"Spiritus sanctus non est scepticus."
- from De Servo Arbitrio (On the Bondage of the Will)
Little did I know that I was going to be reading Latin while here in Oberursel... My classes are in full swing now, and it turns out that the readings for many of them include some Latin texts, an extra challenge I hadn't really expected. For instance, in the class which I think I will enjoy the most this semester, Biblical Hermeneutics in Lutheran Orthodoxy, we discussed Luther's famous writing, On the Bondage of the Will, which Luther wrote in Latin, not German. I did have one year of Latin at Augustana 5 or 6 years ago, but now I wish I had taken more, or had kept it up. At the suggestion of a classmate, I made a last-minute decision to take a Latin 3 which is being offered this semester, one day a week for two hours. The three of us in the class and our teacher, Frau Dr. Adam (a very nice lady who's been teaching Latin for 25 years) will be working our way through St. Augustine's Confessiones and reviewing grammar and vocabulary as we go. I think this will be a relatively painless and even enjoyable way of improving my Latin.
Allow me to share with the rest of the classes that I'm taking this semester. So far, I'm very pleased with the selections I made. I believe I have a challenging but rewarding semester ahead of me.
The Augsburg Confession
The Formula of Concord
These are the names of two of the eleven documents of the Lutheran Confessions, assembled in the Book of Concord, which all pastors of the Missouri Synod (and virtually all of our sister churches) must subscribe to upon their ordination. It is subscription to these documents that makes the Missouri Synod a confessional Lutheran church. Apart from the three ecumenical creeds (Apostles', Nicene, and Athanasian) the remaining texts of the Book of Concord were written between 1529 (Small and Large Catechisms) and 1577 (the Formula of Concord) as a way of clearly stating the evangelical Lutheran faith, as derived from the Scriptures alone (sola scriptura!), over against the errors of the Roman Catholic Church and other churches which had arisen from the Reformation and invented new errors.
The Gospel of Luke
Systematics/Dogmatics III (Pneumatology and Ecclesiology)
This class is already proving to be very interesting, and I am doubly excited because it should fulfill my requirement for Dog III at CTS in Fort Wayne which I still need.
The Form of the Sermon
Latin III
Biblical Hermeneutics in Lutheran Orthodoxy
Anyone who knows me very well knows that I could go on for hours about everything that's going in my life and describe all of my classes and activities in full detail. But I'm also well aware that such detail doesn't necessarily translate into the most engaging reading. With that, I'm going to move on and post some more pictures from this past week. Most of them are from a nearby town (Bod Homburg) that I explored last Saturday with the accompaniment of a few other students (1 German couple, 1 German/South African, and 1 Canadian).
This first church honestly wasn't that pretty, but it did have some nice features, such as the stations of the cross carved in stone around the church.
And I liked the huge crucifix.
Next church: much more interesting.
But not necessarily attractive. I don't know. I sort of like the mosaic, but that cross made out of light bulbs needs to go.
Jeremy, I don't think you're supposed to go up there...
I don't like this cross either. The corpus is androgynous and ugly.
I got some nice pics from the outside, though.
Then we went to this castle, former summer home of the German Kaiser.
This awesome-looking tree is a cedar of Lebanon... like in the Bible!
And then all of a sudden we were in California...?
I love the look of these houses. We could use some of this aesthetic back home in Kewanee...
I made this dinner all by myself. Lecker!
More soccer battle wounds. But this injury came seconds before I scored the game-winning goal!
I got hit in the face again, too. :)
How often do you see your clock read 0:00? That's army time for ya.
The second church that you posted pictures of is gorgeous...and then you see that awful lighted cross. That's as much a blight as page 5 in TLH. That's interesting about having to know Latin. I've never had any Latin, so I probably would've been destroyed had I eventually decided to go there.
ReplyDeleteI really want some German food now. Besonders ein Hamburger Schnitzel oder Schweinshaxe. Mit einem leckeren Oktoberfest...mmm
How does the Gospel of Luke class compare with Gospels II here?
ReplyDeleteIt only just started so hard to say yet. Prof. Dr. Salzmann attempts to cover the variety of views on various passages, but in the end still seems to side with the German main stream historical critics.
ReplyDeleteI was however pleasantly surprised to find Just's Luke Commentary in the list of recommended literature.
have to say I just skipped over the paragraph about the classes because I couldn't tell if that was written in english or some foreign language that my mind could just not translate...geesh peter, a person thinks they are educated until you come around and start spewing out vocabulary that doesn't even register in my mind!! i like the mosaic, but then again I am a fan of mosaics! congrats on the wiener dinner! looks like you are becoming quite a german cook!
ReplyDeleteFrau Lesli, I wish I could *like* your comment. It made me smile and laugh. Yes, both.
ReplyDeleteCaleb, your food ideas sound good... I think. Despite my love of German food, I've actually been missing the CTS cafeteria. So much more food and more variety than here. This school is really tiny...
ReplyDeleteAs for the Luke class, it's all right so far... I'll have to let you know more later on. Were still in chapter 1.
Hi Peter, Love the pictures. You sound great. Looks like your classes will be challenging. So glad one will transfer. Be sure to wash that cut out with soap:) We miss you so much but are getting used to you not being here. I hope you call again soon. You got a postcard from the Schmidts while they were on vacation. You better let them know you are in their country. Love Ya, mom
ReplyDeleteQuit playing soccer.
ReplyDeleteGood to hear from you, Peter. I'm jealous not only that you're in Germany, but that you're learning Latin there. Soon you'll be running rings around us here. Speaking of rings, I wonder how old that cypress tree is. And I agree on those ugly crucifixes, of course, but that's modern Germany for you. Sort of like Valpo I guess.
ReplyDeleteThe Bondage of the Will is considered by Luther scholars to be one of Luther's most important documents. I once wrote an article about it, contrasting Luther's view of predestination to Calvin's.
Nice pics, and glad you're travelling.
Love Dad
Hi Mom and Dad -
ReplyDeleteLuther considered the Bondage of the Will to be one of his most important documents, too. In a 1537 letter her wrote,
"Regarding [the plan] to collect my writings in volumes, I am quite cool and not at all eager about it because, roused by a Saturnian hunger, I would rather see them all devoured. For I acknowledge none of them to be really a book of mine, except perhaps the one On the Bound Will and the Catechism."
And that cypress tree was planted in 1820.
Mom, I should get credit for my class on the Formula of Concord, too, I think, so that'll be 2 for this semester.
- Peter
Yay! Pictures of food. You have an entire year of inexpensive (aber leckere) Wurst ahead of you. As you travel, always ask to try the local beer, too. The one near Bamberg kind of tastes like bacon!
ReplyDeleteYes, most of the churches are beautiful in some way, but many of them have been stripped of their beauty in favor of modern stained glass, a Gumby-like corpus, or other weird art. Just wait until you run into a Taize group "camped out" in a centuries-old cathedral. It just doesn't mesh.
One funny thing: when we were there, there was a young German child who, for the longest time, thought that Professor Salzmann's name was "Pfeffer Salzmann." Makes sense to a 4 year old!
Mach's gut!
• Pfeffer Salzmann - haha, that's great!
ReplyDelete• As much as I like beer and bacon, I think I'll pass on the bacon-flavored beer... :/