UPDATE: Gedenkschrift in Honor of Ron
This is an update to the Gedenkschrift of Ronald H. Miller. Click here to read the original post containing the details and guidelines.
The original plan was to publish the Gedenkschrift in celebration of Ron’s 75th birthday, which falls on 17 April 2013. Although we realize that many of us had good intention to contribute a piece to this influential publication, we also realize that people are busy and time moves quickly. To date, we have not received enough essays to constitute publication of the Gedenkschrift for Ron’s 75th birthday. It is still our hope, however, that we can assemble enough scholarly material to publish this book in honor of Ron’s 76th birthday.
By definition, and as Ron stated, this Gedenkschrift is not a memorial to him, but rather a way for him to honor his students. And for all of us, it will be an intensely interesting continuation of Ron’s teachings from the minds of those that he inspired. To those of you who would like to be part of this publication, please review the original post and submit your essay as soon as you can in the coming few months. The remainder of the time is needed to publish.
One more piece of information that I had been withholding as a surprise is that one of the essays in the published Gedenkschrift will be written by Ron himself. At the time of his passing, Ron had just begun a new book on the Letter of James. He never completed the book, but he did complete an inspiring 52-page introduction for his forthcoming title. So this Gedenkschrift will contain the final words written by Ron as well.
We look forward to hearing from each of you and all information, including the submission method, is on the original post.
Jim Miller
Jim,
I knew Ron when we were Jesuit scholastics together at St. Louis University in the early 1960′s. Our paths crossed again when I taught at Lake Forest College in the 1970′s. I always had great respect for Ron personally and for his work.
When the announcement first came out of this project, I thought of inquiring about a possible contribution from previous scholarship of mine. Years ago, I did a fairly long study of Augustine’s theology of peace in Book XIX of the De Civitate Dei. It was for a “doctoraal” degree in theology in Amsterdam, under direction of a superb patristics scholar, Piet Smulders. I made one attempt at publication in Etudes Augustiniennes; it was not accepted. I went on to do a Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of Chicago, and never went back to it.
Basically, the study puts in context Augustine’s just war theory, showing that it fits within a theology of peace that was articulated in the mature thought of his older years.
I have no idea if this would fit into the book honoring Ron. If you are interested, let me know and we can talk about it.
Tom Fuechtmann
Thank you for the update. I’m looking forward to reading the Gedenkschrift, including Ron’s intro to his book on the Letter of James, as well as Tom’s piece on Augustine’s theology of peace, of which I’m sure Ron would approve, as would we all.