The Pope Is Coming

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

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

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.
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Finding the "Best" Biblical Commentary

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

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

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:

1. 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.
   
   
2. 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

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?"