I’m exceedingly busy, as usual, but now I have enough time to write quickly for y’all.
I had my paper conference with Mr. Tomarchio on my most recent language paper on the Aeneid. I, much to my surprise, and continually flirting with a Sophomore Essay topic stemming from the investigations that I’ve already done. I also bought another Aeneid translation by Stanley Lombardo, though I think the Fairclough is more elegant and quotable. Lombardo, as I recall from his Iliad and Odyssey translations, writes with a smooth, current vernacular, and his verse on the page is visually pleasing. I think it was a decent purchase. I plan to use the Lombardo for a cursory reading of the text over Thanksgiving break (maybe), and then Fairclough for another reading over Christmas while I’m visiting with friends and family in Pennsylvania and New York.
Also, I recently submitted my proposal for my oral examination this semester. Guess what book I chose. Yes, it’s on the Aeneid. Here’s what I gave to my tutors:
Should be fun. For those of you who don’t know, each semester at St. John’s we have an oral examination scheduled with our tutors. It gets a bit different in the senior year, but it’s mostly the same. The first semester of each year is an oral topic of the students’ choosing, as the one above, whereas the second semester oral is a response to the students’ Annual Essays, the topic of which is also chosen by the students. The orals are thirty-minute conversations between the student and his two seminar tutors. No sweat. Lots of fun, as I recall from last year.
My seminars on the New Testament have been really inspiring. Reading Matthew as Matthew, and Luke as Luke, I was intrigued to see the different emphases of the two authors. The generic and impulsive person says that the two accounts contradict each other and are therefore untrue or unsuitable as a foundation for doctrines. But it has become all the more evident to me, as also to my peers here, that the discrepancies between the two texts highlight more of the truth than one account is capable of handling. And how much more do I think the same of John’s account! Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are all testifying to the same truth, concerning the same Man who was born on earth by the Holy Spirit, killed by humans on a cross, raised from the dead and made to sit at God’s right hand in heaven by the power of the Almighty. The fact that there are four accounts of Jesus Christ on earth and in heaven is a tremendous confirmation of the truth of his life, and anyone who sees only discrepancies (whatever they claim) fails to see that these accounts were preserved because together they reveal the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help us God.
John’s account and First John are the texts for my next seminar, followed by Romans and First Corinthians. I know that John’s words are going to “rock some boats” in my seminar. I was able to predict which people would be tremendously affected by Luke, and I suspect that there is another round of people who will find John’s words to be light in a world of darkness. May God confirm His word.
As for me, personally, I have been moving slowly along this way. It would be a lie if I didn’t confess that recently I’ve strayed to the right and to the left. Two weeks ago I asked my buddy Jesse to pray on my behalf for a spirit of repentance. I recognized that I was wandering, and that I was not “doing righteousness,” in John’s words. But grace abounds in Jesus Christ, and mercy has overcome judgement. God has crushed me and picked me up in love. I am greatly encouraged. First John has a tremendous power in me, because I am at once terrified and blessed. Terrified that I might displease God, and blessed in the knowledge of His love, His power, and His promise of eternal life. Where am I without His promises? My hope therefore is fixed on Jesus, and purity is mine in Him. Now on to read the gospel.
I had my paper conference with Mr. Tomarchio on my most recent language paper on the Aeneid. I, much to my surprise, and continually flirting with a Sophomore Essay topic stemming from the investigations that I’ve already done. I also bought another Aeneid translation by Stanley Lombardo, though I think the Fairclough is more elegant and quotable. Lombardo, as I recall from his Iliad and Odyssey translations, writes with a smooth, current vernacular, and his verse on the page is visually pleasing. I think it was a decent purchase. I plan to use the Lombardo for a cursory reading of the text over Thanksgiving break (maybe), and then Fairclough for another reading over Christmas while I’m visiting with friends and family in Pennsylvania and New York.
Also, I recently submitted my proposal for my oral examination this semester. Guess what book I chose. Yes, it’s on the Aeneid. Here’s what I gave to my tutors:
Questions: What effect does Aeneas’s interaction with women, especially as a husband, have on his mission as the progenitor of the Roman race and founder of the Roman legacy? How does his relation to Venus shed more light on the questions of these relationships?
Background: Aeneas is often described [in Latin] as pius (dutiful, faithful, devout), but the direction or focus of his devotion varies. At one moment he is presented as a faithful father, at another a dutiful son, and also a trustworthy leader. Do we, however, see this same pius man in his relationships with women? His first wife he with remorse left behind in Troy, after clasping at her shade in vain; though his second wife, or girlfriend, he denied for a greater call from the gods; and yet his third he fights for, knowing her to be the bearer of his lineage’s glory. I’m most particularly interested in his relationship to Dido, whom Virgil continually mentions after her death, and of whom Aeneas was considered not only coniunx (husband) but also described derogatorily as uxorius (excessively fond of his wife) by the gods. I wonder especially how this relationship, and its dissolution, reveals Aeneas’s character when considering him to be both the son of Love and the father of Rome.
Should be fun. For those of you who don’t know, each semester at St. John’s we have an oral examination scheduled with our tutors. It gets a bit different in the senior year, but it’s mostly the same. The first semester of each year is an oral topic of the students’ choosing, as the one above, whereas the second semester oral is a response to the students’ Annual Essays, the topic of which is also chosen by the students. The orals are thirty-minute conversations between the student and his two seminar tutors. No sweat. Lots of fun, as I recall from last year.
My seminars on the New Testament have been really inspiring. Reading Matthew as Matthew, and Luke as Luke, I was intrigued to see the different emphases of the two authors. The generic and impulsive person says that the two accounts contradict each other and are therefore untrue or unsuitable as a foundation for doctrines. But it has become all the more evident to me, as also to my peers here, that the discrepancies between the two texts highlight more of the truth than one account is capable of handling. And how much more do I think the same of John’s account! Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are all testifying to the same truth, concerning the same Man who was born on earth by the Holy Spirit, killed by humans on a cross, raised from the dead and made to sit at God’s right hand in heaven by the power of the Almighty. The fact that there are four accounts of Jesus Christ on earth and in heaven is a tremendous confirmation of the truth of his life, and anyone who sees only discrepancies (whatever they claim) fails to see that these accounts were preserved because together they reveal the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help us God.
John’s account and First John are the texts for my next seminar, followed by Romans and First Corinthians. I know that John’s words are going to “rock some boats” in my seminar. I was able to predict which people would be tremendously affected by Luke, and I suspect that there is another round of people who will find John’s words to be light in a world of darkness. May God confirm His word.
As for me, personally, I have been moving slowly along this way. It would be a lie if I didn’t confess that recently I’ve strayed to the right and to the left. Two weeks ago I asked my buddy Jesse to pray on my behalf for a spirit of repentance. I recognized that I was wandering, and that I was not “doing righteousness,” in John’s words. But grace abounds in Jesus Christ, and mercy has overcome judgement. God has crushed me and picked me up in love. I am greatly encouraged. First John has a tremendous power in me, because I am at once terrified and blessed. Terrified that I might displease God, and blessed in the knowledge of His love, His power, and His promise of eternal life. Where am I without His promises? My hope therefore is fixed on Jesus, and purity is mine in Him. Now on to read the gospel.
1 comment:
Yay! What a blessing to read that God has been terrifying you.
Honestly.
Pip, I'm so thankful that I get to sit back and watch God a work in your and the other boy's lives. It's a privilege to let you all influence me too. Thanks for that.
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