Perhaps we all hope that someday far into the future, there will be people so fascinated by our little slice of human endeavor that they will go to the trouble of differentiating us from the great throng of the names of recorded history and gather a little information on just who they think we may have been. If you are anything like the sixth known Hilarius of the later Roman empire, and if they have the wherewithal to create a work like our recent acquisition, the Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire (DG203.5 .J6), you will get your wish. Unfortunately, he was accused of conspiracy and executed--but I'm confident you will make a better mark on history.
The modern-day prosopography--that is, a study of the lives and interconnections of a collective group of people--mentioned above is certainly not alone in its attempt to identify and describe people of the past. Another recent acquisition which considers historical identity and use of bodies, lives, and names in a more rhetorical sense in Patristic literature is A Feminist Companion to Patristic Literature (BR67 .F45). This collection of essays should be a useful resource for those interested in gender and sexuality in the context of the Early Church and New Testament, as well as those who want insight into a formational period for historical Christian understandings of sexuality and for the use and understanding of body imagery in religious texts based upon the Patristic tradition.
Identity and religious affinity within the context of personality and psychology is covered in the latest volume (19) in the series Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion (BL60 .R47). This volume features a special section on adolescent spirituality. We also have the previous volumes in this series, for those interested in social scientific aspects of religious study.
Finally, a book that fascinated me as I leafed through it, is Harvest of Blossoms by Selma Meerbaum-
Eisinger (
PT2673.E35 I313), a young victim of the Holocaust, whose poetry was saved by friends and now published in translation, not unlike the diary of Anne Frank. The poetry is youthful to a fault, but has moments which, in the context of her tragedy, have an incredible force. Take these lines from the final poem, for example:
This is the hardest: to give yourself away/
...and realize/ you'll fade like smoke and leave no trace.
We are fortunate that this isn't completely the case.
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Come celebrate with us!
- Put the Open House on your calendar—October 30.
- Stop in next week to see the new display in the Catalog Room.
- Start reading the new Library Blog. We’ll release a new Scavenger Hunt clue with each blog post. (The prize pool includes I-pod shuffles and Gift Certificates from the Bookstore.)
Scavenger Hunt:
Open to all students currently enrolled at Luther Seminary. Begins
October 1, ends October 28. All questions will be posted in the Library
Blog (Behind the Library Mask) during October. Keep a list of the
questions & your answers and submit all at the same time with your
name and contact information. All entries are due by 2:00pm October 29.
Clue # 4: The art reproductions on this floor
are all available to be checked out. The two facing each other on opposite
walls portray very different subjects.
On the South wall who is the man dressed in a brown robe?
Name 3 types of animals in the picture.
Who painted it originally?
On the North wall what is the river scene of?
What year does it represent?
What are two things in the scene that we don’t see anymore?
Harvest of Blossons is one of my favorite reads as well...
Posted by: Richard Smith | August 10, 2009 at 06:30 PM