News from the Program of Liberal Studies
Professor Michael Crowe publishes new book on the Extraterrestrial Life Debate
Michael Crowe, Cavanaugh Professor Emeritus in the Program of Liberal Studies, has a new book appearing in August, 2008 from University of Notre Dame Press. Entitled The Extraterrestrial Life Debate, Antiquity to 1915: A Source Book, it provides about fifty selections, with commentary, from such classic authors as Aristotle, Lucretius, Aquinas, Cusa, Bruno, Kepler, Pascal, Fontenelle, Huygens, Newton, Kant, the Herschels, Paine, Whewell, Darwin, Dostoevski, Twain, Wallace, and Lowell. For more details, see http://undpress.nd.edu/book/P01253. Recently, Astronomy Magazine interviewed Crowe about the new book. A podcast of the 13 minute interview is available at http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=a&id=7213
http://newsinfo.nd.edu/content.cfm?topicid=20963
Milton scholar provides new view of poet’s life in new book
http://newsinfo.nd.edu/content.cfm?topicid=20963
Father Ayo writes book on ancient Christian prayer
Michael O. Garvey, University of Notre Dame News and Information Services
“Gloria Patri: The History and Theology of the Lesser Doxology,” by Rev. Nicholas Ayo, C.S.C., professor emeritus in the Program of Liberal Studies at the University of Notre Dame, was recently published by the University of Notre Dame Press.
The “lesser doxology” which Father Ayo examines is an ancient, and, as he puts it, “pivotal” prayer which Christians have said for two millennia, often referring to it as the “Gloria Patri,” the first two words of its Latin version: “Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.”
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“Nicholas Ayo's latest book on prayer reflects both his command of the literature and his profound personal commitment to the patrimony of Catholic spirituality,” said Lawrence S. Cunningham, John A. O'Brien Professor of Theology at Notre Dame. “This work is an exemplary successor to his earlier works on the Lord's Prayer, the Hail Mary,and the Apostle's Creed. ‘Gloria Patri’ is a work not just to be read but to be savored.”
For further information about Rev. Ayo's new book, see: http://newsinfo.nd.edu/content.cfm?topicid=24167>http://newsinfo.nd.edu/content.cfm?topicid=24167
Two graduating seniors profiled in the Spirit of Notre Dame Newsletter
Two of our graduating seniors, Patrick Corrigan and Theresa Coughlin, are profiled in the inaugural edition of the Spirit of Notre Dame newsletter. This newsletter was mailed this month to 141,000 alumni, parents, and friends of the University. The profile on Patrick focuses on his work as a student leader advocating for human rights. The profile on Theresa, as well as detailing her accomplishments, mentions that she was enrolled in the Glynn Family Honors Program as well as PLS. Patrick and Theresa are the only 2007 graduates to be featured in this issue of the newsletter -- which of course says something about PLS!
The Oldest Anglo-Norman Prose Brut Chronicle, Edited and Translated by Julia Marvin
First composed in Anglo-Norman French around the end of the thirteenth century, the anonymous prose Brut chronicle became the most popular secular vernacular work, and the most widespread Arthurian work, of the later middle ages in England: repeatedly expanded, revised, and translated, it remained influential for centuries. Yet it has been little studied, in part because of the lack of any full modern edition. This edition of the Oldest Version of the prose Brut, running from the fall of Troy to the death of Henry III in 1272, provides the Anglo-Norman text with facing-page translation and textual apparatus, a comprehensive introduction, and extensive explanatory notes. It makes new contributions, on, for example, the identification and classification of the manuscripts, the identification and analysis of the sources [far more varied and numerous than had been previously recognised], and the probable circumstances of the chronicle's composition. It will enable scholars to make full use of this remarkable resource for the study of Arthurian tradition, contemporary visions of British history, popular thought about society and government in late-medieval England, and the history of reading itself.
Weinfield's verse-translation of Hesiod's Theogony and Works and Days published by University of Michigan Press
Professor Henry Weinfield's new verse-translation of Hesiod's Theogony and Works and Days, done in collaboration with Professor Catherine Schegel of the ND Classics Department, has just been published by the University of Michigan Press. Weinfield and Schlegel read from and discussed their translation on Monday, November 6, at an evening sponsored by Classics and the Program of Liberal Studies.
Ayo Traces History of St. Nicholas in New Book
Rev. Nicholas Ayo, C.S.C., Professor Emeritus of the Program of Liberal Studies, has recently completed a new study of a familiar Christmas figure: Saint Nicholas in America: Christmas Holy Day and Holiday (Corby Books, 2006).
Father Ayo's book makes use of ancient and medieval sources as well as more modern and widely familiar poems, sketches and stories to bring Saint Nicholas into sharper focus while avoiding the quarrel of secular and religious holiday makers. "Christ in Christmas," says Father Ayo, "is rooted in every child's memories of an astonishing intervention of love in their life, found, of all places, in their stockings."
High praise for the book came in an early review by Rev. Edward A. Malloy, C.S.C., president emeritus of Notre Dame, who recommended its "marvelous blend of scholarship and effective narration," adding that Father Ayo "has traced the stories connected to good Saint Nicholas (generous spirit and miracle worker) with the development in the cultural context of secular America of the Christmas season tradition of jolliness and gift-giving for which Santa Claus is the most popular carrying image."
PLS Junior Named McNair Scholar
Incoming junior Arlene Ortiz-Leytte was awarded the research scholars award by the McNair Scholars Program that was held here at Notre Dame this past summer for her work on her project, "This Elegant Hope": Paradigms of Language and Man in Dialectic Between Plato and Borges. She completed this under the direction of Professor Sloan. She was noted in her award presentation as one of the youngest in the group of McNair scholars and an inspiration to many of the others in the Program.