This work explores the theological and social dimensions of generosity in the book of Sirach and contextualizes them within the culture and thought of Second Temple Judaism. Ben Sira’s understanding of generosity is predicated on the tension between affirming the classic wisdom principle of retributive justice and recognizing its breakdown in the socio-economic circumstances of Seleucid Judea. He forges a new Wisdom-Torah ethic of mercy in which giving generously is an integral part of living “the good life”. While loans and surety are essential practices, almsgiving is the preeminent act of generosity. The fundamental theological logic at work consists in viewing the poor as proxies for God and is based on the economic structure of Proverbs 19:17. Giving to the poor is, in reality, a deposit in a heavenly treasury and will pay future dividends. By situating Ben Sira’s view of almsgiving within the wider framework of retributive justice and its breakdown, new light is shed on the practical tensions regarding the extent of almsgiving and its relationship to the support of the Jerusalem priesthood. The various dynamics of Ben Sira’s thought on generosity are situated within the broader Hellenistic world and in their foundational role for later Jewish and Christian thought.
Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, also known as Gregory the Theologian, lived an illustrious life as an orator, poet, priest, and bishop. Until his death, he wrote scores of letters to friends and colleagues, clergy members and philosophers, teachers of rhetoric and literature, and high-ranking officials at the provincial and imperial levels, many of which are preserved in his self-designed letter collection. Here, for the first time in English, Bradley K. Storin has translated the complete collection, offering readers a fresh view on Gregory’s life, social and cultural engagement, leadership in the church, and literary talents. Accompanying the translation are an introduction, a prosopography, and annotations that situate Gregory’s letters in their biographical, literary, and historical contexts. This translation is an essential resource for scholars and students of late antiquity and early Christianity.
A seminal figure in late antique Christianity and Christian orthodoxy, Saint Gregory of Nazianzus published a collection of more than 240 letters. Whereas these letters have often been cast aside as readers turn to his theological orations or autobiographical poetry for insight into his life, thought, and times, Self-Portrait in Three Colors focuses squarely on them, building a provocative case that the finalized collection constitutes not an epistolary archive but an autobiography in epistolary form—a single text composed to secure his status among provincial contemporaries and later generations. Shedding light on late-ancient letter writing, fourth-century Christian intelligentsia, Christianity and classical culture, and the Christianization of Roman society, these letters offer a fascinating and unique view of Gregory’s life, engagement with literary culture, and leadership in the church. As a single unit, this autobiographical epistolary collection proved a powerful tool in Gregory’s attempts to govern the contours of his authorial image as well as his provincial and ecclesiastical legacy.
The fifteen Psalms of Ascents (Psalms 120–134) are an important collection within the Psalms that focuses on the journey towards the presence of God, a God who is at once the “maker of heaven and earth” but also encountered in a particular place and among a particular people. This book explores their rich imagery to show how they nourish a hopeful search for God’s presence in a world that includes crises and hostility, not only in the world but tragically also within the people of God. The Psalms of Ascents are a summons to a spirituality for priest and people, the powerful and the marginalized, for anyone suspended between struggle and hope on the journey towards God. While this book gives readers a focused discussion on the theology and spirituality of these psalms, it also explores their role in the whole canon of Christian Scripture. As such, the book provides a resource for studying, teaching, and preaching these fifteen Psalms, but can also serve as an entryway into the rest of the book of Psalms.
This atlas instills a solid knowledge of anatomy by correlating thin-section brain anatomy with corresponding clinical magnetic resonance images in axial, coronal, and sagittal planes. The authors correlate advanced neuromelanin imaging, susceptibility-weighted imaging, and diffusion tensor tractography with clinical 3 and 4 T MRI. Each brain stem region is then analyzed with 9.4 T MRI to show the anatomy of the medulla, pons, midbrain, and portions of the diencephalonin with an in-plane resolution comparable to myelin- and Nissl-stained light microscopy. The book’s carefully organized diagrams and images teach with a minimum of text.
The authors conducted a long-term project (1992-1996) designed to provide a comprehensive review of vertebrates (amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals) in four national parks in the eastern United States. They field tested select protocols at Gettysburg National Military Park, Eisenhower National Historic Site, Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site, and Valley Forge National Historical Park to (1) determine the effectiveness of protocols for inventorying and monitoring terrestrial vertebrates in terms of time, labor, cost and types of data obtained and (2) predict and document the number of terrestrial vertebrate species within the parks. This focus of this report is amphibians and reptiles.
By all rights, insight, knowledge, and plain old common sense I should be dead. If past usage of beer, marijuana, and cocaine didnÆt do the trick, then certainly dilated cardiomyopathy should have. Instead, I am alive, clean and sober, and a functioning Catholic priest after finally overcoming addiction. For fifteen years I functioned as a sober priest before my heart gave out from the same heart disease that killed my father. Another miracle came my way, and I was blessed to receive a new heart. I could my blessings every day, every hour, every minute. How many of us have received a second, third, and fourth chance at life? IÆve been granted the blessing of faith, sobriety, a new heart, and a fulfilling ministry... much more than I deserve. This is my testimony to what can happen when a confused and bitter young man opens his life and spirit, and allows God and GodÆs people to do for him what he simply could not do for himself. Book jacket.
Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, also known as Gregory the Theologian, lived an illustrious life as an orator, poet, priest, and bishop. Until his death, he wrote scores of letters to friends and colleagues, clergy members and philosophers, teachers of rhetoric and literature, and high-ranking officials at the provincial and imperial levels, many of which are preserved in his self-designed letter collection. Here, for the first time in English, Bradley K. Storin has translated the complete collection, offering readers a fresh view on Gregory’s life, social and cultural engagement, leadership in the church, and literary talents. Accompanying the translation are an introduction, a prosopography, and annotations that situate Gregory’s letters in their biographical, literary, and historical contexts. This translation is an essential resource for scholars and students of late antiquity and early Christianity.
This volume provides the first comprehensive overview of the extant Greek and Latin letter collections of late antiquity (ca. 300-600 C.E.). Bringing together an international team of historians, classicists, and scholars of religion, it illustrates how letter collections advertised an image of the letter writer and introduces the social and textual histories of each collection. Each chapter addresses a major collection of Greek or Latin literary letters, examining their assembly, publication, and transmission. In addition, contributions reveals how late antique letter collections operated as a discrete literary genre with its own conventions, transmission processes, and self-presentational agendas. This book will fundamentally change how people both read these texts and use letters to reconstruct the social history of the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries"--Provided by publisher.
A seminal figure in late antique Christianity and Christian orthodoxy, Saint Gregory of Nazianzus published a collection of more than 240 letters. Whereas these letters have often been cast aside as readers turn to his theological orations or autobiographical poetry for insight into his life, thought, and times, Self-Portrait in Three Colors focuses squarely on them, building a provocative case that the finalized collection constitutes not an epistolary archive but an autobiography in epistolary form—a single text composed to secure his status among provincial contemporaries and later generations. Shedding light on late-ancient letter writing, fourth-century Christian intelligentsia, Christianity and classical culture, and the Christianization of Roman society, these letters offer a fascinating and unique view of Gregory’s life, engagement with literary culture, and leadership in the church. As a single unit, this autobiographical epistolary collection proved a powerful tool in Gregory’s attempts to govern the contours of his authorial image as well as his provincial and ecclesiastical legacy.
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