I’m starting a new blog. It can be found here. It will be my “professional” blog and will restrict itself to purely academic matters of medievalism and Scripture interpretation. There are occasional items that might get cross-posted here but, for the most part, they will be distinct.
I’m doing this for a couple of reasons.
One is so actual medievalists who come by on occasion won’t have to wonder if I’m actually going to say something they’re interested in or just rant some more about the Anglican Communion and its woes. Dr. Nokes has probably heard more about Anglicans than he’d care to know…
Another is that with a separate blog for such material, I’ll be more likely to actually post material there.
Another is that it will allow me to focus this blog more on the direction it seems to be taking which has liturgical spirituality at its heart.
So–pop over, check it out; it’s still a work in progress, of course, but hopefully it’ll grow into something interesting too.
Tiko the Squirrel: Arboral Innocent or Indigenous Revolutionary?
Abstract: Dora the Explorer’s furry companion Tiko the Squirrel seems no more than a lovable addition to the show’s regular cast of characters. But does his Spanish-only linguistic stance and his distinctive indigenous outfit reveal a deeper anti-Imperialist agenda? Special attention is given to his place of residence: the “nut farm.” Comparisons will be drawn between this utopian agrarian collective patrolled by ominously uniformed ‘public saftey” officers holding signs of “rojo” and “verde” and Stalinist agricultural ventures. The paper will end with speculation concerning the identity of the anonymous donor who purported gave several thousand pounds of nuts to the government of Hugo Chavez.
Zeus, who guided men to think,
who has laid it down that wisdom,
comes alone through suffering.
Still there drips in sleep against the heart
grief of memory; against
our pleasure we are temperate.
From the gods who sit in grandeur
grace comes somehow violent.
Aeschylus, trans. Lattimore, Agamemnon, ll. 176-183.
Yesterday the doctor told me that I could stop doing the daily IV treatments and go to oral antibiotics. You’d think that would make M and myself quite happy. Instead we were (and remain) vaguely uneasy.
That’s because he’s revised his diagnosis.
After my first MRI the radiologist, the orthopedist, and my doctor–the infectious disease guy–all said that the scan indicated osteomyelitis: infection of the bone.
After this second, the radiologist and orthopedist are still saying the same thing. My doctor has decided that it’s not really osteomyelitis, buit that it’s inflamation of the outer layer of the bone due to the infection. Antinflammatories should clear that up.
Except that I’ve been taking them all along for pain…
So—I’m off the IV antibiotics and on orals. My foot still has some swelling (but not as much as there was) and it’s painful to walk too much (but I couldn’t walk at all before).
What exactly’s going on?
If I had to guess, I’d say that my doctor knows the daily schedule is hard on all of us and he doesn’t know what else he can do to go after the infection. Thus, he’s scaling back to see if it comes back or not. I kinda feel like a guniea pig…
Needless to say, we’re still going to leave the pic line in just in case. M’s suggesting I push for a bone scan which would tell us for sure whether the infection’s there or not.
The New Liturgical Movement has an announcement up about a new chant book that the Catholic Music Association of America has put together. The key here is that it contains chant for both the Ordinary (Novus Ordo) and Extraordinary (traditional Latin mass) Forms.
Naturally, texts are in Latin but with English translations.
There is a section for seasonal hymns; sadly, office hymns are in short supply…
I realized it’s been quite a while since I posted anything liturgical…
To amend that, I’ll point you to something I may have mentioned before (or not). Over at Fr. Bosco Peter’s site at ChristChurch in New Zealand, he’s got a PDF of Gospel Antiphons [i.e., antiphons used before and after the Gospel canticles in Morning and Evening Prayer] put together by one of his comrades, Fr(?). Tom Kostrzewa, OblSB CAM. It’s designed to go along with the current Roman Liturgy of the Hours which means it’s in synch with the Rman version of the RCL. They number the propers slightly differently than we do, but it shouldn’t be hard to follow.
I’ve been using it during Easter and have enjoyed having them. Yes, it’s more book-flipping, but it’s easy enough to cut and paste them to a trifold to stick in your prayerbook of choice. You can do a season at a time that way and it’s easier than book-flipping.
There have been some questions floating around about why there are so few comments left at the Episcopal Cafe.
Thoughts?
Preliminary results from yesterday’s MRI indicate no change in the bone infection. I’ll learn later in the week what exactly that means in terms of my treatment plan.
I was hoping the news would be better but feared this might be the case. Even though last week’s blood work resu.lts looked promising, I still have infection symptoms.
Well, we’re hoping that the spider-bite drama is finally heading towards its conclusion. While I still have swelling in the foot, a really warm red patch where the infection is hanging out and am still going for daily IV treatments, it seems like we’ve turned a corner.
The swelling isn’t nearly as bad as it was–I can see some (ok, a little) definition in my foot now and in a strong light can see my toe tendons when I wiggle them. I continue to keep it elevated and iced and evenings can be rough. More importantly, the foot supports weight now and I can walk around without crutches. I still limp a bit, but that too isn’t as bad as it was. Most encouraging is the results of my blood-work. The doctor said it’s basically back to normal. I have an MRI tomorrow which should tell us if the infection is out of the bone. I’m hoping—and I think all of this indicates—that the infection is no longer in my bone and blood and is just in the soft-tissue of the foot.
If the doctor likes what he sees, this Friday should be my last daily IV session and I’ll be able to move to oral antibiotics!
I never thought this would take as long as it has. I’m thankful that I was in pretty good shape to start with health-wise or this would have taken even longer (or I just might not have made it those first hours in the hospital). As M keeps reminding me, caring for my health and my body is part of our responsibility to care for all of God’s creation. Because I tend toward the lean side I’ve never had to watch what I eat; that will be changing and once the foot gets better I’ll be working on getting more aerobic exercise…
No, I got the apostrophe in the right place…
We had Peter’s sermon in Acts 10 as one of the readings at Easter and I was struck by the content of his sermon. Two things in particular struck me as I heard it this time–here’s a selection of the text for reference:
10:34 And Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I perceive that God shows no partiality, 10:35 but in every nation any one who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. 10:36 You know the word which he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace by Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all), 10:37 the word which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism which John preached: 10:38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. 10:39 And we are witnesses to all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; 10:40 but God raised him on the third day and made him manifest; 10:41 not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 10:42 And he commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that he is the one ordained by God to be judge of the living and the dead. 10:43 To him all the prophets bear witness that every one who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
My first thought is that this sounds like an early creedal statement. It’s got a number of the key elements the connection between Jesus and God, thew fullfilment of the witness of the prophets, the life of Jesus, his crucifixion, resurrection, and role at the final judgment. (We’d also been listening to this interview with Jaroslav Pelikan on the way to M’s church—so creeds were near the top of my mind…)
The second is that this sermon—and others like it—give us a fascinating glimpse into the mind of Luke because they serve as a shorthand key to how he understood and interpreted the gospel that he handed down to us. Now, you’ve got to be careful with Luke.
Of all the Gospel writers, he’s the most sophisticated in terms of Hellenistic compositional technique (yes, te others are quite sophisticated too but in different ways—Luke excells them in this department.)
If you want an example, look at Paul’s conversion narrative in Acts: we have three accounts of it and each one has subtle but important differences from the others that help it fit the immediate context of the retelling. He does the same thing when the apostles are presenting their kerygma (the heart of their proclamation)
In any case, it’s an interesting exercise to take this summary and to use it as a lens for the Gospel, thinking asbout how the various elements present here play out in Luke’s Gospel (as opposed to the others. Just as for-instances, note the geographical references—one of the distinctive features of Luke’s narrative is the “travel section” where Luke makes a big deal of Jesus leaving Galillee and going to Jerusalem. Here in the summary you’ve got a clear sense of that movement as well. The life of Jesus (something many creeds are short on) gets an interesting summary here too with a strong connection between doing good, exorcism/healing, and freedom from demonic oppression, all of it introduced by the Holy Spirit and power.
There’s a lot more here to go after too—I’m going to have to think about this for a while. I’m sure someone has taken this tack before, using the various apostolic sermons of Acts to analyze the Gospel of Luke, but I don’t know the minutiae of Lukan secondary literature quite well enough to say who…
