New Year, Old AKMA

@akma

AKMA is a priest, lecturer (New Test., Greek, Early Church, Crit Theory), writer, gamer; Glasgow, Oxford, now parish ministry in Abingdon-on-Thames. Will not try [in vain?] to take away the pain of being a hopeless unbeliever.

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New Year, Old AKMA@akma· 27d

Chris Hubbs has been reading racy literature again…

The cover of Pope Leo’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas (with a portion of The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo), with the protective BlueSky label 'Adult Content'.

New Year, Old AKMA@akma· 28d

Sunny day with blue sky over the River Thames in Abingdon, narrowboats lining the banks, a small motorboat approaching the camera on the left and a row of geese and goslings swimming from the right to left.

New Year, Old AKMA@akma· Jul 11

Saint Benedict of Nursia, holding a book with the title ‘Regula’ (for the Rule of St Benedict) and a crosier, with a crow at his feet.

New Year, Old AKMA@akma· Jul 10

Thank to the Oxford Clarion for spotting my dashing good looks and featuring me in one of their photos. (The other bloke with the even better looks is my colleague John Olson, heading to Melbourne next year…)

Grey-haired, bearded clergyman dressed in all black, wearing a black homburg, valiantly absorbing as much heat as possible so as to cool the environment for his neighbours, next to charming 4yo in a pink floral dress, who is in turn next to a nattily-dressed young theologian in blue blazer and red diagonally-striped tie.

New Year, Old AKMA@akma· Jul 10

ATR has arrived in Oxford just in time for summer reading…

First two-page spread of an article on Anglican biblical interpretation, by the skeet-er.

New Year, Old AKMA@akma· Jul 9

Oh, I don’t know; I visited him earlier this summer.

Grave marker of Eric Arthur Blair, b/k/a George Orwell

New Year, Old AKMA@akma· Jul 1

Baggywrinkle

New Year, Old AKMA@akma· Jun 30

I mean, I suppose it had to happen sooner or later…

The reverse side of a packet of Minstrels, with the banner headline ‘Share & Enjoy!’ — which was an advertising slogan of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation in Douglas Adams’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

New Year, Old AKMA@akma· Jun 26

Surprise!

Online quiz that identifies my politics with those of Zohran Mamdani

New Year, Old AKMA@akma· Jun 18

This absolute unit is friendly, quiet (apart from heavy panting) and very tired.

A hefty three-legged White Shepherd dog with a mitt on its single rear paw.

New Year, Old AKMA@akma· Jun 13

Ummm — not exactly…

The lyrics of ‘God Save the Queen’ — the now outdated anthem of the United Kingdom — credited to the members of the Sex Pistols.

New Year, Old AKMA@akma· Jun 9

This, I recognise…

A list of early modern social identities which [supposedly] match the responses I gave to the online quiz. No argument here.

New Year, Old AKMA@akma· Jun 2

Oooh, I just remembered the exhibition poster that my late sister gave me ages ago. Wish I knew where it went in the course of multiple moves…

Poster for a 1977 exhibition of the works of Saul Steinberg at the Galerie Maeght, depicting a yellow taxicab in Steinberg’s distinctive style, with embossed gold and silver panels over the windscreen.

New Year, Old AKMA@akma· Jun 2

Post a poster you used to have on your wall. I’m not so much a poster guy, but I did bring this back from a trip to Germany back in the 90s…

A poster with colourful signatures of major European artists, headed by the invitation ‘Besuchen Sie uns in Der Neuen Pinakothek’ (‘Visit us in the New Pinacotheca’, one of three major galleries in Munich. It is dedicated to art of the 18th and 19th centuries.

New Year, Old AKMA@akma· May 29

Happy Oak Apple Day for those who celebrate —

A Player’s Cigarettes card depicting Charles II of England.

New Year, Old AKMA@akma· May 23

Better:

Three turkeys standing outside The Friendly Toast, a breakfast cafe in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

New Year, Old AKMA@akma· May 23

Just another morning in Cambridge (Massachusetts):

Two turkeys enjoying breakfast ion the pavement in Cambridge

New Year, Old AKMA@akma· May 20

This afternoon I particularly noticed the ox and ass in the Nativity scene

A Nativity scene from the St Joseph Chapel of the Aylesford Friary of the Carnelite Order

The ox from the Nativity relief, looking intensely amazed by the goings-on

The ass from the Nativity relief, diffident at best about the presence of the Messiah

New Year, Old AKMA@akma· May 19

Done right.

Photo of interior of an elevator with emergency aid cord extending all the way to the floor.

New Year, Old AKMA@akma· May 17

The Little World of Don Camillo and Grogu

New Year, Old AKMA@akma· May 17

New Year, Old AKMA@akma· May 11

Grandparental gift shopping simplified

New Year, Old AKMA@akma· May 11

Why say ‘Chatty Bus’ when you could just as easily write ‘Hell’?

New Year, Old AKMA@akma· May 4

The publicity photo/film crew got me, too:

Old coot wearing a Taylor Allderdice High School Class of 1975 t-shirt being photographed with his race number, in front of the Meadow Building at Christ Church, Oxford.

New Year, Old AKMA@akma· May 4

I can’t explain what’s going on with my neck…

New Year, Old AKMA@akma· May 1

Post your warning sign —

New Year, Old AKMA@akma· May 1

Alasdair Gray's painted slogan 'Work as if you live in the early days of a better nation', from the staircase at the Ubiquitous Chip in Glasgow.

New Year, Old AKMA@akma· Apr 17

Coming to a bookstore, library, friend’s bookshelf, or possibly PDF collection near you…

This mage depicts a typescript page from the forthcoming Routledge Handbook of Interdisciplinary Approaches to Biblical Studies, a chapter entitled ‘What is Interdisciplinarity? An Introduction, Overview, and Justification of the Concept for Biblical Studies’, by A K M Adam. The abstract below it reads, ‘This chapter clarifies the meaning and value of interdisciplinarity by distinguishing it carefully from disciplinarity, multidisciplinarity, and the uncritical expansion of a single discipline’s authority. Drawing on theorists such as Bourdieu, Klein, Geertz, and Culler, the author argues that disciplines confer coherence and legitimacy by organising knowledge through shared conventions, institutions, and standards of evidence. Multidisciplinary work juxtaposes such disciplines without challenging their internal priorities, whereas genuine interdisciplinarity emerges only when multiple disciplinary perspectives interact transformatively, destabilizing inherited assumptions and producing insights unattainable within a single field. The chapter then applies this framework to biblical studies, showing it to be a historically hybrid field shaped by philology, history, theology, and literary criticism. The author contends that biblical studies has no unique disciplinary essence but gains vitality precisely through interdisciplinary risk-taking that unsettles its dominant historical conventions.’

New Year, Old AKMA@akma· Apr 13

Coming soon to a mailbox, pigeonhole, or library near you…

The image displays the title page of journal article entitled ‘A Brief Introduction to Anglican Interpretation of the Bible’ by A. K. M. Adam, with a portion of the abstract that reads ‘From one perspective, there is nothing distinctive about Anglican biblical hermeneutics; Anglicans parse verbs and compare language usage, ascertain context, and discern intention in the same ways as do other readers of the Bible. Another perspective, though, looks for lines of continuity and regulative practices that would insure congruity between the interpreters from the early years of the Church of England to the interpreters in the Anglican Communion today. Of course, the early Anglicans disagreed, but in retrospect coloured by today's bitter controversies, it can seem as though they disagreed agreeably. This introduction argues contrariwise, that the early years of the Church of England experienced divisions and hostilities over biblical interpretation just as fierce as today's.…’

New Year, Old AKMA@akma· Apr 11

We rambled down to Sutton Courtenay to stretch our legs and pay our respects to George Orwell, and there discovered that we ended our search for a new home too early…