Monday, May 30, 2011

This Week in Patristics May 22-28, 2011

Very slim pickings this week. Even my Google updates failed to bring anything much up, but, for what its worth, here are this weeks entries.

Rod on the Political Jesus blog spots the spectre of Nestorianism rising from behind the theology of Tea Party politics.

Michael F. Bird on the Euangelion blog discusses a new book by Markus Vinzent on the 2nd century view of the Resurrection

J.B. Piggin on the Macro-Typography blog posts his abstract for the Oxford Patristics Conference.

Mike Leake on the Borrowed Light blog reviews Michael Haykin's book, Rediscovering the Church Fathers.

That's it for this week. See you next week with TWP!

Peace,
Phil

Sunday, May 22, 2011

This (Two) Weeks in Patristics May 8-21st, 2011

Hi all!

Welcome back to the delayed TWP. Thanks to a student conference and the joyful arrival of our second son, Matthew Colin Goulden Snider, I've been unable to gather the forces to do a review. So, here is the two week version. Enjoy!

vjtorley on the Uncommon Descent blog discusses David Bentley Hart's discussion of the 'new Atheists' in which he is critisized for mis-quoting Augustine and, generally, mis-understood the Church Fathers. vjtorley is probably right about the mis-quoting, but I find it telling that most of the examples against Hart's argument that the OT is taken allegorically are from Western fathers, not Eastern ones for which the statement is more true, especially if we are dealing with Alexandrian Fathers.


Ben Griffiths on the Huffington Post Religion blog discusses the reasons why we should learn to love the Church Fathers.

The Exiled Preacher on his self-named blog discusses Alistair McGrath's new book, Heresy. A History of Defending the Truth, which he considers in light of the new popularity of heresy over orthodoxy.

Clint on the 'Saint James' kids' blog considers the contributions of St Irenaeus and Tertullian to our understanding of the Ecclesiology and Christology respectively in three parts (Part One, Part Two, Part Three) A distinctivelly Orthodox take on these two Fathers. Not that that is a problem. Just saying.

John Armstrong on the Acton Institute PowerBlog considers St. Clement of Alexandria's discussion of the problem of riches and wealth with an application to our own issues in the same area.

Alin Siucu on his self-named blog identifies a Coptic 'Lament of the Virgin' fragment found in the British museum as emerging from a homily of Cyriacus, Bishop of Behnesa.

Rick Brannen on the ricoblog considers 2nd Clement's discussion of repentence and the final days in light of the recent predictions of the End for yesterday. 2nd Clement's advice? Repent and act like this is the last day. Sounds vaguley...Biblical.

James Bradford Pate on the James' Thoughts and Musing blog considers Rosemay Ruether's (in Gaia and God)reflection on the postive contributions of Christian ascetics to the environment in Rome.

Joel on the Unsettled Christianity blog reviews the recent IVP Ancient Christian Text offering on the Greek commentaries on Revelation.

That's all I have. I'll be back on track with TWP starting this week, God willing, so stay tuned.

Peace,
Phil

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

This Week in Patristics Delayed

My apologies to my readers, but I'm a bit delayed. My big student conferece was on last weekend and, then, my wife gave birth today to my second son (Matthew Colin Goulden Snider). So, I'm a tad behind on TWP. I hope to publish a special double edition this weekend and get back on track again for next week.

Peace,
Phil

Sunday, May 08, 2011

This week in Patristics May 1-7, 2011

Welcome to the new installment of TWP!

Kevin Edgecomb on the biblicalia blog features an update of his recommendations from the Popular Patristics series from St. Vladimir's Press. These book sre also a staple for my reading (I"m re-reading the volume on St. John Chrysosthom's sermons about family as the birth of my second son is imminent). They offer accessible and readable translations at a good price.

Father Ted on Father Ted's blog considers the usefulness of patristic authors in our understanding of Adam, highlight, especially, St Athanasius, St. Ephrem Syrus and St. John Chrysosthom.

Nick Norelli no the Rightly Dividing the Gospel of Truth blog considers St. Augustine's contribution to the controversy of the eternal functional subordination of the Son within the Trinity. A good entry, but, ever time I try to twist my head around the Trinity, my head throbs. He also considers St. Epiphanus' Panarion on the Incarnation.

Matthew Hoskin on the Pocket Scroll blog offers a discussion of St. Augustine, Pelagianism and Matthew's own reflections on the subject.

Alin Suciu on his self-named blog considers the Coptic manuscript of St. John Chrysosthom.




Roger Pearse on his self-named blog updates us on his project to get Origen's Homilies on Exechiel translated and discusses Persian Christian manuscripts in two parts (one and two)



April DeConnick on The Forbidden Gospel blog provides a link to online images of the Nag Hammadi collection from Claremont College.



Ben Myers on the Faith and Theology blog offers six lectures on Augustine's de trinitate.




Well, that's it for this week. I'll be a little late for the next installment, as I'm off to my yearly big student conference. I should have things ready for Monday night.




Peace,
Phil



Sunday, May 01, 2011

This Week in Patristics April 24-April 30, 2011

Welcome to the post-Easter edition of This Week in Patristics (should I just shorten that to TWP?). It is a little quieter this week, now that the frenzy of Easter is over. Enjoy!

Michael Barber on The Sacred Page blog discusses the Eucharistic theology of St. Irenaeus and St. Ignatius of Antioch. He also compares St. Justin Martyr's account of worship with a video of contemporary worship (I didn't download the video- my wife was watching the royal wedding, so that seemed unwise, but I suspect the comparison isn't favourable)

Apuleius Platonicus on the egregores blog considers the Christian appropriation of Platonism in light of a new book on Theodoret of Cyrrhus, Niketas Siniossoglou's Plato and Theodoret: The Christian Appropriation of Platonic Philosophy and the Hellenic Intellectual Resistance. Apuleius (and presumably, Niketas Siniossoglou) is quite right that a simplistic view of Platonism as a sort of Christianity light is problematic. The relationship is much more complex than that.

Ben Witherington on his Bible and Culture blog features a repost of a discussion of St. John Chrysosthom's hermeneutic of the Old Testament as a shaded picture of what was to come.

Alin Suciu on his self-named blog features a preliminary report on a Coptic papyrus which contains traces of Epiphanius of Salamis' sermon, In divini corporis sepulturam.

Kevin Edgecomb on the biblicalia blog highlights further discussion of Father Alexis Trader's new book on cognitive therapy and the (Desert) Fathers and other activities of Father Alexis. He notes the good news that Father Alexis' new book is selling well, which bodes well for a paper back edition!

Darrell Bock in his Bock's Blog considers Christopher Hill's new book, Who Chose the Gospels? Probing the Great Gospel Conspiracy in a quite favourable and not particularly long review (see his review of Ehrman's book in last update- Yikes!).

Jim Davila n the PaleoJudaica blog recaps the evidence that the notorious Lead Codices are fakes. He also includes a Jordanian newspaper account of experts who have been called in to assess the authenticity of the codices.

Nick Norelli on the Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth blog discusses the Athanasian creed and its understanding of salvation.

Seumus MacDonald on the Compliant Subversity blog considers whether the wood in the Abraham-Isaac sacrifice scene in Genesis 22 is an example of typology as St. John Chrysosthom thought. I think Seumus might be right here that there is typology going on, although, like most typology, probably not intentionally. The thing with typology is that you just don't recognize it until the reality of the type has come.

That is it for this week. Stay tuned for next week on TWP!

Peace,
Phil Snider