tregallion

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  • Bane-fyres and the theology of the body

    I read this very odd little book, Hydriotaphia, or Urne-Buriall. Thomas Browne was an eccentric English polymath who wrote an extended reflection on cremation and other burial practices, after a number of pre-Christian Anglo-Saxon burial urns were found in Norfolk. I really recommend reading it — Browne has this style that’s built on allusion, constantly…

  • ‘Tis to no boot, said he.

    There are many reasons we don’t pray. Likely you’re familiar with the common ones: I don’t have time, I forget, I find it boring, I get distracted, I don’t know what to say. And by describing them like this, I don’t mean to dismiss them. These are significant barriers for some. Another reason not to…

  • The unlettered bishop

    Let [a bishop] therefore, if it is possible, be well educated; but if he be unlettered, let him at any rate be skilful in the word, and of competent age. Apostolic Constitutions, II.1 (~375AD). From the Complete Ante-Nicene & Nicene and Post-Nicene Church Fathers Collection, Kindle edition, loc. 138659. It was apparently not considered essential,…

  • Thoughts on Bede: uniformity of practice

    I just finished Ecclesiastical History of the English People, written in 731 by the Venerable Bede, who was a Northumbrian monk. (Don’t forget to read the primary sources!) Michael Haykin considers Bede as the last of the Church Fathers. This is the first of a few thoughts on Bede and his History. Uniformity of practice.…

  • Reading the primary sources

    I have found as a tutor in English Literature that if the average student wants to find out something about Platonism, the very last thing he thinks of doing is to take a translation of Plato off the library shelf and read the Symposium. He would rather read some dreary modern book ten times as…