MetaCatholic

After a couple of days away, I’m playing catch-up: here are some things I’ve spotted that are well worth a look.

• Wayne Leman has created a new parlour game. Find one word to characterise the various English translations. I hope a few more people join in. Personally I’d use “literary” for the NEB / REB and “exuberant” for JB / NJB, and “pedestrian” for the ESV but otherwise go along with many of the other suggestions. Iyov takes it a bit further with smell associations! (I have unkindly suggested the ESV smells of mothballs.)
• Claude Mariottini has a fascinating post about a previous post, illustrating the number of insane commenters out there just waiting for something to tickle their apocalyptic conspiracy elbow. He should never have mentioned George W and the Antichrist in the same post title. (One incidentally related titbit: Dubya seems to be more aware of things than most give him credit for: Alistair Campbell’s diaries record how Bush, at the end of a Blair visit looking for a second UN resolution before Iraq, said to him “Now you’ll be able to tell the folks back home how Tony flew in and pulled the crazed unilateralist back from the brink.”
• There’s a wonderfully satirical post on the Onion: “I’m In An Open Relationship With The Lord” It manages to hit at pietistic and syncretistic targets both at once.
• Congratulations to Tim Bulkeley for a wide-ranging Biblical Studies Carnival, including lots of foreign language posts I suspect Google translation will cheerfully mangle for me.
• Iyov draws attention to the lack of interest among Christians in classical interpretations of scripture. I’m particularly grateful for the links to Newman’s translation of St Thomas’ catena on the gospels. One book worth mentioning in this regard is Mark Reasoner’s Romans in Full Circle, which looks at key cruces of interpretation taking in Origen, Augustine, Abelard, Aquinas, and Luther among the pre-twentieth century writers.
• April DeConick has a series of three posts touching on the historicity of Acts. (And see Mark Goodacre’s comments here.) She treads a good line between scepticism and gullibility, and raises an interesting question: “shouldn’t we be trying to figure out what those older traditions [Luke uses for Acts] are and what they tell us about Christianity earlier than Luke?”. (The comments are also a fascinating lesson in how to ignore an off-the-wall commenter who keeps popping up trying to get people to talk to him.)
• And finally, note that T & T Clark have started a blog. (HT Andy Goodliff)