I'm on day four of my thirteen day break from work, and so far I have done very little productive, but done an excellent job of spending my non-productive time doing things I enjoy rather than wasting it. Well done me!
I've been reading Theology of the New Testament by Rudolf Bultmann, which maybe counts as a bit productive. He starts by talking about the message of Jesus, and then the kerygma (proclamation) of the earliest church, then the pre-Pauline Hellenistic church, and I'm now a couple of chapters into Paul himself. Volume Two then has Johannine theology and the development towards the ancient church. It's been really interesting to see how the doctrine and theology developed, and the various influences that came into play - although I do feel as though Bultmann speaks with remarkable certainty about things for which we have remarkably little evidence, and most of that implied. I've been particularly interested in the role of Gnosticism, both the ideas that were absorbed into Christian thinking, and the way the orthodoxy was shaped by reaction against the bits that were dismissed as heresy.
I've also read, or rather listened to, Troy, the latest of Stephen Fry's retellings of Greek legends, which was good fun. Fry reads the audiobook himself, which of course is delightful. Agamemnon is clearly channelling a more competent version of General Melchett, which works surprisingly well. One thing I hadn't realised is how little of the narrative of the Trojan War is actually covered in the Iliad. Fry covers a lot more - starting with the genealogies of the supposed founder of Troy, and telling bits of various background legends about the key protagonists. I'd picked up quite a bit of this background stuff from cultural osmosis, but there was also stuff that was new to me. I've now moved on to listening to the Iliad itself (the E V Rieu translation), which I'm quite enjoying, although I've just got to the Catalogue of Ships, which may take a little bit of soldiering through...
Whilst listening I've been busily crocheting. I'm making a bouquet of flowers for Ramona's funeral, partly because she always took quite an interest in my yarncraft, and partly because, although living flowers are lovely, these ones can be given to people as a permanent memento. I'm quite pleased with how they're coming out so far - particularly the roses.
Having finished watching The Queen's Gambit recently I also found myself with a hankering to learn to play chess, and got as far as reading a very few strategy articles, and playing one game with![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
leonato last night, in which he beat me fairly soundly. I'm going to try and get a bit more practice vs a computer and some more reading done over the next few days, and see if I can put up a slightly less embarrassing performance next week...
I've been reading Theology of the New Testament by Rudolf Bultmann, which maybe counts as a bit productive. He starts by talking about the message of Jesus, and then the kerygma (proclamation) of the earliest church, then the pre-Pauline Hellenistic church, and I'm now a couple of chapters into Paul himself. Volume Two then has Johannine theology and the development towards the ancient church. It's been really interesting to see how the doctrine and theology developed, and the various influences that came into play - although I do feel as though Bultmann speaks with remarkable certainty about things for which we have remarkably little evidence, and most of that implied. I've been particularly interested in the role of Gnosticism, both the ideas that were absorbed into Christian thinking, and the way the orthodoxy was shaped by reaction against the bits that were dismissed as heresy.
I've also read, or rather listened to, Troy, the latest of Stephen Fry's retellings of Greek legends, which was good fun. Fry reads the audiobook himself, which of course is delightful. Agamemnon is clearly channelling a more competent version of General Melchett, which works surprisingly well. One thing I hadn't realised is how little of the narrative of the Trojan War is actually covered in the Iliad. Fry covers a lot more - starting with the genealogies of the supposed founder of Troy, and telling bits of various background legends about the key protagonists. I'd picked up quite a bit of this background stuff from cultural osmosis, but there was also stuff that was new to me. I've now moved on to listening to the Iliad itself (the E V Rieu translation), which I'm quite enjoying, although I've just got to the Catalogue of Ships, which may take a little bit of soldiering through...
Whilst listening I've been busily crocheting. I'm making a bouquet of flowers for Ramona's funeral, partly because she always took quite an interest in my yarncraft, and partly because, although living flowers are lovely, these ones can be given to people as a permanent memento. I'm quite pleased with how they're coming out so far - particularly the roses.
Having finished watching The Queen's Gambit recently I also found myself with a hankering to learn to play chess, and got as far as reading a very few strategy articles, and playing one game with
leonato last night, in which he beat me fairly soundly. I'm going to try and get a bit more practice vs a computer and some more reading done over the next few days, and see if I can put up a slightly less embarrassing performance next week...
no subject
Date: 2021-02-12 02:07 pm (UTC)From:(We have just been reading her book Pandora's Jar, that's great too)
no subject
Date: 2021-02-19 06:01 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2021-02-12 02:13 pm (UTC)From:I wonder if your learning about the early church and the evolution of and struggle for what would be accepted colors anything about what aspects you feel more or less sure of. I figure that a good approach is to accept that, while we don't know it all for sure, one can still have faith that things would nonetheless be arranged so that the Gospels would be close enough in the critical aspects.
no subject
Date: 2021-02-19 06:16 am (UTC)From:I'm making fewer mistakes where I can immediately see that it was a terrible move, which I think is progress, and now I need to get better at seeing why the ones I'm still making are terrible :)
I think I've long believed that the gospels were theologically true without being literally true in all details. An increased awareness of the context St Paul was writing in makes me feel more sure of /my understanding/ of what is being said, even though it doesn't make much difference to my confidence in the words themselves.
no subject
Date: 2021-02-12 03:09 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2021-02-12 06:34 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2021-02-13 11:31 am (UTC)From:I've resigned myself to the fact that my brain refuses to allocate resources for chess - I know how the pieces move but I slide off any attempt at strategy.