Dunelm Road

I’m starting up latin this autumn, so I’ve been accumulating word lists to study, resources, etc.  Here are a couple items that I’ve found helpful so far.  Definitely pass along other resources you know. 

Glossaries:  Here are a couple of glossaries that seem to have the most words listed. 

• Bible History Latin
• Classics Unveiled

Verb Conjugations:

• Ecce Romani I: principle parts of major verbs
• Verbix: full conjugation of verbs based on entering 1st sing. form
• Wikipedia: Gives a nicely formatted summary

2. Irenaeus’ Trinitarianism in his Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching.

As in my earlier post about Christology, we saw that Irenaeus held a high view of Christ along with the Father. He also notes the Spirit as equal with the Father and Son within his ‘rule of faith’. Again this is a clear statement of Trinitarian thought well before Nicea, which informs directly his salvation history that comes out in the rest of the work. (Carl has a few good comments on this on my last post.)

3. Now, that we may not suffer ought of this kind, we must needs hold the rule of the faith without deviation, and do the commandments of God, believing in God and fearing Him as Lord and loving Him as Father.
…
5. Thus then there is shown forth7171Or “shown to be”: cf. V, xviii. 1: “Et sic unus Deus Pater ostenditur (= δείκνυται).” One God, the Father, not made, invisible, creator of all things; above whom there is no other God, and after whom there is no other God. And, since God is rational (λογικός), therefore by the Word (λόγος) He created the things that were made; and God is Spirit, and by the Spirit He adorned all things: as also the prophet says: By the word of the Lord were the heavens established, and by his spirit all their power. Since then the Word establishes, that is to say, gives body and grants the reality of being, and the Spirit gives order and form to the diversity of the powers; rightly and fittingly is the Word called the Son, and the Spirit the Wisdom of God. Well also does Paul His apostle say: One God, the Father, who is over all and through all and in its all (Eph 4.6). For over all is the Father; and through all is the Son, for through Him all things were made by the Father; and in us all is the Spirit, who cries Abba Father, and fashions man into the likeness of God. Now the Spirit shows forth the Word, and therefore the prophets announced the Son of God; and the Word utters the Spirit, and therefore is Himself the announcer of the prophets, and leads and draws man to the Father.

6. This then is the order of the rule of our faith, and the foundation of the building, and the stability of our conversation: God, the Father, not made, not material, invisible; one God, the creator of all things: this is the first point of our faith. The second point is: The Word of God, Son of God, Christ Jesus our Lord, who was manifested to the prophets according to the form of their prophesying and according to the method of the dispensation of the Father: through whom all things were made; who also at the end of the times, to complete and gather up all things, was made man among men, visible and tangible, in order to abolish death and show forth life and produce a community of union between God and man. And the third point is: The Holy Spirit, through whom the prophets prophesied, and the fathers learned the things of God, and the righteous were led forth into the way of righteousness; and who in the end of the times was poured out in a new way a upon mankind in all the earth, renewing man unto God.

7. And for this reason the baptism of our regeneration proceeds through these three points: God the Father bestowing on us regeneration through His Son by the Holy Spirit. For as many as carry (in them) the Spirit of God are led to the Word, that is to the Son; and the Son brings them to the Father; and the Father causes them to possess incorruption. Without the Spirit it is not possible to behold the Word of God, nor without the Son can any draw near to the Father for the knowledge of the Father is the Son, and the knowledge of the Son of God is through the Holy Spirit; and, according to the good pleasure of the Father, the Son ministers and dispenses the Spirit to whomsoever the Father wills and as He wills.

Introduction
1. Christology

India pulled out a nail-biter today against Pakistan in the World Twenty20 championship. One of the other sports that I’ve been watching is the Rugby World Cup. As with other World Cup championships, they only come around every four years. I was in Australia about 12 years ago, around the time of the WC then, and picked up an interest in the sport. The Six Nations Cup plays each winter/spring, and that was fun to watch as well.

Each team has played about 3 games, and the US is all but out of it. They lost to England and Tonga and are expected to lose both of their next two games. However, the basic analysis is that they are performing better than expected, so that’s better than nothing. So, with not much to gain interest there, I’ve been obviously following England, who were the World Cup champs the last time around. England was trounced by South Africa earlier last week, which sent up some red flags. But they won squarely over Samoa Saturday to stay in the hunt. They aren’t the favorites to win this year, and must win their next game to move into the quarter finals.

I noticed this article today about … Foreign students in Britain to be schooled in queuing. Looks like one more thing to learn. I can say that when I was in Berlin, they were not as proper about queuing as here, and it was a little discombobulating. So, I suppose that means that the system here is sinking in.

For those starting up in Durham’s theology program this autumn, you should go ASAP to the Palace Green library and request a locker in room 9. Once term starts those things will be gone within a week or so. Even if you plan to study from home or somewhere else, it’s handy to have a place near the department to store books, etc.

I just came across a blog focusing specifically on Theological German: Theological German/Theologisches Deutsch. I believe the idea is to post a couple of paragraphs a week from some of Bonhoeffer’s writings with important vocab layed out just below. It seems like a helpful tool to flex your muscles regularly but not overwhelmingly in German. I’ll definitely make it in my blog reader list.

HT: Cafe Apocalypsis

So one of my resolutions for this year in England is to more fully engage in the local sporting culture. This primarily consists of watching regular amounts of local sports on the telly. The one sport that I know the least about is Cricket. I didn’t really give the Cricket World Cup earlier this year much attention, but it turns out that they are playing the World Twenty20 Cricket 2007 right now. The Twenty20 version is the same as normal Cricket events, except each team only gets one innings (sic) of 20 overs a piece. While that may not mean much to you, for us it means that the games last about as long as a US MLB game instead of 1 to 5 days. So, these games are much easier to watch (and gain permission to watch from your wife). England didn’t do as well as hoped, but they did okay. I watched India beat Australia today, which was unexpected, but it was quite a good match. On Monday the final will be played between Pakistan and India.

After watching several games over the last couple of weeks, I think I’ve got the basics down and even a little strategy. One help was watching games with the wikipedia article open to clarify things. I’ve enjoyed watching the games, and hope to keep up with it (at least at the World Cup level) even if/when we leave the UK. Within England, Durham County supposedly has quite a good team. Their season is all but wrapped up now, so I’ll have to go see one of their games live next year.

After dealing with British Gas’ ineptitude since we arrived in the UK, we finally have received the last ‘bill’ for gas today–though we never owed them anything. See my prior two posts on the saga: 1st and 2nd. After my 2nd post, I thought–again wrong–that everything had virtually been solved, but I was wrong. Even though everyone we spoke with confirmed that BG had NEVER been the supplier for our meter number, they continued to send us bills, shut off notices, legal warnings, etc. I finally contacted Energy Watch to report the complaint. I filled out a short form online, and received a call a day or so later to clarify the issues. Within one week, I received a call from BG apologising for the issue and conceding yet again that they were in fact not supplying this address and shouldn’t be sending us bills. We then received the ‘final bill’ showing a balance of £0. I should have learned my lesson after the first two posts, but it seems like things are finally resolved, once and for good! I should have contacted Energy Watch months ago.

1. Irenaeus’ Christology in his Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching.

Here’s my first installment of a little more in depth look at this short work by Irenaeus (here’s my primary post).

It seems popular these days in popular sources to say that Jesus was named a God at Nicea (325 CE). This neglects the fact that the greatest challenge to orthodoxy in the first couple of centuries were battles against his humanity (e.g., the Gnostics) rather than his divinity. At any rate, Irenaeus gives a clear indication about his view of Jesus’ divinity in paragraph 47, which is almost 150 years earlier than Nicea.

47. So then the Father is Lord and the Son is Lord, and the Father is God and the Son is God; for that which is begotten of God is God. And so in the substance and power of His being there is shown forth one God; but there is also according to the economy of our redemption both Son and Father. Because to created things the Father of all is invisible and unapproachable, therefore those who are to draw near to God must have their access to the Father through the Son. And yet more plainly and evidently does David speak concerning the Father and the Son as follows: Thy throne, O God is for ever and ever: thou hast loved righteousness and hated unrighteousness: The omission of “thy God” after “God” may be an oversight. therefore God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. (Ps. xlv. 6 f.) For the Son, as being God, receives from the Father, that is, from God, the throne of the everlasting kingdom, and the oil of anointing above His fellows. The oil of anointing is the Spirit, wherewith He has been anointed; and His fellows are prophets and righteous men and apostles, and all who receive the fellowship of His kingdom, that is to say, His disciples.

Series Introduction

I’m working on my chapter on Irenaeus’ soteriology, and have been reading his Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching the past few days, so I thought I’d catalog a few notes. It also turns out that Scot McKnight is also starting up a series on this writing.

Brief background: It was written some time around 190 C.E. in Greek, but the only extant version is an Armenian translation dating from around 600 C.E. in a 13th century manuscript. It’s a more positive/constructive version of his theology as opposed to Against Heresies which is more defensive and polemical in stance. That is not to say that AH is not constructive but it’s purpose is more to defeat certain ideologies. DAP also serves to refute those heresies, but it is not focused on them per se and is a little bit more user friendly for the average reader. The work consists of 100 ‘chapters’, which really more like paragraphs (as numbered by Harnack and now followed by most). As such, it is a nice, short introduction to Irenaeus’ thought.

Major Modern Translations:
CCEL
John Behr, 2001
Iain MacKenzie, uses Armitage’s 1920’s translation
Joseph Smith, 1952, Ancient Christian Writers Series 16
(I’ve used the bottom two, but I would expect that the Behr version would be the most readable since these while understandable use archaic language periodically. Also, Behr is a well-known Irenaeus scholar.)

I hope to post about a few interesting ideas of his and possibly summarise some of his key points:
1. Christology