Pseudonymous Hieronymus

Post-Reformation Digital Library (PRDL) - New Updated Web Site

2011-11-01T09:04:00.005-04:00

The Post-Reformation Digital Library (PRDL) is a select database of digital books relating to the development of theology and philosophy during the Reformation and Post-Reformation/Early Modern Era (late 15th-18th c.). Late medieval and patristic works printed and referenced in the early modern era are also included. Hosted by the H. Henry Meeter Center for Calvin Studies of Calvin College and Calvin Theological Seminary.

On the second anniversary of its public launch, the Post-Reformation Digital Library (PRDL) has become available in an upgraded form with its own domain (www.prdl.org). This new version of the library is powered by a database format, which allows detailed search queries and integrates findings of source material from a wide variety of digital libraries and digitization projects. After more than a year in development, the new website now covers more than double the number of authors and works as its previous iteration.

Check out our link: www.prdl.org

This new site represents a major upgrade from the previous digital bibliography, and we could not have expanded the coverage to various traditions without your help. Thank you. You can continue to help by circulating this link to your friends, colleagues, and students, as well as by providing us feedback on improving PRDL.

For more details on the launch, you can see the press release announcing the new database-driven site.

http://www.prdl.org/news.php?id=5

Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Online

2011-01-25T16:59:00.007-05:00

Hekman Library has a print copy of the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy (1998, 10 vols.) , but we're thinking of purchasing the online edition.

To try it out, use this link: http://www.rep.routledge.com from anywhere on Calvin's campus. If you want to try it out from home, send me a note and I'll send you the username and password for our trial ( lschempe@calvin.edu ). We have the trial through February 25, 2011

Here's a review of the encyclopedia by Robert Kirk from Mind: A Quarterly Review of Philosophy, vol. 111, no. 442, pp. 386-388, April 2002.

And, of course, let us know what you think - is this something you would use, or recommend for student use? How does it compare with the free online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy?

Electronic Enlightenment Online

2011-01-14T10:39:00.008-05:00

Hekman Library currently has a trial subscription to Electronic Enlightenment, an online archive of correspondence from the early modern period. This can be accessed from Calvin's campus only.

Here's a description:
With 58,555 letters and documents and 7,113 correspondents as of October 2010, EE is the most wide-ranging online collection of edited correspondence of the early modern period, linking people across Europe, the Americas and Asia from the early 17th to the mid-19th century.

Drawn from the best available critical editions, EE is not simply an “electronic bookshelf” of isolated texts but a network of interconnected documents, allowing you to see the complex web of personal relationships in the early modern period and the making of the modern world. The EE team has created an ongoing programme of expanding, linking and original scholarly research to give you thousands of newly composed biographical notes; tens of thousands of corrections of minor errors;scores of thousands of expansions of abbreviations and sigles; hundreds of thousands of internal links and cross-references.

Oxford Islamic Studies Online

2011-01-12T16:28:00.008-05:00

We currently have a trial to Oxford Islamic Studies Online, which contains over 6000 entries from a variety of Oxford publications, including the online edition of the Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World, ed. John Esposito (Oxford University Press, 2009). Let me know what you think.
If you're on Calvin's campus, you can access it here .

One online work (contained in the Oxford Islamic Studies Online database) which we have already purchased is the Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture, ed. Jonathan M. Bloom and Sheila S. Blair (Oxford University Press, 2009). [Here's a link to this encyclopedia in the Hekman Library catalog, which will proxy you in from off-campus.]

Oxford Bibliographies Online

2010-08-26T16:16:00.003-04:00

Hekman Library has a trial to Oxford Bibliographies Online, a well-designed database of annotated bibliographies on a variety of different subjects. Its allows students and other researchers who are beginning research to survey the state of scholarship on a given topic, with brief assessments of important books, articles, and other information resources. There are links to resources through WorldCat and the library's link resolver, allowing researchers to quickly and easily find materials.

The trial bibliographies we have are on Atlantic History, Classics,Criminology, Islamic Studies, Philosophy, Renaissance and Reformation History, and Social Work. Each bibliography has sections on various topics within the discipline; e.g., There's a bibliography on Erasmus within the "Renaissance and Reformation" bibliography. (Note that the "Hekman Library" link resolver is not set up correctly for the trial; this can be corrected if we purchase these; Use the WorldCat link for each work to see if Hekman Library has it .)

The following link will work from anywhere on Calvin's Campus:
http://www.oxfordbibliographiesonline.com

We'll have this trial until mid-September, so please send me a note if you think these would be a good addition to the library's electronic holdings.

ATLA Historical Monographs Collection Trial

2010-03-25T14:25:00.002-04:00

EBSCO Publishing/ ATLA Historical Monographs Collection trial information

We (Hekman Library) have a trial (until June 30, 2010) for a digitized version of ATLA Historical Monographs Collection, which contains thousands of monographs, mostly from 1850 until 1923. WE have many of these books in the library already. About 10-15 years ago we purchased a substantial part of this collection in microfiche. I invite you to take a look - the trial is available for those connected through the Calvin College and Seminary IP range. Among the advantages of this database is that the text of each work is fully searchable.

American Theological Library Association (ATLA) Historical Monographs Collection: Series 1:
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?authtype=ip,uid&profile=ehost&defaultdb=h7h

American Theological Library Association (ATLA) Historical Monographs Collection: Series 2:
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?authtype=ip,uid&profile=ehost&defaultdb=h8

ATLA Historical Monographs Collection:

The American Theological Library Association (ATLA) Historical Monograph Collection consists of two Series that contain more than 29,000 titles focused on religion and theology. In its entirety, the collection is estimated to contain over 7.5 million pages, representing a core collection for colleges and universities with programs in history, theology, religion, sociology, political science and other disciplines. This collection features over two dozen foreign languages from books published all over the world.

Two series will be released. The segmentation is outlined below.

Series 1 consists of titles from the 13th Century through the 1893 World Parliament of Religions with the majority of titles from the 19th century.

Series 2 consists of titles published from 1894 through 1923.

The bulk of the titles date from 1850 through 1923, a time of great doctrinal, social and organization turmoil and upheaval in American culture. This important collection is a vital resource for scholars seeking to understand religious thought and practice in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Link to Historical Archives Flyer, Title List, and Additional Information: http://www.ebscohost.com/thisTopic.php?marketID=1&topicID=1152

R. Crumb on Genesis

2010-02-03T17:59:00.011-05:00

The dust jacket of R. Crumb's newest work, an illustrated version of 'The Book of Genesis,' contains this warning: 'ADULT SUPERVISION RECOMMENDED FOR MINORS.' Crumb says that he wanted to prevent people from thinking, Oh, a Bible comic book; I'll give it to my kid!"

People my age remember R. Crumb from the late 60s and early 70s as part of the underground comix movement, with one of his most memorable drawings the "Keep on Truckin'" comic, sometimes criticized for images that were sexist and racist.

Is Crumb's illustrated Genesis simply a perverse anti-religious comic, exploiting the admittedly numerous R-rated scenes in the book of Genesis (think about it - Sarai and Pharaoh, Noah, Lot's daughters, Joseph and Potiphar's wife, Dinah and Shechem, Tamar as a roadside prostitute, etc.)? It looks like much more than that - a serious attempt by a talented graphic artist to make sense of the Genesis narrative. In doing so, Crumb inevitably adds an interpretive layer in his drawings and his heavy reliance on Robert Alter's translation of Genesis. Gary A. Anderson writes about this in in a fine recent review ( "The Bible, Rated R.," First Things, Feb. 2010, 13-15).

In a famous essay from his book Mimesis, Erich Auerbach described the Genesis narrative as "fraught with background" and filled with omissions and mystery in its representation of the reality behind the story. When you retell the story in a graphic novel format, you're forced to fill in a lot of that background - and Crumb does. Take a look at how Crumb portrays the famous "Sacrifice of Isaac" story of Genesis 22, or the story of Dinah in Genesis 34. Crumb's brief commentary at the end of the book reveals that he has adopted a rather quirky interpretation of the Genesis narratives. Behind the portrayal of the strong women of Genesis we can see remnants of the replacement of a matriarchal society by patriarchal dominance. (He gets this from the work of Savina J. Teubal, Sarah the Priestess [Swallow Press, 1984]).

But take a look for yourself. You'll find the book in Hekman Library in the Graphic Novel section, at BS1233 .A785 2009.

Ipad vs. the Rosetta Stone

2010-01-30T15:40:00.003-05:00

Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament

2009-06-10T16:52:00.010-04:00

Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament.
Ed. G. K. Beale and D. A. Carson. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007. Pp. xxvii + 1239.
Hekman Library ThRef 511.3 .C653 2007

In one volume Beale and Carson and sixteen other New Testament scholars have produced a unique reference tool that will be helpful for pastors, theological students, and biblical scholars. Each contributor (typically one per gospel or epistle) focuses his attention on those places where the NT writer actually cites or alludes to the OT. In their introduction, Beale and Carson outline six questions each contributor was asked to bear in mind:

What is the NT context of the citation or allusion?
What is the OT context from which the citation or allusion is drawn?
How is the OT source handled in the literature of Second Temple Judaism?
What textual factors come into play in this use of the OT (e.g., MT, LXX, Targum, etc.)?
How is the NT writer using or appealing to the OT?
To what theological use does the NT writer put this OT allusion or citation?

A good number of the contributors use these six questions as an outline in treating clear OT allusions or citations, with more generic discussions of less obvious allusions which do not lend themselves well to such a prescribed format. Each contribution has its own bibliography, with convenient author-date references within the text for those who wish to pursue matters more deeply.

This work succeeds in its goal of being a good comprehensive survey of specific instances of the use of the OT in the NT. While the contributors are informed by contemporary debates over the nature of the exegetical methods used by the NT writers and developments in the field of typology, the book does not attempt to address these issues comprehensively. For good, quick summaries of such issues, one might consult the relevant articles and bibliography in the recently published Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of the Bible, ed. Kevin J. VanHoozer (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2005) :

“Relationship between the Testaments,” by R. T. France, pp. 666-672
“Intertextuality,” by Paul E. Koptak, pp. 332-334
“Jewish Exegesis,” by Craig A. Evans, pp. 380-384
“Typology,” by Daniel Treier, pp. 823-827

Religion Past and Present = RGG4 (1)

2009-03-02T14:40:00.016-05:00

Probably the preeminent theological dictionary published in the twentieth century is the German-language Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart. From 1908-2007 it went through four editions: RGG1 (1908-1913), RGG2 (1927-1932), RGG3 (1957-1962), and now the newly completed 4th edition, Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart (1998-2005).
This 4th edition is now being published in English translation by Brill as Religion Past and Present: Encyclopedia of Theology and Religion, ed. Hans Dieter Betz (2007-). At Hekman Library we've received the first five volumes (A-Haz) so far, with seven more to come. These four editions, taken together, contain a chronicle of changes in theological thought over the course of the past century.

RGG1 was initially conceived in 1900 as a cross-disciplinary work which would incorporate the research of the new "history of religions school" and other liberal theological movements, as well as speak to the current situation of the church (hence the "gegenwart" (present) in its title. This "present" orientation was to be a corrective to the more academically oriented Realenzyclopaedie fuer protestantische Theologie und Kirche (3rd ed., 1896-1913), which formed the basis for the New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge (1908-1912) [full-text online].

RGG2 (1927-1932) was a completely new work, covering a cross-section of German theological thought and reflecting the rise of neo-orthodoxy. Selected articles from it have been translated and published in Jaroslav Pelikan, Twentieth-Century Theology in the Making (3 vols., 1969-71).

RGG3 (1957-1962) had a more international character, with some contributors from throughout the world, but retained its fundamentally German Protestant orientation and its many articles of interest to German readers. The "present" focus continued (with articles on the ecumenical movement, the New Deal), and the Fraktur script of the first two editions was replaced by roman type.

RGG4 is a fundamentally new work. One notes that its title is now Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, dropping the definite article "Die", perhaps indicating a desire to conceive "religion" more generically, with more emphasis on world religions. In my next post I'll look at RGG4 and its English translation more closely.

For a good review of the history of RGG in its various editions, see John Fitzgerald, et al., "Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart: The Past and Present of a German Theological Dictionary," Religious Studies Review 27.4 (Oct 2001):319-329 [ DOI: 10.1111/j.1748-0922.2001.tb00374.x ]

Flannery O'Connor - New Biography

2009-02-23T10:13:00.006-05:00

I've not read Brad Gooch's new book Flannery: A Life of Flannery O'Connor (Little, Brown & Co., 2009), but the review by Janet Maslin in the NYTimes today has a great quote from some correspondence between F.O. and her friend Betty Hester: " I come from a family where the only emotion respectable to show is irritation. In some this tendency produces hives, in others literature, in me both."
Gooch's biography supplements the last O'Connor biography, published in 2002 by Jean W. Cash, Flannery O'Connor: A Life (University of Tennessee, 2002), and makes use of a significant amount of hitherto unpublished correspondence. For excerpts from the O'Connor-Hester letters (in the Emory University Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library), see the 2008 article by Christine McCulloch, "Glimpsing Andalus ia in the O'Connor-Hester Letters" in the online journal Southern Spaces . Here's a sample:

Gabriel's Revelation

2008-07-06T21:44:00.006-04:00

Today's New York Times contains an article by Ethan Bronner, Ancient Tablet Ignites Debate on Messiah and Resurrection :

"A three-foot-tall tablet with 87 lines of Hebrew that scholars believe dates from the decades just before the birth of Jesus is causing a quiet stir in biblical and archaeological circles, especially because it may speak of a messiah who will rise from the dead after three days."

According to a translation of the tablet by Israel Knohl, the text relates a vision of the archangel Gabriel who speaks of the resurrection of a messiah after three days, a motif previously not attested prior to Jesus.
See Knohl's article: Israel Knohl, "'By Three Days, Live': Messiahs, Resurrection, and Ascent to Heaven in Hazon Gabriel," Journal of Religion 88, no. 2 (April 2008):147-158.

Here's a summary of some of the discussion and links to articles, posted by Jim Lauer:

Hershel Shanks noted that the first English publication of the tablet appeared in an article “A New Dead Sea Scroll in Stone?” by Dr. Ada Yardeni in the January/February 2008 BAR. The Hebrew and English texts of the tablet are linked at the BAS website at http://bib-arch.org/news/dss-in-stone-news.asp .

In addition, as also circulated on Dr. Jack Sasson’s Agade list, in that article, Dr. Yardeni described the 3-foot-by 1-foot stone inscribed with a lengthy text that she would refer to as a Dead Sea Scroll had it been written on leather. A photo of the stone appears in the issue; for the transcription of the Hebrew text go to
< http://bib-arch.org/news/dssinstone_hebrew.doc >; for an English translation, go to < http://bib-arch.org/news/dssinstone_english.doc >.
Yitzhak Sapir noted that an April 4, 2007 Nfc Hebrew-language article about the Cathedra article mentioned by the Times (in which Ada Yardeni and Binyamin Elitzur analyzed the tablet), could be read at http://www.nfc.co.il/Archive/001-D-127652-00.html?tag=11-28-43 (or http://www.nfc.co.il/Archive/001-D-127652-00.html ). He also noted that through links in the Nfc article a PDF of the Yardeni/Elitzur Cathedra Hebrew article (no. 123, Nisan 5767, pp. 155-166) could be read at http://www.nfc.co.il/uploadFiles/138240993022919.pdf and a drawing and a Hebrew transcription of the tablet could be viewed at http://www.nfc.co.il/uploadFiles/848324000835419.pdf . See

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ANE-2/message/8651 and
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/biblical-studies/message/18003

As some may remember, I circulated an April 20, 2007 Ha’aretz article by Prof. Israel Knohl (”In three days, you shall live”) in which he discussed the tablet and his book and his theory, mentioned in the Times article. The article may be read at

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=850657 [English]
http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=850111 [Hebrew]

Henry Chadwick - Historian of Early Christianity

2008-07-02T09:01:00.004-04:00

Henry Chadwick, a British historian of early Christianity died last month on June 17. See his obituary in the New York Times. The church was (and continues to be) well-served by his work. The quotation attributed to him in the Times obituary is worth noting:
“Nothing is sadder than someone who has lost his memory, and the church which has lost its memory is in the same state of senility.”

WorldCat Collection Analysis, John Calvin, and ATLA

2008-07-01T13:46:00.004-04:00

I'm back from a few days in Ottawa at the ATLA (American Theological Library Association) Annual Meeting. Ottawa is a great city, with good public transportation and a tremendous network of bike paths along rivers and canals and throughout the city. I rented a bike and managed to ride about 80 miles during the four days I was there.

This has little to do with theological reference, but my presentation (with Terry Robertson from Andrews University) was an introduction to and analysis of WorldCat Collection Analysis, a tool designed to help librarians evaluate library collections. I'm posting a link to my PowerPoint (creatively entitled WorldCat Collection Analysis) for the benefit of those who attended the session and may have dozed off during the presentation.

While we're distributing our PowerPoint Presentations, a couple of years ago my colleague Paul Fields and I gave a presentation at the same conference with the engaging title: Bibliographic Resources for the Study of John Calvin. More interesting presentation, I thought, but not nearly as well-attended as the WorldCat Collection Analysis session this year.

2008-06-30T12:01:00.001-04:00

Researching Christian Reformed Church History

The year 2007 was the sesquicentennial (150th anniversary) of the beginnings of the Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRC), the institution that founded and supports Calvin College and Calvin Theological Seminary. The denomination chose "Grace through Every Generation" as the theme for celebrating this anniversary. A number of books have been published recently about the history of the CRC; here's a sampling of them:

Grace through Every Generation: The Continuing Story of the Christian Reformed Church, by Scott Hoezee Grand Rapids: Faith Alive, 2006. BX6819 .N7 H64 2006 Download the 1st chapter of this book.
Henry J. Kuiper: Shaping the Christian Reformed Church, 1907-1962, by James A. De Jong (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007) BX6843 .K85 2007
Son of Secession: Douwe J. Vander Werp, by Janet Sjaarda Sheeres (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006) BX6843 .V36 S54 2006

Our research guide to the History of the Christian Reformed Church provides an introduction to handbooks, guides, indexes, and bibliography for the researcher, as well as links to the Heritage Hall archives, digital resources, and useful databases, such as the Christian Reformed Church Periodical Index and the Christian Reformed Ministers Database.

Oxford Scholarship Online and Cambridge Companions

2008-05-07T14:37:00.008-04:00

At Hekman Library we're trying out electronic book resources:

Oxford Scholarship Online, which now contains about 2000 recent Oxford University Press titles. Check it out. I'm interested in your comments.

Do you find the format easily searchable?
Do you find the format easy to read? How well can you browse through a book?
What would it be like if Hekman Library purchased these books only as e-books?

Begin with the search screen below, or use the link above to find a listing of books in your area of interest. The site should recognize computers in Calvin's IP range for full-text access.

The Pope Is Coming

2008-04-12T08:26:00.007-04:00

On Tuesday the Pope Benedict XVI flies into Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland and begins a six-day visit to the U. S.
For wise commentary about potential media coverage of this papal visit read this March 29 column in the NY Times by Peter Steinfels. Steinfels comments on the the cliched breathlessness with which the media covers events like this, and the difficulty the press has in reporting on any serious religious leader. He identifies 5 important aspects of the Pope Benedict's trip that ought to be seriously considered:

The pope's appearance at the U.N.
His encounter with American Catholicism.
The perspective he will offer on Catholic education and identity at a meeting with Catholic educators.
His interactions with leaders of other religions and Christian denominations.
His skill in navigating the partison politics of the current U.S. presidential campaign.

Steinfels also notes the irony that some of the least examined spoken words of the pope in the coming week will be those most important to him: the words of the mass.

Google Reader, RSS, and You: Keeping Current with Journal Literature

2007-09-17T13:07:00.000-04:00

A few notes on the Hekman Library's Library Lunch Break of Tuesday, September 18. Presenters: Francene Lewis and Lugene Schemper.

To get a movie video, most people use one of two options: 1) Go find it and bring it home (a lá Blockbuster) or 2) Have it sent to you (a lá Netflix). To read an academic journal nowadays, you can use the Blockbuster method (find the journal electronically or go physically to the library and get it) or the Netflix method (have it sent to you, either physically by mail or electronically).

RSS is a means of using the Netflix method to have the contents of a journal delivered to your computer whenever a new issue is published.

Let's say you want to take a look at the contents of the International Journal of Systematic Theology every time it comes out. You would go to the web sit of IJST. You would right-click on the orange RSS link, and then left-click on the "Copy Shortcut" item. You would copy this link into the feed on a program called a news reader or aggregator , such as "Google Reader." Every time the IJST publishes a new issue, the new contents would become available on your reader. If the Hekman Library has an electronic subscription to the journal (and we have thousands of electronic subscriptions) the complete article would be available to you from on campus. It's possible to set up a reader so that you can monitor the contents of any number of journals. As an example, here's how I have my reader set up, (click image to enlarge):

Sound confusing? Here's a video that explains RSS and how to set up a reader for a blog or any web site, such as a journal:

Click this link

New Graphic Novel Collection

2007-08-31T08:51:00.000-04:00

Look for a new collection this fall at Hekman Library. On third floor we're adding a special collection of graphic novels . This isn't my project, and I'm not a great graphic novel fan, so I'm not sure what we'll be collecting. The Calvin English department will offer a course on graphic novels in the spring. Something that comes to mind in the biblical area is J. T. Waldman's Megillat Esther ( 4th floor BS1373 .W35 2005 ) (See the graphic below for a preview) . But stay tuned for further information. I couldn't resist posting the cover at left, but don't spend too much energy trying to find it; I'm fairly certain the book doesn't exist.
..

Finding the "Best" Biblical Commentary

2007-08-30T22:24:00.000-04:00

Recommending the “best” biblical commentaries from the hundreds available in a well-stocked library is complicated by their diversity of purposes, formats, theological or denominational orientations, and the level of your expertise in biblical interpretation. In our Religion and Theology Research Guide we've recommended a number of commentaries for each book of the Bible: Old Testament and New Testament . Calvin Seminary's Center for Excellence in Preaching also makes similar recommendations.

There are several excellent print resources for commentary recommendations:

Tremper Longman, Old Testament Commentary Survey, 4th ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007), 157 pp. ThRef Z7772 .A1 L64 2007

Longman describes himself as representing "an evangelical approach to the Old Testament." He gives a brief annotation for each commentary mentioned and categorizes each as suitable for the Layperson (L), Minister (M), or Scholar (S) (or some combination of these categories). He also rates each commentary on scale of one to five.

D. A. Carson, New Testament Commentary Survey, 6th ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2001), 160 pp. ThRef BS2341.2 .C33 2007

Carson's commentary recommendations take the form of brief bibliographic essays (4 to 8 pages); one for each New Testament book. He avoids a formal rating system, but his comments give one a good feel for the strengths and weaknesses of the commentary literature on each book.

John Glynn, Commentary and Reference Survey: A Comprehensive Guide to Biblical and Theological Resources, 10th ed. (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2007). ThRef Z7770 .G59 2007

Glynn's book is more ambitious than the above two, with a more comprehensive coverage of other biblical reference resources. For each book of the Bible, he classifies commentaries as either "Technical/Semitechnical" or "Exposition." He also assigns one of four different classifications to each commentary (See p. 17 for his explanation of these criteria):
"Evangelical"(E)
"Evangelical/Critical"(E/Cr)
"Conservative/Moderate"(C/M)
"Liberal/Critical"(L/C)
Additionally, he highlights (in bold type) those commentaries he highly recommends. For some (though not all) commentaries he gives a few descriptive phrases, but overall his evaluative comments are few. For each biblical book he also includes a list of "special studies" which cannot be classified as commentaries.

Nebo-Sarsekim : Outed from the Archives

2007-07-12T16:36:00.000-04:00

When you do archival research, you can find surprising things. The British Museum announced this week that an Austrian scholar who has been working through an archive of economic cuneiform texts has translated a 6th c. B.C. clay tablet which mentions a Babylonian officer, Nabu-sharrussu-ukin. It appears that this corresponds to the Nebo-Sarsekim who was present at the Fall of Jerusalem recorded in Jeremiah 39.
The tablet reads:

(Regarding) 1.5 minas (0.75 kg) of gold, the property of Nabu-sharrussu-ukin, the chief eunuch, which he sent via Arad-Banitu the eunuch to [the temple] Esangila: Arad-Banitu has delivered [it] to Esangila. In the presence of Bel-usat, son of Alpaya, the royal bodyguard, [and of] Nadin, son of Marduk-zer-ibni. Month XI, day 18, year 10 [of] Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.

The tablet was acquired by the British Museum in 1920, and came from the ancient city of Sippar, southwest of Baghdad. Sippar was excavated by the British Museum around 1880 by an Iraqi, Hormuzd Rassam. Whether this was a tablet originally found by Rassam in the 19th c. (he uncovered 70.000 clay tablets in Sippar), I'm not sure.

I do know that Rassam's story as the only prominent Middle Eastern archaeologist in the 19th century is fascinating. David Damrosch has told it well in a recent book The Buried Book: The Loss and Rediscovery of the Great Epic of Gilgamesh (Holt, 2006). It's a great book, not just about Rassam, but also about the decipherment of cuneiform in the early 19th c. and continuing to Saddam Hussein's fascination with Gilgamesh. For an excerpt of the book see the May 2007 issue of Smithsonian magazine, "Epic Hero," the story of George Smith, first translator of the Epic of Gilgamesh, which contains an early version of the flood story. It is reported that when Smith, sitting in the British Museum, realized what he was translating, he shed his clothes and began dancing around his desk in his underwear. (You see him on the right in a more modest moment.) Great summer reading, believe it or not!

Papal Pronouncements

2007-07-11T10:08:00.000-04:00

Twice in the past week major newspapers have carried stories about papal pronouncements: "Pope Eases Restrictions on Wider Use of Latin Mass" (NYTimes, Sunday, June 8); and "Pope, Restating 2000 Document, Cites 'Defects' of Other Faiths" (NYTimes, Wednesday, June 11). The newspaper articles have brief quotations from Pope Benedict XVI's authorization regarding the Latin mass and this recent restatement of Roman Catholic ecclesiology. But what if you want to dig deeper and see the actual documents?

Two well-organized web sites can help:

The official Vatican site is The Holy See (www.vatican.va) with sites in German, Italian, Spanish, French, English, and Portuguese). Here you will find links to recent documents in the news, including Benedict's apostolic letter "Summorum Pontificum" regarding the Latin mass, the letter to bishops on the occasion of the publication of "Summorum Pontificum," and the document "Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine of the Church ." The site is fully searchable, with good cross-referenced links. But there's a problem: There's no officially authorized English translation of the Latin text "Summorum Pontificum." For a translation, see below.
Papal Encyclicals Online is not an official Vatican web site, but provides convenient access to papal encyclicals and other Catholic Church documents from 1226 to the present. Papal encyclicals and other documents may be browsed by Pope or searched by keyword. Includes the full text of papal encyclicals, apostolic letters, apostolic constitutions, apostolic exhortations, and other Papal communications. This site contains an unofficial English translation of "Summorum Pontificum." On this site you can also find such things as the famous papal bull issued by Pope Leo X against Martin Luther in 1520, "Exsurge Domine" (pictured above right)

Behind all of this, of course, are the liturgical texts in question: The 1962 edition of the "Missal of Pius V," also called the Tridentine Mass; and the post-Vatican II "Missal of Paul VI," promulgated in 1970. These texts can be conveniently found in the Catholic Liturgical Library web site. For some concise background history, see the Wikipedia article on the Roman Missal.

The Future of Christianity in Europe

2007-07-10T07:51:00.000-04:00

Philip Jenkins's new book, God's Continent: Christianity, Islam, and Europe's Religious Crisis (Oxford, 2007) continues his ongoing analysis of the present and future of modern Christianity. In The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity (Oxford, 2002, rev. 2007) and The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South (Oxford, 2006) Jenkins outlined and analyzed the geographic shift of Christianity from north to south. In the present book Jenkins examines European Christianity as it experiences expanding Muslim immigration as a society in a state of advanced secularism. He does this with his customary presentation of an extraordinary wealth of detail together with intelligent analysis of options for Europe's religious future. According to Jenkins, Christianity in Europe is not dying, but rather, the current situation presents an opportunity for new forms of Islamic and Christian faith to flourish within a predominantly secular environment. While the traditional institutional church in Europe is in decline, he sees signs of revival in various movements in Roman Catholicism and other Christian groups, including vital, growing immigrant churches.

For Jenkins's own brief summary of his current book, see his recent article in Foreign Policy, "Europe's Christian Comeback." The July 2007 issue of the International Bulletin for Missionary Research features an article by Jenkins, "Godless Europe?" and Lamin Sanneh's remarks about Jenkins's book, "Can Europe Be Saved? A Review Essay." Editor Jonathan Bonk introduces these essays with his comments "Europe: Christendom Graveyard or Christian Laboratory?"

"A Hipper Crowd of Shushers"

2007-07-08T22:12:00.000-04:00

The New York Times has discovered what the theology reference librarians of Hekman Library have long known - Librarians are very happening people. My colleague and I on the fourth floor of Hekman Library have spent most of our lives trying to be very "unhip," but we give up; we can't fight it anymore. See today's New York Times article in the Sunday Style section: "A Hipper Crowd of Shushers."

The Bookshelf as Womb

2007-06-24T16:29:00.000-04:00

Sakura Adachi, a Milanese furniture designer, has designed a bookshelf she calls "the Cave." Those who really enjoy relaxing with a book while surrounded by books will want to order one of these (price: 2250 euros). If you prefer to do most of your reading in bed or at a desk, but like the idea, maybe your dog or cat would like a "cave." That's now also a possibility. Ms. Adachi has come out with a model designed for small dogs and cats. To order, visit her web site: Sakurah.net.

"The Cave" is a recent innovation in the long history of shelving books. For a good summer read see Henry Petroski, The Book on the Bookshelf (Knopf, 1999). [Hekman Library Z685 .P48 1999] Petroski is an engineer, who has also written books about the pencil and about bridges (and, believe it or not, a forthcoming book in October about the technology and culture of the toothpick). In The Book on the Bookshelf, Petroski takes the reader through various forms of shelving, from the pigeonholing of scrolls and the arrangement of medieval chained books to contemporary library shelving and such fascinating topics as the architecture of the British Museum reading room. The book ends with an appendix which lists a multitude of ways people have arranged the books in their private libraries: not just by title, or author, or size, but by color, by price, by sentimental value, by order of reading, etc.

"How's My Bible Doing?" Dutch Staten Bibles at Hekman Library

2007-06-05T15:30:00.001-04:00

Two very wonderful people showed up the other day and presented me with an article from the Grand Rapids Press dated June 10, 1967. According the the article, 40 years ago their mother had donated a 1637 Dutch Staten Bible to Hekman Library. The reporter noted that the Bible had been "desecrated by a sword thrust that nearly destroyed it. The marks of the sword . . . are still visible." The article further speculated that "some soldier surprised the congregation and tried to destroy the Bible." Let your imagination run with that for awhile. (Take a look at the photo on the left.) I'm skeptical about the scenario; I'm not so sure that soldiers were busting heads or spearing Bibles at 17th-century Dutch Reformed church services (16th century - maybe!).

But I did find the Bible and we looked at it together for awhile. Family members had written genealogical information in the front leaves. We've kept it safe these 40 years and will continue to keep it in our Rare Book Room. Maybe their children will come back to take a look again in forty years. It's a large format folio 1637 Dutch Staten Bible. This translation became the standard Bible of the Dutch Reformed Church, corresponding to the "King James Bible" (1611) of English-speaking people, and Luther's translation in Germany. Actually we have four 1637 first editions, as well as numerous later editions. One of my favorites is an 18th-century version with a Dutch East India Company binding (you might say this is an early example of what today we call a "niche Bible" [see also Daniel Radosh, "The Good Book Business," New Yorker (18 December 2006)].

In 1618 at the Dutch Reformed Synod of Dordrecht, one of the first orders of business concerned a new Dutch-language translation of the Bible from the original languages. Six Dutch theologians were appointed to the translation team: three for the Old Testament, Jan Bogerman (1576-1637), Willem Baudartius (1565-1640), and Gerson Bucer (c.1565-1631); and three for the New Testament, Jacob Roland (1562-1632), Festus Hommius (1576-1642), and Anthony Walaeus (1573-1639). The translation also includes the Apocryphal Books. While the first edition of the Bible has a printer's date of 1636, printing actually was completed the following year, and the first copy presented to the Dutch Estates General (which sponsored the publication) on September 17, 1637.

The Staten Bible also has extensive annotations and cross-references. (See the photo of Psalm 100 on the right.) The Synod of Dordt gave the translators a number of guidelines. They were to give brief and clear content summaries for each book and chapter. They were also to add brief marginal explanations if the Greek or Hebrew could not be translated entirely "literally." Unclear passages were to be explained briefly. The annotations are important for the history of interpretation, and have influenced generations of Bible readers in the Dutch Reformed tradition. This was the primary Dutch Bible translation until 1951, and has had considerable linguistic influence on the Dutch language. There is an online Dutch version which includes the annotations as well as information about the translators and other aspects of the Dutch Bible.

For those who do not read Dutch, an English translation exists. In 1645 the Westminster Assembly persuaded Theodore Haak (1605-1690) to begin work on an English translation of the Staten Bible. Haak's translation (he didn't include the cross-references or the Apocrypha) was finally issued in 1657, with the title: The Dutch Annotations Upon the whole Bible . . . A facsimile edition was published in 2002 by the Gereformeerde Bijbelstichting (ISBN 90-72186-31-1 , HL RareBk BS195 .H25 1657a). For those with access to Early English Books Online (EEBO), here's a durable URL link to Haak's translation.

Dressing for Pastoral Success at the Festival of Homiletics

2007-05-29T11:53:00.000-04:00

A few days ago one of my favorite bloggers, PeaceBang, wrote a short note about someone she had seen at the Festival of Homiletics in Nashville last week:

[I just want to ] send a short note to the young male clergydude who was wearing a tie-dye teeshirt in the most garish shades of orange and blue, shorts and bright orange Crocs:
Sweetheart, Jesus wants you for a sunbeam, not an acid trip.

This brings me to a recent book by Russell Smith, Men’s Style: The Thinking Man’s Guide to Dress (Thomas Dunne, 2007). It's not the usual candidate for a mention among the top fifty theology reference books of the year. But the clergy person does have to dress, and ought to think hard about clothes and their appropriateness for the situation. This is about "contextualization," folks. Whether you like it or not, what you wear, when you wear it, and how you wear it communicates something. In January of 2005 when VP Dick Cheney wore a fur-hooded parka, snow boots, and a wool toque to the somber ceremony commemorating the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, he communicated something. All the European dignitaries present wore formal, dark woolen overcoats and clothing more fitting for the occasion. For clergy, if you're Roman Catholic or Orthodox, many of those decisions are already prescribed for you. But we Protestant clergy have choices to make. Smith is a little too formal for my own taste, but his book is well-informed, witty, entertaining and very readable. While it's not directed to clergy, you can do some of your own travelling here. In some situations, in some congregations, it might be perfectly appropriate to conduct a winter graveside service in brightly colored Gore-Tex. But you might at least read Smith to know your alternatives. What does it mean when the invitation says "Black Tie" or "Black Tie Optional"? What options do you have for shirts, suits, shoes and facial hair? What sort of connotations does a bow-tie have? There are other books out there about dress, but if your public library has Smith, check it out.

I know -- what about female clergy? Back to PeaceBang's blog -- Beauty Tips for Ministers , subtitled: "Because you're in the public eye, and God knows you've got to look good." PeaceBang (pseudonym for a young female Unitarian/Universalist minister) shares her observations about clothing trends and grooming for female and male clergy. See a recent article about her in Calvin Seminary's student publication, Kerux. Her observations on the recent Festival of Homiletics in Nashville, for example, cover matters of great weight, facial hair, men's hair styles, women's footwear, and dirty knapsacks.

I'm a librarian, so I can't help but give a few historical resources about clergy clothing:

Graeme Murdock, "Dressed to Repress?: Protestant Clerical Dress and the Regulation of Morality in Early Modern Europe," Fashion Theory 4, no. 2 (2000):179-200. Get this through the database Wilson Select Plus (through Hekman Library; search for it by typing in 3 or 4 keywords from the title). This article considers how Reformed and Protestant Churches across Europe dealt with issues of appropriate dress for clergy (and clergy families).

Reimar Zeller, Prediger des Evangeliums: Erben der Reformation im Spiegel der Kunst (Regensburg: Schnell & Steiner, 1998) HL N8180 .Z45 1998
(I know it's German, but you're looking at the illustrations.) A collection of portrayals of Protestant preachers in art up to the mid-20th century.

Dress: Sources for Clerical Costume -- Lambeth Palace Library's guide to sources for the costume of both pre-Reformation English clergy and post-Reformation Anglican clergy.

And finally, to put this all in perspective, a good word from John Chrysostom (not a bad dresser himself) from his sermon Judge not, that you be not judged

". . .such rich attire is like a pile of withering hay. Beautiful garments are good for worms and moths. When they set upon such a man, they will strip him bare . . . But he who is clothed in virtue cannot be harmed by worms nor even by death itself."

Faith and Wartime Letters

2007-05-24T08:02:00.000-04:00

This weekend I read Andrew Carroll's Grace Under Fire: Letters of Faith in Times of War (New York: Doubleday, 2007). Over the past nine years Carroll has assembled an archive of letters (or e-mails) written by U.S. soldiers involved in any combat operation from the American Revolution to the present day. The letters in the present collection were selected because they deal with issues of spirituality, religion, and theodicy. There are two letters written by brothers fighting on opposing sides of the Civil War, letters by chaplains, letters that attest to strengthened faith and letters that address the question of God's presence or absence in the face of the unspeakable suffering of wartime. I give it a high recommendation, especially as food for thought as we think about the disastrous tragedy of this present war in Iraq. These letters help us get inside the lives and thoughts of some of the participants in war. Several of the letters in this book are available online through Random House.

Carroll heads up the Legacy Project, which collects and preserves wartime letters. While there is no complete online digitization project for the archive, there are a number of web sites which exhibit letters from the project:

In partnership with the Gilder Lehrman Insitute of American History, the Legacy Project is exhibiting letters and audio recordings of the correspondences .

PBS produced a critically-acclaimed documentary titled "War Letters," based on Andrew Carroll's national bestseller of the same name, and letters featured in that program can be seen by clicking the link that says "Featured Letters." PBS also provides a brief bibliography related to wartime letters.

History Channel also produced a documentary, "Dear Home," based on World War II letters in the Legacy Project's collection, and has made some of these letters available.

Carroll has edited several previous collections of letters in book format, among them are:

War Letters: Extraordinary Correspondence from American Wars (New York: Scribner, repr. 2002)

Behind the Lines: Powerful and Revealing American and Foreign War Letters -- and One Man's Search to Find Them (New York: Scribner, 2005)

Mary Douglas, 1921-2007

2007-05-22T11:38:00.000-04:00

Mary Tew Douglas, an anthropologist with wide-ranging interests, died on 16 May 2007. (See the obituary in the London Times.) Her book Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo (1966) [HL GN494 .D6] was a cross-cultural study of cleanliness, pollution and taboo and their roles in ritual systems. She argued that rather than being primarily about hygiene, these systems served to provide order to a perceived chaotic world. She applied this to the dietary codes of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, and has greatly influenced subsequent interpretation of these books.

In her later years she turned to biblical interpretation with

In the Wilderness: The Doctrine of Defilement in the Book of Numbers (JSOT, 1993; repr. Oxford, 2001)[HL BS1265.2 .D68 1993]
Leviticus as Literature (Oxford, 1999) [HL BS1255.2 .D68 1999]
Jacob's Tears: The Priestly Work of Reconciliation (Oxford, 2004) [HL BS1171.3 .D68 2004

Her latest book, Thinking in Circles: An Essay on Ring Composition (Yale, 2007) [HL PN212 .D68 2007], is a revision of her Terry Lectures at Yale in 2003. She used the term "ring compositions" to refer to chiastic (also called "pediment") literary structures which occur in more lengthy literary compositions, such as the Iliad, Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy, the book of Numbers, and certain Zoroastrian hymns.

ARTstor

2007-05-18T11:24:00.000-04:00

Hekman Library is pleased to announce that we've purchased online access to ARTstor, a magnificent database containing over 500,000 images covering art, architecture, and archaeology. ARTstor includes software tools that support a wide range of teaching and research uses, including viewing and analyzing images through zooming and panning features, saving groups of images online, and annotating images. ARTstor has great potential as a resource for faculty and student presentations, research papers, and web pages. Each image comes with a detailed description that allows for effective searching.

In the area of religion and theology, ARTstor users can easily find images related to the study of worship, iconography, liturgical arts, church architecture, church history, and other areas. See the handout ARTstor Resources in Religious Studies and also those for Classical Studies and History.

For more information, access ARTstor to find a wide variety of tutorials and explanatory materials. From off-campus, be sure to access the database through the library website rather than directly On a more technical note, you will have to disable your popup blockers to use ARTstor. Click on Using ARTstor to see how to do this.

From Scroll to Codex: A Big Shift in Information Technology

2007-05-17T13:40:00.000-04:00

One of the major technological shifts that took place in early Christianity was the transition from the book as scroll (a long roll of paper or parchment) to the book as codex (folded sheets of paper stitched together into bundles protected by a wrapper of thicker material). In Christianity and the Transformation of the Boook: Origen, Eusebius, and the Library of Caesarea (Belknap Press, 2006) [HL BR67.2 .G73 2006] Anthony Grafton and Megan Williams sketch out how this revolutionary change in the technology of the book took place in the book production of Origen and Eusebius of Caesarea in the third and fourth centuries. The codex afforded significant advantages over the scroll for the study and comparison of rival versions of Scripture (e.g., Origen's Hexapla, a 6-column parallel version of Scripture) and the study and writing of history (e.g., Eusebius' historical work and chronologies). See the review by Eamon Duffy, "Early Christian Impresarios," New York Review of Books 54:5 (29 March 2007).

From scroll to codex didn't happen without stress. This video from Norwegian television gives us a possible scenario from a medieval IT Help Desk (though user frustration was probably focused in the early Christian era rather than the late medieval setting portrayed in the video):

Wicca

2007-05-15T12:55:00.001-04:00

The NY Times has an article this morning (16 May 2007) about Wiccans: "Wiccans Keep the Faith with a Religion Under Wraps", the gist of the article being that Americans are becoming more and more tolerant of this rapidly growing religious movement. I've had little direct contact with Wiccans. I recall a local Wiccan priestess in Chicago who offered to bless my vegetable garden in the parsonage yard several years ago (I thanked her as graciously as possible, but declined). But I have been asked about Wicca by students doing research for papers. The last one informed me that our library had nothing about Wicca or witchcraft, and she was going to have to head back for Ann Arbor where, she told me, "people know more about these things."

It seems that Wicca originated in the first half of the twentieth century as an attempt to recreate what was believed to be an ancient indigenous European religious tradition. If you're looking for an account of all this, there's the Wikipedia entry, readily available, and fairly informative. The best current, brief, dependable overview (with bibliography) of Wicca I've found is Joanne Pearson's article "Wicca" (pp.9728-9732). in the new Encyclopedia of Religion, 2d ed., ed. Lindsay Jones (Thomson-Gale, 2005) [Hekman Library ThRef BL31 .E46 2005] (This may be available to you online, if your library has the electronic version.) See also Joanne Pearson's essay,"'Witchcraft will not soon Vanish from this Earth': Wicca in the 21st Century," in Predicting Religion: Christian, Secular and Alternative Futures, ed. Grace Davie et al., 170-182 (Ashgate, 2003).

For a scholar-participant's account of Wicca, take a look at Nikki Bado-Fralick's Coming to the Edge of the Circle: A Wiccan Initiation Ritual, American Academy of Religion(Oxford, 2005) [HL BL615 .B33 2005]. Here's a table of contents. The Amazon site allows you to view pages of the book, and if you do it right, you can read fairly large sections. See especially pages 32-42 (under the heading "Mapping an Ever-Changing Landscape") for Bado-Fralick's take on the "landscape" of Wicca, including its relationship to witchcraft, contemporary paganism, Wicca and the "old religion," and the role of texts in Wicca.

Another fascinating perspective on Wicca is Kathryn Rountree, "The New Witch of the West: Feminists Reclaim the Crone," Journal of Popular Culture 30, no. 4 (1997): 211–229. (Available, again, if you have online access to this journal).

Children at the Lord's Table

2007-05-08T08:44:00.001-04:00

The Spring 2007 issue of the Calvin Theological Seminary Forum has four fine articles on an issue that will be addressed by the Christian Reformed Church denomination at its annual synod this June: the place of children at the sacrament of the Lord's Supper.

"Children at the Lord's Supper and Reformed Theology," by Lyle D. Bierma

"United, Separated, Re-United: The Story of Baptism and the Lord's Supper," by David Rylaarsdam

"Children at the Lord's Supper and the Key Text of 1 Corinthians 11:17-34," by Jeffrey A. D. Weima

"Children at the Table: Some Provisional Answers to the Practical Questions," by John D. Witvliet

(For background to this, see the report of a task force of the CRC Synod which addresses this issue in the CRC's 2007 Agenda for Synod.)

The above-mentioned article by David Rylaarsdam, in two succinct pages, tells the story of the shift from the intimate connection of the sacraments of baptism and communion in the early church, through their separation in the Middle Ages and Reformation period, and the present desire of some Protestant denominations to re-unite them. Since this history is not only fascinating, but also unfamiliar to many, I've added a bibliography below to supplement the article:

Fisher, John Douglas Close. Christian Initiation: Baptism in the Medieval West: A Study in the Disintegration of the Primitive Rite of Initiation. London: S.P.C.K., 1965.
Hekman Lib BX5141.A1 A6 NO. 47

Fisher, John Douglas Close. Christian Initiation: Confirmation Then and Now. Chicago: Hillenbrand, 2005 (Reprint of SPCK edition, 1978).
Hekman Lib BV815 .F5 2005

Gallant, Tim. Feed My Lambs: Why the Lord's Table Should Be Restored to Covenant Children. Grande Prairie, AB: Pactum Reformanda Pub., c2002.
Hekman Lib BX9423.C5 G35 2002

Hinant, John T. Children at the Lord's Table. Indianapolis, IN: Three Fountains Publishing, c2005.
Hekman Lib BX7325.5 .L67 H56 2005 MRC-Circ

Holeton, David. Infant Communion--Then and Now. Bramcote, Nottingham: Grove Books, 1981.
Hekman Lib BV825.58 .H62 1981

Jewett, Paul King. Infant Baptism and the Covenant of Grace: an appraisal of the argument that as infants were once circumcised, so they should now be baptized. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, c1978.
Hekman Lib BV813.2 .J44

Johnson, Maxwell E. The Rites of Christian Initiation :Their Evolution and Interpretation. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, c1999.
Hekman Lib BV873.I54 J64 1999

Mitchell, Nathan. “Dissolution of the Rite of Christian Initiation.” In Made, Not Born: New Perspectives on Christian Initiation and the Catechumenate, from the Murphy Center for Liturgical Research, 50-82. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1976.
Hekman Lib BV812 .M27

Congratulations to the Meeter Center for Calvin Studies

2007-05-04T08:37:00.000-04:00

The H. Henry Meeter Center for Calvin Studies, located in Hekman Library, is celebrating its 25th anniversary. The center began with a collection of important books and a bibliography by Calvin College professor Dr. H. Henry Meeter during his tenure of teaching in the Bible (now Religion) Department from 1927 to 1957. At the initiative of DR. Meeter, Calvin College and Calvin Theological Seminary established the Committee for Scholarly Research and Development of Basic Historic Calvinism in 1961. This committee was the genesis of the H. Henry Meeter Center and its governing board.

Today the Meeter Center with its rare items, books, articles, literature, and bibliographies is acclaimed worldwide as one of the most extensive and user-friendly of all Calvin and Calvinism collections.

The center recently purchased a copy Calvin's "Congrégation sur l’élection éternelle de Dieu."

The book was printed in Geneva in 1562 by Vincent Bres and only five libraries in Europe are known to own it and none in the United States.

It measures just three inches by 4¾ inches in size, slightly bigger than a deck of cards, but what is contained in its 118 pages presents Calvin’s teaching on election, particularly the issue of universal salvation against particular election (Calvin came down on the side of particular election).

A local television station recently featured this acquisition. Here's a link to their video feature.

Checking Out the Mormons

2007-05-02T06:40:00.000-04:00

Helen Whitney's film, The Mormons , a coproduction with the American Experience Frontline series, aired over PBS on April 30 and May 1. The film explores the history and current realities of the Mormon religion. It's possible to watch the entire 240 minute documentary online. PBS has a well-constructed website with good information about the history and various topics of Mormon culture. The Readings and Links page provides further information about Mormon history and religion, politics, Mormon dissent, and genealogy.

This is all useful and illuminating, but what if you're doing serious academic research about Mormon history and culture?

You might begin by reading a recent bibliographic essay on the state of Mormon studies. Here are a few possibilities (links to journal articles will work on Calvin's campus, but are not available to the general public unless you can proxy in through a library site):

"Jan Shipps and the Mainstreaming of Mormon Studies," by Philip Barlow. Church History 73:2 (June 2004): 412-426.

Shipps has been described as "the Jane Goodall of Mormon studies." In this review essay of her book Sojourner in the Promised Land: Forty Years among the Mormons (Univ. of Illinois Press, 2000) [HL BX8611 .S493 2000], Barlow describes how Shipps, a Mormon outsider, helped "shape, shepherd, and broker the field of Mormon studies." In addition to reviewing Shipps' book, Barlow's essay is a good summary of current issues in Mormon studies, with bibliographic pointers to good current scholarship.

Excavating Mormon Pasts: The New Historiography of the Last Half Century, ed. Newell G. Bringhurst and Lavina Fielding Anderson (Salt Lake City: Kofford Books, 2004) [Hekman Library BX8611 .E93 2004].

This book contains 16 bibliographic essays covering different periods of Mormon history and topics of interest, including Mormon women's history, polygamy, and the internationalization of Mormonism. See a review of this book in Church History 75:1 Mar 2006):216-219.

For a well-written popular and fairly rigorously researched book, take a look at Mormon America: The Power and the Promise, by Richard N. Ostling and Joan K. Ostling (Harper, 1999) [HL BX8635.2 .O88 1999]. Harper plans to issue a new edition of this book in October.

The standard bibliography of Mormon history is an exhaustive (and exhausting) compilation of more than 16,000 items: Studies in Mormon History, 1830-1997: An Indexed Bibliography, ed. James B. Allen, Ronald W. Walker, and David J. Whittaker (Univ. of Illinois Press, 2000) [HL TheoRef Z7845 .M8 A44 2000]. There's also an online update for post-1997 bibliography.

For popular culture fans, take a look at the Wikipedia article "Portrayals of Mormons in the Popular Media," a survey ranging from Arthur Conan Doyle's novels to the TV program "Big Love" and the notorious Episode 712 of South Park, "All About the Mormons?" (recently removed from YouTube by Viacom).

Stephen Colbert Meets New Testament Scholarship

2007-04-26T06:34:00.000-04:00

Stephen Colbert, host of Comedy Central's "Colbert Report" is said to be a devout Roman Catholic. When I watch his interviews with Elaine Pagels and Bart Ehrman, it looks to me like he's not so sure they've got it right.

Here's his interview with Elaine Pagels, co-author (with Karen L. King) of Reading Judas: The Gospel of Judas and the Shaping of Christianity (New York: Viking, 2007). Hekman Library users can find the book at BS2860 .J832 P34 2007.

Here's his interview with Bart Ehrman, author of Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why (New York: Harper, 2005). Hekman Library BS2325 .E45 2005.

"This I Believe" - Finding Creeds and Confessions

2007-04-23T12:36:00.000-04:00

Since April 2005 National Public Radio has been running a series called This I Believe . Americans from all walks of life and backgrounds are invited to "share the personal philosophies and core values that guide their daily lives." The program sponsors have a commendable goal: that this will help Americans develop a mutual respect and toleration for the beliefs of others. The series was inspired by a similar radio series in the early 1950s hosted by Edward R. Murrow, in which 25 prominent Americans stated their credos (Credo is the Latin for "I believe").

Hieronymus' first impulse was to submit his credo - the text of the Apostles' Creed or the Nicene Creed. But when I got to the This I Believe Submission Agreement, I found that "by clicking the I ACCEPT button below you affirm that this essay is original to you." Well, I've always taken some comfort in having a credo in common with other Christians, and I'm suspicious of "original" religious ideas. But after all, it was a personal essay they wanted, not a copy of a creed. If you browse through the hundreds of essays on file on the This I Believe website, you will see that a number of Christians have indeed used either the Nicene Creed or the Apostles' Creed as a starting point for their essays. Some of them have done a fine job explaining how these beliefs make a difference in how they live.

Christians through the centuries have said "I believe" in unison. These creeds and confessions have been formulated in response to different situations and historical circumstances, but have been drawn up so that believers could corporately confess their faith. Where can you find copies of these creeds and confessions?

Creeds & Confessions of Faith in the Christian Tradition, edited by Jaroslav Pelikan (1923-2006) and Valerie Hotchkiss (New Haven : Yale University Press, 2003) (Hekman Library BT990 .C653 2003 ) is a 4-volume (with CD-ROM) standard reference work with the following contents:

v. 1. Rules of faith in the early church. Eastern
Orthodox affirmations of faith. Medieval Western
statements of faith
v. 2. Creeds and confessions of
the Reformation era
v. 3. Statements of faith in
modern Christianity
v. [4]. Credo : historical and theological guide to Creeds and confessions of faith in the Christian tradition. This final volume, written by Pelikan, surveys the history of these creeds and discusses issues and controversies about the function and formulating of creeds.

See the Speaking of Faith radio program, "The Need for Creeds," including Krista Tippett's 2003 interview with Jaroslav Pelikan.

This work by Pelikan and Hotchkiss replaces the standard work by nineteenth-century church historian Philip Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom (originally published in 1877), although Schaff is still worth consulting. The three volumes of Schaff's work are conveniently available through the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL): v. 1 The History of Creeds ; v.2 The Greek and Latin Creeds ; and v. 3 The Evangelical Protestant Creeds .

The Qur'an: Which Translation?

2007-04-21T18:10:00.000-04:00

A new translation of the Qur'an by a Laleh Bakhtiar, a Muslim woman, has been getting a lot of media attention recently. Here's an excerpt from an article in the NY Times of March 25, 2007:

"Laleh Bakhtiar had already spent two years working on an English translation of the Koran when she came upon Chapter 4, Verse 34.
She nearly dropped the project right then.
The hotly debated verse states that a rebellious woman should first be admonished, then abandoned in bed, and ultimately ''beaten'' -- the most common translation for the Arabic word ''daraba'' -- unless her behavior improves.
''I decided it either has to have a different meaning, or I can't keep translating,'' said Ms. Bakhtiar, an Iranian-American who adopted her father's Islamic faith as an adult and had not dwelled on the verse before. ''I couldn't believe that God would sanction harming another human being except in war.''
.. . . . . . . . . . .
Her eureka moment came on roughly her 10th reading of the Arabic-English Lexicon by Edward William Lane, a 3,064-page volume from the 19th century, she said. Among the six pages of definitions for ''daraba'' was ''to go away.''
''I said to myself, 'Oh, God, that is what the prophet meant,' '' said Ms. Bakhtiar, speaking in the offices of Kazi Publications in Chicago, a mail-order house for Islamic books that is publishing her translation. ''When the prophet had difficulty with his wives, what did he do? He didn't beat anybody, so why would any Muslim do what the prophet did not?''

My one year of Arabic instruction happened more than 20 years ago, so I'm in no position to judge the quality of this translation. I am a little suspicious of someone who translates by scanning a dictionary for a definition that suits their interpretive purposes, but maybe the Times isn't giving us the whole story and her translation decision was a bit more sophisticated than the story's portrayal.

But the other day a student did ask me, "Which translation of the Qur'an do I use in my paper?" What's the most reliable English translation of the Qur'an? Is there any one translation which reputable scholars use when they write about Islam?

One sentence won't suffice for a good answer. For help, take a look at the section on Islam in the Hekman Library Religion and Theology Research Guide.
One helpful perspective on English translations is found in an article by Khaleel Mohammed, "Assessing English Translations of the Qur'an," Middle East Quarterly 12 (2005).

Pseudonymous Hieronymus

2007-04-21T18:00:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the blog for the Religion and Theology Reference Division of Hekman Library at Calvin College and Calvin Theological Seminary. We'll use this blog to post news, research tips, book notices, and other items relevant to religion and theology reference.

What's the name all about? We've chosen to go by the pseudonym "Hieronymus" in honor of St. Jerome (Latinized as "Hieronymus") ca.340 - 420. Jerome was a brilliant biblical commentator whose greatest legacy to the church was his Latin translation of Scripture based on the Hebrew text. In a revised form his translation became what we know today as the Vulgate.