I didn't quite realize, having not looked at it since Thursday, just how rough my rough draft of the exegesis paper was. I only had time for the hastiest of revisions this morning, but at least what I turned in didn't look quite so bad. I'll get a week to polish it up when the professor gives it back after break, so I'm not too worried. The paper's citations are the real problem area, since I have never used the style the professor wants.
In the meantime, before I go home, I get a nice opportunity to get extra work, since many people are leaving tomorrow and I will be here until Wednesday afternoon. At the moment, I have picked up 8 hours worth of shifts over Tuesday and Wednesday, which is a nice bonus to the paycheck I'll be getting around Christmas.
- Posted by at 6:16 PM
This year, I finished the drafts of the major term papers at a reasonable time of 10:30 the night before they were due. That leaves some time for some editing and cleaning up of the text before it gets turned in.
- Posted by at 12:31 AM
The University's Fall performance this semester is The Orestia, a Greek play by Aeschylus. The whole work is a trilogy, lasting about 3.5 hours, and in our case involving a cast of about 50 when all the chorus members were included. The play traces the story of Orestes, and also includes notable other figures from Greek mythology.
I enjoyed the performance, though at times I got a silent chuckle knowing few other institutes of higher education would dare to touch this play, since it is decidedly un-PC, not only with regard to women and the view of life, but also the underlying theme that there is some higher justice that demands satisfaction.
At the same time, it was possible to nod in agreement with a good deal of the ancient Greek thought running through the plot, and as someone else nearby noted, Greek theater really needs to be seen, not read, to be appreciated.
- Posted by at 11:18 PM
I don't know why papers are always such a massive struggle, but here we are again. My original plan, formulated last week, was to be done with my 15-20 page paper on Ezekiel by Monday, and then commence work on my 14-16 page Vatican II paper. Except that the first paper dragged on to today, and is now 25 pages in length, while the latter has yet to be researched.
The situation is still not impossible, as three solid days of plugging away should easily allow me to finish a paper of that length, especially since it's only a historical survey of the liturgical reform, and after that, the rest of the semester is simply waiting for final exams.
I did run into something of a speed bump on Tuesday by wiping out on my bike, injuring both hands to a slight degree, by landing on the palm of one and slicing up the other on the knuckles. I am very thankful for Advil and liquid bandages at the moment, since typing would be rather difficult without those aids.
- Posted by at 10:04 PM
Third semester, third try at exegesis. This time, the passage must be from the book of Ezekiel, which ought to provide for a very interesting time, seeing as this book has had an interesting history. The professor says that at one point, Jewish men had to reach a certain age to reach this book, and given some of the bizarre behavior some exhibited while reading it, it could not be read alone.
As it turns out, I've put my foot into the muck again in choosing to focus on some part of Ezekiel 16, which is the famous chapter about the harlot Jerusalem, the longest single allegory in the Bible. Naturally, the feminists don't particularly like this chapter, as a scan through the scholarly articles revealed a delightfully titled one called "The B---- had it Coming to Her"
Currently, I am debating whether to choose some part of 16:35-52, 53-58, or 59-63. Right now, my choice is leaning toward 35-43, not only because scholars have more to say about this part, but because it tends to fit into a theme for the semester:
"Wherefore, O harlot, hear the word of the LORD: Thus says the Lord GOD, Because your shame was laid bare and your nakedness uncovered in your harlotries with your lovers, and because of all your idols, and because of the blood of your children that you gave to them, therefore, behold, I will gather all your lovers, with whom you took pleasure, all those you loved and all those you loathed; I will gather them against you from every side, and will uncover your nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness. And I will judge you as women who break wedlock and shed blood are judged, and bring upon you the blood of wrath and jealousy. And I will give you into the hand of your lovers, and they shall throw down your vaulted chamber and break down your lofty places; they shall strip you of your clothes and take your fair jewels, and leave you naked and bare. They shall bring up a host against you, and they shall stone you and cut you to pieces with their swords. And they shall burn your houses and execute judgments upon you in the sight of many women; I will make you stop playing the harlot, and you shall also give hire no more. So will I satisfy my fury on you, and my jealousy shall depart from you; I will be calm, and will no more be angry. Because you have not remembered the days of your youth, but have enraged me with all these things; therefore, behold, I will requite your deeds upon your head, says the Lord GOD.
- Posted by at 1:28 AM
Only 2 students came into the computer labs during my 4-hour shift today. In fact, our logs have only 5 people showing up to the main lab all day. The professors must have given them an easy first week, though Sr. Johanna, who happened to drop by, assured me she has already moved proactively to fix that.
More will likely show up as the semester progresses. Until then, it's an excellent block of time to do work.
- Posted by at 8:45 PM
Who would ever figure that on this campus, I would end up being blessed by having a counterbalancing weight to all of the charismatic stuff that goes on around here. A traditionalist has shown up on campus who, to put it mildly, is a good reminder of the dangers of wandering too far to the extremes of Catholic thought. Now, I know there's room for disagreement, but a style of bluntness combined with highly critical thoughts on certain figures (e.g. John Paul II, von Balthasar, and to a lesser extent Benedict XVI), has a tendency to be off-putting.
Despite this, I expect they will be a very helpful source for all things traditional, while at the same time acting to temper some rather uncharitable leanings in that direction, which are often fired up by the goings on on campus.
- Posted by at 5:43 PM
Normally, the first day of classes isn't quite so chaotic a day. This year set out to break all precedents in terms of the amount of things I had to do, including things entirely unforseen until about 1:00 this afternoon.
The day began easily enough, with the first of two hour long shifts manning a computer lab. After that, I picked up the tutoring paperwork and filled out the paperwork to pick up the meal plan I use to cover dinner (amazing how I just didn't find the time to sign up for it during orientation week, when the opportunity was available).
Following a brief trip home to grab a forgotten watch and voice recorder, I headed over to the 12:45 class, which was supposed to be Pastoral and Spiritual Direction. Color me somewhat surprised that, at 12:45, there were 2 bodies in the classroom, neither of whom was the sister assigned to teach it. A few questions revealed that the class had been cancelled, but nobody had notified the 3 students signed up for it, nor had it been taken off the course listings for this semester.
This set in motion a quick search for a replacement class, the only suitable one of which was closed. That forced a trip to the registrar to pick up a form to force into it, followed by a period of camping outside Dr. Martin's office so he could sign it. It's all signed now and things are in order, but I am a bit miffed at having missed the first lecture due to a lack of notice about the other class's cancellation, since both run during the same time slot.
Another trip was made to the registrar to deliver a letter to financial aid to receive a scholarship, along with filing a request to get the financial aid money disbursed and get a book voucher so I could purchase a new set of books for the class. Along the way, the tutoring form got dropped off, and time sheets were signed for work.
On a sidenote, an interesting challenge has now developed. Owing to the schedules of my classes and work, of the 25 daily Masses offered between Monday and Friday here and at St. Peter's, only 9 are actually feasible, and on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, my only option is the 6:30 AM on campus. Those who have any idea of my habits know that 6:30 AM is a challenge for me even to be functioning, let alone up, showered, clothed, and at school. On the plus side, 6:30 AM is a musicless Mass that is likely to get my day off to a good start, so making the sacrifice on sleep (or staying up late, more likely), may well be worth it.
Another curious coincidence is that the busiest day of the week in my schedule occurs on Wednesday, in the exact middle of the week, when I have 6 hours between classes and work. The lightest day is Thursday, which has only 2.5 hours committed. Friday comes in a close second at 3 hours, followed by Tuesday with 3.5 hours and then Monday with 4.5 hours. Right now, it looks like I'll be on campus from:
Monday: 6:30A - 7:00P
Tuesday: 6:30A - 7:00P
Wednesday: 6:30A - 8:00P
Thursday: 10:00A - 7:00P
Friday: 8:00A - 7:00P
Saturday: 2:00P - 6:00P
Sunday I will take a day of rest and not show up here at all. Even though these look like long days, except for Saturday, nothing is bigger than a 2-hour block, and all of my afternoons are pretty wide open if I happen to want to do something else. It's going to be an interesting semester to manage, time-wise.
- Posted by at 6:18 PM
The orientation is now basically finished, with just one more big event tomorrow before all is said and done. While it was a hectic week, it went mostly okay, excepting my usual dislike of certain elements that will remain nameless, if not guitarless.
At any rate, among the new students this year, the following have been observed:
- At least 2 GNTs from my home region of Western New York (yet to find a Buffalonian proper, though)
- A student who knows Thomas Howard, author of this summer's Sacraments text, Chance or the Dance
- A student who knows Dr. Alice von Hildebrand
- A fellow graduate traditionalist who makes me look like a moderate
I have already spent some extended conversation time with the last aforementioned student, and I think we are going to hit it off very well over the rest of my time here.
As sidenotes from the week's experience...
- The praise and worship style of music is and likely will remain something that does nothing for me other than cause ringing ears and desires to be elsewhere. Moderation in all things apparently has a dispensation here when it comes to musical volume.
- Dietrich von Hildebrand is likely to be someone I read more often, not only due to a book of his I read during the week, but also hearing some rave reviews about his philosophy from one of the MA philosophy students.
- The "Lord's Day" celebrations here definitely raised concern, not only with me but several other students incoming. The format approximates the Mass a little too close for comfort.
- More than ever, I come to the conviction that there is something amiss in the charismatic movement in general, due to the inability to reconcile the supposedly Holy Spirit-led actions with the disobedience to the Church's liturgical and disciplinary documents that such actions entail. Even ignorance of them, which I'm sure is the case with several, is no excuse in this, since the Spirit is aware of them and is unlikely to be actively encouraging dissension from them.
- Posted by at 12:42 AM
First day down, three long days to go before life starts getting back to normal. Thus far, it has gone pretty well, though I would probably prefer more silence than is possible at the moment.
- Posted by at 1:49 AM
Having just finished the semester, I finally got a chance to do an inventory on my assignments to see how I did. All of the papers got done on time - with the exception of one in which I had a 1-day extension - and my grand total there was 107 pages double-spaced on 17 papers.
The reading went less well, as I only read just over 4000 pages of the 7000-7600 pages assigned (the variance is due to one book that was more "suggested" reading than required). The word "overkill" comes to mind when looking at the reading. Actually, that should be reserved to the professor who assigned over 4600 pages in his class. The other three averaged only 1000 each, and even Dr. Hahn, normally considered among the more reading-intensive professors, paled this semester in comparison, as he assigned just over 1700 pages.
Anyway, this summer, I will get to work on clearing the roughly 3600 pages I didn't read, mainly since almost all of this stuff looked good, but there just wasn't time in the semester to manage all that reading, all those papers, and the reading and research required for 3 term papers.
- Posted by at 2:51 PM
An extra day or so would have been great, but life is what it is. The finals went decently well, I suppose, as I wrote roughly 32 pages worth in blue books today in about 4 hours for a pair of exams. My writing hand is shot, as is to be expected. As it was, I moved one exam to give myself a 2 hour reprieve in between, bought a new pen with a comfort grip, and also violated my usual policy of no painkillers by taking a total of 2 Advil during the course of the day to deal with the pain in my writing hand. And it still almost wasn't enough. I hope I don't end up with this type of situation again in the future.
On the whole, however, the exams went reasonably well. I am only uncertain of one question out of 5 on the morning exam, and though my afternoon exam was a bit iffier in terms of details on history (I drew none of my strong questions, though I avoided having to do one of my weak ones), I think I wrote enough to get by. Thanks be to God - I'm pretty sure I had some help from on high untangling St. Bonaventure's theology today, as well as help in not freaking out.
- Posted by at 8:45 PM
In about 11 hours, I face the first of two grueling finals, a 2-hour long series of essays in Theological Foundations. Depending on which set of questions the professor selects, I'll write either 5 or 6 essays in total.
About 17 hours from now, I will finish up a 2-hour long essay exam in Historical Foundations, which will involve 3 essays in total out of a possible 16 selections on the study sheet, of which 6 will appear.
Thereafter, the semester is done. My ability to affect the outcome, at any rate, will be. Grades will probably take another 2 weeks to come through, and hopefully, they will be good.
Ora pro me!
- Posted by at 11:16 PM
Well, this time around, it appears that over the course of the semester, I left myself about 10 to 20 hours short of what I would need to get things done. This relates mostly to the one remaining paper I have that isn't done yet, and which ought to be done tomorrow at roughly 9:30 in the morning. I have a little extension on it, which I will probably exercise, but that will take away from study time for finals, both of which fall this Friday.
At least in some good news, I was able to convince one professor to move his exam from the 8:00 slot to the 2:30 slot in my case, thus avoiding the disaster of 4 hours of essay writing broken up by only a 30 minute break. As it stands now, I will get a 2 hour break to rest my hand. And just in case that's not enough, I bought one of those fancy comfort-grip pens to be on the safe side.
At any rate, there will now be a blogging break the rest of this week to write my last paper and study for my 2 essay finals.
- Posted by at 7:36 PM
The exegesis paper came back today. The professor seems to have liked it, and therefore, I am done with that class. Too bad it's the only one of the four that will never see the light of day on a graduate transcript, but then again, I needed to do well to avoid getting tossed out.
Three more classes to go. Two papers, 25-30 pages, 2 exams. The semester is over at 12:30 pm next Friday.
- Posted by at 9:34 PM
Tonight was a fine time to take a day to rest and relax before the tail end of the semester comes down in what will likely be my busiest week ever.
The first 2 of my 4 papers were done on time, taking care of 25 pages. 25-30 pages remain for this upcoming Tuesday, of which 10 will hopefully be dispatched by early Saturday (yeah right - if I ever have a major assignment done more than 2 days in advance, I'll probably pass out).
Following that will be two final exams next Friday, my only two this semester, although just for kicks, the school scheduled them one right after the other. My writing hand is going to be dead tired when my semester ends May 5 at 12:30. I'll be cramming the 20 or so possible essay questions that will be offered up for those 2 exams on Wednesday and Thursday of next week.
- Posted by at 10:56 PM
Leave it to the student body to make a farce out of two sacraments at one time. I should have known that the evening Mass would be trouble, given they were doing confirmations with the bishop there to administer the sacrament. I didn't count on the students managing to set a new low as far as my liturgical experience here goes (although had I been present at Easter Vigil, that may have been the low, what with the liturgical dancing that I'm told was there).
Almost as if by some twisted circumstance, a commenter recently made remarks about tongues being used during the Gloria. I hadn't noticed this before, but the girl next to me chose to make it loudly known that she was singing something other than the Gloria during it, as did a few other people nearby. And then of course, there was the applause called for in the program for the Mass after the candidates were presented - nothing I haven't seen before, but still annoying.
What really got to me was what happened once the bishop had finished. Even though there was nothing in the program to suggest it, virtually everybody in the pews stood up, clapped, cheered, whistled, whooped, and even a few cat calls were added in. It was like being at a football game instead of a Mass. Meanwhile, had I been spotted glued to my seat, my eyes would probably have looked like they were about to shoot fireballs. I have never had a situation at any Mass where I have felt so terrible as there - a weird mixture of anger, grief, and alienation, made worse by the tangible realization that I was about the only one abstaining. A silent protest is never something desirable during Mass.
What really shocks me is how this sort of reaction can go on at Mass. This is supposed to be among the most solemn things we do - and yet it ends up a banal affair with loud music, voices closer to shouting than singing, and numerous do-it-yourself elements. If there is a sense of the sacred, I have yet to find it, except for those times when serving when the Lord grants me the grace to shut out the entire thing.
I think that, barring any changes in the way the liturgy is run here, I am going to cease going to Masses here whenever the praise bands are playing. At this point, getting up at the crack of dawn sounds better than subjecting myself to this sort of spiritual torture.
End of rant (and yes, I am on a short string due to being tired).
- Posted by at 12:39 AM
Time flies...way too fast. In my usual procrastinating ways, I've now left myself open to the following list of deadlines:
April 21 - 12 to 15 page research paper on Faith & Reason dialectic in Theology and Scripture (Status - Researching)
April 25 - 10 page exegesis paper on Rom 2:1-6 (Status - Researched, 1 page written)
May 2 - 10 page book review on Eschatology, by Ratzinger (Status - Reading book, ~200 pages left)
May 2 - 15-20 page paper on some aspect of Catholic history (Status - not even started)
These papers are worth, respectively, 33%, 40%, 50%, and 20% of the grades in the classes they are matched with. It's definitely not a great-looking situation, although I'm not terribly worried about the Eschatology book review (I pulled off a 15 page review last semester in under a day from scratch - all I need to do is have the book done by that point), and the 15-20 page paper isn't exactly making me nervous, given the relatively low worth of the paper. The key is going to be making sure I have the first two substantially done or out of the way by Easter to give myself breathing room on the last two. It still wouldn't be fatal if I wasn't done, but I really would prefer not closing this semester like the last.
In more positive news, since last Friday, I have polished off 3 books for the Ratzinger class, and in addition, got started on the last 2. These 2 are essentially the last reading assignments, leaving me free to do some research work. It's going to be a fun time. Blogging will definitely be light for the next month. Prayers are most welcome.
- Posted by at 10:31 PM
Newspapers can be a source of controversy from time to time. Especially in a campus setting, when an article is written that touches a nerve with a fairly sizable contingent of the student body, in this case, the "music ministry".
An article was written that essentially takes the chapel to task for playing somewhat fast and loose with the liturgical guidelines on music, particularly the placement of the praise band - the sanctuary - and the sorts of instruments employed, as well as the general ignorance of those guidelines by some of those in charge.
Anyway, this was followed by a rebuttal, and now a rather sharp counter-rebuttal, which I have already heard rather unhappy people wanting to counter. Somehow, I don't think using the language "rape of the liturgy" was the best way to work constuctively on this, however much I sympathize with that assessment.
It will be interesting to see where this leads, and who gets the last word, seeing as the year is winding to a close.
N.B. - I will try to gather the relevant articles and update this post.
- Posted by at 4:29 PM
Every major research paper usually comes with its own set of crises. In this case, a major mind with regard to crafting an outline for the faith and reason paper. Frankly, I have neither the time nor the patience this semester to read the material thoroughly and derive a thesis to write about. So, in a moment of clarity, I threw out the old topic of evolution and decided upon a new one, on exegesis of Scripture, just three weeks before the due date. The good news here is, I have a rough outline with 8 itemized headings already - and just a page on each will already bring the paper very close to being done. Additionally, I already have resources from a previous class that can help, and I daresay finding books will not be too difficult.
In other news, having just read Martin Luther's treatise on Christian freedom, my lingering impression is of someone who has no idea what they're talking about. As far as I was concerned, the first part of the work reads almost exclusively as standard Protestant fare on faith and works, while part two in isolation is a very nearly Catholic presentation on the matter of works. Part two is not the Luther I often hear of - perhaps that's due to citing the Deuterocanon, or maybe it's because he calls everyone who wants to throw aside good works wicked. Don't even get the fundies started on his claim that ceremonies and fasting and all the rest are good and necessary. The idea there is workable except for the problematic idea of the human person as a divided entity which underlies the whole.
My fundamental observation, though, is that everything that went wrong in Luther's thought here is due to his misattribution of the Bride of Christ as the individual soul of the faithful, rather than the Church. Applying most of his ideas on justification and works to the Church instead of the individual, at least in my opinion, would make this treatise read within the Catholic tradition. Then again, this is only a first read, and I'm certainly no expert on Luther or ecclesiology. Any thoughts on this idea?
- Posted by at 1:50 AM
Spring break has finally arrived, granting me a little respite in the semester's hectic schedule. I'm staying in Steubenville, and will be attempting to get a modest bit of work done during the break. Not exactly too exciting, but I do NOT want to let an opportunity to get ahead slip away.
Over the course of the next week, this is my plan:
- Read 4 books, and do the corresponding 3-5 page reflection papers on each
- Finish research for my exegesis paper
- Write a draft of the exegesis paper
- Finish 1 Ratzinger book, and read another
- Begin researching my faith and reason paper
That's ambitious, especially since this is me, but if I can get all that done, it will take out between a quarter to a third of the term's remaining work. I would much rather be facing 3 papers in late April/early May without the weekly reading than face 4 papers along with the weekly reading.
At the same time, I don't plan on killing myself either. My bet is that if I simply go to the library every day when it opens (8:30) and stay until closing (4:30), I should be able to knock off the reading, research, and papers with ease, and leave the evenings open.
- Posted by at 12:45 AM
It's that time of the semester again...when I start thinking ahead to those end-of-semester papers that I've known about for nearly 2 months, but haven't done much towards yet. I may well be ahead of schedule.
For theological foundations, the objective is to write a 12 to 15 page paper on a topic that deals with one of the many dialectics between faith and reason. I've chosen to deal with the dialectic of "Theology and Science" and I intend to write about creation and evolution.
I need a minimum of five sources, so if anyone can recommend a useful one that deals with the subject, please leave a comment in the box. Articles are as welcome as books.
- Posted by at 9:27 PM
Franciscan's annual vocations fair came around yesterday, featuring a host of different orders manning a table. It seemed that about every other table was featuring a group of Benedictines or Dominicans. Most of them were passing out stuff - I think I ended up with about three books by the time I got out, and I never even looked into what the women's orders were passing out.
Although most of the orders participating were dressed either in habits or clericals - and on the younger side - apparently one group of sisters didn't get the memo, sending a pair of older women in ordinary getup. It hardly needs saying that they were receiving less interest. Although there were a few cassocks floating around, the FSSPs, who were listed as one of the participants, never showed, leaving the Dominicans to win the POD dressing title.
Incidentally, Fr. Leon from the Buffalo Diocese was also there. It was apparently his last day as vocation director, as he's been assigned as a pastor in a new parish - an abrupt shift, seeing as he was confirmed in that post and appointed to a different parish less than 6 months ago. In a less than hopeful sign, he has no idea who his successor will be, and it doesn't sound like one has been named. In these days of declining vocations, I don't think it's prudent to let that post sit vacant.
- Posted by at 8:51 PM
In the last two weeks, I will have read nearly 1000 pages from my books. And I will still not be caught up. There is no rest for the wicked, as they say. Andy, if you happen to be reading this, I have far more sympathy for your plight with work loads being under the gun myself.
Hopefully, since this week's reading lets up a bit, I will be able to catch up, at least to the point where I can free up time to work on those semester-long papers.
- Posted by at 9:57 PM
What gives? Why should the simple presence of organ music in a Mass cause the chapel to be half empty? Geez, you'd think there wasn't any Jesus at the one Mass during the week that dares to be anything other than a guitar led youth-style Mass. I noticed the same phenomenon last week when there wasn't any music for one of the noon Masses.
Try to be traditional and the flock will scatter. Great message.
I'm ticked.
UPDATE: Well, as if someone knew my feelings over today's events, I was passed a little sticker today from a fellow student at Franciscan, Kevin Symonds (whose blog is now on my blogroll). This sticker is now posted over on the sidebar, aptly titled "Society for No Praise and Worship Music During the Sacred Liturgy."
I've reached my limit - it's bad enough this style of music and worship can be near-suffocating on campus, but I've tolerated it up to now. But with the continued liturgical problems, exacerbated by Life Weekend's nonsense, the jerking around of the usual organist, the complaints against the schola's occasional presence, and now the shunning of Masses where P&W music isn't played, I'm sick of putting up with this without getting the same kind of tolerating charity in return.
- Posted by at 1:59 PM
Pope Benedict XVI's Milestones memoir was quite an enjoyable book, which here and there is sprinkled with passages that make the man seem very down to earth and which made me laugh. Case in point:
Unfortunately I hit upon a typist who was not only slow but who now and then also lost pages and taxed my nerves to the utmost by committing all manner of errors, particularly in connection with the page numbers in the references. The battle to discover and correct all the mistakes sometimes seemed almost endless.The work to which the Pope is referring was rejected (by Schmaus, who was on my reading list last semester, since it ran afoul of his conclusions), although he managed to overcome this by extracting the part Schmaus had not objected to (I suspect the lack of criticism may have been due to Schmaus not completing the book, feeling he had no need), which I think is this book on St. Bonaventure.
The other such line from this week comes from Robert Louis Wilken's Spirit of Early Christianity and was basically a one-liner that had everybody I was sitting with in the library in stitches:
When confronted by the risen Christ, one does not say, "How interesting," but "My Lord and my God!"Anyhow, I think I'm making decent progress through my readings. My plan for the balance of this weekend is to polish off Ratzinger's small book on the nature of theology and the rather sloppy 100 Most Important Events in Christian History (slanted, inaccurate history plus a clearly polemical stance against Rome throughout its analysis makes this a lousy choice for an ecumenical reading).
- Posted by at 2:50 AM
Tomorrow, the University has a holiday (known as President's Day) that allows the entire student body to head over to Washington for the March for Life, if we so choose. I'll be heading over with the school's contingent by bus late tonight, and we should be at the basilica for the Mass tomorrow morning. No word on when we'll be back, though I'm expecting it's going to be quite late.
It's my first time for this event. I'll post about how it went on Tuesday, after I get back. Meanwhile, pray that hearts be changed by our efforts.
- Posted by at 4:28 PM
Well, they did say grad school would be a lot busier than undergrad. This is markedly true with my 30 books on the list for this term, of which I sadly owned only 1 previously. So while I'm happy I'm going to be compelled to get off my duff and read a lot this semester, I just wish more of the pile would have been on titles I already had, since I'm not going to have time to make any dents in that pile.
I just ran the list against Amazon.com, and realized I could save a grand total of $60 by ordering a dozen books on Amazon, since they're cheaper there. Frustratingly, the three most expensive books on the list ($39, $32, and $27.50) either had no discount over the bookstore, or couldn't be shipped for nearly 2 weeks. I won't feel too bad bringing those dozen books back to the bookstore, since I'm still keeping 17 of them, where Amazon simply was not the way to go. Amazon is a big loser on the deal though, since they offered a free trial of Amazon Prime during checkout - thus losing over $14 I was going to pay anyway for the two-day shipping. And I have absolutely no intention of letting them sign me up for the annual fee either - I frankly don't care how fast my books arive most times, nor do I order enough for it to be worth it.
UPDATE: Well, there were a few changes. The Benedict XVI class (taught by Scott Hahn), had a last minute change. Co-Workers of the Truth has been dropped, and in its place, Milestones has been added, along with the pope's new encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, due out next week. Eschatology has also been added as my choice of book for the final paper in that class. The writings of Merton are optional in Historical foundations, along with Eusebius's History of the Church (not listed).
The books are as follows:
PRINCIPLES OF BIBLICAL STUDY II
- The Writings of the New Testament (Luke Timothy Johnson)
THEOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS
- The God of Faith and Reason: Foundations of Christian Theology (Robert Sokolowski)
- Scholasticism: Personalities and Problems of Medieval Philosophy (Josef Pieper)
- The Spirit of Early Christian Thought : Seeking the Face of God (Robert Louis Wilken)
THEOLOGY OF BENEDICT XVI
- Behold the Pierced One (Benedict XVI)
- Called to Communion (Benedict XVI)
- Co-Workers of the Truth: Meditations for Every Day of the Year (Benedict XVI)
- Daughter Zion: Meditations on the Church's Marion Belief (Benedict XVI)
- Many Religions, One Covenant: Israel, the Church, and the World (Benedict XVI)
- The Meaning of Christian Brotherhood (Benedict XVI)
- The Nature and Mission of Theology: Essays to Orient Theology in Today's Debates (Benedict XVI)
- The Spirit of the Liturgy (Benedict XVI)
- The Thought of Pope Benedict XVI: An Introduction to the Theology of Joseph Ratzinger (Aidan Nichols)
- Milestones: Memoirs 1927-1977 (Benedict XVI)
- Deus Caritas Est (Benedict XVI)
- Eschatology (Benedict XVI)
HISTORICAL FOUNDATIONS
- The 100 Most Important Events in Christian History (A Kenneth Curtis et al)
- Apologia Pro Vita Sua (John Henry Newman, ed Ker)
- Catholic Church History from A to Z: An Inspirational Dictionary (Alan Schreck)
- Church History: A Complete History of the Catholic Church to the Present Day for High School, College and Adult Reading (John Laux)
- The Compact History of the Catholic Church (Alan Schreck)
- Confessions (St. Augustine, trans Chadwick)
- Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena (St. Catherine of Siena, trans Thorold)
- Early Christian Fathers (Cyril Richardson)
- Ecclesiastical History of the English People (Ven. Bede, ed Farmer)
- The Little Flowers of St. Francis (Raphael Brown)
- On the Love of God and Other Selected Writings (St. Bernard of Clairvaux, ed Dollen)
- Pens'ees and Other Writings (Blaise Pascal, trans Levi)
- Philip Neri: The Fire of Joy (Paul Turks, trans Utrecht)
- The Song of Roland (Trans Sayers)
- Three Treatises (Martin Luther)
- The Wisdom of the Desert (Thomas Merton)
- Your Glory Reflected: 20 Outstanding Christians of the 20th Century (Sheilah Ward-Ling)
N.B. - Other readings are handouts that will be passed out at the appropriate times. They will be added as they come.
- Posted by at 10:12 PM
Freely soliciting opinions on this one...
I am going to have to write on one of five works by Benedict XVI. My options are as follows:
- Eschatology
- Principles of Catholic Theology
- Theology of History in St. Bonaventure
- Pilgrim Fellowship of Faith
- Truth and Tolerance
Of the five, the last is the easiest read (and has the added plus that I already have it), while the Eschatology and Bonaventure works are said to be quite deep. If anyone's read any of these, I'd like your opinion on them.
- Posted by at 10:28 PM
I knew I'd have to do another exegesis, but hadn't gotten around to actually looking for a passage. So, thumbing through tonight, I have settled on Romans 2:1-6. Frankly, the topic at issue in that passage on judgment is one that has often driven me crazy, due to its invocation, so I will definitely have some personal motivation on this one.
Therefore you have no excuse, O man, whoever you are, when you judge another; for in passing judgment upon him you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who do such things. Do you suppose, O man, that when you judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself, you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume upon the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not know that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But by your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. For he will render to every man according to his works:
The runner up passage was Revelation 12:1-6 (also a passage I think about from time to time, particularly vis a vis the devil's role). Alert readers will notice there is a very odd pattern in my choice of passages (Sirach 2:1-6 was last semester's project).
- Posted by at 12:10 AM
Thinking back on my undergraduate years, something rather interesting stands out - in both my primary major (Mathematics) and my minor (Philosophy), I was never once instructed by a woman (the exception is 2 weeks one filled in when the Calc prof suffered a stroke). In psychology, the other major, there was a largely even split, though the men again win by a 5-4 score. The five honors seminars I ended up taking were all also taught by men.
Kind of a fluke given I was at a large public university, but there were hardly any women professors in the math department, and women just didn't happen to teach the courses I wanted to take most times. Thus far, theology is operating on largely the same track - of 8 courses so far, 8 men. This is not to complain, I've had a very good experience with my set of instructors, it's just probably a rare occurrence these days.
This is kind of funny in a way given the recent blogosphere articles about the vanishing male - my experience has been of the vanishing female with the professors and majors I've chosen.
- Posted by at 3:01 AM
And I thought the reading list was bad for last semester...this time around, there are roughly 30 books on my list for the 4 courses I'm signed up for. Now that I've picked up my jaw from that one, there is some good news, in that I already own some of those titles, and I have read at least one title (Song of Roland) before. I'll see what the syllabi look like, but this looks like it will be challenging on the face of things.
- Posted by at 3:17 AM
One of the more annoying features of courses that are offered cyclically is that if you ever get behind, you essentially lose a year of time. I'm looking at that situation now, given my original choice of courses for the master's program, and the reality of how the future offerings stack up.
In order to avoid taking an extra pre-requisite (since this class is not offered again until Spring 2008, beyond my intended stay), I would need to take graduate Sacraments now. The trouble is, doing so would force me to drop one of my current 4 courses, and I'm loathe to drop any of them, given 2 are foundations, 1 is a pre-req, and 1 is an elective I really want to take, the theology of Benedict XVI. I basically have four options - stay the course, and either stay through Spring 2008, take Sacraments as a night class (where it doesn't count toward graduation) or in summer school, or bump one of 3 courses (one of the foundations will not be dropped because doing so would give me all T/R classes and an insane 7.5 hours of class on Tuesday) and hope I don't get messed up by the course cycle.
The idea of lengthening my stay to Spring 2008 is starting to look appealing - I was already considering the idea of staying until Fall 2007, since I did not want to kill myself with 4 grad courses a semester in 2006-2007. It also makes it far easier to consider entertaining either the catechetics concentration or studying in Rome, since the former would already require that, and the latter is virtually certain at this point to require at least staying until Fall 2007 anyway.
Man, I wish I would have been more familiar with this stuff earlier. My "logical" choice of taking 3 pre-reqs and a foundations course already seems to have pinned me in a corner. Not that I wouldn't mind staying an extra year at this point, I just object to feeling trapped into doing it after my first semester. =)
I expect God is laughing at me over this dilemma, not only because I find it funny on several levels, but because it also would be among the most bizarre ways imaginable of God following through on making me share in a friend's suffering (Mother Angelica and the guardian angel both remind me to word prayer requests more carefully in the future).
- Posted by at 2:00 AM
Tonight was GNT's last gathering of the semester, a pretty large Christmas party (~ 50-60 people), in which we had a pretty large "White Elephant" gift exchange going on. Once again, my gift was the source of laughs, as, at Nate's suggestion, I put my gift in a big box, and then filled it with peanuts before wrapping it. The girl who initially opened the box was so energetic with the peanuts, the CD inside got thrown out into the air without her even realizing it. For a minute, she thought she had an empty box until the CD could be passed back around.
All in all, it was a blast, as has been the semester, academically, socially, and spiritually. The courses went fine, I got to know lots of people (probably in the neighborhood of 50 or more if I don't hold myself to actually remembering their names), and there sure was some spiritual kick.
Time to go home for now.
- Posted by at 12:08 AM
I'm being facetious. Once again, for probably the fifth time this semester, I am going to be waking up on the due date of a paper having not finished it in the first place. The humorous part of this go-around is that I have two papers due the same day, and the paper I expected to be done is not, while the paper I expected to be ripping my hair out over at the present time of night is already neatly stapled in its final draft and ready to be handed in tomorrow morning. At the present time, I have 5.5 pages written of the 10 I need, so it should be relatively easy to finish, given the paper's not due until 6 at night. Then again, I also have a final to study for, conveniently also at 6 at night.
I suppose it's progress that one paper was done before the actual day of - and 11:30 at night still qualifies! That class's papers have been an exercise in torture all semester, yet oddly, this particular paper literally wrote itself with a minimum of stress. Whether that's due to my liking the main reading the paper was based on, or due to actually being conscious through the entire last third of the class I don't know.
The paper I expected to be a piece of cake, a 10-page book review on one of von Balthasar's shorter books, has been a nightmare. I figured out why sometime last night - I don't understand the book. Obviously, this has implications when trying to write a book review...such as glossing over some 30 pages of text in a mere sentence or two because they don't fit in too well with the overall framework of the review. Likewise, some small sections of text have been greatly expanded upon because I happened to get them...in theory.
Oddly enough, a 15-page book review on one of de Lubac's books that I wrote last week (essentially in under 24 hours, due to my awesome time management skills) turned out very well in my opinion. That's in part because, as I skimmed through it again while writing the paper, the whole thing clicked.
The irony in all this is that, although de Lubac's book is longer, is foot-noted up the wazoo, frequently uses untranslated Latin, and required the longer review, the result is far and away superior to the shorter review on the shorter book that rarely employs Latin and is hardly foot-noted at all.
Conclusion - French theologians are easier to understand than Swiss theologians, even though the former try their darndest to make the task as difficult as possible. Perhaps this really means that French obfuscation is every bit as lousy as French military planning...
Or it could just be I'm tired and feel like poking fun at theologians to get a good laugh out of it before I go to bed. And honestly, it worked.
- Posted by at 3:22 AM
Of term papers, that is. I only just finished the 10 page exegesis report on time, finishing my first draft around 5pm yesterday, leaving me just enough time to do an edit and turn in the final copy at 6pm, hot off the presses, as it were. The first draft wasn't really the "first" first draft, since my ordinary paper writing method is to start writing, consider the current work a piece of junk, and start over again. In this way, there are at least 2 or 3 aborted drafts that never got beyond 2 pages, with only one draft ever reaching the full length, although occasionally I return to the rump drafts to incorporate the better parts of them.
Today, I am in the unenviable position of having to write 15 pages in a book review, due tomorrow just after 2:00. Naturally, not a word was written until 2 hours ago. As of now, I have just over 4 pages written, good progress for only 2 hours time, and probably only an hour of really "working." Unlike the research and position papers, this one is easier, since I only have to summarize the author's work, and then do a little evaluation and criticism of it. A 200-page book is surprisingly easy to re-read once you've been through it once.
I might post more later if I finish this at a reasonable hour.
UPDATE (3:30 AM Thursday): Well, that was leisurely enough. Despite the fact that I took a roughly 6 hour hiatus from the paper for dinner, Mass - it figures that of all days, I would find myself on the server schedule the day before a big assignment - and a bit of just plain goofing off and kicking back, I'm going to bed having just gotten to page 13. Tomorrow morning, I'll be up early to run off a draft copy, edit it, write up my reaction to the book to fill in the last 2 to 4 pages (depending on edits), and turn it in. Regardless of whether the professor likes the form or not, I think I cited the book well enough to demonstrate I have, indeed, read it. This was a good speed, I wrote roughly 2 pages per hour.
- Posted by at 4:07 PM
Somewhere, there is a stated rule that a student will never get as much work done over break as they plan on getting done. This year turns out to be no different:
The Plan:
- Finish 4 short essays on Veritatis Splendor
- Read 230 pages of Sources of Revelation
- Finish 10 page Exegesis Research Paper
- Type 15 page book review
The Results:
- Finished the 4 short essays on Veritatis Splendor
- Read 159 pages of Sources of Revelation (good Lord, de Lubac, why must the text have a thousand footnotes?!)
- Wrote 4 pages of Exegesis Paper (as of now)
- Nada on the book review
It's particularly depressing the exegesis didn't get finished, although that in part stems from poorer research skills on my part than anticipated. I still have tonight, and my goal will is to be finished by tomorrow evening, which will leave enough time for the 15 page review.
- Posted by at 9:20 PM
Returning to Sirach, my favorite text of the moment, I noticed tonight a chiasm within a chiasm that I'd missed previously. The Anchor Bible's English preserves the effect; the larger chiasm is also intact in the RSV, though it mars the effect by inverting the word order of the smaller one in verse 5.
2:1a My son, if you come forward to serve the Lord,
b prepare yourself for temptation.
2a Set your heart right and be steadfast,
b and do not be hasty in time of calamity.
3a Cleave to him and do not depart,
b that you may be honored at the end of your life.
4a Accept whatever is brought upon you,
b and in changes that humble you be patient.
5a For in the fire gold is tested,*
b and acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation.
6a Trust in him, and he will help you;
b make your ways straight, and hope in him.
This is the RSV text, and I've taken the liberty of switching the words in verse 5a to make this work (N.B. the Greek text has fire before gold, so I think this is an acceptable move). Chiasms are comparisons that take the form a:b::b':a'. So, the smaller comparison being made is Fire:Gold::Acceptable Men:Furnace of Humiliation. The larger one is Temptation:Calamity::Changes that Humble You:Furnace of Humiliation.
In the context, the fire here is a fire that tests, and a fitting comparison to a furnace of humiliation. (Isaiah 31:9 interestingly notes that the Lord has a furnace in Jerusalem...) The comparison of gold to acceptable men is likewise appropriate, given the high value placed on the former by men, and on the latter by God.
Temptation, according to the notes, means testing in the Greek, so the bigger chiasm is really just emphasizing the comparison of the smaller one again, between temptation and the furnace. Calamity, again working from the notes, literally means "that which is brought upon" man by God. So here, a comparison is made between that which God brings upon man and changes that humble. There's an understatement if ever.
Good poetry even in translation twice removed from the original. Hopefully one of these days, they'll discover the original Hebrew.
*Original text is "for gold is tested in the fire"
- Posted by at 1:28 AM
Heading into the Thanksgiving week break, the following to-do list remains:
- 3 Essays on Veritatis Splendor (~5 pages) DUE 11/28
- Exegesis Paper (6 more pages) DUE 11/29
- Sources of Revelation book review (15 pages) DUE 12/1
- Position Paper (7 pages) DUE 12/8
- The Church and the World book review (10 pages) DUE 12/8
- Approximately 500 pages of reading for the book reviews and the position paper
I'm hopelessly off the plan I wrote up to avoid disaster 2 weeks ago, but I think I left considerable leeway in it. The mere fact that I plan on having the exegesis done before I leave is great, considering the time it's taken. The current plan is to finish the exegesis by tomorrow night, knock off the longer book review by the end of the Thanksgiving break, find some way to sneak in those short essays at a convenient time, and then try heading off the other book review next weekend, with the position paper last.
- Posted by at 1:22 AM
From the "I'm Glad I Didn't Put This Off Until the Night Before" files comes today's roughly 5 hour research on my exegesis paper. Last night's research had gone relatively smoothly, since I was using a concordance restritcted to the RSV's apocrypha, which is much smaller than one for the entire Bible. The compilers did an excellent job on that concordance, folding all tenses of a verb into one entry and, most importantly, making separate entries where a different sense of a word was used (hence words that could be both nouns and verbs had separate entries for the noun and verb sense, and where a verb could have many senses, such as "come", each sense had its own entry).
The experience with the RSV concordance for the Biblical text was anything but pleasant. For one, these compilers made the decision to simply group all occurrences of the same arrangement of letters. Hence, when I needed to look up "brought," I had to check the entries for both "bring" and "brought" to find all such occurrences. Looking up "changes," a noun in the passage, required sorting through all instances where the word was used as a verb.
What really irked, however, was the fact that the compilers chose to abbreviate the word that I was searching for in an entry by just using its first letter with a period. So instead of seeing "set your heart right," I saw "set your h. right" and so forth. My mind just isn't capable of making that automatic substitution while scanning the page, so I spent on the order of 4 to 5 hours searching for only about 3 dozen words in the concordance, several of which had very sparse entries.
On the bright side, depending on how alert my reading was, I was able to blow through a few thousand entries and finished the concordance phase. The next phase is simply to copy/paste in the couple hundred verses I culled off the research and see what fits (there are a smaller number of verses starred for being terribly important). After that, I just need to read about 4 articles and books, and it will be off to the races. I feel the prospects of my getting this paper done by Sunday (the date on my schedule) are very good.
N.B. - Oddly enough, "trust" is very little used in the Bible, as is "humiliation." "Heart" and "gold" on the other hand, are there in abundance.
- Posted by at 11:47 PM
Blogging for roughly the next month is going to depend on how well I stick to my plan to deal with the massive onslaught of work that is positioned at the end of the semester, which is something I didn't plan for in advance well enough, but which I believe is still manageable at this point.
As of my original inventory last week, I had 872 pages to read from the various readings, 42 pages of papers to write, and a series of 4 short essays to write on Veritatis Splendor.
As of today, roughly 575 pages of that reading remains, 42 pages worth of paper writing, and 3 of those essays have yet to be written, though 1 is in a rough draft.
This week's primary goal is to knock off the 10 page exegesis research paper, which is being done on Sirach 2:1-6. As the instructor commented several months ago, my choice of passage permits me the chance of breaking new ground, since the book itself has had comparatively little research done on it. A Biblical database turned up only 9 entries in resources going back decades on the chapter, and the library has precious few books dealing with Sirach explicitly. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, highly recommended by the professor, treats the entire 51-chapter book in a scant 20 pages.
Part of the problem appears to be the book's form (poetry in the style of Proverbs) and the lack of a complete Hebrew copy of the book (just over 2/3 has been recovered, according to most commentaries of 20+ years ago). My passage is in the third that has not been recovered, though curiously, the Anchor Bible's authors are pretty certain they know the first Hebrew word in 2:1. Compounding the problem, the Greek manuscripts have a transposition of verse order (Old Latin does not) and verse numberings are crazy. Chapter 1 of the current Latin Vulgate has 40 verses - RSV has 29, and only gets there by leaving verse gaps (there is no 1:21, though they supply it in a footnote), for example.
To a certain extent, this lack of research material is helpful, since there's not as many opinions out there to cause confusion. It also means I can't rely on them to provide me with a vast array of ideas, forcing a look at the text itself. The text is rich in material, since virtually every theme evoked in Sirach 2:1-6 is repeated elsewhere in the book - the words "son" and "heart" occur repeatedly. Oddly enough, "humiliation" is the only word in the passage I checked on that is not repeated, according to the RSV concordance. That shouldn't be a problem though, Sirach itself has at least 15 passages which shed light on 2:1-6, besides dozens more that might be usable.
Tomorrow is going to involve the heavy work - searching for parallels in the balance of the Biblical text. The most important text aside from Sirach is Proverbs (on which Sirach relies heavily, and also the source of verse 5, key to the passage), followed by the rest of the Wisdom literature, the Psalter, the rest of the Old Testament, the letter of James (which draws considerably from Sirach), and then the rest of the New Testament (Revelation, Romans, and 1 Peter may have connections). There's a huge potential, because the author had pretty much the whole OT to work with in final form (the Septuagint was in circulation by then), and quoted from the vast majority of its books.
The Anchor Bible is probably going to prove to be the decisive resource on this topic. It was written by Alexander Di Lella, who incidentally seems to have the only article ever written specifically on Sirach chapter 2, and Patrick Skehan, both of CUA, in the 1980s. It seems pretty solid, all things considered.
Incidentally, this book shed some light on the issue of the OT canon. It draws on scholarship that shows that there was no such thing as an Alexandrian or a Palestinian canon at the time of Christ, there was simply a collection of sacred writings. The Septuagint had the advantage in the early Church of being an organized collection written in Greek, to which there really wasn't any counterpart. The first official canon of any sort was drawn up around 90 AD by Jewish scholars, followed by the Christians circa 4th century AD. The author notes that Sirach is rather unique among the deuterocanon in that it was held in high regard by Jewish scholars despite being excluded from the canon - over 80 times the text is cited favorably by the Talmud, occasionally with the phrase "it is written," something normally reserved solely for canonical books. Recovered Hebrew manuscripts have been found that write the text in a way also normally reserved only for canonical books.
- Posted by at 12:53 AM
In the course of reading the material for the second paper in Biblical Foundations, it's interesting that the major work which really leapt out at me is a critique of the Enlightenment by the Protestant Colin Gunton, Enlightenment & Alienation, which is a good complement to reading Fides et Ratio. I wish I'd had it when I read Fides et Ratio the first time around, since it really goes to the heart of the problem. Not surprisingly, this work is hard to find; barely a dozen institutes of higher learning in Ohio even have a copy.
Raymond Brown's works have been much more of a hassle to read, since his style is characterized by making an intelligent point and then following it up in such a way as to make me doubt the veracity of what he'd said before. I also fail to see how the Bible can have meant something in the past, but now it means something else. Now I know why Deacon Mike cringed when I told him I had some of his work on my reading list. There's some useful material in there, but it needs to be carefully lifted out. Exactly how did he end up with the Nihil Obstat?
Incidentally, a paper Pope Benedict XVI wrote and presented at a conference with Brown more than 15 years ago that was seen as contrary to Brown also made its way onto the reading list.
- Posted by at 3:27 AM
While last week's test went much better than expected, thanks to some mercy, I am now hopelessly behind on a paper due on Thursday. The good news is I at least managed to take care of Tuesday's paper in due order, doing most of the work last week.
I will now be burying myself in books, trying to finish reading 2 books, excerpts from 3 more, and some articles that have been neglected. At least this time, I'm highlighting with my topic in mind, which will likely be on Enlightenment epistemology.
- Posted by at 12:25 AM