Spending Easter with Augustine, Part 1
Lord God, the light of the minds that know you, the life of the souls that love you, and the strength of the hearts that serve you: Help us, following the example of your servant, Augustine of Hippo, so to know you that we may truly love you, and so to love you that we may fully serve you, whose service is perfect freedom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
My first session on Augustine’s Confessions is here.
The six-week series, running from Easter 2 through Easter 7, is a bit of an experiment: I’ve never done a series on a single text (unless you count the BCP) or one that draws directly on my own scholarly expertise. I’ve translated Augustine’s Confessions, written about his biblical exegesis, and edited a forthcoming volume on the Confessions for Cambridge University Press. (At least I hope it’s forthcoming. I’ve submitted a full typescript,* but I’m still waiting for completion of the “clearance review”—whatever exactly that is—which should have finished done several weeks ago.)
A friend and fellow priest once asked me to describe my teaching style in three words. I immediately answered “hyper-caffeinated open-ended lecture.” Yes, I lecture: the L-word is not a dirty word for me, and I am perfectly content to be the “sage on the stage” and not the ultra-hip and -modern “guide on the side.” (I know stuff: why not share it?) I lecture with considerable energy and enthusiasm: one of my favorite-ever teaching evaluations said “Don’t switch to decaf.” But I welcome and encourage questions and discussion. That’s the “open-ended” part.
As you’ll see if you watch the video, our folks ask really good questions.
I have high hopes that this experiment will prove very successful indeed.
*Normal people say “manuscript,” but I spend too much time thinking in Latin to be comfortable with that. manū scriptus means “written by hand.” Never mind that the OED gives the following, perfectly sensible, definition as one option: “A written composition which has not been printed; unprinted or unpublished written material. In later use frequently: an author's written, typed, or word-processed copy of a work, as distinguished from the print of the same.” It still makes me uneasy.