The T & T Clark Blog

Author Interview - The Daily Discoveries of a Bible Scholar and Manuscript Hunter: A Biography of James Rendel Harris (1852–1941)

Dr. Alessandro Falcetta has been most kind in giving us some insight into his research and exploration of the life of James Rendel Harris, published in The Daily Discoveries of a Bible Scholar and Manuscript Hunter: A Biography of James Rendel Harris (1852–1941)

1. How would you describe your book in one sentence?

This book is the first full biography ever written of one of the major New Testament and patristic scholars Britain has produced in the Victorian period, a collector of ancient manuscripts, a man who in his time played an important part in the history of the Society of Friends and of the Christian church at large, and who, among his many travels, risked his life in Eastern Turkey to bring relief to the Armenians during the Abdul Hamit massacres.

2. What drew to you writing a biography of James Rendel Harris?

This piece of research was an unexpected gift. Many years ago, as I walked under the porticos of Bologna towards the office of prof. Pier Cesare Bori, I had a secret hope, that he might ask me to write my final BA dissertation in Britain, a country where I had previously had a great time. However, the only project I could think of was a biography of an Italian priest and church historian, Ernesto Buonaiuti, which meant travelling to Rome at most. Bori dismissed my proposal at once and instead he asked me if I was willing to write a biography of one James Rendel Harris; a very interesting scholar, yes, but also one whose papers, he warned me, were kept in Britain. I could not quite believe my luck and accepted the offer. Then, curiously enough, years later I found among the papers of Rendel Harris unpublished letters from Buonaiuti. Even more curious is the fact that some time ago, when I moved for personal reasons to Stavanger in Norway, I discovered there a thriving little Quaker community, whose leader was closely connected to Rendel Harris’ college. Both his grandfather and his father had in fact seen Rendel Harris and the latter had even sent home a report on one of his lectures. As if the surprises were not enough, I also found out that the wife of another character of my book, Alphonse Mingana, was buried in a local cemetery. Like me, Mingana had married a woman from Stavanger.    

3. How long have you been researching your book?

I began researching the book in 1994 and finished writing it in 2017. Obviously, I have not been working on it all these years, but there is no doubt that it was a very time-consuming project. I lived in Britain for a while and travelled a deal, both in Britain, in Pennsylvania, and in the Middle East, looking for sources and visiting some of the places Rendel Harris went to. I also met many interesting people, from a grand-nephew who drove Rendel Harris in a car to see antiquities in Devon to an Armenian historian whose grand-mother had survived the genocide.

4. What does this biography focus on that hasn’t been explored elsewhere?

Scholars are aware that Rendel Harris was a very peculiar man full of discoveries and adventures. However, not so much about him was known. One could find some information in the beautiful biography of two friends of his, Agnes S. Lewis and Margaret D. Gibson, written by Janet Soskice some years ago, in reference works, and in a slim biography privately published by his secretary. Now, this new book contains plenty of new material about the life of Rendel Harris, some of which is sourced from private archives. It also throws new light on other people as well; in particular his wife, Helen Balkwill Harris, a Quaker missionary, relief worker and writer who deserves a biography of her own, and Alphonse Mingana, whose collection of oriental Christian and Muslim manuscripts is one of the largest in the western world.

5. Which aspects of this book do you find more interesting?

Rendel Harris had an amazing life. He wrote countless books and articles on early Christianity, discovered and collected Syriac, Greek, and Armenian manuscripts, travelled repeatedly to the Middle East and together with his wife rescued thousands of Armenians from death and destitution. His life reads more like a novel than history. Moreover, since he was a man of many contacts and multifarious activities, his papers make a significant contribution to our knowledge of the scholarly and religious life of Britain in the Victorian era.

The Daily Discoveries of a Bible Scholar and Manuscript Hunter is available in hardback and epub formats from today!

Author Interview - Autumn Alcott Ridenour on 'Sabbath Rest as Vocation: Aging Towards Death

Assistant Professor Autumn Alcott Ridenour explains a new perspective on the latter years of human life, thoroughly explored in Sabbath Rest as Vocation: Aging Towards Death. 

How would you describe your book in one sentence?

This book hopes to capture the positive possibilities for aging as one aimed at Sabbath Rest through participation in Christ and virtue, while also wrestling with its challenges.

 

What drew to you writing about this subject?

While working at Yale University’s Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics, I encountered a lively and engaging group of retired professors and New Haven community members wrestling with the aging experience. I also began reading about challenges to aging at that time – whether from transhumanists or the medical community. It caused me to wonder if there were any “good” in aging worth preserving and what our religious commitments might have to offer. I turned to Christian theology and ethics to discover more about the subject.

 

How long have you been researching it? How did you come to study it?

I brought my questions about aging with me to graduate studies. So, technically, I’ve been thinking about the meaning of aging for a decade. While some of my early graduate papers engaged the topic, my perspective hopefully matured through concentrated time researching St. Augustine and Karl Barth as well as greater life experience through teaching and community life that involves relationships with both young and old.

 

What does your book focus on that hasn’t been explored elsewhere?

This books offers an Augustinian and Barthian account of aging and death in ways that have not been explored before through its focus on Sabbath rest as vocation and virtue in terms of union with Christ. Gleaning insights from these two iconic authors from differing millennia helped me to see the importance of acknowledging honest lament and compassion when facing aging’s challenges while setting forth a positive vision of aging as participation and virtue among intergenerational communities.

 

What do you hoped readers and scholars will gain from reading this book?

My hope is that by recognizing our identity as limited, beautiful creatures who age and die, we might grow in virtue across generations and more adequately approach the goals of medicine and bioethics.

 

Sabbath Rest as Vocation is due for release in hardback and ebook format on 14th June 2018 - pre-order now!

Editor Interview - T&T Clark Companion to the Bible and Film

Dr. Richard Walsh discusses the inspiration and aims of his new edited volume, T&T Clark Companion to the Bible and Film.

How would you describe your book in one sentence?

The T & T Clark Companion to the Bible and Film is a collection of essays from leading scholars in the field of Bible and film that introduces interested readers to scholars’ incredibly diverse approaches to and appraisals of Bible and film.

 

What drew to you writing about this subject?

For most of my career, I have had rather broad interests in biblical interpretation. I am interested not just in different methods and approaches but also in the modern perspective(s) from which scholars interpret biblical texts and the (mythic or political) identity work in which scholars engage as they interpret. Modern perspectives are, of course, also evident in modern artefacts (see, e.g., R. Barthes Mythologies) and may be most readily visible in mass media products like film. Bible and film, then, is a place where scholarly identity work is often readily evident. I am not particularly interested in whether a film “gets” a biblical text “right” or, at least, not as interested as I am in how a biblical text looks when it is compared with a film and, even more, in why scholars find it interesting to compare particular films and texts.

 

How long have you been researching it? How did you come to study it?

I have been working in the area for well over twenty years. After graduate school, I became interested in interpretations, other than those offered by historical critics, and then in how NT scholars used “myth” in their interpretations of the NT and early Christianity. I started thinking about myth (modern perspectives and identities) and film when I saw an episode of a TV show called Northern Exposure, in which a shaman was perplexed when he could not ferret out the powerful stories or myths of the non-native characters in the program. He eventually learned that films served this mythic role for the characters. At about the same time, a SBL group chair asked me to review two new books on Jesus films. In the process, I discovered that such analyses did not give much attention to the role of the interpreter (and thus modern perspectives, worldviews, myths). Consequently, I started working more seriously on film, modern perspectives, and biblical interpretation. One of the earliest forays was Screening Scripture, a volume of essays, edited with George Aichele.

 

What does your book focus on that hasn’t been explored elsewhere?

While many good books on Bible and film are available, most of those books take a particular approach to Bible and film (e.g., theological, historical) and many focus rather narrowly on the question of film’s fidelity to the Bible. By contrast, the essays in the T & T Clark Companion to the Bible and Film illustrate diverse approaches, different driving questions, and even different conceptions of both film and Bible.

 

Do you have any favourite Biblical based films?

My favorite biblical films are those that seem slightly askew when compared with biblical texts (e.g., The Apostle; Life of Brian; Jesus of Montreal; Son of Man; A Serious Man; Hail, Caesar!). Such difference allows more room for comparison (or so Jonathan Z. Smith would say) and often vividly exposes cinematic and scholarly acts of interpretation. Films that have less obvious or immediate connections to biblical texts (e.g., Being There; The Wrestler; The Hateful Eight) are even more intriguing to me in this regard.

 

T&T Clark Companion to the Bible and Film is due for release in hardback and ebook format on 28th June 2018 - pre-order now!