Reading the Bible/Studying the Scriptures in the Episcopal Church

I've been working on an article for the Living Pulpit on reading the Bible in the Episcopal Church and when it's published, I'll link to it. It's due out later this fall with all the other presentations at the June 18th conference on Reading Scripture in various denominations held at the ABS in NYC. It has been heartening to hear and see so much Spirit inspired activity around reading the Bible in Episcopal Churches up and down the country. I've talked to people in Illinois, South Carolina, Maryland, and the North East. In the meantime, let me encourage people and priests in congregations to consider reading the Bible! There are plenty of resources out there: the Bible Challenge from St Thomas Whitemarsh (they also have a FB page), for example. Here's one from the national church.

The first thing to do is to create a welcoming atmosphere--one that avoids notions of guilt or shame or "shoulds" that people harbor for not having read the Bible at all or enough. "No one's ever invited me to read the Bible before," one parishioner said. Invite people into a wonderful joyous exploration that will be theirs for the rest of their lives.

Plans for a yearly or monthly or weekly Bible Study need to cater for those who can't do all the readings. There might be different tiers of study including maximal and minimal participation or advice that says, "Don't try to catch up if you are behind! Start each week afresh."

Any plan for reading could include a password-protected webspace or discussion board where people can post contributions, comments and discussion topics. This includes participants from the outset and values their contributions.

Making provision for weekly bible reading discussion groups in a parish context are essential even if participation varies. Some parishes had men's breakfast bible studies, choir bible studies, young parents/mothers bible studies, teen bible studies and young adult bible studies. All these could be in addition to the adult education slot on Sunday.

All Bible Study is best undertaken in prayer.

 “BLESSED Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.”

Feast of Mary Magdalen(e)--July 22nd

A Miriamic Procession

The Miriamic procession is both auditory and visual. From it comes a map of both sight and sound. The sound map starts with the glorious song of Miriam. She sings the ancient "Song of the Sea" in Exodus 15 celebrating Israel's deliverance with music and dance. Her performance on behalf of the nation reflects a female musical tradition identified and described Israelite tradition. This Miriamic strand in the story of ancient Israel not only signifies a special place for women as those who first recognize and give voice to God's salvific deeds but also contributes to a wider understanding of the possibilities for women in Israelite society.

The Miriamic procession continues into the New Testament and beyond--from the birth stories through the ministry of Jesus and on to the empty tomb and resurrection accounts. Echoes of Miriam's song resonate in the Magnificat, the lament psalms of Pistis Sophia, the Manichaean psalms, Peter Abelard's Easter sermon, and medieval and baroque music of the east and west. Refracted images of Miriam's vision appear in the gospel of Mary Magdalen and in Christian art.

Mary Magdalen is first to discover the empty tomb and the first to proclaim the resurrection. John's gospel reports her subsequent meeting with and proclamation of the resurrected Lord to the apostles. In their meeting, each calls the other's name. This exchange of names becomes an interchange of sight and sound. We see them side by side. Noli me tangere is yet another classification of their visible and audible dialogue in Christian art. 

As already noted, the writer of Luke's gospel forges aural and literary connections between Miriam and Mary, the mother of Jesus. Luke's gospel and the extracanonical birth story of Jesus known as the Protevangelium of James exploit and subvert ancient images of virginity either to advance or suppress the Miriamic tradition.

The Miriamic Vision

Both the fourth gospel and Mary of the Gospel of Mary show Mary as prophet and originator of mission. Attention to Mary's vision as emblematic of early Christian prophecy helps to eradicate the overly rationalized division between resurrection and ascension proposed by Luke. In conjunction with a prophetic and charismatic Jesus movement, the experience of Mary Magdalen is continuous with the vision of John the seer in Revelation and the new prophets all of whom saw the risen Lord.

Vision however is not stasis. Quite the reverse. Christian iconography outlined by art historians and depictions of Mary in Christian Art identify an anonymous group of women processing to the tomb in early third-century frescoes. In the fifth-century a discrete Mary Magdalene emerges within the context of "women at the tomb." By the seventh century, she is singular witness and apostle in images that who she is and what she sees. Here, artistic evidence complements textual arguments for original anonymity and composite identity. In a sight map, Titian's Noli Me Tangere may result from the Chairete of Byzantine iconography.

The Miriamic Tradition

There were some in the early church who envisaged Mary of Nazareth as a teacher of secret wisdom who enlightened the apostles. Numerous early Christian apocrypha, including several so-called “gnostic” texts, include a character known as “Mary,” whose identity is usually otherwise unspecified. Generally, this “Mary” appears as an associate or, sometimes, as a rival, of the apostles, who is filled with knowledge of the “gnostic” mysteries. Although scholars have persistently identified this Mary with Mary the Magdalene, rather than Mary of Nazareth, this interpretive dogma is based on evidence that it at best inconclusive.  Many features of this character’s representation point also to Mary of Nazareth. The traditions of the Virgin Mary’s Dormition (her “death”) in particular present Mary of Nazareth in a light that is strongly reminiscent of the gnostic Mary figure. Thus the gnostic Mary, it turns out, is best understood as a composite figure, drawing on the identities of both the Magdalene and the Virgin (among others), rather than being the representation of a single historical individual.

Subsequent Muslim exegetes of medieval Andalusia argued intensely for the priesthood of Mar, mother of Jesus and for women who received revelation through the angels or directly from God. Feminist analysis of the issues of Mary's prophethood not only betrays the androcentric readings projected onto the text by Muslim exegetes of the east but demonstrates the signs of Mary's prophet hood ('lamat nubuwwat Maryam) well established in the Qur'anic text. 

Limitations of podcasts (& online courses)

Prof Mark Edmundson, a professor of English at the U of Virginia has a provocative piece in the NY Times about the limitations of online education.

Particularly valuable to me is his discussion of good teachers and lecturers intuiting a class. They deploy something tantamount to artistry. They are superb at sensing the mood of a room. They have a sort of pedagogical sixth sense. They feel it when the class is engaged and when it slips off. And they do something about it. Their every joke is a sounding. It’s a way of discerning who is out there on a given day.

I also enjoyed the point about the unique classroom experience that cannot be replicated and the anonymity of online education. 

Not long ago I watched a pre-filmed online course from Yale about the New Testament. It was a very good course. The instructor was hyper-intelligent, learned and splendidly articulate. But the course wasn’t great and could never have been. There were Yale students on hand for the filming, but the class seemed addressed to no one in particular. It had an anonymous quality. In fact there was nothing you could get from that course that you couldn’t get from a good book on the subject.

One aspect of this is considering the online participants. In the podcast I just posted, I tried to speak directly to and engage the viewers by looking directly at the camera and speaking without notes. The focus is not a filmed discussion elsewhere with a class but speaking to the viewer. 

New podcast on Jesus' Family Values (2006)

The public house and rituals of patronage in Pompei

"The domus or 'private house'... was not 'private' in the sense that we usually mean. For us, 'home' is firmly separated from the world of business or politics ... [In ancient Rome] the domus is treated as part of the public image of its owner, and it provides the backdrop against which he conducts at least some of his public

life. ...

"The Roman elite, those holding public and political office, needed grand 'common' areas of a house.  Those lower down the social spectrum could do without a grand vestibule, atrium, or tablinum (the name given to a relatively large room)...

"The relations between men of the elite and their various dependants [have been re-imagined by] archaeologists [regarding] how one characteristic [of] Roman social ritual might have taken place in [Pompeii]. That ritual is the early morning salutatio,at which 'clients' of all sorts would call on their rich patrons, to receive favours

or cash in return for their votes, or for providing more symbolic services (escort duty, or simply applause) to enhance the patron's prestige. From Rome itself, we have plenty of complaints about this from the client's point of view in the poetry of Juvenal and Martial, who -- as relatively well-heeled dependants -- predictably

enough made the most noise about the indignities they had to suffer in return for a modest handout. 'You promise me three denarii [Roman currency],' moans Martial at one point, 'and tell me to be on duty in your atria, dressed up in my toga. Then I'm supposed to stick by your side, walk in front of your chair, while you

go visiting ten widows, plus or minus ... '

"In Pompeii, it is easy to imagine how such a social ritual might have taken place within the domus: the clients lined up outside on ... stone benches, then -- when the house doors were opened first thing in the morning -- they made their way through the narrow entrance passage, into the atrium, to wait their turn to speak to their

patron proudly sitting in his tablinum [large reception room for the house master], dispensing favours, or not, as the mood took him.

"In all likelihood, that image is rather too grand and formal for what would actually have happened in Pompeii. Even if in Rome itself the ritual of morning salutatio was as regular and structured as the poets imply ... it could not possibly have been so in a small town. ...

" We can all imagine what it must have been like waiting to put one's case to some bigwig who could choose whether to help you or not (with a job for your son, a loan, or a blind eye to the unpaid rent). There must have been anxieties on the other side too. For, in this world of status and show, patrons needed clients almost as

much as clients needed patrons. Imagine the anxiety and humiliation on the other side, for a patron installed in his tablinum waiting for clients -- and not a single one shows up. '

Nonetheless, these rituals of power, dependence and patronage do help to reveal the logic of the Roman house and its arrangements. These were houses meant for show-- and that idea trickled down, albeit in diluted form, even to those properties which consisted of just a few rooms around an atrium.

Author: Mary Beard

Title: The Fires of Vesuvius: Pompeii Lost and Found

Publisher: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press

Date: Copyright Mary Beard 2008

Pages:100 - 103

The Fires of Vesuvius: Pompeii Lost and Found

by Mary Beard by Belknap Press of Harvard University Press

Why Same-Sex Marriage benefits all

1stC BCE Roman & Celtic coins found in Jersey

BBC News reports the find on Jersey of a hoard of Roman and Celtic coins dating to the 1st C BCE. Reg Mead and Richard Miles had apparently been looking for the coins for over 30 years with metal detectors and other equipment. The Guardian reports that

The coins would have been buried at a time when Caesar was slicing his way through Gaul, and hiding treasure would have seemed a prudent move.

Olga Finch, curator of archaeology at the Jersey Museum, called it a find of international importance.

"The fact that it has been excavated archaeologically is also rare and will greatly enhance the level of information we can glean about the people who buried it. It is an amazing contribution to the study of Celtic coins. We already have a number of very important Iron Age coin hoards found in the Island, but this new addition will make Jersey a magnet for Celtic coin researchers."

Achilles & Patroclus

Madeline Miller won this year's Orange Prize for her book "The Song of Achilles" which I have just finished reading. I know there are criticisms of it, especially that by Daniel Mendelsohn in the NY Times but I found it engaging and entertaining. I recommend it to everyone. Joanna Trollope, chair of the judges for the prize said, ""This is a more than worthy winner - original, passionate, inventive and uplifting. Homer would be proud of her."

Much has been said by the author of finding the right way to express the voice of Patroclus in a lyrical not an epic mode. I think the voice succeeds.



The Iliad, from which the story of Achilles derives, can be dated to 750BCE with elements in it five hundred years older. Since the distinction between myth and history was made only in the 5th C BCE with writers like Herodotus and Thucydides, many people thought that the mythos that made up the Iliad had taken place.

Rewriting stories like that of the Iliad from the Classical World isn't new but when it's done so well that the reader wants to re-read the original, then surely, the re-write has been done well. Madeline Miller talks about giving Patroclus a voice in her writing:

In the past years, I have read some truly stunning ones, including Zachary Mason’s The Lost Books of the Odyssey, Margaret Atwood’s Penelopiad and David Malouf’s Ransom. Not one of these authors seeks to supplant Homer, but to engage and illuminate him. They do what adaptation does at its very best: stand brilliantly on its own, while inspiring a fresh look at the original. And there is absolutely nothing lazy about any of it – all those works show how the authors steeped themselves in the source material, and how thoughtfully they approached it. Besides, if I had been thinking straight from the beginning, I would have realised that some of my favourite ancient authors are themselves adapters – Virgil’s Aeneid is based on the Iliad and Odyssey, and Ovid’s Metamorphoses draws on everyone from Homer to Virgil himself.

Nelson Jones writes for the New Statesman on the present shape of the CofE in Britain's secular society. After some judiciously worded statements about the appeal of the CofE for weddings and funerals and positioning in a multi-faith society, the article concludes:

There are dangers for the Church in embracing an enhanced multi-faith role in a society in which strong religious commitment is waning.  By speaking out on behalf of faith, forming alliances with other churches and religious groups, it risks losing that comforting and liberal image that has, until now, made it a source of national unity rather than division.  It risks losing that vague connection with the people without which it ceases to be in any proper sense a national church and becoming once more a bastion of religious conservatism and even prejudice.  

By coming out so strongly against same-sex marriage, for example, the Church leadership has made itself look to many people out of touch and divisive, including to many of its natural supporters, including to many of its practising members and even clergy.  It's hard to believe that the C of E has much of a future as the Daily Mail at prayer. 




(Update: even the conservative Church Times has some cautionary words about the statements against same-sex marriage attributed to the Anglican Church.)

A Season for Renewal: Engaging the Bible in Mainline Churches

At the ABS on June 18th: A Season for Renewal: Engaging the Bible in Mainline Churches

Date: June 18, 2012

Registration/Lunch: 12-1pm (unfortunately not available)

Conference: 1 - 5:30pm

Location: 

American Bible Society Auditorium

1865 Broadway, New York, NY

Cost of Event: Free (Suggested Donation: $20)

Sponsored by:

New York Theological Seminary

475 Riverside Drive Suite 500, New York, NY

In Partnership with: 

The Nida Institute of American Bible Society

This conference is underwritten by the generous support of:

The Hostetter-Habib Program Fund at NYTS 

For more information, please contact:

Dr. Jin H. Han

Professor of Biblical Studies

Phone: 1.212.870.1220

email: bibleconference@nyts.edu

I'll be one of 4 lecturers! 

Tractarian Church of Llangasty-Talyllyn near Brecon in Powys, Wales

1847 stained glass window of Perpetua before her martyrdom from the Church of Llangasty-Talyllyn near Brecon, Powys. Perpetua, you will recall, has just given birth and so hands the child over (here: to tonsured ecclesiastics) before her martyrdom.

This is the only church in the world dedicated to St. Gastyn who was tutor to St Cynog whom he also baptized 150 years before Augustine came to Canterbury. In the mid-19th C the church was rebuilt by Robert Raikes in accordance with Tractarian principles and employing architect John Loughborough Pearson later famous for Gothic revival style.