A Seven-Year Cycle
Steiner, Augustine, and mummy portraits
Welcome to my newest readers, fellow bibliophiles, and educators!
On my desk
I found the magic book.
You know, the one that cites every possible ancient and modern source across cultures? Yep. All in one reprinted monograph originally published by Catholic Bible Quarterly (2003) and written by a very determined Hebrew scholar—Richard Steiner’s Stockmen of Tekoa, Sycamores from Sheba: A Study of Amos’ Occupations.
Whenever I’ve taught research methods to middle and high school students, I’ve often claimed a magic resource exists for whichever topic is being researched. In reality, I would guess that less than half of my students experienced that sigh of relief when they find it.
But sometimes, just sometimes, a scholar, author, or historian is so fluent in their topic that they clearly credit numerous others in a single text. And that book is magic in its ability to point to ideas, subtopics, and literally other books and journals.
What’s more, Stockmen of Tekoa confirms much of my research of the past two years. I can hardly believe that it was a year ago that I made A Birth Announcement about my book proposal. I wait and hope and pray that I hear something soon.
On writing
I first began blogging about teaching in 2017, the same year I tried my hand at having a few essays published. My first published essay was about Augustine and how words work. Circe Institute uniquely titled it “Words & Signs & Memory & the Mutual Intercourse of Men.” Hilariously long, isn’t it?
My favorite essay that I wrote for them was “Comparing The Children of Hurin and the Greek Epics.” There was one about Horace and his odes and a half dozen more, but they are no longer easily found on that site. Perhaps my byline is slowly fading away.
Other websites and their editors, however, have been hospitable and generous over the years: Front Porch Republic, Mere Orthodoxy, The Classical Thistle, and especially The Imaginative Conservative.
I wrote regularly for them for three years, and this month they republished Saint Augustine on Figurative Language in Scripture as well as a new joint literary essay that I wrote with Sara J. Osborne, Remembrance of What Is. In it, I recall Augustine’s reasoning from my very first published piece. Words are signs. They form impressions, and we especially need them and what they create as more and more language is lost.
Isn’t that amazing? Like a seven year biblical cycle, a shmita (Hebrew), Augustine and his core ideas about words and meaning have returned in my writing and given me hope that this book idea, the proposal, all of it will happen.
In the classroom
If you’ve read my newsletter in the past year, you might know that I like to collect teaching resources from decades and centuries past, like the poetry collection I wrote about in Red Letter Days: Holidays or Holy Days?
From time to time, I search eBay for a picture study series produced by F.A. Owen. Years ago, I encountered a stack of twenty of these in an antique mall. I bought them for a dollar each (American). Alas, I should have kept hunting. F.A. Owen teacher guides of any kind are difficult to find, but I did acquire a recent gem. A fitting find as I teach Arthur within the next two weeks.
Around the web
The fine scholars at
reintroduced me to the Fayum (Faiyum) mummy portraits this week. Fayum is a region immediately west of the Nile River where most of these panel portraits from the first three centuries were discovered. Few Roman Egyptians were wealthy enough to be immortalized in this way but the portraits were painted on wood panels and then placed atop the deceased person's corpse to show what they looked like when they were alive. Spread across the globe, the mummy portraits can be found in museum and private collections.
On my nightstand
Lola Schaefer’s picture book, Because of an Acorn. I bought it to give away but am enjoying a read through every night.
Ann Cleeves’ Shetland mysteries
Andrew Lang’s King Arthur: Tales from the Round Table (Dover).
I would love to hear from you in your reading or classroom journey.
As always, thanks for reading and listening! And don't forget that the List Library at my website is always available to you, my readers.
Christine
Perfect for beginners, this handy study guide for C.S. Lewis's novel is a blend of summary and scholarly commentary. The second edition includes references to leading commentary from Lewis scholars as well as key parallels from Lewis’s other works like The Four Loves, Surprised by Joy, and An Experiment in Criticism. Each chapter includes discussion questions designed for students, teachers, book clubs, and church groups.
I’ll let you know, I’m on the 2nd book of “The Border Trilogy”! All the pretty horses is what got me thinking about the parallels with Cather and Berry!
Since the summer, I’ve chosen to work my way, for the first time, through Cormac McCarthy’s corpus! I love how his writing is doing something completely different from Willa Cather and Wendell Berry! Now there’s a great series of articles! Thanks for your beautiful articulation of important concepts!