Everyone is named Adam.

So, reading and writing one last paper (and oh, internet, why does it seem like everyone else is already done with finals? Are you trying to make me sad?)

This paper is on Irenaeus, for whom one of the major things that Christ accomplished in the Incarnation is the recapitulation of all things, summing creation from beginning to end in one person, and perfecting it. This is particularly egregious in his thoughts on the role of Christ as that of a "second Adam," who was supposed to come and redeem the humanity by doing the opposite of the first Adam, e.g. being obedient to die on the cross (a tree) while Adam had been disobedient in regards to not eating the forbidden fruit from a tree.

You know how things come in threes? I'm reading about Christ as a Second Adam, and taking a break, I poke around tvtropes, and I find something that was already booted around in my brain- Mary Shelley called Frankenstein's monster (who is not named Frankenstein, unless you're in movie or a later work where he is named Frankenstein) Adam. As in, a second Adam.

So that's Second Adam number two. And it's a coincidence, but it makes me wonder, honestly, if she had known about Irenaeus' writings. It wouldn't be impossible- Against Heresies was in publication for centuries. More likely, given the story, she just borrowed it from Adam #1, who also had a rather famous falling out with his creator, and used that.

And then I'm popping around, trying to get my fix of Harry/Marcone before Yuletide opens and lets out the new crop (30 requests in The Dresden Files bookverse alone! Woohoo!), and I revisited The Dresden Omens, by shiplizard, which features a crossover between The Dresden Files and Good Omens.

The Antichrist was named Adam, too, in Good Omens.

Just let that sink in. Three Second Adams. Three. Really? Really? People, a meaningful name is a wonderful thing, but there are limits to all good things.

Actually, this kind of makes me want to write a paper on the use of religiously-themed names as a method of characterization/ literary heritage, but that would be kind of insane as I have yet to finish the first paper. But enough time wasting, back to work.

TITLE: Study Break #1
AUTHOR: kitewithfish
FANDOM: Original fiction
CHARACTERS: Mine, please mention if you want to borrow.
PAIRINGS: About six and a half, if you squint, but nothing explicit.
RATING: PG-13 for one swear.
GENRE: Fluff
SUMMARY: Dance party in the library.
WARNINGS: Embarrassment, one swear.
WORD COUNT: C.800
DISCLAIMER: These do not belong.... wait. Wait! They do belong to me!
Strike that.
( There were days when all the snootiness associated with going to a high profile college really got to Kyle, if he were to tell the truth. )

Xposted to personal journal as well.

Checking out a client- please hold.

Things that I (read: various Swelles people) have learned from books.
1. Never say you'll do a favor until you know what it is. (Talking with Dragons)
2. The most distinct and carrying part of a whisper is the "s" sound, so for ultimate quietness, lisp when you whisper (The Last Battle)
3. "Always distrust the man who looks you straight in the eyes. He wants to prevent you from seeing something. Look for it." (Gaudy Night)
4.don't eat too much honey or you'll get stuck in rabbit's front door (winnie the pooh)
5. never give a mouse a cookie (if you give a mouse a cookie)
6. everybody poops (everybody poops)
7. Bring your towel (Hitchhiker's Guide)
8. Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything: 42 (Hitchhiker's)( And the List goes on )

So right you are, Phoebe, so right you are.

I just got a notice that one of my classes for next quarter was canceled. I'm presuming due to low enrollment- the only other person I found in the class informed me a few weeks ago that it looked like there would only be four people in the class. Which was exactly how many people were in my Greek class at Swelles, which should have gotten canceled and never did.


( Witness my life. )

I just figured out, after receiving 758 messages , that there is a setting for receiving notifications when someone in your flist gets a virtual gift.

Needless to say, it is now turned off.

*Whew*

In other news, My Boy ^TM is taking a final RIGHT NOW, and this is making me nervous. More so than him, as far as exterior stuff testifies. I am officially pathetic.

I have lost or misplaced my wonderous hat, which reminded me of Harley Quinn's uniform/costume/crazy-person-jumpsuit. My Boy^TM has lent me his had, but it lacks pizzazz.

Tea and the saints preserve me.

By now I assume you've heard about the the Conservative Bible Project, in which Conservapedia is a attempting to create an English translation of the Bible, based on the King James' Version, that reflects their own cultural values.
According to Conservapedia, most translation have the following problem
* lack of precision in the original language, such as terms underdeveloped to convey new concepts introduced by Christ
* lack of precision in modern language
* translation bias in converting the original language to the modern one.

[T]he third -- and largest -- source of translation error requires conservative principles to reduce and eliminate. (See note)

The committee in charge of updating the bestselling version, the NIV, is dominated by professors and higher-educated participants who can be expected to be liberal and feminist in outlook. As a result, the revision and replacement of the NIV will be influenced more by political correctness and other liberal distortions than by genuine examination of the oldest manuscripts. As a result of these political influences, it becomes desirable to develop a conservative translation that can serve, at a minimum, as a bulwark against the liberal manipulation of meaning in future versions.


I might note though, that the reason that a lot of these committees are made up of academics and the well-educated is that, frankly, Ancient Greek and Hebrew are not spoken languages and most people who are truly fluent and educated in their uses are academics and scholars. If you can find me a captain of industry who regularly publishes articles on the language of the New Testament, I would be glad to meet them.

Conservapedia goes on to list Ten Guidelines for their version of the Bible. (I wonder where they got the number...? :D)

1. Framework against Liberal Bias: providing a strong framework that enables a thought-for-thought translation without corruption by liberal bias
2. Not Emasculated: avoiding unisex, "gender inclusive" language, and other feminist distortions; preserve many references to the unborn child (the NIV deletes these)
3. Not Dumbed Down: not dumbing down the reading level, or diluting the intellectual force and logic of Christianity; the NIV is written at only the 7th grade level[3]
4. Utilize Powerful Conservative Terms: using powerful new conservative terms to capture better the original intent;[4] Defective translations use the word "comrade" three times as often as "volunteer"; similarly, updating words that have a change in meaning, such as "word", "peace", and "miracle".
5. Combat Harmful Addiction: combating addiction[5] by using modern terms for it, such as "gamble" rather than "cast lots";[6] using modern political terms, such as "register" rather than "enroll" for the census
6. Accept the Logic of Hell: applying logic with its full force and effect, as in not denying or downplaying the very real existence of Hell or the Devil.
7. Express Free Market Parables; explaining the numerous economic parables with their full free-market meaning
8. Exclude Later-Inserted Inauthentic Passages: excluding the interpolated passages that liberals commonly put their own spin on, such as the adulteress story
9. Credit Open-Mindedness of Disciples: crediting open-mindedness, often found in youngsters like the eyewitnesses Mark and John, the authors of two of the Gospels
10. Prefer Conciseness over Liberal Wordiness: preferring conciseness to the liberal style of high word-to-substance ratio; avoid compound negatives and unnecessary ambiguities; prefer concise, consistent use of the word "Lord" rather than "Jehovah" or "Yahweh" or "Lord God."


I'm late to the party here, I know. Most of the articles on this have gone up in early October. I hope you'll forgive me, but my need to goof off during finals have lead me to this topic.

Setting aside my personal distaste for a number of the Guidelines mentioned here, I find myself not terribly surprised by the ideas behind this project, only by fact that they actually came right out and said it. More often the Conservative angle towards religion is one that pays the Bible plenty of lip service while contorting Scripture towards their own ends, so it seems like this project is just more of the same.

Here's why I'm not worried:

-It's not going to get a lot of support from the faithful. The sheer audacity of the project, which calls for a group effort by biased individuals with little expertise in their subject, serves to discredit it among religious traditions that consider the Bible to be infallible. Members of those Christian traditions that don't consider the Bible infallible seem likely to be put off by the politics of the revisionists before anything gets written down. That lack of common acceptance is going to hurt the idea before it even gets done, much less published.

-It's not going to get a lot of support from scholars. Disregarding, for the sake of argument, the liberal bias of the academic world (on which subject Stanley Fish has a fascinating article "Political Correctness Revisited"), I doubt that the Conservapedia blanket interpolation of modern political divisions onto the historical situations of the Bible's composition and compilation are going to knock the socks off of anyone in the field, no matter how red their state is.

-I want to read it. I'm kind of intrigued at what might come out of it. The Bible is a common point of cultural reference for a great deal of Western culture, even if the decline of mandatory familiarity with it has fallen by the wayside of cultural values.

This strikes me as a kind of a collaborative fanfiction project- a subculture claiming and reshaping a point of (what they consider to be) the dominant culture to fit their own cultural needs and points of diversion. Reading the finished book (if there ever is one) and doing a close comparison to the purportedly 'liberal' will probably produce a few really interesting papers, if someone can get a political scientist and a New Testament scholar to work together on it. My Greek's a little rusty, but I'm always up for a good translation comparison.

Not gonna lie, folks. I have gotten the last few fics that I've added to my 'unread' tag from Fandom!secrets, which is kind of my new favorite distraction.

In other news, grad school is kind of eating my life, but in a really interesting and kind of compelling way. I, however, wish I could just read some of this stuff for the fun of it, rather than having to write papers on it. Actually, grad school is making me feel kind of stupid. Which, probably, is good, because it means that there is room to improve.

I am, however, considering meeting the dean of students and shaking her down for an explanation of why on earth they let me in this place. Really, people.

and I have no classes on Tuesdays. Huh. Well.

Money was a small source of panic yesterday, but has been resolved, I have work and my loans have come thru appropriately. I bought books! and I am having fun, in a general sense, though I have yet to have a single class.

What else is new....
Making bread! I have done this twice now- the bread is yummy and the recipe is easy, I just have to mind my time.
Books! I have bought the first two books for my classes- it is unclear how many of them I need for class yet, but things are going well, and I am happy.
In other news, I am happy and well. Go me. Also possibly going to be an usher at the new church. Huzzah!

The first four are looking like a likely schedule for me....

DVSC 30400 Introduction to the Study of Religion  *
Robinson, James
M/W 1:30-2:50 S106
PQ: Supporting course required of all M.A./AMRS/M.DIV. students.
BIBL 43200 Colloquium: Ancient Christianity
Mitchell, Margaret
W/F 4:00-5:50 S403
A critical reading of influential narratives-both ancient and modern-of "the rise of Christianity" in the first four centuries, in interaction with selected primary sources from antiquity illuminating crucial issues (e.g. demographics, conversion, persecution, martyrdom, asceticism, women's participation, ecclesiological and ritual structures, intellectual lineages), personalities (.e.g. Ignatius, Perpetua and Felicitas, Irenaeus, Antony, Eusebius, Constantine, Augustine) and events. On-going reflection on the nature of historiography itself.
Ident. HCHR 43200
BIBL 34000 Introduction to Biblical Hebrew 2
Thomas, Ben
M/W/F 8:00-8:50 S208
PQ: BIBL 33900
20100. Intermediate Greek I: Plato. PQ: GREK 10300 or equivalent. We read Plato’s text with a view to understanding both the grammatical constructions and the artistry of the language. We also give attention to the dramatic qualities of the dialogue. Grammatical exercises reinforce the learning of syntax. C. Faraone. Autumn.

GREK 20100 01 Intermediate Greek-1 100 Redfield James M 12:30PM-
1:20PM MWF Course 10 25 WB 103 22
Topic: Plato
 
GREK 20100 02 Intermediate Greek-1 100 Nutzman Megan 11:30AM-
12:20PM MWF Course 5 20 HM 135 22
Topic: Plato

Things I also would like to look at
THEO 43102 Early Modern Catholicism
Schreiner, Susan
M/W 10:00-11:20 S201
This course examines the Catholic reformation as well as the thought of Ignatius of Loyola, Teresa of Avila and the Inquisition of Francisca de los Apostoles. The course adopts the perspective that this era laid the foundations of early modernity in terms of science, technology, the development of the modern state, and the impact of humanism.
THEO 45401 A Scandal for Gentiles and Jews: The Body of Christ and the Body of Scripture in Early Christianity
Otten, Willemien/Nirenberg David
TH 1:30-4:20 S208
This course will focus on the challenges that Christianity's belief in the incarnation posed for ancient readers of scripture, both Jewish and Gentile, in order to ask what the consequences of these challenges were for the development of Christian approaches to the Hebrew Bible, ranging from tendencies in early Christianity to relinquish the Old Testament to reading it hence forth exclusively through a Christological lens. Special attention will be given to dualist perspectives and their alternatives in late antiquity (Paul, Philo, Marcion, Ignatius, Justin, Augustine) but the course will also deal with modern echoes in Von Harnack, Barth and Bultmann.
Ident. HCHR 45401/HIST 66601/SCTH 45401
AASR 41100 Introduction to Max Weber *
Riesebrodt, Martin
F 1:30-4:20 SS 302
The class offers an introduction to Weber's most important writings from all periods of his life. We focus on four major themes: 1. The early texts on the decline of the Roman Empire and the agrarian question in German, 2. The methodological writings, 3. The Economic Ethics of World Religions, 4. Major sections of Economy & Societym, and 5. Political writings.
Ident. SOCI 40110
LATN 25200 01 Medieval Latin 100 Allen Michael I. 12:00PM-
1:20PM TTh Course 8 25 JRL 207 20



HCHR 53501 Religious Thought in the Later Middle Ages
Fulton, Rachel
T/TH 1:30-2:50 ARR
Derided for centuries as a period of decline, the later Middle Ages are now generally recognized as a period of exceptional flowering in the religious thought and practice of the Christian West. This course seeks to introduce students to some of the great textual works of the period while at the same time situating them within the social, intellectual, practical and liturgical concerns of their day. Larger issues to be addressed include the relationship between mysticism, theology and devotion; the role of women, laypeople and the deviotio moderna in the development of new devotional ideals; and the tensions between aesthetics, visions, cult and scripture as sources of inspiration and authority. Readings will include works from the thirteenth through the fifteenth centuries and (in translation) from both Latin and the vernaculars.
Ident. HIST 53501
THEO 30200 History of Christian Thought II
Otten, Willemien
TH 9:00-11:50 S200
This second class in the History of Christian Thought sequence deals with the period from Late Antiquity until the end of the Early Middle Ages, stretching roughly from 450 through 1350. The following authors and themes will be analyzed and discussed: 1. The transition from Roman antiquity to the medieval period: Boethius and Cassiodorus. 2. The rise of asceticism in the West: the Rule of St. Benedict and Gregory the Great. 3. Connecting East and West: Dionysius the Areopagite and John Scottus Eriugena. 4. Monastic and Scholastic paragons: Anselm of Canterbury, Peter Abelard. 5. High-medieval monastic developments: Cistercians (Bernad of Clairvaux) and Victorines (Hugh and Richard of St. Victor) beguines (Hadewijch) and mendicants (Bonaventure). 6. Scholastic synthesis and spiritual alternatives: Thomas Aquinas, Marguerite Porete and Eckhart.
Ident. HCHR 30200
THEO 43102 Early Modern Catholicism
Schreiner, Susan
M/W 10:00-11:20 S201
This course examines the Catholic reformation as well as the thought of Ignatius of Loyola, Teresa of Avila and the Inquisition of Francisca de los Apostoles. The course adopts the perspective that this era laid the foundations of early modernity in terms of science, technology, the development of the modern state, and the impact of humanism.
Ident. HCHR 43102
Barth's Church Dogmatics