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On Really Old Journal Articles

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Today I read an article written by Melvil Dewey for the very first issue of Library Journal back in 1877.

 I'm researching the purpose and value of library cooperatives and consortia for a project regarding the SkyRiver v. OCLC lawsuit, and this Dewey article came up, and I figured that if one of the revered Fathers of the Library wrote something about this, I'd better read it. It ended up being quite an ordeal to even find the thing, which led me to the following resolutions:
  1. If something is in the public domain, it (as in, the actual document) should come up in a Google search. I mean really. I was absolutely shocked that no library Dewey nerd has compiled the works of Dewey into an easily navigable website. I know you're out there, Dewey nerd, and just know--I'm very disappointed in you.
  2. If you are going to cite/reference an article, you should have actually looked at the thing. I found no less than four articles that either cited or referenced a certain 1886 Dewey article (many in curiously similar syntax), and yet said article is nowhere to be found. I'm disappointed in all you lazy, cheating scholars too! I know you didn't read it! You're all just semi-paraphrasing each other without citations because none of you could find the article either!
Seriously, though, if anyone wants to use their searching skillz to find me Melvil Dewey's "Library Co-operation" from volume 11 (issues 5 and 6) of the 1886 Library Journal (pages 106-107)... Let me know.

Besides those two grievances, it was pretty interesting to see that even way back in the nineteenth century, librarians were still dealing with similar issues--ones the solutions to which we are now seeing come to fruition (i.e. WorldCat). Plus, I just love some good nostalgic solidarity.
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Theologian Thursday: Gregory of Nyssa (335?-395?)

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 (image from here)
Gregory of Nyssa was St. Basil's younger brother. His upbringing is therefore very similar to Basil's and also to Gregory of Nazianzus--privileged, well-traveled, and well-educated. While he is not considered a Doctor of the Church, he was a bishop, and his writings have been influential in academic discourse regarding the Trinity and the "uncreated" nature of God.

Most of his trinitarian theology, not surprisingly, aligns closely with that of the other Cappadocians and their idea of the social trinity--that the three ὑποστάσεις (hypostases/persons) of the Trinity exist as one in a deeply unifying and ontologically significant bond of mutual love. His other works include many homilies (for example, "Treatise on the Work of the Six Days," which mirrors Basil's Hexameron), and works on the Christian life and holiness. In line with his influence from Origen, much of his theology is based on the infinite and uncreated nature of God and universal salvation--that all humanity has been assumed by the Son and therefore redeemed.

OK--Here's the best part. HIS RELICS LIVE IN SAN DIEGO! While writing this post, I found out that St. Gregory of Nyssa Greek Orthodox Church in El Cajon has them/it (still unsure what exactly the relic is... I think it's a jawbone?). Super cool! I might try to go check it out sometime.

What you should read:
Ratings:
(To read more about my rating system, click HERE.)
Gender Equality:
Gregory was big on the idea of humanity being the image of God, in that humans are free and spiritual beings (he followed Origen in this, except that Origen believed in pre-existent souls and Gregory believed souls were created at the same moment the body was). With all of his emphasis on the nous of people, and their spiritual being, I didn't see much about differences between men and women in this regard--he seemed to place them (implicitly) on more or less even ground.
Environmental Sensibility: 
Gregory seems to have had a pretty Platonic idea of nature--that the world was formed from "ideas" in God that manifest themselves through physical qualities outside of God. Therefore, the essence of nature doesn't really exist (i.e. isn't tangible or available to us). Only its qualities. So I'd assume his care for creation was minimal.
Heretical Tendencies:
He spoke out against heretics like Apollinarius and Eunomius. But he did get a lot of his ideas from Origen, who was actually a heretic. So he toes the line a bit.
General Badassery:
I don't know anything especially bad-ass about him. But he did have a heck of a lot of influential correspondence, and he does do a lot of interesting work with Origen's thought. I think he gets the short end of the Cappadocian stick, but he shouldn't!

And a quote:
“Concepts create idols; only wonder comprehends anything. People kill one another over idols. Wonder makes us fall to our knees.”

Crazy Times


This is what I had for dinner the other night.


This is me having an existential crisis at lunch the other day.

Basically, between last week and this week, I'm losing my mind. Super busy, lots of reading, Curtis finishing up his thesis, the end of the semester at work, hiring new students... crazy crazy crazy. So. I promise to have a Theologian Thursday post tomorrow, but that is all I'm promising until next week. Please send calming relaxing thoughts my way! Things should calm down after Curtis's graduation this weekend. Then maybe I'll be able to breathe!
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Theologian Thursday: Saint Basil the Great (330-379)

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 (image found here)
If you subscribe to Greek Orthodox hagiography, Basil comes from a family full of saints. Can you imagine? His brothers Gregory of Nyssa (whom we'll talk about next week) and Peter, sisters Macrina and Theosebius, mother Emily and grandmother Macrina were all saints. The Roman Catholic Church also includes his father, Basil, among the saints.

He became the bishop at Caesarea, and used his position, along with his relationships with Gregory of Nazianzus and Athanasius, to fight the heresies of Arianism and modalism. These early discussions about the Trinity are so interesting because they wrestle with all these ridiculously fine points of theology. Basically, Basil & Co. wanted the Holy Spirit to be considered homoousios (ὁμοούσιος--same essence) with the Father and Son, however, faithful to the Greek tradition, he was wary of considering the Son homoousious with the Father, even though the Nicene Creed and the Western church had established this as orthodox. But obviously (because of his disdain for Arianism) he wanted to uphold the divinity of Christ. Crazy fine points!

I feel like in this time period of debate and compromise, no one really got everything they wanted, and I think this can speak to the church today--despite conflicting beliefs, there really is room at the table for everyone.


What you should read:
Ratings:
(To read more about my rating system, click HERE.)
Gender Equality:
Coming from such a holy family, Basil had a lot of respect for his grandmother, his mother, and his sisters. They all had significant influence on his spiritual development and his life in general.
Environmental Sensibility:
It's probably safe to say that Basil falls in line with the other Church Fathers here. It wasn't a high priority at the time, but surely, if questioned, he would support a positive environmental ethic.
Heretical Tendencies:
Though he (and the other Cappadocians, for that matter) were influenced by the work of Origen, they were staunchly orthodox.
General Badassery: 
Honestly, Basil doesn't seem too crazy. I think anyone who was part of these crazy theological debates in the fourth century had to be pretty intense, but I haven't read any stories of Basil being especially badass.

And a quote. This one is longer than the ones I usually share, but I think it's important, and very convicting!
“The bread which you do not use is the bread of the hungry; the garment hanging in your wardrobe is the garment of him who is naked; the shoes that you do not wear are the shoes of the one who is barefoot; the money that you keep locked away is the money of the poor; the acts of charity that you do not perform are so many injustices that you commit.”