forgive me for not reading
I'm taking a course on theological librarianship through ATLA and University of Illinois Urbana/Champlain. I enjoyed the following snippet from a book on medieval libraries:
On the Monday after the first Sunday in Lent, before brethren come into the Chapter House, the librarian (custos librorum) shall have a carpet laid down, and all the books got together upon it, except those which the year previous had been assigned for reading. These the brethren are to bring with them, when they come into the chapter house, each his book in his hand....
Then the librarian shall read a statement as to the manner in which the brethren have had books during the past year. As each brother hears his name pronounced, he is to give back the book which had been entrusted to him for reading; and he whose conscience accuses him of not having read through the book which he had received, is to fall on his face, confess his fault, and entreat forgiveness.
The librarian shall make a fresh distribution of books, namely a different volume to each brother for his reading.
From Archbishop Lanfranc's statute for English Benedictines, dated 1070; quoted on page 35 of Clark, J. W. Libraries in the Medieval and Renaissance Periods. The Rede Lecture, 1894. Chicago: Argonaut, Inc., 1968. (Google Books)
Imagine the difference such a practice would make in theological education today. While I know that to be competent in biblical studies or theology, one must be familiar with an array of books from multiple disciplines, imagine what it would be like to assign a single book by a master theologian to each individual student, who would then be responsible for reading the book--devouring it. I have so many books on my shelves that I have not yet even tasted, let alone devoured.
Another quote is worth noting. This one is from a letter written by Sidonius Apollinaris to Nymphidius (ca.
ad 472):
It is high time for you to send the book back; if you liked it, you must have had enough of it by now; if you dislike it, more than enough. Whichever it be, you have now to clear your reputation. If you mean to delay the return of a volume for which I have to ask you, I shall think that you care more for the parchment than for the work. Farewell.
Sidonius Apollinaris, Letters. Tr. O.M. Dalton (1915) vol. 2. p. 51; Book V (Tertullian.org)
Part of this quote was printed on the overdue notices put out by the British library at some time or another (see p. 52 in John B. Trotti, “The Theological Library: In Touch With the Witnesses,” in
Christian Librarianship: Essays On The Integration of Faith and Profession, Ed. Gregory A. Smith. Jefferson, N.C.: Macfarland, 2002, 48-54).
It seems that not much has changed over the years, when it comes to overdue books!
Labels: books, library
New Testament Reading List?
Has anyone developed a reading list that would help someone to become conversant with the main issues of the field? What are the must reads? What books would you expect someone graduating with a PhD in New Testament studies to have read and gained understanding?
Please respond or blog with your answers.
Labels: books
For Sale: Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (vols. 1, 2, 4)
Forgive the shameless self-promotion. I'm selling three volumes of the
Dictionary of Classical Hebrew on
Amazon.com for $100 each. Check out the price listings at used.addall.com:
While $100 is not cheap on a scholar's budget, the price is not bad in comparison to others. These volumes are nearly new. They only have a few bumped corners and very light shelf-ware. All three volumes are listed on my
Amazon Storefront.
David J. A. Clines described the method behind the dictionary's madness in
On the Way to the Postmodern: Old Testament Essays 1967-1998, Volume 2 (JSOTSup, 292; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1998), 602-12
[link]. See also reviews/critiques
here,
here and
here.
Labels: books, Hebrew, sale
also the books, and above all the parchments
Here's a sermon to validate the bibliophiles:
C. H. Spurgeon, A Sermon (No. 542), delivered on Sunday Morning, November 29th, 1863, at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.
The text is
2 Timothy 4:13. Here's an excerpt:
II. We will LOOK AT HIS BOOKS. We do not know what the books were about, and we can only form some guess as to what the parchments were. Paul had a few books which were left, perhaps wrapped up in the cloak, and Timothy was to be careful to bring them. Even an apostle must read. Some of our very ultra Calvinistic brethren think that a minister who reads books and studies his sermon must be a very deplorable specimen of a preacher. A man who comes up into the pulpit, professes to take his text on the spot, and talks any quantity of nonsense, is the idol of many. If he will speak without premeditation, or pretend to do so, and never produce what they call a dish of dead men's brains-oh! that is the preacher. How rebuked are they by the apostle! He is inspired, and yet he wants books! He has been preaching at least for thirty years, and yet he wants books! He had seen the Lord, and yet he wants books! He had had a wider experience than most men, and yet he wants books! He had been caught up into the third heaven, and had heard things which it was unlawful for a men to utter, yet he wants books! He had written the major part of the New Testament, and yet he wants books! The apostle says to Timothy and so he says to every preacher, "Give thyself unto reading." The man who never reads will never be read; he who never quotes will never be quoted. He who will not use the thoughts of other men's brains, proves that he has no brains of his own. Brethren, what is true of ministers is true of all our people. You need to read. Renounce as much as you will all light literature, but study as much as possible sound theological works, especially the Puritanic writers, and expositions of the Bible. We are quite persuaded that the very best way for you to be spending your leisure, is to be either reading or praying. You may get much instruction from books which afterwards you may use as a true weapon in your Lord and Master's service. Paul cries, "Bring the books"-join in the cry.
Our second remark is, that the apostle is not ashamed to confess that he does read. He is writing to his young son Timothy. Now, some old preachers never like to say a thing which will let the young ones into their secrets. They suppose they must put on a very dignified air, and make a mystery of their sermonizing; but all this is alien from the spirit of truthfulness. Paul wants books, and is not ashamed to tell Timothy that he does; and Timothy may go and tell Tychicus and Titus if he likes-Paul does not care.
Paul herein is a picture of industry. He is in prison; he cannot preach: what will he do? As he cannot preach, he will read. As we read of the fishermen of old and their boats. The fishermen were gone out of them. What were they doing? Mending their nets. So if providence has laid you upon a sick bed, and you cannot teach your class-if you cannot be working for God in public, mend your nets by reading. If one occupation is taken from you, take another, and let the books of the apostle read you a lesson of industry.
He says, "Especially the parchments." I think the books were Latin and Greek works, but that the parchments were Oriental; and possibly they were the parchments of Holy Scripture; or as likely, they were his own parchments, on which were written the originals of his letters which stand in our Bible as the Epistles to the Ephesians, the Philippians, the Colossians, and so on. Now, it must be "Especially the parchments" with all our reading; let it be especially the Bible. Do you attach no weight to this advice? This advice is more needed in England now than almost at any other time, for the number of persons who read the Bible, I believe, is becoming smaller every day. Persons read the views of their denominations as set forth in the periodicals; they read the views of their leader as set forth in his sermons or his works, but the Book, the good old Book, the divine fountain-head from which all revelation wells up-this is too often left. You may go to human puddles, until you forsake the clear crystal stream which flows from the throne of God. Read the books, by all manner of means, but especially the parchments. Search human literature, if you will, but especially stand fast by that Book which is infallible, the revelation of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/0542.htmLabels: books, library
Williams' Hebrew Syntax (3rd ed.)
John Beckman, a graduate of Gordon-Conwell and a PhD student at Harvard has recently revised and expanded Ronald J. Williams'
Hebrew Syntax (previous editions published as
Hebrew Syntax: An Outline).
I used Williams' second edition when I took intermediate Hebrew, and since then I've found it a helpful quick reference when faced with translation decisions.
Beckman clarifies Williams' work by revising and expanding definitions and explanations of grammatical phenomena. He also directs the reader to additional discussions in
GKC,
Joüon,
IBHS,
BHRG and
GBHS, and adds footnotes that point to developments in Hebrew grammar since the second edition (1976). In spite of these various changes to this new edition, Beckman has been careful to maintain the original numbering of Williams' outline (though he does subdivide certain sections). This enables one to easily look up references to Williams' outline made by other scholars.
For the intermediate student of Hebrew grammar, this book promises to provide an effective introduction to more advanced grammatical concepts.
As an added bonus, John Beckman has released a PDF outline of all the grammatical categories found in Williams' outline (similar to the grammatical outline found in the back of Wallace's
Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics). This outline, along with PDF's of various public domain books and articles on Hebrew grammar are available at his new site,
HebrewSyntax.org.
Labels: bibliography, books, Hebrew
Of the making of many books . . .
If my library were to be incarnated as a creature such as myself, this is what it would look like.
Image courtesy of
LibraryThing,
AndreaMosaic, and
my library.
See LibraryThing
post.
See
4:14's tutorial.
Labels: books, nifty
Patrick's James the Lord's Brother - rough draft in HTML
Previously I posted on finding a PDF scan of William Patrick's
James the Lord's Brother (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1906) on the Internet Archive (
see previous post). The work is still available as a
35MB PDF, but I have done a rough scan and edit of the work into HTML (
AVAILABLE HERE).
This is a very rough scan. I have not proofread it, and the formatting of verse references used in the original text did not scan well (as of now there is no dividing punctuation between all chapter and verse numbers). This draft has other formatting issues with italics, etc. So, be sure to check this scan against the PDF. Also, the Scripture and subject indexes are neither formatted nor proofread.
I've assigned "anchors" to all page numbers, so if you're interested in citing a particular page in this document, just add # followed immediately by the page number in the document url. Example:
http://jamesthejust.oldinthenew.org/patrick.html#98 will take you to pg. 98 (Ch. 5 on "The Epistle of James").
Again, for the sake of any Luddites, here are a few links for obtaining a paper copy of Patrick's work:
Open WorldCat /
Amazon /
used.addall.com /
Bookfinder*After looking around a bit, I also found
F. J. A. Hort's Judaistic Christianity (London: Macmillan, 1894) on the internet archives. Perhaps I will be able to OCR scan this and make it available as well.
Labels: books, Epistle_of_James, historical_james, resources
Converting Excess to Access... Theological Book Network
Did you get a bunch of books for Christmas? Are you wondering where you are going to put them all? Thinking about weeding out your library? Is that Christmas money burning a hole in your pocket? Do you care about the theological instruction of Christian leaders in the Majority World?
If you answered "Yes" to any two of the questions above, then you should consider donating either books or funds to the
Theological Book Network.
Theological Book Network's Mission:To provide quality academic books and journals to the libraries of Majority World seminaries, colleges and universities that provide theological training toward the development of leaders, teachers and clergy in the Christian Church.
How Does it Work?The Theological Book Network collects academic books and journals from Western theological libraries, publishers and scholars. All donations are brought to our warehouse where they are sorted and packed for shipment. TBN works with regional networks of institutions for efficiency and breadth of distribution. Recipient institutions share some financial, logistical and administrative responsibilities for the shipment.
If you attend or work at a school with a theological library (
that is not listed here) then please let the library staff know about this service. Pass the word along to your professors, colleagues and classmates as well.
The headline of TBN's site reads "Converting EXCESS in our world to ACCESS in the rest of the world." Take a look. I know that I will.
Labels: books, giving, library
