Amazonian Face

Posted on January 28, 2015 by Lawrence E. Frizzell

The exploitation and destruction of forests without much or any concern for the future has been a problem in many parts of the world for centuries. In recent decades tropical forests from South America to Indonesia have suffered at an accelerated rate.

Church leaders have tried to educate the faithful and to defend indigenous peoples in several places. Read Barb Fraze’s article, Church leaders defend Amazon region, people, which was published earlier this month in the Western Catholic Reporter, and learn about the public launch of a new pan-Amazonian network and why Latin American Church leaders are calling for a Church with an “Amazonian face.”

Newly Uploaded Publications

Posted on January 23, 2015 by Lawrence E. Frizzell

The 2015 Spring semester got off to a great start last Monday. It’s always a blessing to welcome new and returning students!

This will be a milestone year, as we celebrate the 40^th anniversary of the founding of the Jewish-Christian Studies Graduate Program at Seton Hall University and the 50^thyear anniversary of the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration on Non-Christian Religions (Nostra Aetate).

In the midst of preparing lectures and events related to these milestones during the winter break, we also managed to update my SelectedWorks publication’s site by uploading 90 articles that I’ve written over the years for The Catholic Advocate regarding the Sunday liturgical readings for Cycles A, B and C. You can access them anytime by clicking here.

Happy reading and stay tuned for more information regarding upcoming commemorative events!

Theology of the Environment

Posted on November 24, 2014 by Lawrence E. Frizzell

Nature, Tree, Dawn, Landscape, Panorama, Sun, Branches People of every spiritual tradition should explore the heritage of their faith with regard to the human interaction with planet Earth. The accusation that the Genesis Creation narrative is responsible for depredation of the earth is false. The Bible is theocentric; the idea that “Man is the measure of all things” comes from another source; it has been taken up by some who delighted in the name of Christian, while exploiting and pillaging our natural resources. Rethinking priorities is at the beginning of a balanced understanding of the human vocation.

For decades Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople has called attention to the Christian theological vision of our environment. Recently his advisor, Archdeacon John Chryssaygis, addressed an ecumenical audience at the University of Alberta. See the article, Natural environment honours the divine mystery, says cleric, in the Western Catholic Reporter for the full story.

Updated Online Resources for Biblical Studies

Posted on November 13, 2014 by Lawrence E. Frizzell

I just updated and added several resources to my Online Resources for Biblical Studies page. Be sure and check out the list of free databases, journals and websites designed to help students and scholars with their work and research in biblical and Jewish-Christian studies.

Here’s what’s new:

Digitized Medieval Manuscripts Maps (DMMmaps)
DMMmaps helps scholars and enthusiasts explore and discover digitized medieval manuscripts by providing links to thousands of medieval manuscripts and hundreds of libraries all over the world.

HebrewBooks.org
HebrewBooks.org has thousands of rare and out of print books and journals online.

Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML)
HMML holds works of art and rare printed books from the Middle Ages to the present and is home to The Saint John’s Bible, the first handwritten and illuminated Bible to have been commissioned by a Benedictine Abbey since the invention of the printing press in the 15h century. Additionally, HMML’s online image library, Vivarium, contains digitized manuscripts, art, rare books, photographs and other resources from two Benedictine monastic and educational communities in central Minnesota.

Princeton University Sefer Hasidim Database (PUSHD)
The PUSHD database includes fourteen manuscripts containing different versions of the Sefer Hasidim (Book of the Pious) and its fragments. Access to these manuscripts is free but requires one to register.

Project TABS – The Torah.com
Project TABS is a forum that brings together the world’s top Jewish scholars and thinkers to share their expertise and reflections on biblical scholarship’s implications for understanding Torah.

Sephardic Studies Digital Library and Museum
Dating between the 16th and mid-20th centuries, this collection includes more than 500 original Ladino books and thousands of documents composed in Ladino as well as other relevant languages, such as Ottoman Turkish, Hebrew and French. In collaboration with the UW Libraries Digital Initiative Programs, 90 of these volumes have already been digitized and the first samples of the digital artifacts are available through the University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections.

Syriac.org
The Syriac Reference Portal is a collaborative research project publishling online reference works concerning the culture, history and literature of Syriac communities from antiquity to the present. The online publications of Syriaca.org serve a broad scholarly audience including students of Middle Eastern studies, classics, medieval history, religious studies, biblical studies and linguistics.

Funerary Exhibit from China

Posted on October 17, 2014 by Lawrence E. Frizzell

Travelers in Egypt and the Middle East know that enormous efforts were made in ancient times to honor the body of deceased persons with a dignified burial. In many cases hope for restoration to life is evident, expressing the natural yearning for the perdurance of the individual beyond the grave. The same expectation has been seen in the East.

In the early 1970s excavations in the ancient capital of Xian revealed the terracotta warriors defending the grave of a ruler. To learn more about theses warriors and why they are one of China’s most popular attractions, check out The Terracota Army on China Highlights’ website.

The video below by Rome Reports describes another excavation that uncovered an impressive collection of artifacts from tombs that date from the Han period, between the year 200 BCE and the year 220 CE. For the first time, more than 70 of these artifacts, including the sarcophagus of the Marchioness of Dai, are part of an exhibition at the National Museum of the Palazzo di Venezia in Rome. For more details about this exhibit, visit the Hunan Museum.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/9l2MPL6Ls90[/youtube]

Vicious Persecutions: Past and Present

Posted on September 24, 2014 by Lawrence E. Frizzell

Pray, Hands, Praying Hands, Prayer, Religion, Faith We pray for all who suffer persecution for their faith.

In recent years the pressures against Christians in many nations have been intense.

At present, refugees are pressing against the borders of neighboring countries, hoping for freedom from danger. In an ecumenical prayer service in Washington D.C. several patriarchs called for international humanitarian assistance.

Earlier this week, a bishop from Northern Nigeria also described the grave danger to Christians in his area from attacks by a radical group as told in ZENIT’s report, Bishop of Yola: ‘Without Concrete Assistance, Nigerian Christians Will Be Exterminated.’

Lastly, the recent visit of Pope Francis to Albania recalls the years of an atheistic attack on the Church and on all adherents to religion. See the following detailed reports on the Pope’s visit by ZENIT: Pope’s Address to Interreligious Leaders of Albania and Pope Weeps Upon Hearing Witness of Religious Persecution in Albania.

The Changing Relations between Christians and Jews

Posted on September 18, 2014 by Lawrence E. Frizzell

Mark your calendar and plan to attend the Twenty-First Monsignor John M. Oesterreicher Memorial Lecture at Seton Hall University on Sunday, November 2, 2014.

Keynote speaker, Robert L. Wilken, Ph.D., will present, The Changing Relations between Christians and Jews. Dr. Wilken received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and has taught at Gregorian University, Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of Notre Dame, Fordham University and Lutheran Theological Seminary.

Throughout his long career as an educator specializing in early Christianity, Dr. Wilken has studied the relationship between Christians and their neighbors. His most recent work is The First Thousand Years. A Global History of Christianity (Yale University Press, 2013). As General Editor of the series, The Church’s Bible: Interpreted by Early Christian Commentators (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans), Dr. Wilken and his team have made treasures of the distant past available to scholars and serious students alike.

The memorial lecture is free and open to the public.

For additional information and to RSVP for the event, please contact me at lawrence.frizzell@shu.edu.

The Coptic Orthodox Church

Posted on September 15, 2014 by Lawrence E. Frizzell

Recently we have heard little about the Coptic Christians in Egypt, who have been suffering from discrimination and episodes of persecution for many years.

Mr. Julien Hammond, director of ecumenical relations for the Edmonton Archdiocese, recently prepared an excellent overview in relation to Patriarch Tawadros II’s visit to Alberta. Many thanks to Mr. Hammond for his permission to post his insightful summary below.

Here’s the video Mr. Hammond references above:

[youtube]http://youtu.be/aoGLK1ckRXo?list=PL5wSmhPb25V_WYAJuFVARKPR2_BzqgZKX[/youtube]

The Arrest of Jesus by Caravaggio

Posted on August 29, 2014 by Lawrence E. Frizzell

780px-Caravaggio_-_Taking_of_Christ_-_Dublin

Taking of Christ, Caravaggio [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Imagine discovering a lost treasure on the wall of your dining room!

This was the good fortune of the Jesuit community in Dublin. To learn more about this story, read Willard Spiegelman‘s “Confrontation Amid the Shadows,” in The Wall Street Journal.

Those interested in coats of armor, as exemplified by the Roman soldier in the center of the Caravaggio painting, will enjoy the Frick Collection’s current exhibition, Men in Armor, which features the portraits by El Greco (1541-1614) and Scipione Pulzone (1550-1598).

Scipione_Pulzone_Ritratto_di_Giacomo_Boncompagni

Portrait of Jacopo Boncompagni, Scipione Pulzone [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

See Roberta Smith’s “Two Silent Men, Deep in Conversation” in The New York Times to learn more about this collection.

New Facebook Page and Web Page

Posted on August 26, 2014 by Lawrence E. Frizzell

The Fall 2014 semester began yesterday, and we have a wonderful new group of students who have matriculated into the Jewish-Christian Studies (JCST) Graduate Program at Seton Hall University.

The JCST program inaugurated this semester by launching a new Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/jcstgraduateprogram where you can keep up to date on the exciting work of our program, faculty, students, and alumni as well as that of other scholars in Jewish-Christian studies and relations, ecumenical studies, and biblical research.

In a similar way, I have chosen to inaugurate the Fall 2014 semester by adding another new page, Online Biblical Hebrew Language Resources, to my website where you will find a list of free online resources designed to help students with Hebrew language studies.

Welcome new and returning students! May you be blessed with an insightful and life-changing semester!