{"id":8333,"date":"2016-09-13T20:09:44","date_gmt":"2016-09-14T00:09:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=8333"},"modified":"2016-09-13T20:09:44","modified_gmt":"2016-09-14T00:09:44","slug":"pre-lecture-jitters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=8333","title":{"rendered":"Pre-Lecture jitters"},"content":{"rendered":"

The busiest couple weeks of the year<\/strong> continue. But pressure is easing up in the library at last \u2013 I have adjudged my two new assistants qualified to range freely, within limits. Which gives me time to do other stuff. And other stuff need to be done.<\/p>\n

I found out I\u2019ll be doing my first seminary lecture (first of two) Thursday morning. That was somewhat short notice. But it\u2019s not as if I haven\u2019t been preparing. I just need to organize my piles of notes into a PowerPoint. And I\u2019ve made a good start. Still, it\u2019s a little daunting. If you like to pray for trivial concerns, you might remember me Thursday.<\/p>\n

I think I figured out why they asked me to lecture on the historical roots of our conception of the pastorate. There\u2019s been some concern in recent years, from certain quarters, that our seminary \u2013 while maintaining a high view of Scripture and Lutheran orthodoxy \u2013 has lost sight of its roots, the semi-romantic 19th Century dream of a repristinated New Testament congregation. They wanted somebody to explain our beginnings and the reasons why we do things in the (rather eccentric) ways we do them. As editor and translator for the Georg Sverdrup Society journal (devoted to the works of a founder of our tradition), I guess I qualify as a kind of an expert. There\u2019s one guy who wrote a doctoral thesis on Sverdrup who certainly knows more than I do. But he\u2019s retired. And another fellow who probably has a better global grasp on the historical factors than anybody alive. But he\u2019s busy teaching other classes.<\/p>\n

So I guess I qualify as a kind of an expert, in a very small niche. Funny how expertise snuck up on me. I never planned on it. It\u2019s kind of like rummaging in your pockets and finding a candle snuffer in there. And you don\u2019t remember buying one. But what do you know? There\u2019s a candle right here that needs snuffing!<\/p>\n

On the translating front,<\/strong> I hear that my next project will be a book on “the right of resistance,” the ancient Viking law that allowed the people of the land to rise up against, and kill, kings who got too big for their britches.<\/p>\n

I think it will go over well among Deplorables.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The busiest couple weeks of the year continue. But pressure is easing up in the library at last \u2013 I have adjudged my two new assistants qualified to range freely, within limits. Which gives me time to do other stuff. And other stuff need to be done. I found out I\u2019ll be doing my first … Continue reading Pre-Lecture jitters<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[1021,2739,3187],"class_list":["post-8333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-free-lutheranism","tag-teaching","tag-translation"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8333\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}