One of my friends is sending me stuff on premodern figural interpretation of scripture (in conflict with Auerbach and Frei) and I am feeling the siren call to return to my old ways. Someone tell me to turn back now while I still can

Another sign that things are very much getting out of hand... I just registered for my first theology conference in almost a decade

The more you know, the more you know you don’t know: Today I learned that, to people in the field, “classical,” “Hellenistic,” and “Roman” are three distinct artistic traditions

It’s finally time to read this one.

“Pax comes from pangere, ‘to make firm,’ and pacisi, ‘to make a pact’; it is the ‘pact’ one imposes on a conquered enemy.”  —Galinsky, Augustan Culture

TODAY IS THE FIRST FALL DAY I HAVE TO WEAR A HOODIE. this is how I felt:

well. after years of trying to fight it, I'm finally going to delete my Twitter account.

One of the biggest ironies of Rome is that they had this central ideal of the ancient Roman citizen farmer, farming his own land, while in reality Rome had to import basically all of its food from slave plantations in the provinces, managed from afar

this morning I'm finding myself reading about grain supply logistics in the Roman Empire and wondering how I became That Guy. I always swore I'd never become a Roman history guy

Reading medieval Hebrew poetry has offered a fascinating window into medieval Jewish biblical exegesis. At first it was mostly readings of Song of Songs, but slowly, I'm starting to see some patterns of exegesis of the prophets and the Psalms, as well.

This passage in Ovid’s Fasti is *so* Dantean! It could have come straight out of Purgatorio or Paradiso. > The use of a novel and obscure epithet for a character, which the reader must puzzle out for themselves > Venus is playing nearly the same role as Beatrice

The cat shoved Ovid deep under the couch, where I wouldn’t find it. (I saw her do it.) Gonna rename her Tertullian

One of the most important threads emerging in reading Ovid's Fasti is learning about Roman philosophies/theologies of time, especially as they compare and contrast with earlier Greek and later Christian views on time.

I need to post a correction: Several people have pointed out that there is no evidence that Augustus ever used this phrase. It appears that Galinsky was trying to be witty. I wish he had been more clear that he was making stuff up.

Steven Rodriguez@smarcorodriguez.bsky.social · 3w ago

Didn’t see this one coming! Apparently in his marriage reforms, Augustus believed that “extra familiam nulla salus,” a strikingly similar phrase to the later Christian axiom “extra ecclesiam nulla salus.” Given Augustus’ importance, they had to have known the allusion, right?

One of my life goals I haven't gotten to yet: Rereading Quixote, but in the Spanish!! Someday.

Talking with my grandma this morning, she was sharing stories about her Baptist church on the Mexico/Texas border, founded right before the Mexican Revolution.

when ur tryna enjoy the mellifluous ballad but HE’S here

Literally just randomly walked into some fantastic live jazz playing in the Chicago Cultural Center

Wesley falling out with some charismatic/Pentecostal friends from his youth with whom he shared powerful spiritual experiences—so relatable

For me the most important thing about Wesley’s famous Aldersgate conversion is that he had other powerful spiritual experiences and periods of intense spiritual depression immediately surrounding it

Augustine did not fit in my overnight bag, but Wesley did. Trying to not read this as Meaning Something

Waiting for my flight and the frat bros behind me are complaining that Percy Jackson “ruined” Nolan’s Odyssey because they already knew what was going to happen

I’ve got a couple hours in Chicago this afternoon/evening. Favorite spot is the art institute but it’s pricy. Any recommendations for other museums or exhibits to catch? Might also catch the jazz fest.

starting off the morning with some Augustine on the Psalms

Our paradigm for the establishment vs. folk religion conflict is the centuries long negotiation between official Roman Catholic doctrine and practice and local expressions of folk piety that deviate from centralized norms to varying degrees.

It’s been a long time, but we are back.

Didn’t see this one coming! Apparently in his marriage reforms, Augustus believed that “extra familiam nulla salus,” a strikingly similar phrase to the later Christian axiom “extra ecclesiam nulla salus.” Given Augustus’ importance, they had to have known the allusion, right?

I'm still holding out hope that, somehow, sometime during my lifetime, we discover a manuscript of Ovid's lost tragedy Medea.

Yes we're living in a time when tech oligarchs are destroying old books, literacy, and human knowledge. But it's also an incredible time to be alive. Because of technology, you can freely access things like THE NOTES MONTAIGNE WROTE IN HIS EDITION OF LUCRETIUS from anywhere in the world.

digging into the Latin of one of my fave passages in Augustine (the ending of Confessions), because Galinsky was talking about Virgil's use of the Lucretian ideal of quies, and naturally I started to wonder if Auggy is (consciously or subconsciously) transfiguring Virgil here.