{"id":3600,"date":"2008-07-14T23:03:00","date_gmt":"2008-07-14T23:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2008\/07\/the-serenity-prayer-as-case-study-of-oral-tradition\/"},"modified":"2008-07-14T23:03:00","modified_gmt":"2008-07-14T23:03:00","slug":"the-serenity-prayer-as-case-study-of-oral-tradition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2008\/07\/the-serenity-prayer-as-case-study-of-oral-tradition.html","title":{"rendered":"The Serenity Prayer as Case Study of Oral Tradition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
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Stephen C. Carlson<\/a> has recently posted a link to a blog post by Benjamin Zimmer of Language Log<\/a>, discussing the evidence for the date and transmission of the famous \u201cserenity prayer<\/a>\u201c, best known today (via widespread print dissemination) in this form:<\/div>\n
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\u201cGod, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to tell the difference.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

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This is a great case study of oral transmission, as Stephen points out. It has even made the news<\/a>. Those who are interested in oral tradition in early Christianity (and in particular those who have been diablogging about it recently) will want to take a look (and hopefully come back here afterward to talk about it!)<\/div>\n
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Also on the subject of oral tradition, today I started reading an article that Judy Redman<\/a> recommended. The article is Robert K. McIver and Marie Carroll, \u201cDistinguishing Characteristics of Orally Transmitted Material When Compared to Material Transmitted by Literary Means,\u201d Applied Cognitive Psychology<\/em> 18, no. 9 (2004) 1251-1269. The article\u2019s research on the different degrees of verbatim agreement at length between different genres (jokes and poems vs. general storytelling) and different modes of transmission (reproduction without access to texts, with access previously but not at the time, and with continuous access to source texts) is important for the study of the Synoptic problem, early Christianity, and many other topics. Most readers of this blog will be able to get access to the article through EBSCO or some other similar database, via their academic or public libraries. I\u2019d welcome discussion of this article too, if any of you are interested! Spread the word (orally or in writing)! <\/div>\n
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Stephen C. Carlson has recently posted a link to a blog post by Benjamin Zimmer of Language Log, discussing the evidence for the date and transmission of the famous \u201cserenity prayer\u201c, best known today (via widespread print dissemination) in this form: \u201cGod, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Serenity Prayer as Case Study of Oral Tradition<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Stephen C. 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