66 episodes

Listening to the past can help us to understand our present, but it is so difficult to read ancient works of literature and theology alone. I’m Dr. Grace Hamman, a scholar of medieval literature and mother of three. Old Books With Grace shares my love for old books and listens to the wisdom emanating from these long dead voices. My hope is that Old Books With Grace will empower you to approach often intimidating works of literature and theology and as a result, ask questions of our current age. We live in a time that values the new and the now more than ever. But I truly believe that these books speak outside of the echo-chambers in which we so often find ourselves and help us to find ageless truth from lost centuries.

Old Books with Grace Dr. Grace Hamman

    • Arts
    • 5.0 • 63 Ratings

Listening to the past can help us to understand our present, but it is so difficult to read ancient works of literature and theology alone. I’m Dr. Grace Hamman, a scholar of medieval literature and mother of three. Old Books With Grace shares my love for old books and listens to the wisdom emanating from these long dead voices. My hope is that Old Books With Grace will empower you to approach often intimidating works of literature and theology and as a result, ask questions of our current age. We live in a time that values the new and the now more than ever. But I truly believe that these books speak outside of the echo-chambers in which we so often find ourselves and help us to find ageless truth from lost centuries.

    Donne: Four Early Modern Poets on Repentance, Lent 2024

    Donne: Four Early Modern Poets on Repentance, Lent 2024

    This year on Old Books with Grace, I am offering a Lent series on penitential poetry from Early Modern poets. That is, on poems of the past that reflect on one’s sin, on the need for forgiveness, on lament, on making things right, on conversion and satisfaction.
    In the spirit of Lent, this series will be stripped down to the essentials, which is something I’m trying to maintain in my own life this season. I will give you some background on the poet and poem, where you can find the poem, and translation information if need be. Then, I will read you the poem. I will offer five minutes of silence on the podcast. If you’d like to take this opportunity to meditate on the poem, here is space for you. Today's poem is A Hymn to God the Father by John Donne.
    Wilt thou forgive that sin where I begun, 
             Which was my sin, though it were done before? 
    Wilt thou forgive that sin, through which I run, 
             And do run still, though still I do deplore? 
                    When thou hast done, thou hast not done, 
                            For I have more. 
     
    Wilt thou forgive that sin which I have won 
             Others to sin, and made my sin their door? 
    Wilt thou forgive that sin which I did shun 
             A year or two, but wallow'd in, a score? 
                    When thou hast done, thou hast not done, 
                            For I have more. 
     
    I have a sin of fear, that when I have spun 
             My last thread, I shall perish on the shore; 
    But swear by thyself, that at my death thy Son 
             Shall shine as he shines now, and heretofore; 
                    And, having done that, thou hast done; 
                            I fear no more. 

    • 12 min
    Sidney: Four Early Modern Poets on Repentance, Lent 2024

    Sidney: Four Early Modern Poets on Repentance, Lent 2024

    This year on Old Books with Grace, I am offering a Lent series on penitential poetry from Early Modern poets. That is, on poems of the past that reflect on one’s sin, on the need for forgiveness, on lament, on making things right, on conversion and satisfaction.
    In the spirit of Lent, this series will be stripped down to the essentials, which is something I’m trying to maintain in my own life this season. I will give you some background on the poet and poem, where you can find the poem, and translation information if need be. Then, I will read you the poem. Then, I will offer something a little different for Old Books with Grace. I will offer five minutes of silence on the podcast. If you’d like to take this opportunity to meditate on the poem, here is space for you. Today's poem is a metrical translation of Psalm 51 by Lady Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke.
    O Lord, whose grace no limits comprehend;
             Sweet Lord, whose mercies stand from measure free;
    To me that grace, to me that mercy send,
             And wipe, O Lord, my sins from sinful me.
             Oh, cleanse, oh, wash, my foul iniquity;
                   Cleanse still my spots, still wash away my stainings,
                   Till stains and spots in me leave no remainings.
     
    For I, alas, acknowledging do know
             My filthy fault, my faulty filthiness
    To my soul’s eye incessantly doth show,
             Which done to thee, to thee I do confess,
             Just judge, true witness, that for righteousness
                   Thy doom may pass against my guilt awarded,
                   Thy evidence for truth may be regarded.
     
    My mother, lo, when I began to be,
             Conceiving me, with me did sin conceive:
    And as with living heat she cherished me,
             Corruption did like cherishing receive.
             But, lo, thy love to purest good doth cleave,
                   And inward truth: which, hardly else discerned,
                   My truant soul in thy hid school hath learned.
     
    Then as thyself to lepers hast assigned,
             With hyssop, Lord, thy hyssop, purge me so:
    And that shall cleanse the lepry of my mind.
             Make over me thy mercy’s streams to flow,
             So shall my whiteness scorn the whitest snow.
                   To ear and heart send sounds and thoughts of gladness,
                   That bruised bones may dance away their sadness.
     
    Thy ill-pleased eye from my misdeeds avert:
             Cancel the registers my sins contain:
    Create in me a pure, clean, spotless heart;
             Inspire a sprite where love of right may reign
             Ah, cast me not from thee; take not again
                   Thy breathing grace; again thy comfort send me,
                   And let the guard of thy free sprite attend me.
     
    So I to them a guiding hand will be,
             Whose faulty feet have wandered from thy way,
    And turned from sin will make return to thee,
             Whom turned from thee sin erst had led astray.
             O God, God of my health, oh, do away
                   My bloody crime: so shall my tongue be raised
                   To praise thy truth, enough cannot be praised.
     
    Unlock my lips, shut up with sinful shame:
             Then shall my mouth, O Lord, thy honor sing.
    For bleeding fuel for thy altar’s flame,
             To gain thy grace what boots it me to bring?
             Burt-off’rings are to thee no pleasant thing.
                   The sacrifice that God will hold respected,
                   Is the heart-broken soul, the sprite dejected.
     
    Lastly, O Lord, how so I stand or fall,
             Leave not thy loved Zion to embrace;
    But with thy favor build up Salem’s wall,
             And still in pe

    • 15 min
    Traherne: Four Early Modern Poets on Repentance, Lent 2024

    Traherne: Four Early Modern Poets on Repentance, Lent 2024

    Welcome to this year's Old Books with Grace Lent Series.
    This year's series is on penitential poetry. That is, on poems of the past that reflect on one’s sin, on need, on lament, on making things right, on conversion and satisfaction. Such poetry is part of an ancient tradition, dating back to the Psalms themselves. Today's poem is "Desire," by Thomas Traherne. You can read along below, or listen as I read:
    For giving me Desire,
    An Eager Thirst, a burning Ardent fire,
    A virgin Infant Flame,
    A Love with which into the World I came,
    An Inward Hidden Heavenly Love,
    Which in my Soul did Work and move,
    And ever ever me Enflame,
    With restlesse longing Heavenly Avarice,
    That could never be satisfied,
    That did incessantly a Paradice
    Unknown suggest, and som thing undescried
    Discern, and bear me to it; be
    Thy Name for ever praisd by me.
     
    My Parchd and Witherd Bones
    Burnt up did seem: My Soul was full of Groans:
    My Thoughts Extensions were:
    Like Paces Reaches Steps they did appear:
    They somwhat hotly did persue,
    Knew that they had not all their due;
    Nor ever quiet were:
    But made my flesh like Hungry Thirsty Ground,
    My Heart a deep profound Abyss,
    And evry Joy and Pleasure but a Wound,
    So long as I my Blessedness did miss.
    O Happiness! A Famine burns,
    And all my Life to Anguish turns!
     
    Where are the Silent Streams,
    The Living Waters, and the Glorious Beams,
    The Sweet Reviving Bowers,
    The Sadby Groves, the Sweet and Curious Flowers,
    The Springs and Trees, the Heavenly Days,
    The Flowry Meads, the Glorious Rayes,
    The Gold and Silver Towers?
    Alass, all these are poor and Empty Things,
    Trees Waters Days and Shining Beams
    Fruits, Flowers, Bowers, Shady Groves and Springs,
    No Joy will yeeld, no more then Silent Streams.
    These are but Dead Material Toys
    And cannot make my Heavenly Joys.
     
    O Love! ye Amities,
    And Friendships, that appear abov the Skies!
    Ye Feasts, and Living Pleasures!
    Ye Senses, Honors, and Imperial Treasures!
    Ye Bridal Joys! Ye High Delights;
    That satisfy all Appetites!
    Ye Sweet Affections, and
    Ye High Respects! What ever Joys there be
    In Triumphs, Whatsoever stand
    In Amicable Sweet Societie
    Whatever pleasures are at his right Hand
    Ye must, before I am Divine,
    In full Proprietie be mine.
     
    This Soaring Sacred Thirst,
    Ambassador of Bliss, approached first,
    Making a Place in me,
    That made me apt to Prize, and Taste, and See,
    For not the Objects, but the sence
    Of Things, doth Bliss to Souls dispence,
    And make it Lord like Thee.
    Sence, feeling, Taste, Complacency and Sight,
    These are the true and real Joys,
    The Living Flowing Inward Melting, Bright
    And Heavenly Pleasures; all the rest are Toys:
    All which are founded in Desire,
    As Light in Flame, and Heat in fire.

    • 15 min
    Rediscovering Flannery O'Connor with Jessica Hooten Wilson

    Rediscovering Flannery O'Connor with Jessica Hooten Wilson

    Dr. Jessica Hooten Wilson joins Grace on this episode to discuss her new book, Why Do the Heathen Rage? A Behind-the-Scenes Look at a Work in Progress. How does O'Connor's last novel, left unfinished at her death, fit in with the rest of her work? How does one even begin to reconstruct a fragmented manuscript?
    Jessica Hooten Wilson is the Fletcher Jones Endowed Chair of Great Books at Pepperdine University. She is the author of several books, most recently Reading for the Love of God. She is a Senior Fellow at The Trinity Forum.
     

    • 45 min
    Cultural Christians in the Early Church with Nadya Williams

    Cultural Christians in the Early Church with Nadya Williams

    Grace welcomes Nadya Williams, professor and author of Cultural Christians in the Early Church. What do the early Christians--and not just the martyrs and great leaders, but the ordinary folk--have to teach us today in their witness, writings, and historical record?
    Nadya Williams (PhD, Classics and Program in the Ancient World, Princeton University) is a military historian of the Greco-Roman world and the co-editor of Civilians and Warfare in World History. She is Book Review Editor at Current, where she also edits The Arena blog. She is a regular contributor to the Anxious Bench, and has also written for Plough, Front Porch Republic, Church Life Journal, History Today Magazine, History News Network, and The Conversation.

    • 42 min
    Jesus, or Love: Advent 2023

    Jesus, or Love: Advent 2023

    This year’s Advent series is about the poetry of the Holy Family, the center of Advent and Christmas. Today, we arrive to worship at the manger, brother and sister to the ass and the ox looking lovingly and with great confusion into the unusual bundle resting in the hay. Welcome to the final episode of Advent 2023, on Baby Jesus and love, alongside Gerard Manley Hopkins and Richard Crashaw.

    • 12 min

Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5
63 Ratings

63 Ratings

kevinatlast ,

Old Books with Grace Lent Series

Grace ,

This is a great offering of insight into God ‘ s power filled love words through the tradition of great poets . You have now joined Malcolm Guite , Lectio 365 , Daily Prayer , and St Martins GreatSacred Music , in the litany of His folks with the gift of teasing out truth from poetry using extracts from John Donne , George Herbert , G . M . Hopkins , R . S . Thomas , and many others .
Many thanks for sharing your thoughts , Kevin L. Clements

Jack & Foot ,

Delightful

The delight is in the surprising ways words were used by these authors. I hear the echo of ages past and find it refreshing for our cliche-burdened daily conversation. Keep it coming Dr. Grace!

tpetriano ,

Old Books With Grace

One of my favorite podcasts. Excellent guests, and very show is thoughtful and stimulating. Great for anyone interested in spirituality, theology, the arts, and the medieval world.

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