U.S. Congregationalist Minister, Poet, Literary Critic, and Biblical Scholar
Amos Niven Wilder comes to this, A Great Cloud of Witnesses: An Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days, via The Interpreter’s Bible.
Wilder came from a remarkable family. Amos Parker Wilder (1862-1936) was a journalist and sometime diplomat. He was, until 1906, the editor and partial owner of the Wisconsin State Journal. During the administrations of Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson, he was U.S. Consul to China, based first in Hong Kong (1906-1909) then Shanghai (1909-1914). Isabella Thornton Niven (1873-1946), daughter of a Presbyterian minister, was a poet. She encouraged her children to love language, drama, and literature. Those children were:
Amos Niven Wilder, born in Madison, Wisconsin, on September 18, 1895;
Thornton Wilder (1897-1975), playwright and novelist;
Charlotte Wilder (1898-1980), poet;
Isabel Wilder (1900-1995), novelist; and
Janet Wilder (Dakin) (1910-1994), zoologist and conservationist.
Our saint combined Biblical scholarship and literary skill. He matriculated at Oberlin College in 1913, but left to enlist in the U.S. Army in 1916. Wilder, a corporal, drove ambulances in France and Macedonia. He, discharged in 1919, studied at Yale University, from which he graduated with a B.A. the following year. His first volume of poetry, Battle Prospect (1923), won the Yale Younger Prize. Another volume of poetry, Arachne, followed five years later. Wilder, as a literary critic, wrote The Spiritual Aspects of the New Poetry (1940). The ministry beckoned to the young Wilder. He, while studying at Mansfield College, Oxford, in 1921-1923, was the secretary to Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965). After continuing theological studies at Yale in 1924, Wilder became a Congregationalist minister in 1926. He was, for a few years, the pastor of First Church of Christ, Congregational, North Conway, New Hampshire.
Wilder was mainly an academic, though. After teaching at Hamilton College, Clinton, New York, he became Professor of the New Testament at Andover Newton Theological Seminary, Newton Centre, Massachusetts. That was his professional position when he met Catharine Kerwin (December 3, 1906-September 1, 2006) during the summer of 1934 and married her in August 1935. She came from a socially progressive family active in the suffragette movement. In other words, Catharine and her relatives were the kind of people many would, in the cynical, regressive terms of 2018 that excuse social injustice and other perfidy, label “Social Justice Warriors.” Catharine, active in the post-World War I peace movement, had earned her B.A. in history from Smith College and became a teacher. The Wilders, married for nearly 58 years, had two children, Catharine Dix Wilder (b. 1937) and Amos Tappan Wilder (b. 1940).
Wilder, a Ph.D. from Yale since 1933, became Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Chicago Theological Seminary and The University of Chicago and a member of the Federated Theological Faculty of Chicago in 1943. There he remained until 1954. In 1949-1950 Wilder doubled as the President of the Chicago Society of Biblical Research. Wilder spent 1954-1963 as the Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard University. Then, at the age of 68 years, he retired.
Wilder wrote 35 books, published various articles, and contributed to The Interpreter’s Bible. Theological works included Otherworldiness and the New Testament (1954) and Theopoetic: Theology and the Religious Imagination (1976). The posthumously published book was Armageddon Revisited (1994), a memoir of war. He also served as a Consulting Editor of The Interpreter’s Bible, wrote the article “The Teaching of Jesus II: The Sermon on the Mount” for Volume VII (1951), and wrote the introduction to and exegesis of the three Letters of John for Volume XII (1957).
Wilder, active in retirement, traveled around the world with Catharine. He also continued to play tennis, which he had done since his college years. Wilder was a nationally ranked tennis player.
Wilder, aged 97 years, died on May 4, 1993.
Catharine, aged 99 years, died on September 1, 2006.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
AUGUST 30, 2018 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT JEANNE JUGAN, FOUNDRESS OF THE LITTLE SISTERS OF THE POOR
THE FEAST OF JOHN LEARY, U.S. ROMAN CATHOLIC SOCIAL ACTIVIST AND ADVOCATE FOR THE POOR
THE FEAST OF KARL OTTO EBERHARDT, GERMAN MORAVIAN ORGANIST, MUSIC EDUCATOR, AND COMPOSER
BERNHARD WORD ANDERSON (SEPTEMBER 25, 1916-DECEMBER 26, 2007)
U.S. United Methodist Minister and Biblical Scholar
Bernhard “Barney” W. Anderson comes to this, A Great Cloud of Witnesses: An Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days via the Biblical Studies of my library, including The Interpreter’s Bible.
Anderson, born in Dover, Missouri, on September 25, 1916, became an influential scholar. His Australian-born father, Arthur Lincoln Anderson, was a Methodist minister. Our saint’s mother was Grace Word. According to her son, who dedicated Out of the Depths (1970), a book about the Psalms, to her, her
life on earth came to fulfillment in the years 1956-1966, when she served the church as a Director of Beulah Home in Oakland, California.
–x
(Beulah Home, extant 1912-1968, was a Methodist rest home for retired ministers, deaconesses, and missionaries. It closed due to societal changes rendering it no longer feasible.) Our saint, as a youth, learned to play the organ, so he could assist his father on Sundays. Anderson attended the College (now University) of the Pacific, Stockton, California, majoring first in music, then in religion. After graduating in 1936, he married classmate Joyce Griswold. Next Anderson studied at the Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, California. He graduated in 1939.
Anderson, ordained in The Methodist Church (1939-1968) in 1939, and subsequently a minister in The United Methodist Church (1968-), served in congregations in Jamestown, Pittsburg, Sunnyvale, and Millbrae. (Some sources I read used the term “United Methodist Church” anachronistically, having Anderson ordained in The United Methodist Church in 1939.) During doctoral work at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut (Ph.D., Old Testament studies, 1945), he was pastor to Congregational churches in Wauregan and Central Village, Connecticut, also. The rest of his career was academic.
Anderson was an active academic for half a century. He was, in order:
Instructor, Department of Philosophy and Religion, Colgate University, Hamilton Township, New York (1946-1948);
James A. Gray Associate Professor of Biblical Literature, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina (1948-1950);
Joseph B. Hoyt Professor of Old Testament Interpretation, Colgate Rochester Divinity School, Rochester, New York (1950-1954);
Henry Anson, Professor of Biblical Theology, Drew University, Madison, New Jersey (1954-1968);
Dean of the Theological School, Drew University (1954-1963), as the youngest Dean of that theological school;
Annual Professor, American Professor, American School of Oriental Research, Jerusalem, Israel (1963-1964);
Professor of Old Testament Theology, Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey (1969-1983); and
Adjunct Professor of Old Testament Theology, Boston University School of Theology, Boston, Massachusetts (1984-1996).
Anderson also received honorary degrees, served as the President of the Society of Biblical Literature in 1980, and, after retiring from Princeton in 1983, led the American Theological Society in 1985.
Our saint also had an interest in Biblical archeology. In 1956 he and G. Ernest Wright (1909-1974) started the Drew-McCormick Archaeological Expedition, to excavate the ancient city of Shechem.
Anderson, who was a humble man, contributed greatly to Biblical scholarship. He, for example, wrote the introduction to and exegesis of the Book of Esther for Volume III (1954) of The Interpreter’s Bible. (Episcopal Bishop Arthur Carl Lichtenberger wrote the exposition on the Book of Esther.) Furthermore, Understanding the Old Testament (First Edition, 1957; Second Edition, 1966; Third Edition, 1975; Fourth Edition, 1986; Fifth Edition, 2006) became a standard textbook.
By the late 1980s the marriage to Joyce (still alive when our saint died) had ended, and he had married Monique Martin. In 1989 the Andersons settled in the Santa Cruz, California, area, where they worshiped at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Capitola (now the Episcopal Church of St. John the Baptist, Aptos). Our saint, aged 91 years, died in Santa Cruz on December 26, 2007.
His written legacy remains, fortunately.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
AUGUST 29, 2018 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF THE BEHEADING OF SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST
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O God, you have endowed us with memory, reason, and skill.
We thank you for the faithful legacy of [Bernhard W. Anderson and all others]
who have dedicated their lives to you and to the intellectual pursuits.
May we, like them, respect your gift of intelligence fully and to your glory.
In the Name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Deuteronomy 6:4-9
Psalm 103
Philippians 4:8-9
Mark 12:28-34
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
MARCH 6, 2013 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT CHRODEGANG OF METZ, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP
THE FEAST OF EDMUND KING, ANGLICAN BISHOP OF LINCOLN
Recently I have been thinking about some places in which I grew up and in which I am glad to have ceased to live. One such place is Vidette, Georgia, where my family and I lived from June 1980 to June 1982. Berlin, Georgia, where my parents and I lived from June 1986 to June 1989, is another.
Above: Colquitt County in Context, 1951
Scanned from Hammond’s Complete World Atlas (1951)
Berlin (with the stress on the first syllable) is a small town in southern Colquitt County, near the boundary with Brooks County. I recall it as being a reactionary town of about 400 people.
In the late 1980s Berlin was an openly racist town stuck in a time warp in terms of mindsets. My father’s letter to the Moultrie Observer, the local newspaper, in support of the then-new Martin Luther King, Jr., federal holiday contributed to our move in 1989. Old white men and young white people used racial slurs openly, even in the presence of African Americans. Berlin Baptist Church, with its openly racist, Communist-baiting pastor, was the major cultural institution in town. (The minister was convinced that liberal columnist Mary McGrory (1918-2004), who had been close politically to President John Fitzgerald Kennedy and earned a spot on President Richard Nixon’s infamous enemies list, was a Communist, card-carrying or otherwise.) And, when cable television came to town, opposition to it was vigorous, to the point of one man pointing a loaded gun at the workers laying cable when they came to his property. The stated reason for opposition was some of the programming on the premium channels, but opposition weakened considerably when news that a country music channel was part of the basic package spread.
Above: The Parsonage, next to Berlin United Methodist Church, 1986-1987
Photographer = Kenneth Randolph Taylor
My father was the pastor of the Berlin-Wesley Chapel Charge.
Above: The Cornerstone of Berlin United Methodist Church
Photographer = Kenneth Randolph Taylor
Berlin United Methodist Church, rebuilt in 1953, was next door to the rundown parsonage, renovated after we moved out. The Berlin congregation was nearly functionally dead. It had an adult Sunday School class, but little else. The congregation had once been so active that it had sponsored a Boy Scouts troop, but those days were long past by 1986. One Sunday School room was vacant, as if waiting for a class that never gathered there. The other had become a storage room for boxes my family and I had no room for in the parsonage.
Above: Wesley Chapel United Methodist Church, Berlin, Georgia, April 21, 1988
Photographer = Kenneth Randolph Taylor
I belonged to Wesley Chapel United Methodist Church, located a few miles outside of town. My Sunday School class was there.
The two congregations functioned as one in most ways. On the first and third Sundays one church hosted the morning and evening services; the other one did the same on the second and fourth Sundays. The congregations also alternated hosting duties on fifth Sundays. I have never seen that nice arrangement anywhere else.
Berlin United Methodist Church is no more; only Wesley Chapel remains. The building of the former Berlin Church now hosts a Hispanic ministry within the denomination.
I was 13-16 years old at the time, so 1986-1989 were years replete with adolescent awkwardness. Nevertheless, the schools in Moultrie were very good, and leaving for the inferior high school in Berrien County was a difficult transition for me.
I wonder if the town has become sufficiently progressive to move into the twentieth century in terms of its collective mindset. I doubt it.
These memories remind me to thank God that I live in Athens-Clarke County. I am a person born to live in a college or university town, where I am less likely to feel like an outcast and am more likely to find people with whom to conduct an intelligent conversation. In a college or university town I have more opportunities to grow intellectually and spiritually, given my temperament.
I know some of what I have, and thank God for it in the present tense, not in hindsight, with regret for having lost it. I also thank God, with the benefit of hindsight, for a positive development at Berlin-Wesley Chapel.
There I began to choose how to participate in church activities; I began to say “no.” For years parishioners at various congregations had been drafting me into church pageants and other activities. At Wesley Chapel I had no choice but to accept a role in a terrible Christmas play. The parishioner who had written the play seemed to like exposition and clunky dialogue. Maybe she imagined herself to be a good playwright. By the time of the creation of the youth choir, with its woeful musical selections, I had decided to refuse. This created a diplomatic incident for my father, but, to his credit, he did not force me to participate in it.
Now I carry a strong aversion to people volunteering me for tasks. Asking me if I will participate is not too difficult, is it?
I am active in my parish, St. Gregory the Great Episcopal Church, Athens, Georgia. All the roles I fill are ones I want to perform, and enjoy doing. One function (teacher of the lectionary class) is something I sought. The others are roles I accepted when someone asked me. Almost all of my functions (lectionary class teacher, lector scheduler, parish librarian, movie series coordinator) at St. Gregory the Great are those I could not taken on in the Berlin area, if I were to live there today, given the different ecclesiastical cultures. Certainly I would not feel free, as I do in Athens, to speak my mind freely in Sunday School, lest I face an accusation of heresy, as I would in the Berlin area.
In 2018 I am where I belong. Thank God for that.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
AUGUST 28, 2018 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF AMBROSE OF MILAN, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP; SAINT MONICA OF HIPPO, MOTHER IF SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO; AND SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF HIPPO REGIUS
THE FEAST OF DENIS WORTMAN, U.S. DUTCH REFORMED MINISTER AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF LAURA S. COPERHAVER, U.S. LUTHERAN HYMN WRITER AND MISSIONARY LEADER
THE FEAST OF SAINT MOSES THE BLACK, ROMAN CATHOLIC MONK, ABBOT, AND MARTYR
BLESSED FRANCISCO DE PAULA VICTOR (APRIL 12, 1827-SEPTEMBER 23, 1905)
Brazilian Roman Catholic Priest
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Do not be mastered by evil, but master evil with good.
–Romans 12:21, The New Jerusalem Bible (1985)
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Blessed Francisco de Paula Victor, born a slave in Campanha, Minas Gerais, Brazil, on April 12, 1827, obeyed that verse and those few immediately preceding it. He, trained as a tailor, discerned a priestly vocation at a young age. Blessed Francisco’s racial background (African) and social status (slave) meant that he needed special permission to matriculate at a seminary. He received that permission, and therefore began his studies for the priesthood in 1849. The seminary was replete with racism, however; many seminarians ostracized our saint because of his background and skin color. Blessed Francisco, ordained priest on June 14, 1851, endured open hostility at his first parish, in which he served for about a year. He spent decades in the second parish, however.
In Três Pontas, Minas Gerais, Blessed Francisco overcame hatred (a form of evil) with goodness, humility, love, and patience. He won over many initially hostile parishioners and became beloved. Our saint helped to found the College of the Holy Family, open to all children, regardless of social or racial background. Blessed Francisco also built the Church of Our Lady of Hope, now a basilica, in Aparecida, in 1888. Once, when there was the possibility of the bishop transferring our saint away from Três Pontas, protests ensued. Blessed Francisco remained until he died on September 23, 1905, following a stroke. He was 78 years old.
The Church has recognized our saint formally. Pope Benedict XVI declared him a Venerable in 2012. Pope Francis made our saint the first beatified Black Brazilian in 2015.
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God of mercy and justice, we thank you for the holy example of your servant, Blessed Francisco de Paula Victor,
who, with goodness, love, humility, and patience fulfilled his vocation
and ministered effectively to people from various racial and socio-economic backgrounds.
May we, following his example, respect the image of God in people, in their great variety,
both near and far away, and master evil with good.
In the Name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Genesis 41:37-43
Psalm 11
Romans 12:14-21
Luke 6:27-38
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
AUGUST 27, 2018 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF THOMAS GALLAUDET AND HENRY WINTER SYLE, EPISCOPAL PRIESTS AND EDUCATORS OF THE DEAF
THE FEAST OF SAINT AMADEUS OF CLERMONT, FRENCH ROMAN CATHOLIC MONK; AND HIS SON, SAINT AMADEUS OF LAUSANNE, FRENCH-SWISS ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT AND BISHOP
THE FEAST OF SAINT DOMINIC BARBERI, ROMAN CATHOLIC APOSTLE TO ENGLAND
THE FEAST OF HENRIETTE LUISE VAN HAYN, GERMAN MORAVIAN HYMN WRITER
ELIZABETH KENNY (SEPTEMBER 20, 1880-NOVEMBER 30, 1952)
Australian Nurse and Medical Pioneer
Elizabeth Kenny, known globally as Sister Kenny, was a nurse who improved the lives of countless numbers of people. She did this by (1) being correct, and (2) persevering in the face of strong official opposition.
Kenny, born in Warialda, New South Wales, on September 20, 1880, was a daughter of Irish-born farmer Michael Kenny and Mary Moore, a native of Australia. Our saint, with little formal education beyond primary school, became a home-care nurse in 1910. She rode on horseback in the area of Nobby, Darling Downs, Queensland, providing free health care. She opened a hospital in Clifton prior to World War I. Her career of helping people had just begun.
Kenny, a Methodist, needed to help people medically. From 1915 to 1919 she served in the Australian Army Nursing Service, working aboard vessels bringing wounded military personnel home. Her rank was Sister. Back home in Nobby, Kenny became the first President of the Nobby chapter of the Country Women’s Association. In 1927 she patented the “Sylvia” ambulance stretcher, designed to reduce the shock of patients during transportation. Five years later, at Townsville, Kenny founded a clinic for polio and cerebral palsy patients. That was when she began to run afoul of the Australian medical establishment.
At the time the standard medical treatment entailed immobilizing the affected limbs. Kenny, however, offered different treatment; she used hot baths, discarded braces, and encouraged active movement in limbs. She opened a second clinic–in Brisbane–in 1934, then continued to open more clinics across Australia and overseas–as in Surrey, England, in the late 1930s, and in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1942. Her therapeutic methods initially alarmed the medical establishment and, for a time, the government of Queensland. Yet Kenny’s methods worked. She trained medical professionals around the world, and they trained others, et cetera.
Kenny received many honors. There were, of course, honorary degrees. She was the subject of a movie, Sister Kenny (1946), starring Rosalind Russell. According to a Gallup poll in 1951, our saint was the woman Americans admired the most.
Some have criticized Kenny for not taking criticism well. In other words, she did not suffer fools easily. Why should she have done so?
Kenny, who suffered from Parkinson’s Disease during her final years, died in Toowoomba, Queensland, on November 30, 1952, after a stroke. She was 72 years old.
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God of compassion, we thank you for your light visible in your servant, Sister Elizabeth Kenny,
who triumphed over strong opposition,
revolutionized therapy for those afflicted with polio,
and improved the lives of many.
Lead us by your love to recognize how to help others most effectively, and to act accordingly.
In the Name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 38:1-14
Psalm 26
Acts 3:1-10
Mark 5:24b-34 or Luke 8:42-48
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
AUGUST 26, 2018 COMMON ERA
PROPER 16: THE FOURTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST, YEAR B
THE FEAST OF FREDERICK WILLIAM HERZBERGER, U.S. LUTHERAN MINISTER, HUMANITARIAN, AND HYMN TRANSLATOR
THE FEAST OF SAINT LEVKADIA HARASYMIV, UKRAINIAN GREEK CATHOLIC NUN, AND MARTYR, 1952
THE FEAST OF SAINTS LUIGI BELTRAME QUATTROCCHI AND MARIA CORSINI BELTRAME QUATTROCCHI, ITALIAN ROMAN CATHOLIC HUMANITARIANS
THE FEAST OF SAINT TERESA OF JESUS, JORNEY Y IBARS, CATALAN ROMAN CATHOLIC NUN AND CONFOUNDRESS OF THE LITTLE SISTERS OF THE ABANDONED ELDERLY
CHARLES HAROLD DODD (APRIL 7, 1884-SEPTEMBER 21, 1973)
Welsh Congregationalist Minister, Theologian, and Biblical Scholar
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But the Gospels do not offer us in the first place tales to point a moral. They interpret life to us, by initiating s into a situation in which, as Christians believe, the eternal was uniquely manifested in time, a situation which is both historical and contemporary in the deepest possible sense.
–C. H. Dodd, The Parables of the Kingdom, 2d. ed. (1961), x
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The Epistle to the Romans is the first great work of Christian theology. From the time of Augustine it had immense influence on the thought of the West, not only in theology, but also in philosophy and even in politics, all through the Middle Ages. At the Reformation its teaching provided the chief intellectual expression for the new spirit in religion. For us men of Western Christendom there is probably no other single writing so deeply embedded in our heritage and thought.
–C. H. Dodd, in the beginning to the Introduction to The Epistle of Paul to the Romans (1932)
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C. H. Dodd, a proponent of Realized Eschatology, comes to this, my Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days, via the Biblical Studies section of my library.
Charles Harold Dodd, born in Wrexham, Denbighshire, North Wales, on April 7, 1884, was a great and influential scholar. He studied at University College, Oxford, from 1902 to 1906, graduating with his B. A. degree and first class honors. In 1907-1911 our saint engaged in research about the Roman Empire and the Early Church at the University of Berlin then at Magdalen College, Oxford. While at Magdalen College Dodd also engaged in theological studies at Mansfield College, Oxford. Our saint, ordained a minister in the former Congregational Union in England and Wales (which merged into The United Reformed Church in 1972) in 1912, served as pastor of just one church, at Warwick, from 1912 to 1915.
Dodd had an impressive academic career. He was the Yates Lecturer (later Professor) of New Testament Greek and Exegesis, Mansfield College, Oxford, from 1915 to 1930. Next Dodd was the Rylands Professor of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis, the University of Manchester, for five years. Then, from 1935 to 1949, when he retired, our saint was the Norris-Hulse Professor of Divinity, Cambridge. He was the first non-Anglican to hold the theological chair at Cambridge University. In addition, he was a lecturer at various elite seminaries and universities in the United States and the United Kingdom from 1927 until late in his life, with some gaps. Dodd also became a Fellow of the British Academy in 1946. In 1949-1950 he was the Visiting Professor in Biblical Theology, Union Theological Seminary, New York, New York.
Dodd remained active in retirement. In 1950 he returned to the British Isles and became the Vice-Chairman and Director of The New English Bible (New Testament, 1961; complete Bible, 1970). In the Preface to the finished translation, Donald Ebor, Chairman of the Joint Committee, wrote:
As Vice-Chairman and Director, Dr. C. H. Dodd has from start to finish given outstanding leadership and guidance to the project, bringing to the work scholarship, sensitivity, and an ever watchful eye.
–vii
Dodd, author of about 70 reviews, lectures, essays, and articles, as well as more than more than 20 books, was, depending on more than one’s perspective, too liberal, too conservative, or about right. He was undoubtedly influential.
Perhaps Realized Eschatology was the major theme in Dodd’s ouevre. As he wrote in The Founder of Christianity (1970):
God the eternal, the omnipotent, can hardly be said to be nearer or farther off at this time than at that. If he is king at all, he is king always and everywhere. In what sense his kingdom does not come; it is. But human experience takes place within a framework of time and space. It has varying degrees of intensity. There are particular moments in the lives of men and in the history of mankind when what is permanently true (if largely unrecognized) becomes manifestly and effectively true. Such a moment is reflected in the gospels. The presence of God with man, a truth for all times and places, became an effective truth.
–56-57
Dodd, while recognizing the achievements of German Liberal theology and its students in filling in the details of the Hellenistic background of early Christianity, criticized them for their flight from dogma. They were mistaken, he argued, in their assumption that they could discover the Historical Jesus via secular historical methods. Furthermore, Rudolf Bultmann was mistaken when he rejected the possibility of any reliable historical understanding of Jesus, Dodd wrote. Furthermore, according to Dodd, Karl Barth was mistaken when he wrote in his commentary (1918) on the Epistle to the Romans that the Historical Jesus was irrelevant to the Christ of faith. Dodd, writing in The Meaning of Paul for Today (1920), argued that the Historical Jesus was germane to and essential for the Christ of faith. Our saint’s attitude toward the Bible was evident in The Founder of Christianity (1970), in which most of the source citations were simply scriptural citations.
…Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, though the forbearance of God,….
–Romans 3:25, Authorized Version
…whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins;….
–Romans 3:25, Revised Standard Version
For God designed him to be the means of expiating sin by his sacrificial death, effective through faith. God meant by this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had overlooked the sins of the past….
–Romans 3:25, The New English Bible and The Revised English Bible
…whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith. He did this to show his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed;….
–Romans 3:25, The New Revised Standard Version
Dodd rejected Penal Substitutionary Atonement, one of three theories of the atonement dating to the Patristic Era. In The Epistle of Paul to the Romans (1932) Dodd, referring to the Greek word hilasterion in Romans 3:25, rejected the traditional “propitiation” in favor of “expiation.”
“Expiation” indicates the cancellation of a debt. So does “propitiation,” but the suffix “pro-” indicates Penal Substitutionary Atonement. In Dodd’s words:
In accordance with biblical usage, therefore, the substantive (hilasterion) would mean, not propitiation, but ‘a means by which guilt is annulled’; if a man is the agent, the meaning would be ‘a means of expiation’; if God, ‘a means by which sin is forgiven.’ Biblical usage is determinative for Paul. The rendering propitiation is therefore misleading, for it suggests the placating of an angry God, and although this would be in accord with pagan usage, it is foreign to biblical usage. In the present passage it is God who puts forward the means whereby the guilt of sin is removed, by sending Christ. The sending of Christ, therefore, is the divine method of forgiveness.
—The Epistle of Paul to the Romans (1932); reprint, 1959; 78-79
I could not have said it better. I have been making a similar, albeit less scholarly, case based on what I have called the “gangster God” of Penal Substitutionary Atonement, since a time before I read Dodd’s case. I grew up learning Penal Substitutionary Atonement yet have come to prefer the Classic Theory of the Atonement, or Christus Victor, among the three theories of the atonement dating to the Patristic Era.
Dodd’s description of the God of Penal Substitutionary Atonement is that such a deity is, in Dodd’s words, one who requires placation. That is not the God of my faith. That is not a God worthy of love, adoration, and loyalty. No, that is a God in the presence of whom one should stand in stark terror. That is a God with much in common with the frequently dangerous ancient Mesopotamian deities. One of the main ideas in the rewritten creation mythology in Genesis 1:1-2:4a is that YHWH is different from those gods.
Many still hold Dodd’s rejection of Penal Substitutionary Atonement against him, of course.
Dodd died in Goring-on-Thames, England, on September 21, 1973. He was 89 years old.
I am a Biblical and theological nerd. I belong to a reading group that gathers monthly to discuss works in the fields of the Historical Jesus and the early Church. As I ponder Dodd’s theology, I recognize his influences in the works of subsequent, major scholars, whom I have read. I can also name certain contemporary scholars with whom Dodd would argue respectfully.
Dodd was correct more often than he was incorrect.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
AUGUST 26, 2018 COMMON ERA
PROPER 16: THE FOURTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST, YEAR B
THE FEAST OF FREDERICK WILLIAM HERZBERGER, U.S. LUTHERAN MINISTER, HUMANITARIAN, AND HYMN TRANSLATOR
THE FEAST OF SAINT LEVKADIA HARASYMIV, UKRAINIAN GREEK CATHOLIC NUN, AND MARTYR, 1952
THE FEAST OF SAINTS LUIGI BELTRAME QUATTROCCHI AND MARIA CORSINI BELTRAME QUATTROCCHI, ITALIAN ROMAN CATHOLIC HUMANITARIANS
THE FEAST OF SAINT TERESA OF JESUS, JORNEY Y IBARS, CATALAN ROMAN CATHOLIC NUN AND CONFOUNDRESS OF THE LITTLE SISTERS OF THE ABANDONED ELDERLY
Episcopal Bishop of Ohio, and of Illinois; and Presiding Bishop
September 22 is the Feast of Philander Chase in The Episcopal Church.
Chase, in the same league as Jackson Kemper (1789-1870), was one of the great Western missionary bishops in The Episcopal Church.
Chase was a native of New England. He, born in Cornish, New Hampshire, on December 14, 1775, grew up a Congregationalist. In 1791 he matriculated at Dartmouth College. There he encountered The Book of Common Prayer (1789). Chase read, marked, learned, and inwardly digested the Prayer Book, converted, and became a lay reader. After graduating from Dartmouth College in 1795, our saint married Mary the following year. In 1796-1798 Chase, a father as of 1797, read theology under the direction of Thomas Ellison, the Rector of St. Peter’s Church, Albany, New York.
Chase, ordained by Samuel Provoost, the Bishop of New York, in 1798, was an active missionary from the beginning. In a year and a half he, assigned to be a missionary in central New York state, traveled more than 4000 miles, preached 213 times, and planted congregations. Later Chase simultaneously served in two churches in Poughkeepsie and Fishkill while teaching school, to make ends meet. In 1805 our saint moved his family to New Orleans, where he founded Christ Church (now Christ Church Cathedral), New Orleans, the first Episcopal congregation in Louisiana. The Chases left New Orleans in 1811 due to Mary’s tuberculosis. Our saint served as the Rector of Christ Church, Hartford, Connecticut, from 1811 to 1817.
Missionary work in Ohio summoned, however. In 1817 Chase moved to Ohio, where he bought a farm at Worthingham. He ministered to people in the immediate area and became the principal of the local academy. Then Chase sent for his family. Mary, sadly, died of natural causes in 1817. The following year Chase helped to organize the Diocese of Ohio, the first Episcopal diocese west of the Appalachian Mountains. He, elected Bishop of Ohio later that year, assumed the office in 1819. Also in 1819, our saint remarried; the second wife was Sophia Ingraham, of Poughkeepsie, New York. Chase was, for several years, the guardian of his adolescent nephew, Salmon P. Chase, 1808-1873), who went on to become a prominent abolitionist, the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury (1861-1864), and the Chief Justice of the United States (1864-1873). The future politician recalled his several years with his uncle negatively, for the bishop was allegedly too strict.
Chase, who became the President of Cincinnati College (now the University of Cincinnati) in 1821, recognized the need for a seminary in Ohio, to build up The Episcopal Church there. He found deep pockets in England. Kenyon College, which opened at Chase’s farm in 1825, moved to Gambier, Ohio, in 1828, and completed its first building the following year. The name of the college came from Lord George Kenyon, the Second Baron of Gredington, a generous donor. The name of the town came from James Gambier, the First Baron Gambier, and Admiral of the Fleet, another donor. The name of the seminary, Bexley Hall, came from Nicholas Vansittart, the first Baron Bexley, yet another donor.
Chase made enemies, though. He, as the President of Kenyon College, was, according to more than one person, too strict and controlling. The revolt at the diocesan convention in 1831 prompted our saint to resign as both the President of Kenyon College and the Bishop of Ohio.
Chase moved to Michigan, where he purchased a farm. He enjoyed farm life. Our saint had grown up on a farm, so he knew that setting well. In Michigan he ministered to local people, operated a successful lumber mill, and had about 100 cattle. For about four years Chase enjoyed this stage of life, until he received an invitation from Illinois.
In 1835 the newly formed Diocese of Illinois had 39 communicants. It could not afford to pay its first bishop, Chase, a salary at first. Our saint accepted the challenge, raised funds, and increased the numerical strength of the diocese. In 1845 the Diocese of Illinois had more than 500 communicants in 28 parishes. He also founded Jubilee College, Peoria, extant from 1840 to 1862, and raised funds for it. Chase, as the Bishop of Illinois, also traveled on church work outside the state. In 1840 he assisted Levi S. Ives, the Bishop of North Carolina, in dedicating the new building of Christ Church, Savannah, Georgia. (There was no Bishop of Georgia until the following year.)
From 1843 to 1852 Chase doubled as the Presiding Bishop of the denomination. At the time the basis of the office of Presiding Bishop was seniority.
Chase became involved in ecclesiastical controversies. He, a member of the Evangelical wing of the Church, considered the Tractarian movement to be morally and existentially dangerous. Our saint overstated the case greatly in that matter; he was wrong, actually. On the other hand, Chase understated the evils of slavery. Although he opposed slavery and made no excuses for it, our saint challenged abolitionists and was overly diplomatic vis-á-vis the Peculiar Institution of the South in public. That was a moral failing.
Chase died in Peoria, Illinois, on September 20, 1852. He was 76 years old.
Chase belongs on my Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days, along with those Tractarians and Roman Catholics he opposed.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
AUGUST 26, 2018 COMMON ERA
PROPER 16: THE FOURTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST, YEAR B
THE FEAST OF FREDERICK WILLIAM HERZBERGER, U.S. LUTHERAN MINISTER, HUMANITARIAN, AND HYMN TRANSLATOR
THE FEAST OF SAINT LEVKADIA HARASYMIV, UKRAINIAN GREEK CATHOLIC NUN, AND MARTYR, 1952
THE FEAST OF SAINTS LUIGI BELTRAME QUATTROCCHI AND MARIA CORSINI BELTRAME QUATTROCCHI, ITALIAN ROMAN CATHOLIC HUMANITARIANS
THE FEAST OF SAINT TERESA OF JESUS, JORNEY Y IBARS, CATALAN ROMAN CATHOLIC NUN AND CONFOUNDRESS OF THE LITTLE SISTERS OF THE ABANDONED ELDERLY
John McCain, who died today, was a patriot and a statesman. As much as I disagreed with him on most policy points, I recognized the integrity of the man. He was, regardless of what shameless idiot and loudmouth Donald Trump said, a war hero; being a prisoner of war did not make him something other than a hero. Trump’s claim from the campaign for the presidential nomination insulted all prisoners of war.
Rest in peace, Senator McCain. You have laid down your burdens and ended this stage of your pilgrimage. You have done more for this country than most of us ever will.
JOHN COLERDIGE PATTESON (APRIL 1, 1827-SEPTEMBER 20, 1871)
Anglican Bishop of Melanesia, and Martyr, 1871
worked with
JOSEPH ATKIN (DIED SEPTEMBER 27, 1871)
Anglican Priest, and Martyr, 1871
worked with
STEPHEN TARONIARA (CIRCA 1845-SEPTEMBER 20, 1871)
Anglican Missionary and Martyr, 1871
John Coleridge Patteson, born into a wealthy family in London on April 1, 1827, could have led a comfortable life. He, educated at Eton and at Oxford University, mastered the Hebrew and Arabic languages. Our saint, ordained to the Anglican diaconate in 1853 and priesthood the following year,chose to become a missionary to Melanesia.
George Augustus Selwyn (1809-1878) was the Anglican Bishop of New Zealand (1841-1858) then Primate of New Zealand (1858-1868). He was one of the great missionary bishops in the Anglican Communion. Patteson arrived in New Zealand and began to work under Selwyn’s jurisdiction in 1855. Two years later he became the leader of the Melanesian Mission. Then, on February 24, 1861, Selwyn consecrated Patteson the first Bishop of Melanesia.
Selwyn had created a particular missionary system, which Patteson inherited. Young men and women from Pacific islands studied at St. John’s School, the Melanesian Mission’s institution in Auckland, New Zealand, for the summer then returned home. The hope was that they would provide Christian influence in their communities. Experience proved that it was an ineffective strategy. As Patteson insisted, missionary work in indigenous languages was necessary.
Above: Map Showing the Solomon Islands
Stephen Taroniara, born circa 1845, was a native of Makira/San Cristobal, in the Solomon Islands. In the middle 1850s Selwyn had taken him to St. John’s School, Auckland, numerous summers, encountering Patteson. Back home on Makira/San Cristobal, Taroniara had married one Sumarua, with whom he had a child, Paraiteku. When our saint retured to Auckland in 1864, he had to do so without his family, for his wife’s relatives refused to permit her to travel to Auckland.
Above: Map Showing Norfolk Island
Meanwhile, Patterson was establishing new schools, to share the Gospel with Melanesians. One of these institutions was on Norfolk Island, starting in 1867. He sought to educate Melanesian men as priests, with the ultimate goal of having Melanesian bishops. Taroniara, baptized on July 19, 1868, and confirmed on Easter Day 1869, became the first native of the Solomon Islands to receive the Anglican Eucharist. He, having lost both his child and first wife, due to his in-laws giving his first wife in marriage to another man, had relocated to Norfolk Island with his second wife, Tori (from Sa’a) and her daughter, Rosa. At Norfolk Island Taroniara studied for the priesthood, and was due for ordination in late 1871.
Missionaries have frequently defended indigenous people from those with powerful economic incentives to exploit their fellow human beings. In the middle 1700s, for example, Jesuits in South America risked their lives to protect Indians from slavers. Many Jesuits died while doing so. In Melanesia, in the middle and late 1800s, many missionaries put their lives at risk to protect natives from entrepreneurs in Fiji and Australia seeking indentured servants to exploit. Some of these unscrupulous businessmen used the names of missionaries to lure victims.
On August 25, 1871, Patterson, Taroniara, and a priest, Joseph Atkin, left for a missionary tour. Atkin, from New Zealand, had been a member of the Melanesian Mission since 1863 and both a priest and a missionary to Makira/San Cristobal since 1869. The traveling companions were visiting the island of Nakapu (in the Santa Cruz group in the Solomon Islands, when natives attacked them, apparently in retribution for actions of those seeking indentured servants. Patteson and Taroniara died on September 20, 1871; Atkin died a week later.
The deaths of these missionaries led to constructive actions. The British Government cracked down on the indentured servant trade. Also, support for missionary work increased in England.
Also, the Melanesian Mission renamed its headquarters after Taroniara.
The province, with indigenous leaders, spans Vanuatu (the former New Hebrides), the Solomon Islands, and New Caledonia. The denomination as nine dioceses.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
AUGUST 21, 2018 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT BRUNO ZEMBOL, POLISH ROMAN CATHOLIC FRIAR AND MARTYR, 1942
THE FEAST OF SAINTS CAMERIUS, CISELLUS, AND LUXORIUS OF SARDINIA, MARTYRS, 303
THE FEAST OF THE MARTYRS OF EDESSA, CIRCA 304
THE FEAST OF SAINT MAXIMILIAN OF ANTIOCH, CIRCA 353; AND SAINTS BONOSUS AND MAXIMIANUS THE SOLDIER, MARTYRS, 362
BLESSED MARIE THERESE OF SAINT JOSEPH (JUNE 19, 1855-SEPTEMBER 20, 1938)
Foundress of the Congregation of the Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus
Born Anna Maria Tauscher van den Bosch
Alternative feast day = October 30
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To be able to dry tears, to heal the wounds of souls from the heights of Heaven, this is my ardent wish.
–Blessed Marie Therese of Saint Joseph
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Anna Maria Tauscher van den Bosch, born in Sandow, East Prussia (now Poland), on June 19, 1855, dedicated her life to serving God, present in vulnerable and marginalized people. Her mother was Pauline van den Bosch. Our saint’s father was the Reverend Hermann Traugott Tauscher, a Lutheran superintendent. (In some branches of Lutheranism, the office of superintendent replaced that of bishop.) From 1885 to 1888 Anna Maria worked at a home for the mentally disabled in Cologne. She was, however, in the process of converting to Roman Catholicism, so she lost her job. Our saint, officially a Roman Catholic as of October 30, 1888, founded a home for neglected children in Berlin. From that institution arose the Congregation of the Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus the same year.
In 1893 Anna Maria made her vows as a nun, becoming Sister Marie Therese of Saint Joseph. She spent the rest of her life founding charitable institutions for the aged, the young, the poor, the abandoned, and immigrants. Our saint also functioned as a spiritual advisor, often via correspondence.
Blessed Marie Therese died in Sittard, Limburg, The Netherlands, on September 20, 1938. She was 83 years old.
Pope John Paul II declared our saint a Venerable in 2002. Pope Benedict XVI beatified her six years later.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
AUGUST 21, 2018 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT BRUNO ZEMBOL, POLISH ROMAN CATHOLIC FRIAR AND MARTYR, 1942
THE FEAST OF SAINTS CAMERIUS, CISELLUS, AND LUXORIUS OF SARDINIA, MARTYRS, 303
THE FEAST OF THE MARTYRS OF EDESSA, CIRCA 304
THE FEAST OF SAINT MAXIMILIAN OF ANTIOCH, CIRCA 353; AND SAINTS BONOSUS AND MAXIMIANUS THE SOLDIER, MARTYRS, 362
SUNDRY THOUGHTS 
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