The Commons Spring 2019: Graduation Edition | Page 4

SCHOLAR’S CORNER
the big picture, noting difficult peri-
copes or items for further research along
the way. In the last term, they have start
the translation work. Having spent so
much time gaining familiarity with the
text and comprehending its scope, they
can just focus on the art of translation,
trying to carefully capture as much of
the original as possible without making
it sound awkward or clunky.
One of the main benefits has been
sitting under Joseph Tipton, the di-
rector of Wenden House. Tipton is a
humble but intensely learned Latinist
with encyclopedic knowledge of Greek
and Roman literature, and he is also
a scholar doing original work in Ref-
ormation-era Latin, as can be seen in
some of his articles for Reformation and
Journal of Early Modern Christianity. So
not only have I found myself working
with a master, but I am also watching
him explore new territory!
History has a tendency of weeding
out literary chaff. That said, many Latin
works have gone out of circulation, but
not due to their quality. They fade from
the popular eye for a number of reasons:
works in vernacular languages over-
shadow those in Latin, and the love of
novelty is one of humanity’s consistent
weaknesses. Translating these classics re-
minds me of the scene in C.S. Lewis’s
Prince Caspian, where the four children
return to their old castle and discover all
era works from Latin in exchange for their treasures abandoned in a storage
credits towards NSA’s Master of Arts room, having gathered dust for centuries,
in Theology and Letters. It is not just but remaining no less precious.
theological works, but literary and poet-
Anna Harvey, one of the Wenden
ic masterpieces as well—a lot of English House scholars, has dusted off a great
literature (like Shakespeare) was heavily literary piece: The True History of the
influenced by Reformation works. Wen- Holy Man Juan Díaz, by Francisco de
den House alone is worth the price of Enzinas. While the book’s historical
the whole graduate program.
background is interesting in and of it-
In the first term, each Wenden House self, it is the dramatic events that grip
student picks a work to translate. Stu- the reader. As the title states, it is the
dents then spend two terms wading account of the Spanish reformer Juan
through the texts to get familiar with Díaz, who, in a cruel turn of events,
Wenden House
by Brian Marr
F
OR TWO DECADES NOW,
New Saint Andrews college has
been championing the recovery
of a classical, Christian education in a
world that is quickly forgetting its past.
One of the concrete ways New Saint
Andrews is contributing to the preser-
vation of our rich Christian heritage is
through Wenden House.
This scholarship program, which
I was honored to be a part of this last
year, gives students the opportunity to
translate sixteenth-century Reformation
4 THE COMMONS
PROSPECTING REFORMATION PAST