O'Hare, and then after a bit of a layover there, flying back east to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where my family will pick me up around 10:30 or 11:00 AM, all going according to plan. Then I intend to spend the next few days hosting a friend I haven't seen in a while, and then Christmas is coming!
Also, I'll be bringing home a few books to try to get through over the break, since I won't be returning back here until 28 January 2012. Aside from the two I already mentioned that I need to read for the Pastoral Assessment Center, I intend to work through:
- By the Renewing of Your Minds: The Pastoral Function of Christian Doctrine by Ellen T. Charry
- Philosophical and Theological Essays on the Trinity, edited by Thomas McCall and Michael C. Rea
- Early Mormonism and the Magic World View (2nd ed) by D. Michael Quinn
- The Metaphysics of the Incarnation, edited by Anna Marmodoro and Jonathan Hill
- The Viper on the Hearth: Mormons, Myths, and the Construction of Heresy by Terryl L. Givens
- Evolutionary Creation in Biblical and Theological Perspective by Dan Lioy
So, well, we'll see how much I get through there. I also want to dig back into my genealogical labors while I'm once more in my homeland and can travel to the places where my near-ancestors dwelt (as well as accessing local archives). It should be a pleasantly busy break - though hopefully in a relaxing sort of way!
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EDIT: I'm back from the meeting! It was an interesting time. We got to discuss some of the things I'd written in a
self-introduction that I'd given them. Ultimately, the missionaries have decided that, given the nature of their work, it'd be a more efficient use of their time if they focused on dealing with people who have fewer immediate objections to Mormon teaching; however, at my request, they gave me the names of a few people in the local ward who might have more time to get into some deeper matters. Also, it turns out that with one of the talks they'd asked me to read over, I'd written down the wrong one (or they just got the year wrong in the first place). So instead of David A. Bednar's talk "Watching with All Perseverance", I'll now catch up on reading his talk "
The Spirit of Revelation" [April 2011]. Meh, I was a year off. And then before I came back here, I spent some time chatting with a few of the friends I've been making at the ward.
So anyway, now I'm back here to chat with friends on Skype and to continue to take notes on Michael F. Hull's
Baptism on Account of the Dead (1 Cor 15:29): An Act of Faith in the Resurrection. Oh, yeah, and brainstorm for that paper... blecch.
