INTRODUCTION Though MSND is set in Athens, there is little in the play that is specifically Greek or Athenian. Theseus is ruling Athens, but he bears little similarity to the Theseus of Plutarch, and he is even anachronistically described as the ?Duke of Athens.?E Bottom and company have nothing Greek about them; they are pure Elizabethan Englishmen. Yet, by looking at some of the themes of the play, we might gain some insight into Shakespeare?s feel for the world of... Read more
INTRODUCTION Though MSND is set in Athens, there is little in the play that is specifically Greek or Athenian. Theseus is ruling Athens, but he bears little similarity to the Theseus of Plutarch, and he is even anachronistically described as the ?Duke of Athens.?E Bottom and company have nothing Greek about them; they are pure Elizabethan Englishmen. Yet, by looking at some of the themes of the play, we might gain some insight into Shakespeare?s feel for the world of... Read more
ELIZABETHANS AND GREECE Today, many view ancient Greece, and especially ancient Athens, as the fountainhead of Western civilization. This was not the case for medievals, who knew Greek literature in Latin translations. Though Chaucer set some of his works in ancient Greece (?The Knight?s Tale?E Troilus and Criseyde ), he was not a deep student of classical civilization or literature. Dittos for Elizabethans, who saw Rome as the nearer ancestor than Greece. As David Gress says (in From Plato to... Read more
Gilbert Highet has a wonderful chapter on translation in the Renaissance in his book, The Classical Tradition . He says that the first translation that we know of was made about 250 BC by the Greek-Roman poet Livius Andronicus, who translated the Odyssey into Latin. This was about the same time that the 70 translated the Hebrew Bible into the LXX. Earlier, this kind of interest in another language and literature had not appeared: “The Greeks studied no literature but... Read more
I suggested in Against Christianity that worship can be understood as a sequence of postures: We kneel for confession, stand for absolution and service and to hear the word, sit enthroned to eat and drink in God’s presence, then stand to walk out for ministry. It occurs to me that this sequence of postures has a Christological foundation: Jesus “bowed low” in the incarnation; stood to serve throughout His ministry; and now is seated at the right hand of the... Read more
Lk 9:10-17 The Lord?s Supper has been celebrated in many different ways through the centuries. In many churches, the people come forward and kneel to receive the elements. In the Roman Catholic church, the elevation of the Host has been nearly as important as the communion meal. Some Reformed churches bring out tables at the beginning of the Communion, so that the church can reenact the Last Supper as closely as possible. I have argued in the sermon that sitting... Read more
Rom 6:1-4 Today, we?ve looked at several passages in Romans that display Paul?s interest in the redemption of the body. For Paul, salvation is ultimately about the resurrection and transfiguration of our bodies into bodies of glory, and in the present our salvation is about submitting to a new authority over our bodies, obeying a new lord, and learning new forms of bodily service. For Paul, this is what baptism is all about. Romans 6 begins with a question: If... Read more
Our chief goal in organizing the worship of God is to conform to Scriptural patterns of worship. When we look at the whole biblical teaching on worship, we learn that worship is basically covenant renewal, and we also learn that many features of traditional liturgical worship are grounded in Scripture. Not all, mind you; but many. One of the side benefits of the kind of worship we do here at Trinity is that our children are able to participate fully... Read more
It is traditional, and true, to say that the resurrection of the body is still future. What Paul calls the “redemption of our body” (Rom 8) has not occurred; and what he describes as the springing up of a plant from the seed of the dead body (1 Cor 15) is not yet seen, except in Jesus, to whom the descriptions of 1 Cor 15 apply preeminently. But: We have become partakers of the resurrection already, through union with Christ.... Read more
INTRODUCTION Coriolanus is the last of Shakespeare’s great tragedies, and has often been criticized as an inferior piece of work. There have been exceptions: T. S. Eliot said that Coriolanus was one Shakespeare’s most accomplished artistic successes. And in recent years, the critical evaluation has been shifting. Still, the play is rarely staged, and because of its unfamiliar subject matter I will spend a good bit of time summarizing the plot. The story of Coriolanus was no more well-known in... Read more
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