I've been thinking about translation more and more over the past several years. Partly, this is because I find myself needing to translate more obscure texts for my own research. But one of my goals with some of my projects has also been to make obscure or lesser known medieval texts accessible to broader audiences. More medieval texts need to be … Continue reading Translation as Public Writing
Last summer, I participated in a week-long Summer Seminar on the Teaching of Writing (SSTW) hosted through our campus Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning. The Seminar has continued in some ways, as our group of faculty have met twice a semester to share how we've been implementing some of our ideas into our classes. … Continue reading Teaching Writing for the Public
Recently, I've been reading Mary Dzon's new book, The Quest for the Christ Child in the Later Middle Ages (Philadelphia, PA: U of Pennsylvania P, 2017), and it's turned out to be quite appropriate for the season of Lent leading up to Easter. This might seem somewhat odd, given the focus on Jesus' childhood rather than … Continue reading Two Thieves and a Funeral
I was recently asked to contribute a piece for a forthcoming Festschrift in honor of Michael E. Stone, a scholar whose work on early Jewish and Christian pseudepigrpaha and apocrypha has affected many of my own views on these subjects. I'm very pleased to be included in this collection, with a piece titled "'Omnis piger propheta est': An … Continue reading Forthcoming: “Omnis piger propheta est”
I'm happy to share two entries I've contributed to the e-Clavis for The North American Society for the Study of Christian Apocryphal Literature (NASSCAL): Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew Life of Judas As I've mentioned before, I've spent a lot of my time over the past year working on an introduction, translation, and commentary for the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew. The e-Clavis … Continue reading E-Clavis Entries
Recently, Casey Strine (Lecturer in Ancient Near Eastern History and Literature at the University of Sheffield) wrote for the Huffington Post UK about "Ancient Christianity’s Opposition To Trump’s Proposal To Prefer Christian Refugees." In the article, Strine musters different passages in the Bible that speak to early Jewish and Christian responses to refugees, relating them … Continue reading Refugee Jesus in the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew
This semester I'm teaching a graduate seminar (the first since I've started at RIC). Over the course of the semester, I'll be posting some reflections on the course and the material we're covering, partly to sort through some of my own thoughts and also in solidarity with my students, who will also be blogging. So … Continue reading Medieval Multimedia Syllabus
The latest news cycle brings a media storm about Tuesday's (January 17) confirmation hearing for President-elect Donald Trump's choice for Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos: news stories, live-streaming of the event, video clips saved for later, tweets on both sides of the political divide, and of course hot-takes. Consider this one of the latter. Specifically, I want to respond to … Continue reading My Debt to Public Education
When I first started working on texts related to the biblical Judith in Anglo-Saxon England (which I discuss here), I had several goals: one of these was to provide more exposure to literature other than the Old English poem Judith. The sermon On Judith by Ælfric of Eynsham was one of the main texts that sparked my interest. Ælfric … Continue reading Ælfric’s Sermon On Judith
Just before Christmas, Mark Hay published a piece over at Vice about certain accounts of Jesus' miracles as a child. Specifically, Hay discusses apocryphal (extra-biblical or non-canonical, different terms for these stories that aren't in the Bible) stories in which (in his words) "Lil' Jesus used his divine powers to terrorize teachers, kill Jewish children, and … Continue reading What Do We Learn about Baby Jesus From Apocrypha?
Brandon W. Hawk 