The Eagle and Child, Oxford - Reminiscences

I recently read Diana Pavlac Glyer’s The Company They Keep:C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien as Writers in a Community, a wonderful book about the creative synergy and social dynamics of the famous literary group, the Inklings. The book brought back fond memories of my trip to Oxford many years ago. Being a particular fan of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkein, I had to make my way to the Eagle and Child. This famous public house is located at 49 St. Giles, a quaint tree lined street on the northern outskirts of downtown Oxford.

It was with much anticipation that I made my journey to the pub in 2006. Upon arriving at the site, I was initially disappointed with the restaurant’s plain, unadorned façade and its slender entrance. However, once I entered through the pub’s door, like Lucy entering into the wardrobe, I was transported to a magical place. As I ate my Shepherd’s Pudding and drank my “Snake Bite” beer I could not help but imagine C. S. Lewis with his twill sports coat making his way across its creaky floor, a cozy fire cracking on a rainy winter day, and the Inkling’s discussing theology amid the tan walls and dark wood paneling. Like their tobacco smoke, the spirit of Inklings still lingers at the Eagle and Child.

My stay in Oxford strengthened my belief that Christians need more places like the Eagle and Child—to meet, to eat, to think, to be creative. We cannot escape the fact that we are always people in a place. Alain de Botton is surely correct when he says, “it is architecture’s task to render vivid to us who we might ideally be.” Great architecture inspires great thoughts; and great thoughts always precede great action. So Christians, why not create more spaces to imagine, to study, to pray, to think God’s thoughts? In the age of skyscrapers and superdomes—our modern temples to money and sports—it is comforting to know there are still magical places, like the Eagle and Child, where one can do theology!

...But Joy Comes in the Morning!

Weeping Lasts for a Night...

"The Cross cannot and should not be loved!"

Creating A.D. and B.C.

From 500 to 535, a monk from modern day Southwest Russia, Dionysius “Exiguus” (470-544) worked in Rome. Dionysius had a talent for collecting Church data and drawing up information tables. It was during his time in Rome that he went to work calculating the timetables and making calendars for future Easter holidays. Instead of continuing in the Roman tradition of assigning calendar dates based on the emperor, in this case Diocletian, Dionysius made Christ’s Incarnation the basis of his new paschal calendar. According to Dionysius the center point of history would be Christ’s birth not Diocletian’s reign. Hereafter, events preceding Jesus’ birth would be B.C. and the epoch after his birth would be called A.D. The abbreviation does not mean “after death,” as commonly assumed. A.D. is the abbreviation for Anno Domini, i.e., “Year of the Lord”. More specially the Year of the Lord’s birth. Interestingly, the year 0 was not assigned to this new calendar and the year jumped from 247 to 532. In approximately A.D. 525, Dionysius sumitted his work to the leaders of the Church.

A Eulogy in Memory of Lincoln D. Hurst

Below is a revised version of the eulogy I gave at Lincoln Hurst's memorial service on January 17, 2009, at Fremont Presbyterian Church, Sacramento.

Good afternoon, my name is Jim Shields. I am a former pupil, research assistant, and friend to Lincoln D. Hurst. From 1993 to 1995, I attended UC Davis as an undergraduate student. I minored in Religious Studies, but "majored in Hurst.” I found his classes fascinating and took as many of them as I possibly could. This past summer I worked with Lincoln in producing his Wikipedia article. I want to thank Dr. David Nystrom and the Hurst family for granting me the honor of sharing Lincoln’s major accomplishments with you today and allowing me to reflect upon what his friendship meant to my family and me.

Lincoln Douglas Hurst was born in Chicago on May 6, 1946, to Lincoln and Allaire Hurst. Lincoln was raised and spent his teenage years in Arlington Heights, Illinois. It was here that he developed his life-long interests in film, history, Christianity, and the Chicago Cubs. (In fact, Lincoln was such a dedicated Cub’s fan that this past season, as the team neared the playoffs, he could be seen at Costco with his laptop on his cart, watching the game while he did his shopping!)

In 1969, after graduating with a degree in History from what is now Trinity International University, Lincoln attended the distinguished institutions of Princeton Theological Seminary and Mansfield College, Oxford. There he worked alongside New Testament luminaries, Bruce M. Metzger and George B. Caird, among others. This experience honed his skills, strengthened his mind, and equipped him for his future career as a New Testament scholar and professor of Religious Studies. His time at Oxford with Caird especially shaped his theological views and provided the intellectual stimulus for his later writings. All of Lincoln’s major works were significantly influenced by Caird. It was George Caird who suggested and supervised Lincoln’s thesis on the historical and philosophical background of the Letter to the Hebrews. This thesis was the basis of Lincoln’s book, The Epistle to the Hebrews: Its Background of Thought, published in 1990.[1]

Having received his PhD from the University of Oxford in 1982, Lincoln began searching for employment. His family had moved to San Diego, and his love for them and for the beach naturally drew him to the “Golden State.” During this same year, Lincoln applied for a teaching position at the University of California. In his letter of recommendation, George Caird described the young Lincoln Hurst:

“He has all the qualities of a good teacher, and should well be able to convey to his pupils his own enthusiasm for his subject. He has a relaxed and friendly demeanour, wide interests, and a lively sense of humour...”[2]

Lincoln was selected for employment in January 1983, and began dividing his teaching responsibilities at New College Berkeley and UC Davis. Based in part on positive student responses, Lincoln was offered a fulltime teaching position at UC Davis. He would hold this post for 26 years.

Lincoln Hurst had a rare gift for teaching. His New Testament courses at UC Davis were very popular and his lectures were always well-attended. Students were inspired by his brilliant mind, amazed by his exceptional memory, and amused by his sense of humor. Freshmen were often surprised by the rigorousness of his courses, thinking erroneously that a New Testament class would be a “breeze” compared with Engineering and Biochemistry. It did not take long, however, before Lincoln blew this assumption to pieces. Throughout the quarter, Lincoln expected his students to learn important Greek words: hupodeigma, paradoken, and tetelesthai. In addition, students needed to know complex theological concepts such as the Kingdom of God, the difference between expiation and propitiation, eschatology, and principalities and powers. Everything was fair game come examination time; Lincoln expected his students to memorize everything!

The years from 1987 through 1998 proved to be a fertile period of writing for Lincoln. He co-edited The Glory of Christ in the New Testament[3] with N.T. Wright, in memory of the late George Caird, and wrote articles on the ethics of Jesus, Qumran, the Christology of Hebrews 1 and 2, and the preexistence of Christ. However, Lincoln’s crowning achievement was his completion of George Caird’s New Testament Theology.[4] In 1984, Caird died suddenly from a heart attack, leaving his major work unfinished. Soon after, Lincoln was appointed literary executer by the Caird family and given the enormous task of completing the manuscript. Within ten years, Lincoln meticulously pieced together Caird’s thoughts and wrote over fifty-percent of the book in his characteristically lucid style. The finished work was a masterpiece.

Reflecting on Lincoln’s achievement, Dr. Margaret Laing, Caird’s daughter, recently wrote on behalf of the Caird family:

“We owe him a huge debt for the careful, dedicated, scholarly and loving way in which he finished our father's and grandfather’s last book. It is heart-warming to us that, amongst all the other things he undertook and did so well, Skip [Lincoln] continued to promote and build on Father's scholarship.”[5]

New Testament Theology received rave reviews and Lincoln was most pleased by the admiration of his closest colleagues. C.F.D. Moule called the book “a miracle.”[6] Bruce Metzger wrote that it was “fresh and illuminating…a weighty volume…made available and supplemented by one of [Caird’s] more accomplished students.”[7] In a personal letter, Henry Chadwick praised Lincoln’s work, “You have carried it out in masterly fashion, and it is no small volume on which you have lavished your erudition and affection.”[8] Lincoln was also deeply moved by a letter he received from a San Quentin inmate who wrote to say that the book had transformed his life.

In 1995, Lincoln began teaching courses at Fuller Theological Seminary in Sacramento. His classes on the New Testament, Hebrews, Pauline Theology, and Christian Ethics were just as academic as they were at UC Davis, but Fuller’s setting allowed him to be more pastoral. Through Lincoln’s teaching, the simple truths of the word of God came alive in deep and powerful ways. Some of the most memorable were: “Christ lives to intercede for us” (Heb. 7:25); “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand” (Jn. 10:28-29); and, “We do not grieve like those without hope” (1 Thess. 4:13).

After a quarter century of teaching, Lincoln retired from UC Davis in 2006. This new phase of life allowed him to spend more time on his “avocation” (as he liked to call it), film history. Lincoln loved classical cinema and greatly admired movie star, Errol Flynn. In 2005, Lincoln provided commentary as a film historian to The Signature Errol Flynn Collection.[9]

Although it played a large role in his life, academics was only one part of who Lincoln was. His capacity for friendship and generosity added a distinct dimension to his life that many never got to see up close. My family and I were incredibly fortunate to experience Lincoln’s friendship, in addition to his teaching.

Above all else, Lincoln Hurst was a wonderful friend. In addition to theology, he and I shared many interests: classical music, Sherlock Holmes movies, Wimbledon tennis, Oxford’s history, all things British. We could talk for hours about his mentor, George Caird, and his experiences at his beloved Mansfield College. His tales were always engrossing and humorous.

Lincoln also had a special way of broadening my cultural horizon. For example, upon discussing our forthcoming trip to Oxford, England, in 2006, Lincoln suggested we visit "The Cloisters" at New College. We did, and it was sublime, just like Lincoln said it would be. (In fact, the site is so "magical" that it was used as a backdrop in one of the Harry Potter movies.)

Over the past seven years Lincoln visited our home for dinner on many occasions. My wife, Jennifer, especially appreciated his compliments at meal time. He once declared, “This meal is an incantation to the sin of gluttony!” She too, reveled in his sense of humor.

My newly adopted daughter from China, Joanna, was in awe of Lincoln, but never afraid of him, despite his commanding presence. She instinctively knew that he was a gentle spirit. Joanna could bring a smile to his face by simply greeting him by name whenever he came to our home. And Lincoln, always the educator, taught her how to say “See you later alligator, after a while crocodile.” (These poignant words brought tears to my eyes when my daughter spoke them upon hearing Lincoln's name shortly after his death.)

In the end, I am not sure whether Lincoln knew the full measure of joy and comfort his friendship, wisdom, and prayers brought to my family. We will treasure our moments with him for the rest of our lives.

Committed to preserving the memories of George Caird and Errol Flynn, Lincoln spent the final weeks of his life writing about the historic achievements of both men. He was writing a biography about Flynn and had made significant contributions to Caird’s Wikipedia article just days before his passing.

On November 9, Lincoln went to the hospital suffering from chest pains. Two days later, he died from a sudden heart attack. He was age 62. Lincoln is survived by nephews Tym Hurst, Jonathan Hurst, his niece Jami Dikeman and her husband Darren.

Of the many consolations of my faith - a faith that Lincoln taught me so much about - is that one day I will see him again when our Lord “leads many sons [and daughters] to glory.” As we move “further up and further in,” I look forward to conversing with him about the newly revealed truths to all of the theological questions we did not understand during our lifetimes.

In closing, I would like to dedicate a poem to Lincoln. It is by 17th century British poet, Richard Crashaw.

“Let [him] sleep: let [him] sleep on,
Till this stormy night be gone,
Till the eternal morrow dawn.
Then the curtain will be drawn
And [he] will awake into light
Whose day shall never die in night.”[10]


__________________________________________________________
[1] L.D. Hurst, The Epistle to the Hebrews: Its Background of Thought. SNTS Monograph Series No. 65. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990).
[2] G.B. Caird, Letter of remcomendation, 20 Sept. 1982.
[3] L.D. Hurst and N.T. Wright, eds., The Glory of Christ in the New Testament: Studies in Christology in Memory of George Bradford Caird. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1987).
[4] G.B. Caird, New Testament Theology, Completed and Edited by L. D. Hurst (Oxford: Clarendon, 1994).
[5] Margaret Laing, Personal e-mail, 14 Jan. 2009.
[6] C.F.D. Moule, review of G. B. Caird and L. D. Hurst, New Testament Theology, in Journal of Theological Studies 46 (1995), 245-250.
[7] Bruce M. Metzger, review of G. B. Caird and L. D. Hurst, New Testament Theology, in Princeton Seminary Bulletin 16, vol. 3 (1995), 366-368.
[8] Henry Chadwick to L.D. Hurst, 24 Dec. 1994.
[9] The Errol Flynn Signature Collection, vol. 1, dir. B. Reeves Eason and Chuck Jones, perf. Errol Flynn, DVD, Warner Home Video, 2005.
[10] An adaptation of Richard Crashaw, “An Epitaph Upon Husband and Wife, Which Died, and Were Buried Together,” A Treasury of Great Poems: English and American, ed. Louis Untermeyer (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1942), 469.

In Memoriam: L.D. Hurst, Friend

Above all else, Lincoln was a good friend. We shared many interests: Sherlock Holmes movies, Wimbledon tennis, Oxford—all things British. We could talk for hours about his mentor, G.B. Caird, and his experiences at Mansfield College. He told me many stories, many more than once. When this happened, I never interrupted him, always hoping that he might share new information— details, jokes, and insights—the second or third time around. His tales were always engrossing and humorous.

Lincoln had special way of broadening my cultural horizon. Before our trip to England, we discussed our plans with Lincoln who suggested we visit “The Cloisters” at New College, Oxford. We did, and it was sublime; just like Lincoln said it would be. (In fact, the site is so magical it was used in a Harry Potter movie.)

Dismayed by my ignorance of classical movies, Lincoln took it upon himself to educate me in the finer points of this genre. Once when I suggested that he bring over an after dinner movie, to my surprise he brought over the entire Errol Flynn “Signature Collection” (six DVDs total). Upon the last bite of dinner, Lincoln leapt from his seat, excitedly shoed me into our family room, and gently forced me to watch Sea Hawk. After the movie was over, we watched his commentary on the film (included in the Special Features). Upon leaving that night, he gave me the set. A truly remarkable man!

Like many, I was drawn to Lincoln’s brilliant mind and eagerly sought his approval concerning my academic endeavors. I was deeply touched and honored when last spring he attended my lecture: Our God is Marching On: The Theology of Martin Luther King, Jr. For a brief moment I was the ‘teacher’ and he the ‘student’. In a mischievous way, Lincoln took great joy in the reversal of roles (I gave him a lot of grief as a student!).

My wife and two-year old daughter also adored Lincoln. Jen always appreciated his compliments at meal time. “ “. And she too, reveled in his sense of humor and friendship. My daughter was in awe of Lincoln, but never afraid of him. She naturally knew that he was a gentle spirit. Always the educator, Lincoln taught her how to say “see you later alligator, in a while crocodile.” She, on the other hand, could bring a smile to his face by simply remembering his name when he came to the house. One of Lincoln’s emails that I cherish most is where he promises to pray for my daughter’s heart surgery. In the end, I am not sure Lincoln ever knew how much joy and comfort, I and my family received from his friendship, wisdom, and prayers.

Over the years our relationship change and grew. We became better, stronger friends. He always treated me as an equal and I saw him as a grandfatherly figure. We worked together on Caird-related projects, talked politics, shared personal stories, and “lamented” about our loosing sports teams. I’m a big Sharks fan, he a big Cubs fan. At his passing, the thing I regretted most was missing a SF Giant’s baseball game he had invited me to. Not realizing how much longer he had to live, I passed on the game (I had just returned to work after summer vacation). I never knew that two months later he would be gone.

In sum, Lincoln Hurst was the most brilliant man I have ever met and the best professor I ever had. His impact on my life incalculable; his death crushing. I will never be the same. “The pillar perished is whereto I leant.” – Sir Thomas Wyatt

One consolation of my faith (a faith that Lincoln taught me so much about) is that I will one day see him again, when our Lord “leads men sons to glory”. As me move “further up, further in”, I look forward to conversing with him about the newly revealed answers to all of the theological questions we did not understand during our lifetimes.

“See you later alligator, in a while crocodile.”

“We do not grieve like those without hope.”

In Memoriam: L.D. Hurst, NT Scholar

Lincoln Hurst was first and foremost a world-class scholar. After graduating with a degree in History from Trinity International College, Hurst attended the rarified institutions of Princeton Theological Seminary and Mansfield College, Oxford. There he worked along side New Testament titans, Bruce Metzger and G.B. Caird. This experience honed his skills and prepared him for his future career as a New Testament scholar and associate professor of Religious Studies at the University of California, Davis. His time at Oxford with Caird especially shaped his theological views and provided the intellectual stimulus for his later writings. All of Hurst’s major works: Glory of Christ in the New Testament, The Epistle to the Hebrews: Its Background of Thought, and New Testament Theology were significantly influenced by Caird. It was George Caird who suggested and supervised Lincoln’s PhD thesis on the historical and philosophical background to the Letter to the Hebrews. In 1990, this thesis became the basis Hurst’s first solo book, The Epistle to the Hebrews: Its Background of Thought.

Deeply indebted, and hoping to surprise his friend and mentor, Hurst (with coeditor N.T. Wright) compiled a series of essays celebrating Caird’s birthday. Lincoln worked hard to keep the book a secret, even when George unexpectedly appeared while Hurst was sharing the project’s details to Caird’s wife, Molly. There is no evidence to prove that Caird ever found out about the book.

After Caird’s sudden and untimely death, it was Lincoln who picked up the banner and carried on Caird’s unpublished work, New Testament Theology finishing approximately sixty-percent of the book.

Hurst was dedicated to preserving Caird’s memory; during the final months of his life (even up to the day he died), Hurst spent hours contributing to Caird’s Wikipedia entry.

Hurst’s most enduring work (although not fully recognized and appreciated) will be his articles on Hebrews and Philippians. In agreement with the Chalcedon Creed, Hurst believed that Jesus was both fully human and fully divine. Yet he came to this Christological conclusion by non-conventional means, causing rigorous debate along the way.

In his article, Christ, Adam, and Preexistence Revisited, goes against mainstream (often considered liberal) scholarship arguing that Jesus was in the form of God prior to his earthly life. Hurst also draws his reader’s attention that this ‘high Christology’ was written early in the Church’s history. A fact that many liberal scholars and revisionist historians fail to recognize.

On the other hand, Hurst was not afraid to rock the Evangelical/Fundamentalist boat when he disagreed with their positions. This is seen particularly in his interpretation and analysis of chapters 1 and 2 of Hebrews. Here Hurst argues that these chapters are primarily concerned with the human Jesus not the divine Jesus.

How can we explain this seeming contradiction? Was Hurst a conservative or a liberal scholar? The answer is neither. Hurst’s theological views were too well-reasoned and nuanced to fit easily into simple categories. Hurst prided himself on being a maverick. And mavericks by nature are not constrained by others opinions or superficial categories. He was a free spirit, dedicated to following truth wherever it might lead him rather than being bludgeoned down the path of conformity by the weapons of academic acceptance or Church dogma.

In the end, Hurst exemplified what a true Biblical scholar should be. He believed in ‘pure’ exegesis, the New Testament scholar should highly himself or herself to the task of determining the original meaning of the original author of the New Testament document.

Hurst also had a rare gift for teaching. His New Testament courses at UC Davis were very popular and his classes were always packed.

It is a sad irony that many years later Hurst too, would die from a sudden heart attack, leaving much of his scholarly work left unfinished.

SCRIBA DOCTUS IN REGNO COELORUM