I cannot wait to read this...

Mike Aquilina, author of "The Way of the Fathers" blog and several books, has put out yet another book titled, Signs and Mysteries: Revealing Ancient Christian Symbols. I definitely cannot wait to read this.

A hilarious book: The DaVinci Cod

Yes, I spelled the title correctly - The DaVinci Cod. Written by Don Brine (a.k.a. Adam Roberts, professor of Nineteenth-Century Lit at London University), this book is absolutely hilarious. It's a parody of the ridiculously popular Da Vinci Code, but it's so much better. I received it this afternoon, went over to the library and read it and laughed the entire time (much to the chagrin of people trying to study nearby). If you haven't read any fiction lately and need a short book to read through, I highly suggest it.

(HT: Tim Brookins of Scripta De Divinis)

A New Forum for Textual Criticism

Find it here.

(HT: Stephen Carlson)

Who says Latin is a dead language?

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, gave a speech in Latin!! He was apparently a Classics Major at Oxford. Read about it here.

This reminds me of a story I heard about a Jesuit priest who ran into Fr. Henri de Lubac in the Vatican's library. They both wanted to speak with one another, but the priest didn't know French and de Lubac didn't know English - and suddenly they both had an "Aha" moment - Latin! They sat there and had a conversation in Latin in the Vatican library.

I wish I had started off with a Classics major instead of doing religion, to be honest. I think it's a lot more versatile and the emphasis on languages is very attractive. C'est la vie, I suppose.

Patristic Resources

Ben over at Dunelm Road gives us some links to Patristic Resources online.

On Respecting Religion

There's a very interesting series of blog posts all related to a man named Webster Cook stealing the Eucharist from a Catholic Church.

Chris Brady has a short post here.
PZ Myers (a Biologist who is a heavy-hitter in his field) wrote a rather long post here.
Drew Tatusko responds to PZ Myers here.


I think Drew makes an excellent point in his post: the patent disrespect of Myers (and many of his commenters) undermine the very "liberalism" that they themselves claim to espouse.

A personalized message to you, from God

I learned about the Personal Promise Bible through Scotteriology. I think this is a fine example of how our Enlightenment-fueled hyper-individualistic philosophy ruins theology. This is the logical conclusion of the "me and Jesus" ideology that pervades modern Christianity. Nevermind the communal nature of these texts. Take a text written for communities of people, take out the 2nd person plural pronouns and insert your name. St. Paul really was writing to you - it's in the Bible, after all.