"Tradition is the living faith of the dead, traditionalism is the dead faith of the living. And, I suppose I should add, it is traditionalism that gives tradition such a bad name." – Jaroslav Pelikan
In a discussion over at AVI’s, james brought up Jaroslav
Pelikan (1923-2006), a scholar I don’t believe I’d ever heard of before but,
after a bit of investigation, I truly wish I had.
Wikipedia tells us he was “an American scholar of the
history of Christianity, Christian theology, and medieval intellectual history
at Yale University.” A bit of a prodigy, he had earned both a seminary degree
from Concordia Seminary and PhD from the University of Chicago by the age of
22. He spent most of his career teaching at Yale. Coming from a line of Lutheran pastors, he also was ordained a Lutheran pastor early in life. Later
in life he and his wife both became Eastern Orthodox Christians.
Wikipedia gives a humorous
anecdote from his life:
While at Yale, Pelikan won a contest sponsored by Field & Stream magazine for Ed Zern's column "Exit Laughing" to translate the motto of the Madison Avenue Rod, Gun, Bloody Mary & Labrador Retriever Benevolent Association ("Keep your powder, your trout flies and your martinis dry") into Latin. Pelikan's winning entry mentioned the martini first, but Pelikan explained that it seemed no less than fitting to have the apéritif come first. His winning entry:
Semper siccandae sunt: potio
Pulvis, et pelliculatio.
The 30+ books he wrote which are listed on Wikipedia should provide something interesting for anyone in the Hall interested in Christianity, I would think. I’ll put the full list below the fold, but AVI recommends JesusThrough the Centuries: His Place in the History of Culture (1985). James read one of his 5-volume history, The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine, 5 vols. (1973–1990).
Titles
that also grabbed my attention included Bach Among the Theologians (1986),
Christianity and Classical Culture: The Metamorphosis of Natural Theology in
the Christian Encounter with Hellenism (1993), Faust the Theologian (1995),
and What Has Athens to Do with Jerusalem? Timaeus and Genesis in
Counterpoint (1998). However, almost all of his work sounds interesting
for me.
His life and more on his works are given over at
Christian Scholars Online.
I’m happy james and AVI brought him to my attention. If you
two read this, thank you!
I’ve included a long-ish selection of his works (copied from Wikipedia) below the
fold.
