Friday I received my first Greek assignment from my tutor. The assignment is the Greek text of a letter from Cyril of Alexandria to Nestorius from 430 AD. This is one of the set texts for the exam I'll take in 2007 on the Council of Chalcedon (451 AD). I'm required to write my exam answers on the Greek text in order to proceed to a PhD, so the assignment nicely kills two birds with one stone.
The downside is that the Greek text of this letter is SO complicated! My tutor had warned me that the syntax (word order) was more complex and the vocabulary was slightly different from New Testament Greek, and she wasn't kidding! There's about 300 years between the two, so I suppose it's comparable to the difference between the English in the King James Version and modern English. On top of that, the subject of the letter is not simple either: it has to do with describing how Christ was both God and man at the same time. Oy vey. But it's a fun challenge and I actually have been enjoying trying to work out all the puzzles.
I spent much of the weekend working on the Greek, but left plenty of time for fun, too! On Saturday David and I (and Wilma) took a trip into Reading to go to Costco, and that was great fun as always. One of the things I got was a beautiful American-style apple pie! And WOW, was it ever good.
Saturday night we finally broke out the Trivial Pursuit game that I had gotten David for Christmas, and we had so much fun playing. It covers the last 20 years and is very British-centric, so it was a good chance to learn more about our adopted culture. If you ever play this version, here's a good tip: most of the answers are either "Robbie Williams," "Neighbours," or "cricket." I was very proud to have correctly answered that Canterbury is in the county of Kent, although sadly I think I know that more from Orlando Bloom (who is from there) than the Archbishop! Just goes to show that it pays to read those celebrity magazines. Other than British trivia, we also learned that there's only one US state with a one-syllable name (can you name it?) and that the smallest number with an 'a' in it is one thousand. Interesting, eh?
Sunday evening we decided at the last minute to go out for a movie, and it was such a great time. David ingeniously decided to look for another theater besides our usual Odeon (a main UK chain), and we went to a wonderful independent filmhouse in a very charming and hip area of Oxford called Jericho (Brendalee, it's by Posh Fish!). The theatre, called Phoenix Picture House, has just two small auditoriums, but it was clean and friendly, the chairs were extremely plush, and the size gave it a nice intimate atmosphere. We saw Woody Allen's "Match Point," which is set in London rather than his usual New York and is more of a drama than a comedy. It was weird but interesting and enjoyable. We walked both ways, and the walk was really pleasant, taking us past some new territory on a nice, brisk but dry evening.
Yesterday was the first day of full term, and I went to my first lecture at 11. It was on "The Doctrine of Creation", which has absolutely nothing to do with my course! I went because of the lecturer, Professor Alister McGrath, who is one of my favorite authors on theology and Christian history (I have several of his books). I have also often seen him on TV on those primetime specials they have every once in awhile on some religious subject. He has the gift that C.S. Lewis had of being brilliant and yet being able to make complex things sound simple and understandable. He also has an encyclopedic brain and has written on everything from general theology and Christian history to science and religion and the history of the King James Bible.
So it was such a neat opportunity to be able to just walk down the road about a mile (it was at Wycliffe Hall, which isn't too far from Wolfson) and listen to Prof McGrath live! The lecture was indeed very good, but also very basic. I believe it's actually part of an undergraduate general-ed program in theology. He basically introduced the subject of creation, its place in theology, and its implications for other theological and non-theological matters (like ecology, etc.). (The doctrine of creation, by the way, has nothing to do with the infamous "creationism" that is opposed to evolution.) The subject touches on those universal big questions of "Why are we here?" and "Where did we come from?" so it is interesting in itself, but I'll probably only go to a few of these lectures since it's kind of an indulgence that doesn't help with my degree.
Today I went to two lectures, one at 10 and one at 12, both at the Examination Schools on High Street. It was nice to be back and marvel once again at how amazingly beautiful that building is, as well as all the wonderful historical architecture I walk past on my way (including several colleges and a major church).
My 9:00 lecture is one that my tutor actually suggested I attend, as it will be helpful for the Council of Chalcedon exam mentioned above. It is called "Christology after Nicea" and the lecturer is Mark Edwards. I went to a few lectures by him last term on Christian Doctrine Before Nicea. He is one of the leading scholars at Oxford in my field, so it's also quite a privalege to hear from him. But he's not a terribly stimulating lecturer, and I always find the hour passes slowly in his lectures. But he packs a ton of information into his lectures and provides a several-page handout, so they are very useful.
To pass the free hour until my next lecture, I wandered back up High Street and popped in the official Oxford University Press Bookshop. Oh my, what a wonderland! I love the Oxford University Press, and probably more than half of my books are published by them. (Sometime I plan to take a tour of the beautiful OUP building, which is in Jericho by where we saw our movie.) I happily snatched up the Oxford Archaeological Guide to England, which was on sale for only 3.75 (I have the same guides to Rome and the Holy Land out from the library at home!), and had a wonderful time perusing their huge series of classical literature, dictionaries (I love my well-worn copy of the Oxford Dictionary of World Religions, and they have a dictionary of almost everything under the sun, from Dance to Superstition to Rhyming Slang), and other wonderful books.
Next I wandered into University College (alma mater of both Bill and Chelsea Clinton) and checked out its chapel. It was small but lovely, with some nice stained glass. I had my little camera with me, so took some pics for my collection (I plan to photograph all the Oxford colleges and their chapels while I'm here). Then I went to Starbucks, got a chai tea, and read my Oxford Archaeological Guide to England until 12.My 12:00 lecture was "Religions of the Roman Empire." I went partially just because I'm interested, but also I think it could come in handy for my dissertation, which I still think will be on some aspect of Christianity and paganism in the Roman Empire. The lecturer (Mr. Purcell) was a real hoot. He had crazy, curly hair that clearly had not been brushed today, and wore a dirty-looking, light-greenish button-down shirt tucked into navy sweat pants, which were in turn tucked into tall green socks.
He was a good lecturer, though, and had a wonderfully eccentric, dry British sense of humor. We got a several page handout with lots of pictures and illustrations of religious artifacts and sites from Gaul (modern France). It was great - I love this stuff. The lecture was mostly introductory, but had mainly to do with the incredible complexity of Roman religion and the interesting ways in which the Roman religion was always combined with the indigenous religion of the area it conquered. An example is the healing shrine at Bath, England, which was originally dedicated to the Celtic goddess Sulis. The goddess became "Sulis Minerva" after the Romans arrived.
He also touched on how a main source for these religions was Julius Caesar's "The Conquest of Gaul," which basically said the Gauls were a bunch of barbarians who practiced a dark religion that involved a lot of killing. This has generally been dismissed as mostly untrue, because he was obviously patronizing and villifying the conquered peoples... until recent archaeological evidence, which seems to indicate they actually did a practice a rather dark religion that involved a lot of killing! All very interesting stuff. I look forward to next week's lecture.
Today was the first time I used one of my Christmas presents, a digital voice recorder. I recorded both lectures today, and will try to figure out how to put them online in case anyone's interested!
Monday and Tuesday night my (and David's) "religious education" was also enhanced by a primetime TV series called "The Root of All Evil?" It's hosted by Richard Dawkins, an atheist science professor at Oxford who has been nicknamed "Darwin's Rottweiler." So far he has shown us the worst side of religion (fundamentalism, indoctrination, anti-science, terrorism, murders of abortion doctors, etc.) and trying to convince us that religion is the root of all evil and like a virus in our society. Very interesting, if imbalanced, stuff. But last night was a two-parter, and the second part was hosted by another guy who tried to show that the Enlightenment and resulting sideline of traditional religion has led to moral and social decay. I love that they have this stuff on all the time here, and in primetime! Makes a nice change from the mind-rotting reality shows, of which they have on pretty much the rest of the time.
Interestingly, my fellow-student Sam (from last term's seminars) is an organizer of the Oxford Christian Society (or something like that) and I remember he mentioned he is trying to organize a debate at Oxford between Richard Dawkins and Alister McGrath on science and religion. Here's hoping!
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