Bible Story: Chariot of Fire

The Bible story for this week is the story of the prophet Elijah's departure from this world, riding a chariot of fire.

I was prompted to include this Bible story in the Bible Story widget because of the wonderful film Chariots of Fire. It's a good example of a Biblical allusion which people will miss unless they are familiar with this Bible story. In particular, the image of the "chariot of fire" was given a special life outside the Bible by its inclusion in the beautiful hymn "Jerusalem," based on the poem by William Blake:

And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England’s mountains green?
And was the holy lamb of God
On England’s pleasant pastures seen?

And did the Countenance Divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among these dark Satanic Mills?

Bring me my Bow of burning gold;
Bring me my Arrows of Desire;
Bring me my Spear; O clouds unfold!
Bring me my Chariot of Fire!

I will not cease from Mental Fight
Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand,
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England’s green and pleasant Land.

Here, then, is the Bible story which inspired the image of the chariot of fire. The prophet Elijah, whom we met last week in the story of Jezebel and Elijah, is walking along with his disciple, Elisha. As we read in 2 Kings, chapter 2, along their way, Elijah uses his mantle to allow them to cross across the waters of Jordan as over dry ground:

And Elijah took his mantle, and wrapped it together, and smote the waters, and they were divided hither and thither, so that they two went over on dry ground. And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me. And he said, Thou hast asked a hard thing: nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so.

The moment of Elijah's departure then arrives:

And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And he saw him no more: and he took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces.

Elisha's request is granted, and he takes up the mantle of Elijah, both literally and metaphorically:

He took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and went back, and stood by the bank of Jordan; And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is the LORD God of Elijah? and when he also had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither: and Elisha went over. And when the sons of the prophets which were to view at Jericho saw him, they said, The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha.

For an illustration of the celestial chariot of fire, I chose this image from the Nuremberg Chronicle (you can read more about this amazing book at wikipedia). The image shows both Elisha ascending in the chariot, and Elisha receiving his mantle:

Hinduism: Rama

This week, I am going to write a few words about the incarnation of Vishnu as Rama, the great hero who defeated the demon Ravana.

The adventures of Rama are told in the epic Ramayana, which is one of the epics we read in my Epics of Ancient India class. We actually read two different English adaptations of the epic - one by an Indian author, R.K. Narayan, and the other by an American writer, William Buck. I can recommend both versions very highly!

Just as in the previous incarnations of Vishnu that I've reviewed here - Narasimha, the Man-Lion; Vamana, the dwarf; and Parasurama, "Rama with the Axe" - the hero Rama was born into a world facing a crisis. In this case, the crisis was provoked the demon Ravana, who had challenged even the gods with his aggression and violence.

Ravana, for his part, managed to kidnap Sita, Rama's wife, and held her captive. Rama, together with his brother Lakshmana, led an army not just of men, but also of monkeys and bears, in order to do battle with Ravana and rescue Sita. Among the monkeys, Rama's most devoted follower was the mighty Hanuman, the divine son of Vayu the Wind-God.

One of the most common depictions of Rama and his wife Sita shows them dwelling in the heart of Hanuman, their loyal follower. So here is a picture done by a folk artist in Bihar that shows the monkey-god Hanuman as he reveals what is in heart, Rama and Sita. Meanwhile, you can read much more about Rama in the detailed article at wikipedia.

Online Book: Joseph and Aseneth

I'm continuing to gather materials for our Genesis: Joseph and His Brothers reading group (see the Joseph image widget, for example), and I was delighted to find David Cook's translation of Joseph and Aseneth online!

The text of Joseph and Aseneth probably dates back to around the first century A.D., and was probably composed in Greek for a Greek-speaking Jewish community, probably in Egypt. I say "probably" since, like so many ancient texts, there is nothing that can be said with absolute certainty about its provenance. Some scholars assert that it was composed much later, in the fifth or sixth century C.E. You can learn more about the book at the Aseneth Homepage.

The story of Joseph and Aseneth takes the few clues provided by the Biblical text and builds it into a dramatic romance in the Greek novel tradition.

The Biblical material is simply this: Genesis 41:45, "Pharaoh gave Joseph the name Zaphenath-Paneah and gave him Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, to be his wife," and Genesis 41:50, "Before the years of famine came, two sons were born to Joseph by Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On."

Those Biblical clues are tantalizing, raising many more questions than they answer. How did Joseph feel about that, marrying this Egyptian woman? What did Aseneth feel? And what does this mixed marriage portend for their children? These are the questions that the story of Joseph and Aseneth sets out to answer.

Perhaps not surprisingly, this Jewish romance tells two stories: Aseneth's love for Joseph, and also her conversion to Judaism. At first, when Aseneth's father tells her that she will marry Joseph, she is outraged, having heard stories about this Joseph that did not make a positive impression on her. Yet when Joseph arrives, she falls in love at first sight, dazzled by his presence:

And Aseneth saw Joseph and she was cut to the quick, her stomach turned over, her knees became limp, and her whole body trembled. And she was much afraid and cried out and said, "Where shall I go, and where can I hide myself from him? And how will Joseph, the son of God, regard me, for I have spoken evil of him? Where can I flee and hide myself, for he sees everything, and no secret is safe with him, because of the great light that is in him?"

Joseph, however, rejects Aseneth at first. In fact, he is tired of all the women of Egypt throwing themselves at him, smitten as they are by his good looks:

Joseph was afraid she too might solicit him; for all the wives and daughters of the lords and satraps of all the land of Egypt use to solicit him to lie with him. And many of the wives and daughters of the Egyptians suffered much, after seeing Joseph, because he was so handsome; and they would send emissaries to him with gold and silver and valuable gifts. And Joseph would reject them out of hand, saying, I will not sin before the God of Israel.

Joseph is moved by Aseneth's virtues, however, and pronounces a blessing upon her. Aseneth is then moved to throw her idols out the window and to dress herself in sackcloth and ashes:

he took all her innumerable gold and silver gods and broke them up into little pieces, and threw them out of the window for the poor and needy. And Aseneth took her royal dinner, even the fatted beasts and the fish and the meat, and all the sacrifices of her gods, and the wine-vessels for their libations; and she threw them all out of the window as food for the dogs. And after this she took the ashes and poured them out on the floor. And she took sackcloth and wrapped it round her waist, and she removed the fillet from her hair and sprinkled herself with ashes; and she fell down upon the ashes. And she beat her breast repeatedly with her two hands and wept bitterly and groaned all night until the morning.

Aseneth then experiences mystical visions, and even receives a very mysterious honeycomb:

And bees came up from the cells of the comb, and they were white as snow, and their wings were irridescent -- purple and blue and gold; and they had golden diadems on their heads and sharp-pointed strings. And all the bees flew in circles round Aseneth, from her feet right up to her head; and yet more bees, as big as queens, settled on Aseneth's lips.

This conversion makes Aseneth a worthy wife to Joseph:

And Joseph stretched his hands out and embraced Aseneth, and Aseneth embraced Joseph, and they greeted each other for a long time and received new life in their spirit.

Pharaoh's son, however, is in love with Aseneth, and plots to take her away from Joseph, with the help of Joseph's brothers, Dan and Gad. Joseph's brother Benjamin comes to the rescue, though, and badly wounds Pharaoh's son. Aseneth then insists on mercy being shown to Dan and Gad, so that, through her intervention, they are spared. Pharaoh's son eventually dies of his wounds, the Pharaoh mourns him, and when the Pharaoh himself dies, he bequeaths the rule of Egypt to Joseph. Joseph, however, returns the rule to Pharaoh's grandson:

And Joseph was king of Egypt for forty-eight years. And after this Joseph gave the crown to Pharaoh's grandson; and Joseph was like a father to him in Egypt.

By returning the land of Egypt to Pharaoh's line, the way is then paved for the oppression of the people of Israel in Egypt and the story of the Exodus.

As you can see here, from just a few Biblical clues, an entire story evolved, very elaborate and yet fully compatible with the framework provided by the Biblical text. It's not just modern authors like Anita Diamant who build novels based on the Biblical clues... this was already a well-established practice two thousand years ago!

Meanwhile, here is Rembrandt's famous painting of "Jacob Blessing the Children of Joseph," where you can see Aseneth looking on:

Widget: Joseph and His Brothers

For several years now, I've been part of a Greek reading group in Norman, Oklahoma. Now that I'm about to move to North Carolina, our physical get-togethers will sadly come to a stop but we are using the delightful PBWiki to carry on our group in virtual space. (If you have not used PBWiki, it is definitely worth looking at - such a flexible tool for easy online collaboration!).

The reading we are about to embark on over the summer is the Septuagint version of the story of Joseph and His Brothers. In order to illustrate our wiki, I prepared another widget - this time it is a collection of Images of Joseph and His Brothers. Each item contains an image with a brief description and a link to a larger view of the image along with additional information.

In medieval art, the typological connections between Joseph and Jesus were strongly emphasized, while in Renaissance and more modern art, there is an emphasis on the moments of high drama, such as Joseph and Potiphar's wife, or the scene of Joseph reunited with his brothers.

I hope to post some information here at this blog which I learn from our adventures reading through the Septuagint this summer.

Meanwhile, here is the script in action (if you're reading this via email or RSS you'll need to visit the blog to see the images displayed by the script):

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Pentecost: May 27 2007

Sunday, May 27 2007, is the holiday of Pentecost, also called Whitsunday (Whit Sunday, Whitsun Day) in English. The word Pentecost is Greek, meaning "fiftieth" (you can recognize the "pent" as the root meaning "five" in Pentagon). It is a festival celebrated on the fiftieth day after Easter (counting inclusively). Compare the Jewish festival of Shavuot, which is celebrated fifty days after Passover.

In the Christian Bible, the first Pentecost is marked by the incident of "speaking in tongues" (glossolalia), as described here in the Book of Acts:

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues[a] as the Spirit enabled them. Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked: "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? (read more...)

Peter goes on to explain to the crowd that this is a sign of the Holy Spirit being poured out upon them, and that anyone who is baptized in the name of Jesus Christ can receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Pentecost is observed with local variations in the Catholic and Orthodox churches; you can read about these different observances in the wikipedia article.

The name "Pentecostal" has also been adopted by an evangelical Christian movement which is focused on direct personal experience of God as manifested by the baptism and gifts of the Holy Spirit. (Some Pentecostals baptize in the name of Jesus only, while others baptize in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.) Pentecostal prayer and worship service tends to be highly emotional, demonstrative and enthusiastic. The Pentecostal movement emerged from the revivalist "Holiness movement" in Protestant Christianity, and began to take its distinctive shape in the late 19th century. In 1906, there was a front-page article in the Los Angeles Times which reads as follows: "Weird Babel of Tongues, New Sect of fanatics is breaking loose, Wild scene last night on Azusa Street, gurgle of wordless talk by a sister." You can read more about the teachings and history of Pentecostalism at the wikipedia article. Although it is not one of the historical Protestant churches (Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, etc.), it has a very large membership and is continuing to expand as a world-wide Christian movement.

As for English "WhitSunday," the name is short for "White Sunday" and seems to refer to the fact that those who were baptized at the festival of Pentecost were dressed in all-white robes. The first Sunday after Easter is called "Dominica in albis" ("Sunday in whites") for the same reason. Whitsuntide is a related word that refers to the festival of Whit Sunday plus the days that follow, also known as Whitsun Week.

For an image, here is an image from an illuminated manuscript from the late 15th century showing the first Christian Pentecost:

Bible Woman: Mary, mother of Jesus

The "Bible woman of the week" this week is Mary, the mother of Jesus. There is so much that can be said here about Mary and the traditions associated with her. Thanks to a tip from Lynne (see her post about del Sarto's Annunciation), I thought I would say something here about the extra-Biblical legends associated with Mary, which tell us about her life before the Gospel narratives of Matthew and Luke begin.

One of the important sources for stories about Mary is the "Infancy Gospel" (or "Protevangelium") attributed to James (Jacob). This is a noncanonical book, meaning that it does not form part of the Christian Bible in the Orthodox, Catholic or Protestant traditions. It is, however, a quite ancient text, probably dating to the 2nd century C.E. It was a widely popular text, and there are over a hundred Greek manuscripts, including a manuscript that itself appears to date back to the third century. You can read more notes about the manuscript tradition at Early Christian Writings online.

There are three different English translations you can consult online: Andrew Bernhard, Roberts-Donaldson and M. R. James. There is even a Greek text, although it is done with an obscure Greek font, rather than according to the more current Unicode standard, alas. I'll be relying here on the M.R. James translation.

The story begins with Ioacim, who will be Mary's father. He had been unable to have children with his wife, Anna, which caused him great grief. He left his wife and went out into the desert to pray, remembering the example of Abraham, who had been granted a child in his old age. His wife, Anna, grieved because she was now without a child, and her husband was gone into the desert. Both Ioacim and Anna receive angelic visitations to tell them that they would be granted a child.

And so they were. Anna gave birth to Mary, and after Mary had walked only seven steps, her mother put her back in bed and vowed that she would not walk again on the earth until she was presented at the Temple in Jerusalem. When Mary was finally presented at the Temple, even though she had not been walking, Mary miraculously danced up the steps of the Temple ("And the Lord put grace upon her and she danced with her feet and all tile house of Israel loved her").

Mary grew up in the Temple, but when she entered into puberty, there was a problem: when she began to menstruate, she would pollute the Temple and could not remain there. So the high priest prayed for a solution, and an angel appeared to him and said, "Go forth and assemble them that are widowers of the people, and let them bring every man a rod, and to whomsoever the Lord shall show a sign, his wife shall she be." This is how Joseph became betrothed to Mary. Other men received the rods, but there was no divine sign. "But Joseph received the last rod: and lo, a dove came forth of the rod and flew upon the bead of Joseph."

Meanwhile, the priests decided that they wanted a veil woven for the Temple. They cast lots to see which women would weave the veil for the Temple, and Mary was assigned the lot of weaving the crimson thread: "And the lot of the true purple and the scarlet fell unto Mary, and she took them and went unto her house." So you will see Mary spinning a scarlet thread in Orthodox depictions of the Annunciation. As the Infancy Gospel explains, Mary was spinning this thread when the angel brought her the news about the birth of Jesus.

If you are interested in reading a non-cannonical text, this is an excellent place to start. When the Infancy Gospel of James was composed, there was not a "Bible" in the sense that we know it, and people knew the stories contained in this gospel as fully as they knew the stories in the four gospels that did become part of the Bible. Through the Middle Ages in both the Catholic and Orthodox traditions, these stories about Mary continued to be widely known and they were depicted in many works of art. Here, for example, is Paolo Uccello's vision of Mary's presentation at the Temple, painted in 1435 for the cathedral in Prato, showing Mary as she dances up the Temple steps:

News: Emily Brooker Intellectual Diversity Act

A friend of mine who writes for the Daily Kos sent me a link to something he posted recently about the Emily Brooker Intellectual Diversity Act, a bill recently passed by the Missouri legislature. It is a piece of legislation that gets to the heart of the conflicts documented in Stephen Prothero's Religious Literacy book, and my own motivations in creating this blog.

You can read the text of the Missouri bill online. In short, the legislation is directed towards universities and collegse, and it sets out a series of teaching and administrative requirements designed to protect intellectual diversity: "such concerns shall include but not be limited to the protection of religious freedom including the viewpoint that the Bible is inerrant." This, then, is a piece of legislation that goes far beyond previous attempts to introduce creationism and/or intelligent design into science curriculums. The American Association of University Professors has expressed its grave concerns about the consequences this legislation could have. The bill has yet to be approved by the Missouri Senate or Governor.

The bill is named after Emily Brooker, a social work student who sued Missouri State University in federal court, claiming that her Christian beliefs had been discriminated against. You can read more about that online (USA Today, Washington Post, Inside Higher Ed). It appears that in one of her classes she was required to write a letter to the state legislature supporting gay adoption (although the professor in question says he did not require students to sign or send their letters). In addition, Brooker claims that she is unable to endorse, as required, the National Association of Social Work's code of ethics, because this would require her to change her religious beliefs. Missouri State University settled with her, out of court.

This entire situation is one that I find incredibly discouraging, since it seems to indicate a complete breakdown in dialogue, with folks on the different sides of this question reacting with extreme prejudice and fear, emotional states which are hardly conducive to learning. For some people, the student is a hero for defending her views and the professor is a villain for trying to impose his, while for others, the professor is a hero for defending his views while the student is a villain for trying to impose hers.

Either way, the problem seems to be the perception that some people are trying to impose their views on other people. That is clearly going to raise hackles. Dialogue, on the other hand, is always possible, and always leaves open the possibility of education, which is supposed to be the goal in this particular environment.

I'll share quickly here my own personal experience with Biblical inerrancy in the classroom, because it was a very positive learning experience for me. I used to be in the Classics department at the University of Oklahoma, and I modified the traditional Greek language class to include both a Biblical Greek textbook (Croy's wonderful Primer of Biblical Greek) together with the Attic Greek textbook that the department had been using (the equally wonderful Athenaze textbook series). As a teacher, I found that the two books worked really well together, and I was delighted by the fact that a large contingent of students arrived for my class from the Baptist Student Union. These were students who had avoided the Greek classes previously because of the virulently anti-Christian views expressed by the Greek professor who had been teaching the first-year Greek class before I arrived.

So, as we went through the class together, the students and I both learned a lot from each other. I was the one who knew Greek, so that was my contribution to the discussion and dialogue. I had some valuable knowledge, and the students respected me for wanting to share it. In turn, the students had a desire to learn and a willingness to work hard, and I respected that. On the days when we worked with the Biblical Greek textbook, they would arrive with these huge backpacks full of different Bibles and commentaries, and would spread these all out on the table so that they would have access to the reference tools they respected and valued as we discussed the Biblical text.

And our views of the Biblical text were decidedly different from one another! My training was as a classical philologist, and so for me the Bible is quite simply one of the most fascinating and complicated texts that has survived from the ancient Mediterranean world. There are many adjectives I could use to describe the Bible - beautiful, confusing, inspiring, shocking - but "inerrant" is definitely not one of those words. For the students, on the other hand, translating and interpreting the Biblical text was determined by a belief in Biblical inerrancy. So, during our work together, they showed me how they approached the text, and I showed them how I approached the text. It was a wonderful learning experience for all of us. Some of them asked me to go to church, and they surely had grave concerns for the state of my soul. Yet they were not threatened when I declined their invitation to attend their church and, perhaps just as importantly, I was not threatened by the fact of their inviting me.

So: Biblical inerrancy. It is something I do not find threatening, as long as I do not have to believe it. Yet just as faculty members, understandably, feel threatened if they think they are going to be required to believe in Biblical inerrancy, students also feel threatened if they think they are going to be required to not believe in it.

The climate of threats (real and imagined) and of intimidation, hypersensitivity, prejudice, etc. is a very real problem at American universities today when the subject of religion is involved. Is there anything we can do about it?

Whatever the framers of the Emily Brooker Intellectual Diversity Act thought they were going to accomplish, there is nothing about this bill that is going to make people feel less threatened. It can only contribute to the already vicious cycle of threats and intimidation which has ensnared people on all sides of this issue. That is how it seems to me, in any case. I will definitely keep an eye out for more about this piece of legislation in the news and report back here on what I learn.

Bible Book: Ecclesiasticus (Sirach)

This Bible book is known by several names. It is called Ecclesiasticus (not to be confused with the canonical book, Ecclesiastes). It is also called "The Wisdom of Ben Sira," or "The Wisdom of Jesus, son of Sirach," and so on. Sometimes it is simply called "Sirach."

Within the book itself, the author declares himself to be Yeshua (Jesus, Joshua), the son of Sira, a Jewish scholar living in Jerusalem. It appears that the book was probably written sometime in the early 2nd century B.C.E. The preface to the book, written by Yeshua ben Sira's grandson, explains that the book was originally written in Hebrew, and that the grandson translated it into Greek. You can read more about the dating of the book in the wikipedia article. There is also detailed information in the Jewish Encyclopedia online and the Catholic Encyclopedia online.

This book is not part of the Hebrew Bible, although it is known in the Hebrew tradition and is quoted in the Talmud. In Protestant versions of the Bible, such as the King James version, it is included with the apocryphal writings.

In Catholic and Orthodox Bibles, however, it is a canonical book, the last of the wisdom books, which appear in this order: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Wisdom, and Ecclesiasticus (Sirach).

If you are familiar with the book of Proverbs in the Hebrew Bible, you will feel right at home in Ecclesiasticus, since it has much in common with Proverbs. The book is a collection of ethical teachings and maxims. There is also a long section at the end of the book, beginning with the words "Let us now praise famous men," which offers a history of Jewish heroes, praising all the patriarchs and judges and prophets.

The Greek, Latin and English texts are available side-by-side at the Sacred Texts Archive. I've prepared a script with random quotes from this book of the Bible which should give you some idea about what the book is like (if you are reading this via email or via RSS, you may need to visit the actual blog to see the random quotes):

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Annunciation Scene: "Ustyug Annunciation"

This week's annunciation scene is a Russian icon from the Novgorod School, dating to the first half of the twelfth century. It is now held by the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. The icon is commonly known by the name the "Ustyug Annunciation."

One of the distinctive features of the Orthodox tradition of depicting the annunciation is that Mary is usually shown spinning, as opposed to the western European tradition which often depicts her as reading. In this icon, Mary is holding a drop spindle, spinning a crimson thread. Here is a close-up of Mary's hand, holding the drop spindle:



What is certainly most remarkable about this icon, however, is the way that Mary is shown already cradling an image of the infant. This is not a child in arms, but a mystical image which she seems to perceive and embrace with her right arm, as the child is spirited into her from God the Father who can be seen above, surrounded by cherubim and seraphim.



The icon is associated with a famous legend about Saint Procopius. Here is one version of the story: "It was before this Icon that St Procopius of Ustiug prayed and performed many miracles. A fool-for-Christ’s-sake, Procopius was in a long shirt during a time of terrible winter weather in Ustiug. No one wanted to give him shelter and even a group of dogs huddling together ran away when they saw him. For this, Procopius prayed and thanked God. He was then given the gift of inner warmth and was saved from freezing. Holy oil came from his hands as he prayed before this Icon."

Here is another version of the story of Procopius, in which he saved the city of Ustiug from destruction: "In the year 1290, the blessed one, in the course of a week, went about the city calling the inhabitants to repent and pray that the Lord would deliver the city from the lot of Sodom and Gomorrha. No one believed him. All of a sudden an ominous cloud appeared in the sky. It grew and grew, so that the day was turned into night. Lightning flashed and thunder rolled, shaking the walls of buildings, so that human voices could not be heard. A foreboding of destruction came on. The inhabitants rushed to the cathedral church, where the blessed one was already praying before the icon of the Annunciation of the Theotokos. Before everyone's eyes, a miracle occurred: On the icon, myrrh began to flow, as a sign of the merciful­kindness of the Mother of God performed over the city. A fragrance filled the church. Myrrh from the wonderworking icon flowed to such an extent that the church vessels were filled with it. Those anointed with it received healing from various illnesses. After this, the stifling air became fresh and the sun peeped out. Twenty versts [13.25 miles] from Ustiug, at the Kotoval dale, the clouds burst forth with hail and lightening. Hail broke the age-­old forest to pieces, not bringing harm, however, either to man or beast. In memory of the city's deliverance from destruction, the celebration of the Ustiug Icon of the Mother of God was instituted."

Here, then, is the icon to which Procopius, the fool-for-Christ, prayed:

Hinduism: Parashurama

Last week I wrote about the incarnation of Vishnu as Vamana, the dwarf. This week, I'll be writing about the incarnation of Vishnu as Parashurama (Parasurama), "Rama-with-an-axe."

Parashurama was born into the priestly (brahman) class, the youngest son of the great sage Jamadagni and Renuka. He was born into this world in order to restrain the class of kshatriyas, or warriors.

Parashurama was devoted to the god Shiva, and in reward for his devotions, Shiva bestowed on him the axe from which Parashurama takes his name. He famously used his axe to cut off the head of his mother, Renuka, when his father, Jamadagni, ordered him to do so. Jamadagni was enraged because Renuka had experienced a feeling of lust for a beautiful Gandarva (celestial musician) whom she had seen in the sky, so he ordered his sons, one after another in order of age, to kill their mother. Each of his sons refused to obey his command, so Jamadagni cursed them, one after the other, to become idiots. Parashurama was the only son who obeyed his father's command. Jamadagni was so impressed by his son's obedience that he granted him a boon. Parashurama accordingly asked that his mother be brought back to life and that his brothers be restored to their senses. He also acquired for himself invincibility in combat.

Parashurama later went on to wipe out the entire race of warriors from the earth. He did this in order to avenge the crime committed by the warrior Kartavirya, the thousand-armed king of the Haihayas. When Kartavirya was visiting Jamadagni, he stole a sacred cow, Surabhi. This made Parashurama angry, and he chased Kartavirya, and proceeded to cut off all one thousand of his arms. While Parashurama was chasing Kartavirya, the army returned to Jamadagni's home and killed him. When Parashurama found that his father had been killed, he vowed to kill every warrior on the planet.

There is a great legend about what happened when Parashurama came to Ayodhya, where Dasaratha was king. Dasaratha as yet had no sons, so his wives refused to let him face Parashurama in battle. Instead, they made him dress in women's clothing and hide in the women's quarters. Parashurama searched through the palace and when he finally found Dasaratha, he refused to fight him, scorning him because he had taken refuge among the women.

If you'd like to learn more about the fierce and even violent sages of the Indian tradition, including Parashurama, take a look at this great project one of my students did for the Indian Epics class this past semester: Indian Epics: When Gurus Attack!

Here is an image of Rama-with-the-axe:

Online Book: Fra Angelico, by J.B. Supino

A new book has just been added to the Project Gutenberg library online:

Title: Fra Angelico
Author: J. B. Supino
Translator: Leader Scott
Year Published: 1902

Gutenberg Link

I thought this would be useful to reference here, given that Fra Angelico's artwork figures in the Annunciation Scenes and Crucifixion Scenes widgets! Here is a detail from Fra Angelico's Deposition:

Shavuot: May 23 2007

Today, Tuesday, is the eve of the Jewish holiday, Shavuot, the "Feast of Weeks." It takes place on the sixth day of the Hebrew month of Sivan, so it falls either in late May or in early June. This year, it falls on May 23. (In some Jewish communities, the holiday is celebrated for a two-day period, May 23-24.)

Shavuot marks the conclusion of the counting of the "Omer" (for more about that, see the blog post about the Lag Ba'Omer holiday). It is now fifty days since Passover, and the holiday commemorates how on Mount Sinai the Torah was given to the Jewish people.

In addition to its connection to the Torah and Mount Sinai, Shavuot is also a harvest festival, and is sometimes called the Festival of Reaping or the Day of the First Fruits. When Jewish people worshipped at the Temple in Jerusalem, they would bring the "Bikkurim" ("first fruits") to the Temple as an offering.

In modern times, there are a variety of special holiday customs associated with Shavuot, including the the reading of the Book of Ruth at morning services - a book with special associations for the harvest and harvesters. Dairy foods, such as cheese blintzes (yum!), are traditional fare for Shavuot. You can read more about the modern observances of Shavuot in the wikipedia article.

Since the reading of the book of Ruth is a Shavuot tradition, I thought I would include this lovely depiction of Ruth as the image for this post! You can read the Book of Ruth online - if you are not familiar with this beautiful Bible story, it's definitely worth your time today.

Note for Feedburner email subscribers

Hi everybody, I'm still having some trouble trying to convince Feedburner to ignore edited posts, so that only truly new posts show up in the daily email. Thanks for your patience with that! I poked around in some of the technical documentation at Blogger to find a solution that will work but it looks like for this particular blog the standard solution is not going to work.

So, that means that when old posts are updated, you will get them again in the email, something which could be good or bad, depending on how much/little you are reading at this blog, and whether the updates made to the posts were major or minor.

And remember: if you go to the blog itself, you will not see the old updated blog posts on the main page; you will only see the blog posts for that day. So if you just want to see only the latest posts, you can use the email as a reminder to visit the blog and check out what's new. The ReligiousReading.com blog homepage will display only the current day's posts, with the other recent posts listed in the right-hand column.

Religious Literacy (Prothero): 1 - A Nation of Religious Illiterates

As I've mentioned previously, my motivation for starting this blog was a book I read called Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know--And Doesn't, by Stephen Prothero, published this year (2007). One of the tasks I've set for myself here in the blog is to record some notes from this book and my response to it. Last time I posted some notes about the Introduction. In this post you'll find my notes for Chapter 1: A Nation of Religious Illiterates.

Prothero opens the chapter with an observation that I think is very important - both believers and non-believers are dissatisfied with the religious discourse we have today: "The emotions on both sides of this question are understandable, though the irony of the situation - in which each camp sees itself as a victim and believes that the other is seizing control of the country - seems lost on everyone concerned. The fact of the matter is that, in the American marketplace of ideas, neither faith nor faithlessness is close to either bankruptcy or monopoly." [22]

Part of it is the underlying paradox of the America's situation from its very beginnings, as Prothero points out: "Thanks to the establishment clause, the US government is secular by law; thanks to the free exercise clause, American society is religious by choice. Ever since George Washington put his hand on a Bible and swore to uphold a godless Constitution, the United States has been both staunchly secular and resolutely religious." [22]

Pursuing the motif with which he opened the book, Prothero notes the sharp contrast here with Europe: "Many theological doctrines that Europeans now dismiss as fables - heaven and hell, angels and the devil - are enthusiastically affirmed by the vast majority of Americans. Out of every ten adults in the United States, more than nine believe in God, more than eight say that religion is important to them personally, and more than seven report praying daily." [23]

Yet despite the pervasiveness of religion in people's lives, their religious literacy is low. In this chapter, Prothero includes his "Religious Literacy Quiz" which you can find online. You can certainly quibble with individual items on this quiz and how it is constructed, but as a rough-and-ready instrument for measuring religious literacy, it looks like it could do the job, since I think everybody would agree that someone who does not pass this quiz (which Prothero defines as a score of 60% or better) would definitely have some serious gaps in their religious knowledge.

Yet as Prothero reports, "most of my students flunked this exam." [28] These are college students at Boston University. Prothero also reports similar results from colleagues at UNC Chapel Hill and Wheaton College in Illinois.

He goes on to explain, however, that the study of religious literacy is not something that scholars have focused on, so there is basically not very much data to go on. Researchers have studied levels of church membership, what people believe about the supernatural or about social issues, such as the role of women in the church, but religious knowledge per se has not been systematically studied.

One anecdotal study was done by a journalist in 2005 who called up ten cosponsors of a bill in Alabama that promoted the public display of the Ten Commandments. Of the ten cosponsors, only one could name ten of the Commandments. [31]

True confession: I could only name 8 out of what are effective 12 commandments, since there are different versions of the commandments in the various versions of the Bible - I forgot to honor my father and mother, and I forgot not to bear false witness against my neighbors! Yet perhaps the more important thing to confess is this: after I listed the first four or five commandments that came to mind, the way I managed to dredge up the other ones that were bouncing around in my brain was by remembering the booming voice in Cecil B. DeMille's movie, The Ten Commandments. Even though I have spent decades of my life in formal education and now teach at a university, it was Hollywood who came to my rescue when taking that part of Prothero's quiz.

Prothero devotes specific attention to the fact that it is not just university students who are in trouble, but also people who are participants in church-sponsored education, including Catholic catechetical training. Prothero includes a very telling quote from John Cavadini of Notre Dame's Department of Theology: "The problem is that somehow the doctrines got lost and we were left with only our desires, hopes, fears, and dreams, together with broad-stroke connections to a few marquee items like Jesus, God (the relationship between them left fuzzy), the Spirit. Most other items were left behind in a penumbra of distinguished but cozy irrelevance." [34]

In what will be one of the most important themes in Prothero's book, he points to "a shift in emphasis from participating in the sacraments to loving Jesus and a growing tendency to reduce the sum of religion to moral behavior." Prothero will return again frequently to this point, not because he is uninterested in moral behavior, but because the question of moral behavior is, in fact, separate from the question of civic participation which is his main emphasis in this book.

The chapter concludes with what is for me one of the most thought-provoking anecdotes of the entire book. Prothero cites the jury deliberations for a murder trial in Colorado in 1995. While the jury debated whether or not to apply the death penalty, a member of the jury pulled out an actual Bible which he had with him and pointed out the Leviticus passage about "eye for an eye, a tooth for tooth" and "he that killeth a man, he shall be put to death." The juror then allegedly told the other members of the jury to go home and consult their Bibles and to pray on the verdict. The next day the jury unanimously voted for the death penalty. Ten years later, in 2005, the appeals process led to the Colorado Supreme Court overturning the decision, ruling that jurors were not allowed to consult the Bible. Prothero then explains:

"In the ensuing hue and cry, conservative Christians, drawing on time-honored culture wars rhetoric, denounced the decision. [...] Few noticed, however, just how impoverished were the exegetical skills of the jury. There are very few passages from the Hebrew Bible that are explicitly rejected in the New Testament, but Leviticus 24:20-21 is one of them, since in Matthew 5:38-39 Jesus says, 'Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.' The purpose of citing this passage is neither to provide divine sanction for nonviolence nor to forestall a reading of the Bible in favor of capital punishment, but simply to offer yet another case study in the dangers of religious illiteracy. Were any jurors aware of Jesus' refutation? [...] At least for me,t he moral of this story is neither (as the Colorado Supreme Court ruled) that Americans should not bring Bibles into the jury box nor (as Focus on the Family argued) that they should. The moral is rather than it jurors are going to consult scripture - and, court rulings aside, they doubtless are - then those jurors should at least have the decency (and the piety) to try to get the Bible right.

Amen!

Finally, I do have to point out that it was in this chapter I found what I think must be some kind of error in Prothero's notes that definitely should be corrected. At a certain point he says: "Even atheists and agnostics have a religious illiteracy rant. The Weststar Institute, the think tank behind the notorious Jesus Seminar (which took it upon itself in the 1980s and 1990s to decide what Jesus really said and did), describes itself as 'educational institute dedicated to the advancement of religious literacy.'" [37] I'm not sure why Prothero lists the folks at Weststar Institute as "atheists and agnostics," because they most assuredly are not that. I happen to be a big fan of the Weststar Institute publications such as The Five Gospels: The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus and The Parables of Jesus: Red Letter Edition because they attempt to take complicated critical debates about the Biblical text and to present those debates for a lay audience. Fellows of the Jesus Seminar include fabulous folks such as John Dominic Crossan, Bernard Brandon Scott, et al. I'm guessing that Prothero got his note cards switched or something like that, perhaps mixing up Weststar Institute with a bona fide atheistic institute with a similar name.

So, those are my notes for Chapter 1. I'll be tagging future posts on this topic with the label prothero, so if you want to see any other posts I've added on this topic, just click on the prothero label link.

Annunciation Scene: Andrea del Sarto

Andrea painted this early work for the convent of San Gallo; it is presently in the Palazzo Pitti in Florence. The tiny extra scene behind Mary and the angels is usually interpreted as Susanna and the Elders - a Susanna who resembles a male nude but who in her concern for her chastity is a type for Mary;



the two Elders are pointing to her from on high.



The figures of the Madonna and the Angel Gabriel in the foreground, accompanied by two other angels, are full of gentle human beauty, vibrant with poetic intensity. Also in the scene above Gabriel's head appears a cloudlike formation which may represent God the Father whose word it is that the angel pronounces to Mary.



There is also a descending dove, symbolic of the Holy Spirit descending upon Mary along with the Father's word, as it did upon Jesus at his baptism (Matt. 3. 16).



In the angel's hand is a flowering staff, representing the staff of Joseph which blossomed as a sign that he was chosen to be the earthly husband of Mary. See the Monastery Icons website: "Searching for a righteous man with whom they could entrust the youthful Virgin Mary in marriage, the priests of the Temple called all men of the tribe of Judah to bring their staves into the Holy of Holies. The staff of the righteous old man Saint Joseph miraculously blossomed. And so he was chosen to be the spouse of the Blessed Virgin." Mary's symbolic flower the lily is on the angel's staff and around her are scattered white and red roses signs of her purity, passion, and love.

You can see a large image at Web Gallery of Art:

Bible Story: Ahab and Jezebel

While working on the list of Bible stories to include in the Bible Story of the Week widget, I had a very hard time deciding on just what stories to include, since there are easily a couple of hundred Bible stories I would have gladly included. The earth would have to radically change its orbit to have enough weeks in the year to include all the stories that are my favorites from the Bible.

One of my motivations in choosing a particular story was whether or not the story had lived on in popular culture, and this week's story - Ahab and Jezebel - is a good example of that. Both of these names have gone on to become a part of our culture, even though most people would probably be hard-pressed (I would guess) to tell you the Bible story that goes with these names. Ahab, of course, has become most famous as the sea-captain in Melville's Moby Dick, while Jezebel has become a catchphrase for a no-good woman. In fact, with a lower-case j, "jezebel," she has even become a word in the dictionary, defined variously as "a woman who is regarded as evil and scheming," "an impudent woman," " a shameless impudent scheming woman," and so on.

The story of King Ahab and his wife, Queen Jezebel, is found in the book of Kings. Ahab (wikipedia) was the king of Israel. He married Jezebel (wikipedia), the princess of Phoenicia, a marriage which brought him great wealth. Jezebel, however, did not worship the God of Israel. Instead, she worshipped Baal, and incited Ahab to do the same.

When Ahab was killed in battle, Jezebel continued to exert royal power through his sons. Finally, Jehu, the son of Jehoshaphat, had Jezebel killed by being thrown out of a window (yes, you can use the word defenstration here), and her body was eaten by dogs. The catchphrase "painted Jezebel" alludes to the moment before she is tossed out of the window, when she puts on her makeup:

Then Jehu went to Jezreel. When Jezebel heard about it, she painted her eyes, arranged her hair and looked out of a window. As Jehu entered the gate, she asked, "Have you come in peace, Zimri, you murderer of your master? He looked up at the window and called out, "Who is on my side? Who?" Two or three eunuchs looked down at him. "Throw her down!" Jehu said. So they threw her down, and some of her blood spattered the wall and the horses as they trampled her underfoot. Jehu went in and ate and drank. "Take care of that cursed woman," he said, "and bury her, for she was a king's daughter." But when they went out to bury her, they found nothing except her skull, her feet and her hands. They went back and told Jehu, who said, "This is the word of the Lord that he spoke through his servant Elijah the Tishbite: On the plot of ground at Jezreel dogs will devour Jezebel's flesh. Jezebel's body will be like refuse on the ground in the plot at Jezreel, so that no one will be able to say, 'This is Jezebel.' "

Throughout Jezebel's reign in Israel, it is the prophet Elijah who is her constant nemesis, denouncing her for her worship of Baal and challenging her again and again.

My favorite story about Elijah's denuncitation of Ahab and Jezebel and the worship of Baal is the story of how Elijah challenged the priests of Baal on Mount Carmel. As the story begins, Elijah has summoned King Ahab to come see him:

Ahab went to meet Elijah. When he saw Elijah, he said to him, "Is that you, you troubler of Israel?" "I have not made trouble for Israel," Elijah replied. "But you and your father's family have. You have abandoned the Lord's commands and have followed the Baals. Now summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel. And bring the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel's table."

Elijah, on his own, is going to challenge the 450 priests of Baal!

So Ahab sent word throughout all Israel and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel. Elijah went before the people and said, "How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him." But the people said nothing. Then Elijah said to them, "I am the only one of the LORD's prophets left, but Baal has four hundred and fifty prophets."

Elijah's challenge to the priests of Baal is simple: they will all together prepare one bull for sacrifice, and Elijah will prepare a bull also. The god who answers their prayers by kindling the sacrificial fire will be revealed as the true god:

"Get two bulls for us. Let them choose one for themselves, and let them cut it into pieces and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. I will prepare the other bull and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord. The god who answers by fire—he is God." Then all the people said, "What you say is good." Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, "Choose one of the bulls and prepare it first, since there are so many of you. Call on the name of your god, but do not light the fire." So they took the bull given them and prepared it.

Oh, the poor priests of Baal. They call upon their god, but nothing happens, and Elijah taunts them:

Then they called on the name of Baal from morning till noon. "O Baal, answer us!" they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made. At noon Elijah began to taunt them. "Shout louder!" he said. "Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened." So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed. Midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention.

Then it was Elijah's turn:

Then Elijah said to all the people, "Come here to me." They came to him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord, which was in ruins. Elijah took twelve stones, one for each of the tribes descended from Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, "Your name shall be Israel." With the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord, and he dug a trench around it large enough to hold two seahs of seed. He arranged the wood, cut the bull into pieces and laid it on the wood. Then he said to them, "Fill four large jars with water and pour it on the offering and on the wood." "Do it again," he said, and they did it again. "Do it a third time," he ordered, and they did it the third time. The water ran down around the altar and even filled the trench. At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: "O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. 37 Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again."

The fire is kindled, and the bull is consumed by the flames:

Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench. When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, "The Lord -he is God! The Lord -he is God!" Then Elijah commanded them, "Seize the prophets of Baal. Don't let anyone get away!" They seized them, and Elijah had them brought down to the Kishon Valley and slaughtered there.

Elijah's triumph does not make Jezebel happy. In response, she issues a death threat against Elijah and he has to flee:

Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, "May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them." Elijah was afraid and ran for his life.

So, even though Elijah had defeated the priests of Baal, Jezebel remained the Queen of Israel and she still had some more wicked deeds to do before she finally being defenestrated.

For the image today, I wanted to include this picture of Elijah and the priests of Baal from the synagogue paintings at Dura Europos. It was one of the great pleasures of my life to visit Dura Europos in Syria two years ago, and to see the synagogue paintings which are now housed in the national museum in Damascus.



Meanwhile, here is a "painted Jezebel" as imagined by the British artist John Byam Liston Shaw in 1896:

Google Gadget: Bible Story of the Week

Now that I have figured out the mysteries of Google Gadgets, here is the "Bible Story of the Week" widget transformed into a Google Gadget:

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Bible Story: David and Goliath

This week's Bible story is "David and Goliath." The story of David and Goliath has become proverbial for a struggle between two mismatched opponents. Even though David was small and the odds seemed to be entirely against him, he was able to able to defeat the mighty giant, Goliath. Here is the story as recounted in the Book of Samuel.

Goliath was a giant warrior fighting for the Philistines against the army led by King Saul:

A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. He was over nine feet tall. He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekels; on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back. His spear shaft was like a weaver's rod, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels.

Goliath challenged King Saul's army to send someone to fight him in single combat:

Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, "Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man and have him come down to me. If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us." Then the Philistine said, "This day I defy the ranks of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other." On hearing the Philistine's words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified.

Although none of the soldiers would fight Goliath, David, a shepherd boy, accepted the challenge. King Saul was dubious, seeing that David was no warrior. David, however, insisted that he could fight the giant:

David said to Saul, "Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." Saul said to David, "Go, and the Lord be with you."

Saul tried to dress David in a suit of armor to prepare him for battle, but David put aside the armor and instead armed himself with stones to use in his slingshot:

Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them. "I cannot go in these," he said to Saul, "because I am not used to them." So he took them off. Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd's bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine.

Goliath taunted David when he came out onto the battlefied, because he saw that David was a mere boy. David, however, was undeterred.

David said to the Philistine, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day Lord will hand you over to me, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give all of you into our hands."

Events unfolded just as David said they would:

As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground. So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him. David ran and stood over him. He took hold of the Philistine's sword and drew it from the scabbard. After he killed him, he cut off his head with the sword. When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they turned and ran. Then the men of Israel and Judah surged forward with a shout and pursued the Philistines to the entrance of Gath and to the gates of Ekron.

That is the end of Goliath, but it is not the last we will see of Goliath's weapons. Later, when David is fleeing from Saul, he will go to the priest Ahimelech for supplies, and Ahimelech will give to him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.

There are many wonderful images of David's defeat of Goliath, and the one I chose here is an early 12th-century mural from Catalonia.

Widgets: Bible Stories

I've created another widget - this time it is a collection of Bible stories which can be displayed either as a "Bible Story of the Week" or a "Random Bible Story."

Each item contains a brief summary of the story along with a link to the Wikipedia article where you can learn more about the story. There is also an image, with a link to a larger view of the image and additional information.

I'm hoping this would be useful in helping people become familiar with the stories of the Bible. It sure was hard choosing just one story for each week! I tried to focus on stories that would be included as components of Bible "narrative literacy." (For more about religious literacy, see my notes about Prothero's book.)

You can find this widget and related widgets at the SchoolhouseWidgets.com website. I hope that for anyone with a course website devoted to Bible-based courses could find the information and links useful in covering the basic Bible stories.

You can see the widget in action in the right-hand column of this blog! And here is the random version of the script:

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Crucifixion Scene: Raphael

This week's crucifixion scene is by Sanzio Raffaello, better known as Raphael. This beautiful painting dates to 1502-3, when Raphael was barely twenty years old. Amazing!

You can see here Jesus on the cross, with the Mary Magdalene and Saint Jerome kneeling at the foot of the cross, together with the Virgin Mary and the apostle John standing behind them. Saint Jerome is included anachronistically; it is not unusual to see later saints, as well as patrons of art, depicted amidst the followers of Jesus attending the crucifixion.

The particular feature that I wanted to emphasize in writing about this painting is the role played by the angels here. You can see two angels, beautifully depicted hovering in the air to the right and to the left of Jesus on the cross (it almost looks as if they are standing on the clouds). As they hover there, one angel gazing upwards and the other angel gazing downards, they hold up chalices to catch the blood from Jesus's wounded hands and also from the wound in his side.

Blood is often an important element in crucifixion scenes, and in this style of depiction, that blood is being caught in a chalice, anticipating the sacrament of the Eucharist, the bread and the wine as the body and the blood of Christ.

The "most precious blood" has a prominent place in the Laudes Divinae, or "Divine Praises," as you can see in the opening lines:

Benedictus Deus. Benedictum Nomen Sanctum eius. Benedictus Iesus Christus, verus Deus et verus homo. Benedictum Nomen Iesu. Benedictum Cor eius sacratissimum. Benedictus Sanguis eius pretiosissimus. Benedictus Iesus in sanctissimo altaris Sacramento. [...]

Blessed be God. Blessed be His Holy Name. Blessed be Jesus Christ, true God and true man. Blessed be the name of Jesus. Blessed be His Most Sacred Heart. Blessed be His Most Precious Blood. Blessed be Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. [...]

There is also a Litany of the Most Precious Blood. In this litany, the blood of Christ is invoked again and again. Here is an excerpt:

Sanguis Christi, in agonia decurrens in terram, salva nos.
Sanguis Christi, in flagellatione profluens, salva nos.
Sanguis Christi, in coronatione spinarum emanans, salva nos.
Sanguis Christi, in Cruce effusus, salva nos.
Sanguis Christi, pretium nostrae salutis, salva nos.
Sanguis Christi, sine quo non fit remissio, salva nos.
Sanguis Christi, in Eucharistia potus et lavacrum animarum, salva nos.
Sanguis Christi, flumen misericordiae, salva nos.

Blood of Christ, running down upon the earth in agony, save us.
Blood of Christ, pouring forth in the scourging, save us.
Blood of Christ, dripping down in the crowning with thorns, save us.
Blood of Christ, poured out on the cross, save us.
Blood of Christ, price of our salvation, save us.
Blood of Christ, without which there is no forgiveness, save us.
Blood of Christ, in the Eucharist drink and refreshment of souls, save us.
Blood of Christ, stream of mercy, save us.

Although the Litany in this form is modern (20th century), you can see that the reverence for the blood of Christ expressed here resonates with the scene depicted here by Raphael:

Religious Literacy (Prothero): Introduction

As I've mentioned previously, my motivation for starting this blog was a book I read called Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know--And Doesn't, by Stephen Prothero, published this year (2007). One of the tasks I've set for myself here in the blog is to record some notes from this book and my response to it. Here, then, are some notes about the Introduction to the book, and my reflections.

Prothero begins with an anecdote about an Austrian colleague who commented to him that while European students know much more than American students about the cultural history of religion, they do not go to church, while American students seemed to him much more likely to be church-goers, but to know next to nothing about the cultural history of religion. As Prothero states the problem: "One of the most religious countries on earth is also a nation of religious illiterates." [2]

By posing the problem as one of "religious literacy" (and "illiteracy"), Prothero very self-consciously puts himself in the line of E.D. Hirsch's book, Cultural Literacy, which came out in 1987. (Although that book is not online, the companion volume, The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, by E. D. Hirsch, et al. is online at Bartleby - and it includes a Bible section). I have not read Hirsch's book, but he apparently presents the thesis that American cultural literacy was undermined by the educational reforms of John Dewey. Prothero picks up on that argument, and is quite sympathetic to it. Here is what Prothero says:

"When I frst began teaching in the early 1990s I was a follower of Dewey and the progressives. [...] I cared about having challenging conversations, and I offered my quiz-free classrooms as places to do just that. I soon found, however, that the challenging conversations I coveted were not possible without some common knowledge - common knowledge my students plainly lacked. [...] In this way I became, like Hirsch, a traditionalist about content, not because I had come to see facts as the end of education but because I had come to see them as necessary means of understanding. [3]

This is a topic I'll come back to in separate posts. I started out my teaching career as a devoted follower of Dewey, and have become even more of one in the past years - but this does not mean I am uninterested in the problem of literacy. So, this is definitely a topic to return to in a later post.

Prothero then has to pose the problem of why, within the larger field of cultural literacy, religion deserves special attention. This is something that Prothero considers to be an objective issue, not purely one of personal choice: "Today religious illiteracy is at least as pervasive as cultural illiteracy, and certainly more dangerous. Religious illiteracy is more dangerous because religion is the most volatile constituent of culture, because religion has been, in addition to one of the greatest forces for good in world history, one of the greatest forces for evil." [4] Prothero notes again and again how pervasive religions has become in American politics and public life: "Ninety percent of the members of Congress, by one report, consult their religious beliefs when voting on legislation," [5] he says, for example.

As someone who grew up on identity politics and the mantra of race, class, gender, I found this remark to be especially striking: "Religion is now emerging alongside race, gender, and ethnicity as one of the key identity markers of the twenty-first century." [5]

Throughout the book, Prothero will list many howlers where people in public pronouncements or in surveys of some kind demonstrate abysmal religious literacy. One of my favorite examples is this one: "A few years ago no one in Jay Leon's Tonight Show audience could name any of Jesus' twelve apostles, but everyone, it seemed, was able to list the four Beatles." [5] Now, I'm not so sure they could name none of the apostles, but I have no doubt at all that they were able to name all four Beatles. Everybody knows John, Paul, George and Ringo! Our heads are, indeed, full of facts - but they are facts that come to us from modern mass media, reinforced by consumer culture. As for the twelve apostles, do you want to try to name them? (Click here to see a list of the twelve when you are done.)

Prothero writes very eloquently about how the loss of religious literacy is a kind of national forgetting. In particular, it is an effect of the melting pot, in the worst sense of that word: "In conforming themselves to American culture, Protestantism, Catholicism, and Judaism had become little more than parallel paths up the mountain of the American dream." [7] For Prothero, this constitutes a kind of civic crisis: "You need religious literacy in order to be an effective citizen." [9]

Prothero admits that using the term "religious literacy" is a bit of shorthand. There are many religions and many literacies, too. He provides a thought-provoking list of the many kinds of literacies that could be taught: ritual literacy, confessional literacy, denominational literacy, narrative literacy and so on. (I'll have a great deal to say about narrative literacy in future posts, since that is my own interest both as a student of religion and as a teacher.)

Throughout the book, Prothero's choice of emphasis for both specific religions and specific types of literacy will be driven by the question of what he thinks people need to know in order to be more effective participants in American civic culture today. Hence the emphasis on Christianity, as that is the dominant religion in the world today. I noticed that in books reviews at Amazon, people were very disappointed in Prothero's emphasis on Christianity, but he is very clear from the outset about his reasons for this emphasis.

In addition, Prothero makes a strategic choice to focus on the educational changes that could take place at high schools and colleges in order to promote religious literacy: "The most effective way forward is to focus on secondary schools and colleges." [16]. As a college instructor, this is something I think about a lot: what are the changes we can and should make to university courses in order to promote general cultural literacy and religious literacy in particular? What do I need to do as a teacher in order to tackle this serious problem? I'll have a lot to say about this in future posts as well, although for now I will just say that as someone who teaches at a research university where the professors are considered, first and foremost, to be scholars, I've concluded that there is nothing like scholarship to get in the way of basic literacy. :-)

So, those are the notes I had highlighted in reading through the Introduction to the book. I'll save my more detailed personal responses for separate posts later. Meanwhile, questions or comments here are always welcome - and I do highly recommend the book! It's still just out in hardback, unfortunately, but surely a paperback edition will be available soon. It's also available in audiobook form at Audible.com - which is how I happened to read the book in the first place. It's pretty rare for me to actually go out and buy a copy of a book after listening to it, but this book was so thought-provoking for me that I actually went out and got a hard copy, which is quite an endorsement in and of itself! I'll be tagging future posts on this topic with the label prothero, so if you want to see any other posts I've added on this topic, just click on the prothero label link.

Ascension Day: May 17 2007

This post contains Unicode Greek text. Internet Explorer will probably choke, so why not switch to Firefox and leave the Microsoft vale of sorrows behind? :-)

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Ascension Day is the Christian holiday that commemorates the ascension of Jesus to heaven. The holiday is celebrated forty days after the day of the resurrection, so it is a movable holiday, changing from year to year in the calendar, although because Easter is always on Sunday, Ascension is always celebrated on a Thursday. In 2007, Ascension is celebrated on May 17, and Sunday May 22 is designated "Ascension Sunday."

Ascension is referred to in several passages in the New Testament, along with allusions in other passages (you can see a complete listing in the wikipedia article).

The verse in Mark (16:19) reads as follows (from the sheer joy of being able to cut and paste Unicode Greek into Blogger, I'll include both the Greek and English): ὁ μὲν οὗν κύριος ἰησοῦς μετὰ τὸ λαλῆσαι αὐτοῖς ἀνελήμφθη εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ ἐκάθισεν ἐκ δεξιῶν τοῦ θεοῦ, "So Lord Jesus, after speaking to them, was received up into the sky (heaven) and he sat to the right of God."

Here is the verse in Luke (24:51): καὶ ἐγένετο ἐν τῶ εὐλογεῖν αὐτὸν αὐτοὺς διέστη ἀπ᾽ αὐτῶν καὶ ἀνεφέρετο εἰς τὸν οὐρανόν, "And it happened as he was blessing them, he stood apart from them and was carried up into the sky (heaven)."

The passage in Acts 1:9-11 provides more detail; here it is in the King James translation: "And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven."

The ascension of Jesus is also a component of the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed.

In the iconographic tradition for the Ascension scene, it is common to see simply the feet of Jesus as he is taken up. Here's an example from an illuminated manuscript from France dating to around the year 1200:

Google Gadget: Bible Woman of the Week

After some technical adventures today, I have learned how to create Google Gadgets for use in iGoogle. So, here is the "Bible Woman of the Week" turned into a Google Gadget!

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Saint Brendan the Navigator: May 16

Today, May 16, is the memorial day of Saint Brendan, nicknamed "The Navigator." Brendan was a monk who lived in Ireland in the 6th century, although he is most famous as a character in a widely popular medieval text, "The Voyage of Saint Brendan to the Island of the Blessed." You can read the Latin text of the Navigatio at the Biblioteca Augustana website, and there is an English translation at the Celtic Christianity E-Library.

The most famous incident in the Voyage is when the crew land on what they think is an island... but they are in for a big surprise! Of course, the saint knows better:

When they came to another island, the boat drew to a halt before they were able to reach the harbor. Saint Brendan instructed the brothers to get out of the boat and they did so. They tied down the boat on both sides with ropes until it could make port. The island, however, was rocky, without any grass. There were sparse woodlands and there was no sand on the shore. While the brothers were spending the night in prayers and vigils on shore, the man of God stayed inside the boat, for Saint Brendan knew what sort of island this was but he did not want to tell the brothers, lest they become terrified. When morning came, Saint Brendan ordered the priests to each say the Mass, and they did so. When Saint Brendan had said Mass himself on the boat, the brothers began to carry raw meat off the boat in order to salt it, along with fish which they had brought from the previous island. When they had done this, they put a cauldron on the fire. When they had added wood to the fire and it had started to boil, the island began to move like a wave. Then indeed the brothers began to run to the boat, begging for the protection of the saintly father, and one by one he grabbed them by the hand and pulled them into the boat. Having left behind all the things which they had carried over to the island, they set sail. Next, the island was drawn down into the ocean. Then they could see the fire burning at two miles' distance. Saint Brendan told the brothers what it was: "Brothers, are you wondering what happened to the island?" They said, "Yes, we do wonder greatly, and we were stricken with a great fear." Saint Brendan said to them, "My little sons, do not be afraid, for God has revealed to me in the night by means of a vision the mystery of this thing. Where we were is not an island, but a fish. It is greater than all the creatures swimming in the ocean, and seeks always to join its tail to its head, but it cannot do that because of its length. Its name is Iasconius."

Here is the Latin text:

Cum autem venissent ad aliam insulam, cepit illa navis stare antequam portum illius potuissent tenere. Sanctus Brendanus precepit fratribus exire de navi et ita fecerunt. Tenebantque navim ex utraque parte cum funibus usque dum ad portum venit. Erat autem illa insula petrosa sine ulla herba. Silva rara erat ibi et in litore illius nihil de arena fuit. Porro pernoctantibus in orationibus et in vigiliis fratribus foras de navi vir Dei sedebat intus. Sanctus vero Brendanus sciebat qualis erat illa insula sed tamen noluit illis indicare ne fuissent perterriti. Mane autem facto precepit sacerdotibus ut singuli missas cantasset et ita fecerunt. Cum ergo sanctus Brendanus et ipse cantasset missam in navim ceperunt fratres crudas carnes portare foras de navi ut condidissent sale et etiam pisces quos secum tulerunt de alia insula. Cum haec fecissent posuerunt cacabum super ignem. Cum autem ministrassent lignis ignem et fervere cepisset cacabus cepit illa insula se movere sicut unda. Fratres vero ceperunt currere ad navim deprecantes patrocinium sancti patris.At ille singulos per manus trahebat intus. Relictisque omnibus quae portabant in illam insulam ceperunt navigare. Porro illa insula ferebatur in oceanum. Tunc poterant videre ignem ardentem super duo miliaria. Sanctus Brendanus narravit fratribus quod hoc esset dicens: Fratres admiramini quod fecit haec insula?" Aiunt: "Admiramur valde nec non et ingens pavor penetravit nos." Qui dixit illis: "Filioli mei nolite expavescere. Deus enim revelavit mihi hac nocte per visionem sacramentum huius rei. Insula non est ubi fuimus sed piscis. Prior omnium natancium in oceano querit semper suam caudam ut simul iungat capiti et non potest pro longitudine quam habet nomine Iasconius".

If you enjoyed that, Saint Brendan has many other fabulous adventures that you would definitely like!

The story of the island that is really a fish or a whale is a famous story throughout world folklore. For example, there is a great version of the story in the Voyages of Sindbad. In the Christian tradition, the Physiologus contains the story of the tracherous island, complete with an allegorical interpretation.

I have a special fondness for the voyage of Saint Brendan, because when I was a graduate student in Comparative Literature at Berkeley, one of the other Latin students decided that we should get on a boat, journey "across the waters" to Angel Island in San Francisco Bay, and read the Navigatio out loud in Latin to each other while we were on the island. It was so much fun! Admittedly, Angel Island is not quite "The Island of the Blessed," but we had a really great time.

Here is a lovely illustration of Saint Brendan and his sailors from a medieval manuscript:

Why blog?

Although this is not a technical post, I thought it would be a good thing to write about from an "administrative" point of view. There are lots of reasons why people blog, and so I wanted to explain my reason for blogging, which is this: I blog to build online knowledge.

And here's what I mean by that...

For a very long time, human knowledge has resided in books. Very quickly, and almost by accident, human knowledge is now residing in books AND on the Internet. Unlike the book publishing enterprise, the web publishing enterprise means that the way knowledge resides on the Internet is very haphazard - thrilling and maddening at the same time.

So, my main goal as a blogger is to contribute to the sheer quantity of knowledge that is available on the Internet. I know a lot of specific things about some rather obscure topics, and most of the time when I am blogging, it is because I am adding some of that knowledge to the Internet, where others can find and use it.

Sometimes that consists of digitizing material from a text that is not available on the Internet, sometimes it is a matter of linking two items that are not linked on the Internet, and most often I am just providing some kind of commentary or explanation, taking specialist knowledge and explaining it for non-specialists.

Just imagine how great it would be if ALL academics were blogging, contributing to knowledge on the Internet! It seems to me that every single professor or instructor or lecturer at the university could share my reasons for blogging. We all have specialist knowledge, and blogging gives us a way to put our knowledge online, share it with others, link it up with other knowledge, and explain its importance in ways that non-specialists can understand. What an amazing thing!

Yet very few academics blog, and I think this is simply because they think that blogging is just about personal stuff, opinions, ranting and raving, etc. Now, there are plenty of blogs that take that route... but my blogs do not do any of that (okay, I rant and rave a little bit - like now!). Instead, my blogs are a way to share the kind of knowledge that normally would be locked inside my head, or locked inside my classroom. Blogging lets me set that knowledge free, sharing it with others online.

At the same time, I am blissfully unworried about whether people read my blog on a day-to-day basis or not. I am delighted if they do, of course, but I think it is more likely that someone will find individual blog posts on a specific topic in the future, say, when they are researching Moses and Pharaoh's daughter, or when they want to learn something about Fra Angelico's Annunciation in San Marco. There is nothing "timely" about the blog posts, as with news blogs or opinion blogs. Even if just one person at some point in time, a year or two years or five years from now, reads my post about the Marian hymns in the inscriptions added to Fra Angelico's Annunciation, then I will be happy!

Now, anyone who's an academic knows full well that there are books and journal articles galore about Fra Angelico's Annunciation already available in university libraries and in JSTOR, etc. True enough. But those materials are accessible to only a tiny number of people - and Fra Angelico's Annunciation is seen by thousands upon thousands of American tourists every year there in San Marco. When those tourists go home, they are not going to log on to JSTOR and read scholarly articles about Fra Angelico, but they just might do a Google search and find their way to my blog post... or to someone who links to my blog post, and so on.

I get emails every day from people using the materials I have published online to answer their scholarly questions, even though most of the people who send me those emails are not scholars themselves. Still, they have scholarly questions, and I am really glad when my websites and blogs can help them find answers to their scholarly questions, even though they do not have access to the scholarly tools, like JSTOR and university libraries, that academics are able to take for granted.

So, that's why I blog: it's based on an endless optimism about inquiring minds, and the ability of the Internet to let inquiring minds find one another in virtual space.

Plus, it's FUN. :-)

Some quick technical notes

For anyone who might read this blog who is interested in some of the technical "behind-the-scenes" information, I thought I would put a note up here about some changes I've made to the blog - all using free technology!

If you are not a blog geek, feel free to skip this post: it's definitely not "required reading." :-)

Feedburner Email subscription. Feedburner is an RSS feed service that takes the feed from any blog, and lets you reuse and reformat it in all kinds of ways. One option is to create an email subscription service so that people can read your blog via email. I'm using Feedburner to do that - sign up, if you are interested! Meanwhile, I discovered yesterday that when you edit an old post, it shows up again in the daily email. That was a surprise to me, so I poked around and found an option that I think will prevent edited posts from showing up as new in the email (instructions here). Fingers crossed; I'll be able to see tomorrow if it worked.

Labels. Blogger has recently created a system for "labeling" posts, and I've been trying to make good use of that. At the bottom of each post, you will see what labels have been used for that post, and you can click on the label to see other posts that have the same label. I've also created some links in the right-hand column of the blog, so that people can get quick access to blog posts with similar labels. For example, here are the blog posts so far labeled as Bible Women. This is still a bit unwieldly in Blogger, since they display ALL posts with the same label on a single webpage - and that webpage can get very long. I hope in future that Blogger will offer some better options for taking advantage of the labels on posts to organize the post pages, archive pages, etc.

I think that's it for now! I've posted previously about how I included the Google Calendar at the bottom of the page, and how I added the FreeFind search engine. I'm tagging these posts as "admin" so you can find them at this page: Administrative Posts.

Please don't be shy to ask technical questions about the blog, or to suggest improvements. I'm amazed at what can be accomplished with 100% free software and services like Google, Feedburner, etc., and I would definitely like to provide information that will encourage others to strike out on their own and build their own blogs!