Book Review - Journal of Early Christian Studies 16.1

Like most professionals I typically fall behind in my reading of professional journals.  In fact, I confess that many times when I receive a scholarly journal it sits at the bottom of my "read it now" stack.  Frequently the articles in these publications tend to be about as interesting and useful as the instructions for assembly included in the box for a bicycle made in China.  But when cleaning my desk in December and renewing my membership in the North American Patristics Society I decided I ought to move my copies of the Journal of Early Christian Studies closer to the top of the stack.  I am now finishing the volume from Spring 2008, before receiving the Spring 2009 volume.

Unfortunately the articles in this particular issue didn't pertain to my area of interest in the Patristic literature.  I really don't find the time period after Augustine as interesting as the time period before him.  And I am really not too interested in speculation about the attitudes held by people in the early Church pertaining to drunkenness, vegetarianism, or deviant sexual practices.  Speculation about attitudes is not very helpful in general, and speculation which is filtered through the eyeglasses of 21st century political correctness, contradicting the clear attitude of Scripture, while enlightening about the modern scholarly community is hardly worth the paper it is printed on.  

Yet I am not writing a blog post in order to prove to all one of my readers that I actually read something.  I found one of the articles I read to be fairly useful so wanted to reflect on it for a moment.  This was an article by Guy Strousma, a professor of Comparative Religion at Hebrew University, entitled "The Scriptural Movement of Late Antiquity and Christian Monasticism."  In this article, Dr. Strousma traces some of the practices in reading and journaling which are found in early monasticism.  He discusses two practices in particular from which I think we might gain something in our lifetime.

First, Strousma observes that reading, while historically an activity engaged in orally, took on an aspect of silence and individuality in attempts to engage in specific meditation and reflection on the content, normally Scripture.  In addition to the public proclamation of Scripture, monks took to reading the Bible and committing it to memory, striving to reflect on God's word throughout their day.  How powerful it would be if we took seriously both the mighty proclamation of God's word in public and the transforming power the Scripture has in the inner man!

Another observation Strousma makes is that members of the monastic orders were encouraged to write in journals.  What were they writing in these journals, often little books which they would carry with them, fastened to their clothing to be always at the ready?  These were not mere reflections on what the Scripture said, translations of passages, memory verses, but often reflections on the monks' sinful tendencies, their weaknesses, their temptations.  The journals were not for sharing, not even with a confessor.  Rather they served to help the monk in realizing his weakness, confessing his propensity to sin before the Lord, and seeking God's strength to wage war against sin so that he might guard his heart and his body.

How often do we publish our ideas, write emails, write blogs, search the Scriptures to know how to bring a good interpretation of a passage into a lesson or sermon, yet fail to heed God's gracious warning provided for our inner man?  All too often.

Maybe I'll try a bit of journaling now and then.  Not a bad idea, though it did come from the Nicene fathers rather than the Ante-Nicene fathers.

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Dave Spotts
blogging at http://capnsaltyslongvoyage.blogspot.com and http://alex-kirk.blogspot.com