Durham

Philip Schaff on J.B. Lightfoot, Bishop of Durham

While looking for a copy of Saint Augustine’s Retractiones online, I came across a little biography called Saint Chrysostom and Saint Augustin by Philip Schaff and noticed that Schaff dedicates the work to J.B. Lightfoot.  In the preface, Schaff explains why:

A high admiration of these truly great and good men is quite consistent with an acknowledgment of their defects and errors. There is a safe medium between a slavish overestimate and a haughty underestimate of the Fathers. No man is perfect save Christ, and no man can be our master in the highest sense but Christ. Amicus Chrysostomus, amicus Augustinus, sed magis amica veritas.

It was in this spirit of free evangelical catholicity that the lamented Bishop Liglitfoot, the greatest patristic scholar of England, prepared his monumental work on the Apostolic Fathers. I have taken the liberty to dedicate this unpretending little volume to his memory.  I regret I have nothing more worthy to offer, but I know he would receive it with the kindness of a friend and co-worker in the service of truth. He wrote to me once that he had received the first impulse to his historical studies from my History of the Apostolic Church; and yet I have learned more from him than he could ever learn from me. He invited me to contribute certain articles to Smith and Wace’s Dictionary of Christian Biography (then under his charge), and sent me all his works as they appeared. Only a few days ago I received, “with the compliments of the Trustees of the LIGHTFOOT FUND,” his posthumous edition of St. Clement of Rome, with an autotype of the Constantinopolitan text a worthy companion of his St. Ignatius and St. Polycarp. The Bible Revision labors brought us into still closer relations. His book on Revision (which I republished with his consent), and his admirable commentaries on Galatians, Colossians, and Philippians, greatly aided the movement in this country.  I shall not forget my pleasant interviews with him at Cambridge, London, Durham, and Auckland Castle. He left a rare example of reverent and modest Christian scholarship that aims first and last at the investigation and promotion of truth.

New York, December 12, 1890                                                       P.S.

Update: the Unstable Nature of Social Time (or Moving to a Different Country is Weird)

I’m not sure what that title means.  It is inspired by some of the titles I’ve seen for academic publications and conference papers in Biblical Studies and the Humanities.  The paradox of technical jargon is that, while it is meant to clarify, it often obscures.  So, I’ll be clear:  we’ve only been in the UK for 19 days, but August 31st seems like a lifetime ago.

JE and the boys have been great.  Our transition has gone incredibly smoothly.  Life is good, which provides a partial reason for the lack of blogging.  All the same, I’ve been the detail guy for our family and have little time or energy to blog or write (or study, for that matter!).  I hope to do better as we establish a regular schedule.  In the meantime, I thought I’d walk you, dear reader, through our transition with a few representative images and reflections.

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Our trip had a very happy beginning.  We arrived at Lambert in plenty of time, got our bags sorted, and made a leisurely stroll onto the airplane.  Last summer, when I told Charlie that Jane-Ellis and I were going to England to visit PhD programs, he was disappointed that he wasn’t allowed to go, mostly because he wanted to fly.  We took three flights–Saint Louis to Dallas, Dallas to London, and London to Newcastle–and the boys loved it.  Aside from being the last five people onto the plane in Dallas, the transatlantic flight being strangely hot, and almost missing our connection to Newcastle, everything went smoothly.

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The day after arriving in Durham, we walked to the boys’ school to pick up their uniforms and get a feel for the place.  The Northeast of England has had an historic amount of rain over the summer, more than any other time in the last one hundred years, and the boys’ school St Hild’s had major flooding in June.  Though they were working down to the last minute to get ready for school starting the next day, the staff graciously showed us around and chatted with us.  Peter’s first day was a disaster (I walked the boys home after the first day, and so I got the report from his teacher).  He’s made very steady improvement since.  I’m proud of how each of the boys has adapted.  George would stay all day if they would let him.  Charlie’s class has been studying Beowulf, which he has loved.  Peter is getting along well in a radically different classroom environment.  Here’s a picture of the boys on the first day of school:

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We didn’t know what to do about the uniforms.  How many shirts?  How many pants?  Windbreaker?  Well, we probably got some things that are unnecessary, but I like the St Hild’s swag, especially the little briefcase.

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They really take it slowly with the nursery classes here, so George wasn’t actually allowed to stay at school on the first day.  He insisted, however, on wearing his uniform.  I got this cute pic of him in the City Centre, where we went to get our banking figured out.

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It’s a small world.  I went down to London for the British New Testament Society Conference on our first full weekend in England.  (JE and the boys did very well without me).  On the way back to King’s Cross for the trip home, I met Bob Mark and Terry Fox who were in London on business.  Bob and I, along with Bob’s wife Jane-Ellen, led the new members class at Central Presbyterian Church for the last eight years.  Terry joined Central just last year.

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This is what happens when I give Peter our camera and tell him to go take pictures.  This is the posterior of a famous statue in City Centre.  For the last week, at random, Peter says something like, “Hey Charlie, remember the butt picture?  Wasn’t that great?!”

Though I continually feel like I’ve forgotten something essential, I think we’ve sorted the most essential things for now (including starting to use key words like “sort,” “quite,” and “sensible”).  JE didn’t get the job she interviewed for, so she’s regrouping and arranging meetings with recruiters.  We’re hopeful but anxious about that.  I’m eager to get going on work (had my first meeting with my supervisor on Monday, which went well), but, with all of the things we have to do to get established, I haven’t managed to study/work more than 2 hours every other day or so.  That will change soon.  In the meantime, I’m enjoying walking the boys to school each morning.  I’ve been making breakfast for everyone daily too, including JE’s egg cooked hard.  What fun that’s been.

That’s all for now.

Transition Update

When we moved from Maplewood to Saint Louis city three years ago, it took ten months to sell our house.  As we prepare to leave Saint Louis city to move to Durham in the “North” (as the English call it), we’ve sold our house without it being on the market one day.  That is great and we are grateful to God for it, but it also means will are looking for places to stay for about the next three months.  Thankfully, it seems like our housing situation is starting to come together.  We have the month of June covered, at least.  However, if any of our Saint Louis friends need a family of five to house-sit for the summer, please let me know.

Jane-Ellis continues to make excellent contacts in business circles in Newcastle, and I’m confident that, once she gets over there and meets people, she’ll be able to secure a position.  In the meantime, we’re working on figuring out all of the finances, assuming that we’ll be without an income for a few months.

I’ve been taking “Theological German,” a class in German reading for doctoral and masters students at Concordia Seminary in Saint Louis.  Eight weeks in, I’m reading at an intermediate level, which is amazing to me.  Our teacher, Eric Stancliff, has been teaching languages for thirty years, and he’s really good at it!  He’s funny too, which is an important bonus when you’re slogging through three chapters of grammar and 150 new vocab words a week.

The reality of the impending move is starting to dawn on the boys.  This morning we celebrated Charlie’s 8th birthday, and, as the festivities were winding-down, George asked, “Now do we get to move to England?”  I said, “No, George, not today.”  He replied, “Aww, man.  I want to go to England.”  I want to go to England, too, but there is a lot to be done between now and the beginning of September.  So, I’m not quite as excited as George, yet.