Oecolampadius, On the Easter Laughter

Benny Grey Schuster evidently issued his German rendering of this multilingual piece in 2019, but without any explicit reference to the Reformer in the title. It was called: Das Osterlachen. Darstellung der Kulturgeschichte und Theologie des Osterlachens sowie ein Essay über die kulturelle, kirchliche und theologische Verwandlung des Lachens. It was translated into German from the Danish version by Eberhard Harbsmeier. 

The English version appeared this year (2024) by Peter Lang, under the title: The History of Easter Laughter: Johannes Oecolampadius' 'De risu paschali' from 1518 with an Introduction, Annotated Translation, and an Account of the Cultural, Ecclesiastical, and Theological Transformation of Laughter.

Oliver Anthony knows which way is up

Which, one would think, ought to be the first qualification for going into ministry. 

[After reading this, my pitiful video play counts all of a sudden don't seem so bad.]

Revenant Psalms, Vol. IV

 

Released November 30, 2024. The video for the final track, Psalm 135 [Maker's Medley] will premiere at noon (CST) today, December 1, 2024. May it help keep you in a worshipful frame of mind, after church, throughout this Lord's Day, and always. [This is not a Christmas album per se, more of an Advent thing, I suppose, as are most of the Revenant Psalms, but ... Merry Christmas anyway. God bless us, everyone.]

Timely advice for small colleges.

 https://instapundit.com/686508/

December 1 is the anniversary of this monumental series and a good day to start reading one sermon per day

... or six sermons per week (leaving out Sundays, if you want to be exact), which will take you to Christmas Eve. 

This December 1 is the 501st anniversary of the beginning of the preaching of the series, which was published in 1524. (So in terms of publication, it is still the 500th, if anyone else is keeping track.)

Here is the hardcover at B&NPress, here is the paperback at Amazon, here is the Kindle, and here is the playlist of introductions to the series. See previous post for the soundtrack to the videos.

Backing tracks for The Reformation of Preaching

If you have enjoyed the soundtrack behind "The Reformation of Preaching," i.e., the 30-minute introduction to Oecolampadius' Sermons on the First Epistle of John, or the music in the short five-minutes introductions to the individual sermons, here is the record from which those instrumental tracks were taken.

The album is called The Great Western Road, named for the three-part guitar suite of the same name. That suite was written in stages in the period 1991-1994. Strange how some gifts come seemingly overnight or in a matter of minutes, while others take years and years. 

Playlist

So here is a growing playlist with all the tracks (five so far) from the forthcoming Revenant Psalms, Vol. IV, i.e., the singles that have been released with videos.  

Oecolampadius' Sermon on Luke 11 (Third Sunday in Lent, 1525)

Just finished translating this sermon preached in Basel in 1525. Here is the first sentence:

"The singular failing in which all misfortune occurs is ignorance of God and of ourselves. But if we knew how good and powerful he is, and indeed how wretched and weak we are, we would have instituted [institueremus] a much different life."

That sounds strikingly similar to the opening sentence of Calvin's Institutes, the first edition of which emerged eleven years later, in the same city. But to be fair, Oecolampadius' sermon was only published by his successor Myconius in 1536, the same year that Calvin's Institutes first appeared in Basel. But until I have time to investigate it, I can only imagine the conversations between the two (Myconius the editor and successor to the Basel reformation and Calvin the second generation Reformer who would make his way to Geneva). 

Here is another line from the sermon that should be instructive to everyone, especially preachers:

"... no one speaks properly who does not treat God as holy."

Amen to that.