Two nights in an Austrian monastery
From 2013
I have recently spent a few months of my time in Europe travelling around to view manuscripts that are necessary to my PhD project, which is a study of the manuscripts of the letters of Pope Leo the Great (donāt worry, my wife has been able to do some travelling with me, too!). I would like to share with you, my friends, about one of the more powerful journeys I took, to a monastery inā¦
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Reading the Iliad again
Tonight I finished The Iliad again. I started this trip through Homerās grand war epic at the end of January, so it took me a little over 5 months to get through. While I read The Lost Tales of Sir Galahad along the way, the main consumer of my time away from my day job was teaching a swathe of Greek Fathers and then Augustineās City of God. It doesnāt strike me as unreasonable to take this long,ā¦
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Editing Leo's Letters Someday
Look ahead at maybe figuring out how to edit these letters
Back in March 2022, my book The Manuscripts of Leo the Greatās Letters: The Transmission and Reception of Papal Documents in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages came out. This is a book that does what it says on the tin ā over 468 pages (plus bibliography and indices) I discuss hundreds of manuscripts that represent dozens of letter collections that include letters of Pope St Leo the Great. It isā¦
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Power metal and fantasy
Why a sword-and-sorcery film with a power metal soundtrack would work.
I just got back from a trip to Toronto for surgery. Besides the surgery, there were some good times with family, including my cousin and me trying to explain to my uncle that āgrowling into a microphoneā isnāt the only form of heavy metal. I extolled to him the virtues of power metal, for example. Hereās Rhapsody of Fireās song Emerald Sword:
Power metal, unlike death metal, does not involveā¦
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Review of Arthurian Legends of the Middle Ages
Spur of the moment review of a book I read 24 years ago.
Arthurian Legends of the Middle Ages by George W. CoxMy rating: 3 of 5 starsIām not sure how highly to rate this book. If youāre a 14-year-old kid in rural Alberta who loves Arthuriana and whose whole family is involved in the local production of the musical Camelot, this is a 5-star book. I loved it when I was 14 ā and itās definitely pitched at adults.24 years later, I havenāt rereadā¦
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"Allora", "Welcome" and other ANCIENT MYSTERIES
āAlloraā, āWelcomeā and other ANCIENTĀ MYSTERIES
As you probably donāt know, I have been hired to be a Latin/Greek Fellow for the Ancient Language Institute (ALI), which means Iām back to teaching languages! One of the exciting things about ALI is the fact that they/we use active learning pedagogy, with comprehensible input and only using the target language ā like my TESOL training. There are many benefits to this.
When you start having toā¦
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The Return of Arthur in 2021
The Return of Arthur inĀ 2021
Growing up, stories of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table were among my favourite things. I remember sitting just inside my bedroom door at night in Grade 3, illuminated by the hall light, reading, reading these stories. In junior high, I read T H Whiteās The Once and Future King, and my family was involved in the local music and drama societyās production of Camelot a few yearsā¦
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Nothing is lost (when you write a book)
Nothing is lost (when you write aĀ book)
I have written a book, called The Manuscripts of Leo the Greatās Letters: The Transmission and Reception of Papal Documents in the Middle Ages. It is a transformed, expanded, sifted, revised, revised, revised version of that which was once my PhD dissertation. It is over 500 pages of words, including the index that I made for it. Brepols will publish it this year, DV.
In a sense, this book hasā¦
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Reaching for the real: St Augustine and The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana
Reaching for the real: St Augustine and The Mysterious Flame of QueenĀ Loana
I just gave a lecture about St Augustineās De Doctrina Christiana (I assigned RPH Greenās translation, On Christian Teaching) on Monday, and, since that text has been cited as the place where Augustine invents semiotics, semiotics has been on my mind a bit. And a couple of weeks ago, when choosing my next piece of fiction to read, I decided to finally crack open my copy of Umberto Ecoās 2004ā¦
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The small consolations of ancient "consolatio"
The small consolations of ancient āconsolatioā
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A friend recently passed away from as-yet unknown (to me) medical causes. He was 37, going on 38. Lots of thoughts and responses have been going through my mind and heart, of course. At the same time, professionally, I am starting to work on a book chapter about ancient letters and the science of historical study, so various thoughts about ancient letters have been emerging.
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10 books, no. 3: The Philokalia
10 books, no. 3: TheĀ Philokalia
My third of ten books (sorry I fell behind on this) wasĀ The Philokalia, vol. 1:
The Philokalia is a five-volume anthology of Greek-language (plus a Greek translation of bits of John Cassian) ascetic/mystical texts focussed on the art of prayer, the prayer of the heart, pure prayer ā viz., the Jesus Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
It was compiled in 1782 byā¦
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Was Late Antiquity an age of spirituality?
Was Late Antiquity an age ofĀ spirituality?
Before I launch into this post, Iād like to make it clear that I greatly admire the work of Kurt Weitzmann and have enormously profited from the bookĀ Age of Spirituality, which the Metropolitan Museum Art has available as a free download. Now, onto the show.
Sometimes, when I read titles of articles and books about Late Antiquity, and sometimes even the content, I get the impression that thereā¦
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10 books, no. 2: Ubi Fera Sunt
10 books, no. 2: Ubi FeraĀ Sunt
I was twice challenged on Facebook to post a book cover per day for a period of days. I forget if it was 7 books in 7 days or 10 in 10. I chose 10. I think they were supposed to be influential and not just favourites, so I sought books that have influenced me. Allow me to write some musings on them, one by oneā¦
Book No. 2: Ubi Fera Sunt by Maurice Sendak, translated by Richard A. Lafleur
When Iā¦
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10 Books, no. 1: The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter
10 Books, no. 1: The Tale of Peter Rabbit by BeatrixĀ Potter
I was twice challenged on Facebook to post a book cover per day for a period of days. I forget if it was 7 books in 7 days or 10 in 10. I chose 10. I think they were supposed to be influential and not just favourites, so I sought books that have influenced me. Allow me to write some musings on them, one by oneā¦
Book No. 1:Ā The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter
The Tale of Peter Rabbit hasā¦
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Bodies beyond sex
I am just beginning to (finally) read Peter Brown,Ā The Body and Society: Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity. In my final trip to the library of St Paul University yesterday, I read Andrew Louthās 1990 review of the book in question. The review was overall positive, but one note he struck is one that I sometimes feel as well.
Louth observes that ātodayā (that is, 1990), whenā¦
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Why I am lead admin at Read the Fathers
7th-c fresco from when Curia became a church, now in the museum at Cripta Balbi, Rome
There is a website called Read the Fathers, and it sets out a reading plan that renews every seven years to read big chunks of most of the significant ancient Christian writers, ordered according to the old Victorian Ante-Nicene Fathers and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers series. The original seven-year cycle ranā¦
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Some reasons to read Beowulf
Some reasons to readĀ Beowulf
Here are just a few reasons why you might want to readĀ Beowulf. First, it is a famous example of literature from the Early Middle Ages. Second, it represents English-language literature in its infancy. Third, it has had impacted modern literature since its rediscovery.
The Early Middle Ages, although politically fractured and certainly with a lower standard of living than the Later Roman Empireā¦
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