Another Lenten Post

Miserere Mei, Deus (setting by David Hurd)

"The Prayer Rope Knot" by William Thompson

Poem for Lent: The Prayer Rope Knot by William Thompson:

Each time the monk who learned this knot
had tied his own, a devil came
& loosened it.  Eventually
the monk, just as the devil hoped,
got pissed; he couldn’t pray at all.
That night his angel wakened him
& taught him how to interweave
double strands into a web
of 7 crosses. 

contd. here

Archaeoacoustics--sound in archaeology

Never heard of it before? Then here's an introduction to the topic from Steven Waller, making the case for Stonehenge that  "ancient Britons could have based the layout of the great monument, in part, on the way they perceived sound. He has been able to show how two flutes played in a field can produce an auditory illusion that mimics in space the position of the henge's pillars."


Steven Waller's paper is summarized here. He is an independent scholar who has been working on this topic since 1987 with other work here.  A more general overview of the topic is here.

Some reactions from the scientific community concur that the theory is interesting but they have questions about verification and testing. Nadia Drake in Science News, Friday Feb 17th, 2012 says that when Waller concludes:

“Measurements of acoustic shadows radiating out from Stonehenge are consistent with the hypothesis that interference patterns served as blueprints for the design.”

How do we get from this experiment to ascribing intention to the construction of the Neolithic enigma? I’d say that conclusion requires several leaps of unsubstantiated logic. Waller claims to find support for his theory in local myths speaking of “piper stones” and “invisible towers of air,” but I’m unconvinced. The scientific method is missing. Where’s the hypothesis testing? Where’s the control experiment? Admittedly, control experiments are hard to do in archaeology.  But there’s been no rigorous evaluation of the claim behind the purpose of Stonehenge’s construction, something that ought to be acknowledged rather than explained away by additional mythology.

In the meantime, Prof Chris Scarre who teaches at Durham University and who co-edited a book on archaeoacoustics in 2006 also lists it as an area in which he can supervise PhD students. So there are institutional academics who seem to take the discipline seriously. 

Where's the NRSV?

In this article from the Atlantic magazine by Wheaton Professor Alan Jacobs on translating the Bible into an ebook that works on any iphone, it isn't accidental that the first organization disseminating the Bible text is one that doesn't have the NRSV translation. Now I know that there is a whole swath of people who don't read the NRSV but do Atlantic readers know this? So let me mention that Accordance Bible software has the NRSV app and I have it on my iphone now and I've moved it to default display text.

Brick Presbyterian Church this Sunday

As part of a series at Brick Presbyterian Church, The Power of the Word, I'll be speaking on the implications of being created in God's Image this Sunday.

Current Series: The Power of the Word
	A three part series exploring three perspectives on how we receive the Gospel. January 29: Found in Translation Dr. Dale Irvin, New York Theological Seminary Dr. Irvin will lead a discussion focusing on the implications of the Gospel being a translated text for nearly all Christians. February 5: The Sacred and the Cinematic Prof. Joseph Kickasola,Baylor University Professor Kickasola will explore the many ways in which film has portrayed and conveyed the Gospel.  February 12: Created in God's Image Prof. Deirdre Good, General Theological Seminary Professor Good will lead a discussion of the considerations of our Lord Jesus Christ having been incarnate in a particular time, place, race and gender.

Lot's Wife by the Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska

Lot's Wife They say I looked back out of curiosity. But I could have had other reasons. I looked back mourning my silver bowl. Carelessly, while tying my sandal strap. So I wouldn't have to keep staring at the righteous nape of my husband Lot's neck. From the sudden conviction that if I dropped dead he wouldn't so much as hesitate. From the disobedience of the meek. Checking for pursuers. Struck by the silence, hoping God had changed his mind. Our two daughters were already vanishing over the hilltop. I felt age within me. Distance. The futility of wandering. Torpor. I looked back setting my bundle down. I looked back not knowing where to set my foot. Serpents appeared on my path, spiders, field mice, baby vultures. They were neither good nor evil now--every living thing was simply creeping or hopping along in the mass panic. I looked back in desolation. In shame because we had stolen away. Wanting to cry out, to go home. Or only when a sudden gust of wind unbound my hair and lifted up my robe. It seemed to me that they were watching from the walls of Sodom and bursting into thunderous laughter again and again. I looked back in anger. To savor their terrible fate. I looked back for all the reasons given above. I looked back involuntarily. It was only a rock that turned underfoot, growling at me. It was a sudden crack that stopped me in my tracks. A hamster on its hind paws tottered on the edge. It was then we both glanced back. No, no. I ran on, I crept, I flew upward until darkness fell from the heavens and with it scorching gravel and dead birds. I couldn't breathe and spun around and around. Anyone who saw me must have thought I was dancing. It's not inconceivable that my eyes were open. It's possible I fell facing the city. Wislawa Szymborska

Clergy Conference of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Pennsylvania

I'm one of two speakers at next week's Clergy Conference of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Pennsylvania from February 6-8th. Last fall I was there for a wonderful Deacon's Day with the Bishop  (see picture) on a day when the snow fell endlessly. It was a pleasure to meet Episcopal and Lutheran Deacons doing varied and fulfilling ministries. I look forward to meeting the staff and clergy of the Diocese and the Bishop again. 

Updating my c-v

Very few people need or care to update a curriculum vitae but in the course of recommending a colleague for promotion to full professor, mine was requested to support the recommendation. Although we actually have an annual review with the academic Dean each Spring (which includes a few pages summarizing our recent professional activities), my c-v seems not to have been updated in a while. What have I published recently?

Looking back over annual reviews and trails of emails, I recalled that I had been invited to submit an article on "Elaine Pagels" for a multi-volume encyclopedia: Women in Today's World (published by MacMillan) and that in 2010 I had received an email from the publishers saying that a draft of my article had been accepted and would be published. And then I heard no more. This kind of reference work is likely only to be bought by libraries. So I went online and found that indeed the work had been published in 2011 with 2016 pages. How on earth would I find the page numbers to reference my tiny article?

Well, some of the material seems to be online because a search for the encyclopedia together with the article on "Elaine Pagels" brought the happy news that the article is on pp.1062-1063. So that's one article correctly referenced!

I've also updated an article I wrote on women in noncanonical texts for the 20th Anniversary edition of A Women's Bible Commentary (Westminster John Knox) eds Carol Newsom and Sharon Ringe. The book will be republished in 2012. This was far harder than the original as so much more material on women in noncanonical NT texts has been published in the last 20 years in addition to explosions of material on gender imagery and issues. Strictly speaking, there isn't even a limitation of dates on noncanonical texts. See the problem?

In my updated c-v I also include blog posts I write for Episcopal Cafe. These posts represent a different kind of writing that isn't strictly academic but it reaches a far wider audience than anything academic I ever write. 

"Stuff Happens" (May 2007)

"Missing Saints and Psalms" (July 2007)

"Is It Morally Justifiable to Publish Mother Teresa's Private Letters?" (August 2007) 

"Why Do We Need To Discuss Hospitality?" (September 2007)

"Who's On Trial? The Gospel and the Archbishop"  (November 2007)

"Blood Isn't thicker than Water" (October 2007)

"What Has the Bible to Do With Sexuality?" (December 2007)

"Diversity of Pauline Traditions" (January 2008)

"Secret Mark" (February 2008)

"The Gospel of Truth" (March 2008)

"Female Prophets: A Lost Legacy?" (April 2008)

"Krister Stendahl" with Jane Redmont (May 2008)

"Mourning Diamond" (June 2008)

"Did Jesus Speak Greek?" (September 2008)

"Bill Maher's Religulous: An Exercise in Caricature" (October 2008)

"Our (Same-Sex) Marriage" (December 2008)

"Narnia: Christian Triumphalism or Imaginative Pluralism?" (January 2009)

"Racism, Injustice and Reparations" (February 2009) reposted in Ekklesia:

http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/8956

"Singing Judith's Song" (March 2009)

"Why Do You Seek the Living Among the Dead?" (April 2009)

"On Being Excluded" (May 2009)

"Fathers and Daughters" (August 2009)

"The Contribution of the Lone Translator" (October 2009)

"Go Forth From this World" (January 2010)

“To see and respect” (March 2010)

“A Trip that Changed my Life” (May 2010)

“White Light Festival” (December 2010) reposted in Religion at the Margins:

http://religionatthemargins.com/2010/12/the-white-light-festival/

“Buildings and Meanings” (February 2011)

“Elizabeth Johnson: Reliable Guide” (April 2011)

“Created in God’s Image” (July 2011)

“The art of waiting” (August 2011)

“Jesus & Abba” (October 2011)

“Is the Kingdom of Heaven a Ponzi Scheme?” (November 2011)

Long story short: the c-v is taking longer to update than I anticipated...

Meditations on Matthew 19

Meditations on Matthew 19-21 coming up on a website for the Center for Biblical Studies of St Thomas' Church, Whitemarsh in Philadelphia. Here's the first on Matthew 19. The Daily Mediations are part of an ambitious plan of the rector and the parish via. the resources for the Center to encourage people to read the whole Bible in small bits. Kudos to St Thomas' Church Whitemarsh! Different people are writing meditations for each day over the course of the next few months.

So do you have Bibles in the pews of your parish? What about discussions of the passages of scripture in the lectionary each week? What about discussions of the context of each of these passages so that we don't loose site of the wood for the trees?

Speaking Events Spring 2012

Starting this Sunday for 2 weeks I am at St James the Less Scarsdale speaking on Jesus the Meek King. January 22, Feb 2, 9, 16 I'll be giving one of four courses at the Cathedral of St John the Divine (see details below). Then I go to the Episcopal Diocese of Central PA Clergy Conference in February 2012 where I am one of two speakers. I'll be speaking on households in the New Testament. On Feb 12th I am at Brick Presbyterian Church in NYC speaking on humanity made in God's image. And on March 4th I am at St Luke's Darien CT speaking on the many faces of Jesus in a Lenten series.

More details about Lenten speaking events soon...

Exploring Genesis
Rabbi Leonard A. Schoolman
Four Tuesdays: January 24, 31, February 7, 14 7:00-8:30 p.m.
The biblical Book of Genesis has become the battleground for conservative and liberal thinkers. Its verses are widely used as proof texts for many arguments. Rabbi Schoolman will guide us in a consideration of the origins of the Book, and will help us to discern the original meanings and the various interpretations of the text itself. Among the topics will be Creation, Adam and Eve, Sodom and Gomorrah, the Binding of Isaac, and the Joseph cycle. Please bring a copy of the Bible.


Biblical Women of Worth
Dr. Phyllis Trible
Four Tuesdays: January 24, 31, February 7, 14 7:00- 8:30 p.m.
Unlike the book of Proverbs 31:10, this course offers different answers to the question, "A woman of worth, who can find?" Professor Trible will explore the phrase "woman of worth" through characters ranging from Eve and Miriam through Jezebel and Huldah to the Syro-Phoenician woman.

Introduction to the Gospels
Professor Deirdre Good
Four Thursdays: January 26, February 2, 9, 16 7:00-8:30 p.m.
The “good news” of the New Testament books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John is the telling of the life of Jesus. Dr. Good will help us to understand the origins of the Gospels, which came first and why, as well as the audiences for which the Gospels were written. These basic documents of Christianity form the basis for an understanding of the art and music of western civilization. Their message is crucial for the education of a well-rounded individual. Please bring a copy of the New Testament.


Introduction to Islam
Dr. Hussein Rashid
Three Thursdays: January 26, February 9, 16 7:00-9:00 p.m.
More than one million Muslims live in the greater New York area. How much do we know of their beliefs and practices? Dr. Rashid will guide us through a basic understanding of Islam as it is practiced in America and abroad. We will look at the Qur’an, Islam’s holy scriptures, and explore its relationship to the Bible of Jews and Christians. He will also help us to understand the many varieties of Islam, including Sunni, Shi’ia and Sufism. There will be ample opportunity for questions and answers, and for discussion.