Dancing Feet

It starts with the feet.
I've never a noticed dancer's feet before. I was always comfortably fenced off a few yards from them, in a theater seat or bleachers- just close enough to admire the way their bodies swam through the air but never close enough to see their feet.
We were all sitting on the floor in a huddle at the start of my first Jazz Dance class. The instructor was taking role, and the gymasium was quietly humming with the nervous chatter of girls in their tights, and sweat pants.
A few of us sat with our feet hidden beneath our normally-proportioned thighs, others let them lay limp in front, using their wrists to support their back; our limp ankles leaving our bare feet to flicker with whatever tune passed through our head.
Other girls though, had brought real dance shoes with them. I had never seen dancing shoes up close. They are not beautiful. They hug the toe like latex, add unnatural padding to the bottoms of your feet and add at least and inch to the height of your arch. Your philanges, nails and veins turn into one smooth glob, like an animals's foot.
I looked at my feet. Speckled with the scars of this summer's moiskitos, faintly red around the ankle where I shaved to hard, I want to console them, and apoligize for not taking care of them more. My left big toenail- white fat and stubbly from an infection I got in 5th grade at Disney World- is particurly sullen. My teacher sits up straight and talking, with her legs twisted around her like thick dozing snakes. Her feet are pointed, sharp, hungry. She fingers them like a hunter fingers his gun, an artist his brush, a lion trainer his cats. She and her legs; the two are unconnected.
Then comes the lesson; "On your feet, everybody."
Pirouette, plie, pas jete, glisse, ligne, the vocabulary doesn't come as fast as the steps, as the basics. Spin to other side of the room, don't loose sight of the wall, go faster, else the others will run into you, now leap, but skip, do a split midair, don't bend your knees, faster now, faster.
Any Questions?
It's just me and the fat girl in the back of the class.
After school they come plying with their pity. Sweet swans in their simpering leotards.
The front girl, the one whose many runs in her "tard" number the amount of hours, weeks and years spent propelling her to the front, comes to "teach" you. "You'll get it eventually. I've been doing it since I was eight, but I'm out of shape now since I havn't danced since Nationals, Have you ever danced before?"
And I, trying not to hate her, change the topic.
School. "I'm double majoring in Psych and History, and Minoring in Language. Took so many AP courses I was only 4 credits away from a History major anyway.
Ok, lets try hobbies..
Hobbies? Not much. I'm the sorta girl who does her homework and the splits at the same time,.."
and we're back to dance again...
"You should really wear something better than jeans next time, I'll lend you some of my old dancing shoes."
Her long gold hair waives goodbye to me at the door of my domatory, and I know that I will hate her less after the extra practise lessons with my instructor. I look down.
My feet don't appear any better, red on the side of my big toe where I was spinning, and pumped full with lactic acid that extends to my hips. But wait,- look again.
Yes, they don't look much different, except that, they've already become a "them," a tool, a paint brush, that, however clumsily, will take me anywhere.

Clement of Rome

The long tittle of this letter is: The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians.
For some reason I associate rather boring old men with name of "Clement" but I was a bit interested when I read the bio.
This is the oldest Christian document, apart from the Bible itself. It takes the form of a sermon, and most Bible scholars seem pretty confident of its authority as well.
It's author is Clement, who is mentioned as the fourth in the most reliable lists of the Bishops of Rome. (Some scholars have identified him with the Clement mentioned in Phillippians, but of that we're not sure, Clement was a common name.)
The date for this epistle is somewhere around AD 96.
The letter starts off with an apology for not writing sooner (Emperor Dominican was busy killing them) and states that the letter is written in reference to "the odious and unholy breach of unity amoung you which is quite incompatible with God's chosen people." I really didn't know what exactly it meant by that until the very end of the letter. Apparently it was a well known issue at least. The way Clement speaks, reminds me of Dumbldore. He's very polite and tactful in his criticism. Like a old well liked and talented teacher he never gets you frustrated or angry, but elicits a sort of almost accidental shame in you. Clement started off talking about how good a reputation the Corinthians used to have, and how wonderful all of that was. It kind of reminded me how, when you need to tell someone something unpleasent, you always compliment them first; an ancient Roman equivilent of "I love your shoes!"
Clement then gently slips into the gritty stuff with a few lengthly quotes from the Old Testament (there are like 60million OldT quotes in this letter, it felt that way at least) all to get to the point of how Jealously ruins everything. Then Clement talks about the example the Apostles set them, of Peter and Paul's martyrdom because of the Jew's jealousy.
Then just as people realize, "Oh snap! He's shaking his finger at us!" he starts talking very nonchalantly about forgiveness.
"Let us be done with these barren and vapid fancies, and turn instead to the honorable, holy Rule of our tradition, so that we can find out was is good and pleasing and acceptable in the sight of Him who made us."
- this quote is important because it is a reminder that the early church did not get the majority of its authority from written scripture- there simply was not enough access to it in a world where everything was handwritten-- but from tradition. It hadn't been that long since the apostles, and people knew that if the apostles did it, it was probably safe. This is also a phrase that was used a lot in (I think it was exodus or deutoronomy) Old T scriptures where God keeps admonishing the to "pass this tradition along to your children"
Clement keeps on in this vein, of trying to convince the Corinthians to leave their pride, and stubborness for the next 3 pages with long quotes from the Old Testament, and quite a few scriptures that became the New Testament (Paul's letter to the Corinthians, Peter's First Epistle and Hebrews) This guy was clearly well educated. (he's a bit more verbose than Dumbledore, but as I read this I found myself getting warmed up to the idea of a Pope Dumbledore, or a even a Bishop or Priest Dumby- he always seemed to warm to be a teacher to me)
He then goes on to draw examples from contemporary Greek and Roman Philosophers of the day, particurly the Stoics, only he puts their philosophies under a Christian perspective.
- interesting tidbit- he mentions the Pheonix bird, which he says exists in Arabia. This kinda instance reminded of me of Job and his fire-breathing leviathan. This just goes to show you the strength of the gossiping-old-women-newswire of the time.
Clement then goes into talking about how important good works are, how much God requires them of his people. Again I am skipping over lots of long OldT quotes here. He then leads into how important unity is in "Christ's body" Here it is evident that the Church is seen as Christ's physical body on earth.
Clement then mentions the old hierarchy in Judism that God had set up, and how people should respect God's divine institutions.

Then, like a thunder and clash of fallen book shelves, comes this passage;
"Now the Gospel was given to the Apostles for us by the Lord Jesus Christ; and Jesus Christ was sent from God. That is to say, Christ recieved His commission from God, and the Apostles theirs from Christ. The order fo these two events was in accordance with the will of God. So thereafter, went the Apostles had been given their instructions, and all their doubts had been set at rest by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, they set out in the full assurance of the Holy Spirit to proclaim the coming of God's kingdom. And as they went through the territories and townships preaching, they appointed their first converts- after testing them by the Spirit- to be bishops and deacons for the believers of the future. (This was in no way an innovation for bishops and deacons had already been spoken of in Scripture long before that; there is a text that says, "I will confirm their bishops in righteousness, and their deacons in faith") (Issaih 60.17)
He then talks about Moses and how at one time the people grumbled that only the Levites could be priests.
Clement then again says,
"Similarly our Apostles knew, through our Lord Jesus Christ, that there would be dissensions over the tittle of bishop. In their full foreknowledge of this, therefore, they proceeded to appoint the ministers I spoke of, and they went on to add instruction that if these should fall asleep, other accredited persons should suceed them in their office. In this view we cannot think it right for these men now to be ejected from their ministry, when after being commissioned by the Apostles (or by other reputable persons at a later date) with the full consent of the Church, they have since been serving Christ's flock in a humble, peaceable, and disinterested way, earning everybody's approval over so long a period of time... You, however, as we notice in more than one instance have now turned men out of an office in which they were serving honourably and without the least reproach."
Clement admonishes the Corinthians, and calls opposition to God's ministers, impious.
"It is shameful, my dear friends, shameful in the extreme, and quite unworthy of the Christian training you have had, that the loyal and ancient church of Corinth, because of one or two individuals, should now be reputed to be at odds with its clergy."
The rest of the letter goes on in much the same vein.

I cede to the fact that there is no hard evidence for the Pope's position in this epistle but the importance of Apostolic succession is hard to refute. Early church philosophy clearly seems to state that to be without Apostolic authority is to be outside of the Body of Christ, and there-in not united with Jesus, and his body, and all those complex deep analogies that Jesus used to say that you had to be a part of him to be saved, and have life fully.
Well, I hope this was informative and not boring, but if all you walk away with is an image of Pope Dumbledore,well then I won't be satisfied but the person at the back of my head who still plays with Barbie dolls will be.

Old Fogies, Definitions, and Game Plan

Ok, so the next Apostolic Father we're going to tackle is Clement of Rome, but before we get any further we need to cover some basic vocabulary.

Apostolic Father-- Those men who had direct contact with the Apostles and/or Jesus. We're talking about the 1st, 2nd, and a lil of the 3rd generation Christians. Most of these date around the late first, early second century. This is before Constantine, and back in the good ole days with lions and tigers and,.. coloseums.

Church Father-- Those men who had contact with the Apostolic Fathers and on into the fifth century. These are the great theologians and old-time C.S. Lewis's who developed major Christian beliefs and theologies. Commonly called Doctors of the Church by Catholics.

Common List of Apostolic Fathers (the ones I am studying) as taken from http://www.theopedia.com/Apostolic_Fathers

-Clement of Rome, the third successor to Peter as Bishop of Rome, "had seen the blessed Apostles (Peter and Paul) and had been conversant with them" (Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, III, iii, 3).

-Ignatius of Antioch was the second successor of Peter in the See of Antioch (Eusebius, Hist. Eccl., III, 36) and during his life in the center of Christian activity he may have met with others of the Apostolic band. An accepted tradition, substantiated by the similarity of Ignatius's thought with the ideas of the Johannine writings, declares that he was a disciple of the Apostle John.

-Polycarp was "instructed by Apostles" (Irenaeus, op. cit., III, iii, 4) and had been a disciple of John (Eusebius, op. cit., III, 36; V, 20) whose contemporary he was for nearly twenty years. He later trained Irenaeus as a disciple, thus giving Irenaeus' teachings great reliability and authority.

-The Didache, also known as The Teaching of the Lord to the Gentiles by the Twelve Apostles, or The Teaching of the (Twelve) Apostles is basically a handbook or manual of Christian ethical instruction and church order (Holmes, Dictionary of the Later New Testament & Its Developments, p. 301).

-The Epistle of Barnabas is an early second century document concerned with showing that Christians are the true heirs of God's covenant. Its author remains anonymous.

-The Shepherd of Hermas was a popular document in the second and third centuries. It's significance rests in that it sheds light on the Christian situation at Rome in the mid-second century. The author(s) is unknown.

List of Writings: (red are ones I have read, blue are ones I plan on reading)

-The Epistle to Diognetus (this one is hard to date and might also be of a later date)

-The First Epistle of Clement

-The Second Epistle of Clement (not actually written by Clement, but still a very early writing)

-The Didache

-The Epistle of Barnabas

-Seven short Epistles of Ignatius (the longer forms of these Epistles, and those beyond the seven, are widely considered later emendations and forgeries)

-The Epistle of Polycarp -- reading this one right now!!

-The Epistle about Polycarp's Martyrdom

-The Shepard of Hermas

-The fragments from the writings of Papias, which have survived as quotations by later writers

-One short fragment from a writing by Quadratus of Athens