I can't believe it but the day has finally come when my article on the Cattedra di San Marco being the the original Episcopal throne of Alexandria is available from the Journal of Coptic Studies. You can't imagine how happy I am. This is my first article published in a real academic journal. The first time I had sex, by contrast, was disaster ... I ended up marrying the girl. Just joking. My wife doesn't read this blog anyway. That's the recipe for a happy marriage - mutual assured indifference. But I digress ...What makes me so happy is that I didn't end up writing one of those articles written solely for the purpose of keeping one's academic career alive. You know the kind that could be summed up in a single sentence or a paragraph at the most like 'Gender Roles in the Old Testament.'
This is a big deal, my friends. I don't know if any else could have done a better job proving that this is the Episcopal throne mentioned in the Passio Sancti Petri. I sent to Birger Pearson before it was published (I guess I have a strange need to get approval from perceived father figures) and he said that he 'read it with interest' whatever that means.In any event the die is cast. The article is now released like a dove into the world where it can be ignored and settle with the other pigeons at the park, drawing the attention of crazy old ladies and kids with pellet guns.
There are a lot of good articles in this issue. I can't believe the good company I'm in. James M Robinson of Clairmont College has an article on "The Discovery of the Nag Hammadi Codices." Bentley Layton of Yale University has an article on Shenoute's sources. Iain Gardner of the University of Sydney has what is certain to be a fascinating discussion of The Passover Litany of the Liber Bartholomaei. Youhanna Nessim Youssef of the Catholic University of Melbourne (the first guy I brought my discovery of the throne to the attention of) has two articles in the journal.
Other people who are featured in this issue include Hans Forster, Jean-Marc Rosenstiehl and Maximilien Durand.
The point is that I can't believe that my article was placed in the company of works written by men of this caliber. Maybe I will wake up and find I am dreaming.
Yet as good as all of this is, it gets even better. I managed to have an article in the journal with umlauts over the u in my last name.
My father would have been very proud (it was a journal based out of Germany too so you know it has to be the best journal). That's probably why it had to have happened after he wasn't here to see it ...
