There are a bunch of famous people who died on my birthday, apparently.
(That’s the 10th of December, for those of you who want to note it down.)
Luminaries include:
and my personal favourite:
[NB: 'Spotlight' here refers to a segment we run at church, and has nothing to do with a certain Apple search technology.]
Last year’s Easter Furphy was all about the Talpiot Tomb.
Discovered in 1980, not far from Jerusalem, this tomb contained a number of ossuaries (coffins, basically).
Some of them had writing on them, and some looked like they might be Jesus’ family. Mariamene was the inscription on one ossuary, which some speculated could be a rendering of Mary Magdalene. One disputed epigraph arguably reads “Jesus, son of Joseph”.
All of this was old news this time last year, except for the fact that James Cameron (of Titanic fame) and Simcha Jacobovici made a documentary titled The Lost Tomb of Jesus, and released it shortly before Easter. In media reports at the conclusion of a conference of archaeological and epigraphical experts, views put forward in this documentary seemed to have precedence over those of scholars.
Why is all of this important? The historicity of Jesus’ death and resurrection is critical for Christianity:
“And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.”
- Paul, 1 Corinthians 15:14
In a letter signed by some 17 experts from the conference, certain claims made in the media concerning this tomb are refuted:
“… we wish to protest the misrepresentation of the conference proceedings in the media, and make it clear that the majority of scholars in attendance – including all of the archaeologists and epigraphers who presented papers relating to the tomb - either reject the identification of the Talpiot tomb as belonging to Jesus’ family or find this claim highly speculative.”
So why bring this old news up again, after basically all of the ‘facts’ have been repudiated? Because it happens each Easter and Christmas, that a story comes out throwing doubt on Christianity in some way. It’s not surprising - stories like this, in order to be newsworthy, have to have an edge. It’s not interesting if someone says that they believe in and agree with historic Christian belief. It’s newsworthy if someone finds an expert, or a bishop, who is willing to say that they have grave reservations about something or other.
John Dickson’s The Christ Files (screening Good Friday, 12pm, channel 7) may take the spot of that story this Easter, but I’ll not be surprised if I see another story like the Talpiot tomb this week.
“Focus solely on current events and it’s all too easy to despair at the state of the world. But science and progress march ever forward, and the world is a better place today than it used to be.”
ProgressTechnology will save us all, right?
I saw an ad on a Melbourne tram for the Harold Holt Swim Centre, which tickled my dark sense of the ridiculous.
Research turns up the most amazing things.
I came across this little historical tidbit in the process of writing an essay earlier in the year, but it came up again in my study for a Reformation Church History exam next week. It’s taken from The Later Reformation in England 1547-1603, by Diarmaid MacCulloch (1968), in the context of continental theological divisions that existed between Lutherans and Calvinists in England:
“Amid these divisions, there were distinctive English theological priorities, but the English added little that was original; indeed, the English lack of capacity for abstract theological invention is so marked through national history as to constitute a dangerously plausible argument for persistent national characteristics.“
A few days ago some friends and I were trying to come up with decent terms for common things that aren’t named in English. One such thing we wanted to name was the process whereby you come to understand or appreciate something from classical culture via pop culture.
The most obvious example is the Simpsons, with its numerous references to Greek mythology, English literature, the Bible, to say nothing of more modern popular culture. The movie Troy is another example.
We reasoned that this would be a good thing to have a term for, or at least something a little less cumbersome than ‘the process by which one comes to appreciate…‘. You get the idea.
Our candidate?
Homering.
Beautiful, isn’t it?
[image via livius.org]
Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) was a French Linguist, who had an incredible effect on the development of linguistics in the 20th century. He proposed a structural approach to studying language, which looked at the relationships words have to one another: contrasts, opposites, hierarchies of meaning - in short, language in practice. He studied language synchronically, that is, how words are used at the present time (rather than a long-term evolutionary diachronic understanding).
Furthermore, he divided his understanding of linguistics into two areas - the langue, which is like the storehouse of all possible words, meanings, grammar; and parole, the words actually spoken. The langue is present only in a community of speakers, as they understand and develop the particular rules of language to communicate meaning. Different languages do different things.
All of this means that language is astoundingly (and wonderfully) complex. Words can be combined and arranged in such a way as to create new meaning (contra Logical Positivism). Redundancy helps to eliminate detrimental effects of ‘noise’ such as bad grammar, textual corruption, wide semantic ranges, and so on. Having come to understand this through a philosophy class this semester, this skit is simply wonderful.
Research turns up the most amazing things.
Thanks to David Ould.
I’ve just handed in an essay for Church History, on the effects of English translations of the Bible in the sixteenth century (under the reign of Queen Elizabeth I). The essay is a little long to post, but here are some highlights:
Pretty cool stuff, for which I for one am very thankful.
