iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Steven Rodriguez @smarcorodriguez.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I got to enthusiastically recommend Auerbach's essay "Figura" to someone at this conference. My work here is done

Steven Rodriguez @smarcorodriguez.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

during the Q&A after the plenary this guy introduces himself as "an Old Testament scholar who is currently reading Augustine's On the Trinity" nature is healing

020

Steven Rodriguez @smarcorodriguez.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Ephraim Radner is the main speaker at this theology conference and he came out guns blazing haha

010

Steven Rodriguez @smarcorodriguez.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

the twentieth century should have decisively disproven this position for us. Art, culture, science and math do not protect against cruelty. They merely help people harm (or help) others with greater eloquence and efficiency.

050

Steven Rodriguez @smarcorodriguez.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I’m debating whether I should post a very critical review of a Christian book that everyone loves and make people very angry at me. I would *never* post it to Facebook (ha!) but maybe it could stir constructive dialogue here.

381

Steven Rodriguez @smarcorodriguez.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

excited to get back into one of my favorite authors!

010

Steven Rodriguez @smarcorodriguez.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

There’s an evangelical narration of early church history that is basically righteous Christians colliding with the licentious world of the pagans. There’s a tiny bit of textual truth to this, in, say, I Corinthians.

121

Steven Rodriguez @smarcorodriguez.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Wait wait wait. So Augustus launches this campaign to suppress the cult of Isis, the "queen of heaven," a mother deity, while the main villain in Virgil's Augustan epic is Juno, the "queen of the gods," *the* mother deity.

000

Steven Rodriguez @smarcorodriguez.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

This extended quest into Augustan culture is convincing me even more that figural interpretation was a deeply Hellenistic, historically contingent cultural artifact adopted by the early church. It was not *the* way to read scripture, but a thoroughly culturally contextual enterprise.

100

Steven Rodriguez @smarcorodriguez.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

It’s taken 220 pages to get to this moment. And yet, having this much background on all the values of the Augustan regime *before* he tackles the poetry of Virgil, Horace, and Ovid is powerful.

000

Steven Rodriguez @smarcorodriguez.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

One of my friends is sending me stuff on premodern figural interpretation of scripture (in conflict with Auerbach and Frei) and I am feeling the siren call to return to my old ways. Someone tell me to turn back now while I still can

010

Steven Rodriguez @smarcorodriguez.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Another sign that things are very much getting out of hand... I just registered for my first theology conference in almost a decade

130

Steven Rodriguez @smarcorodriguez.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

The more you know, the more you know you don’t know: Today I learned that, to people in the field, “classical,” “Hellenistic,” and “Roman” are three distinct artistic traditions

010

Steven Rodriguez @smarcorodriguez.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

It’s finally time to read this one.

130

Steven Rodriguez @smarcorodriguez.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

“Pax comes from pangere, ‘to make firm,’ and pacisi, ‘to make a pact’; it is the ‘pact’ one imposes on a conquered enemy.” —Galinsky, Augustan Culture

010

Steven Rodriguez @smarcorodriguez.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

TODAY IS THE FIRST FALL DAY I HAVE TO WEAR A HOODIE. this is how I felt:

010

Steven Rodriguez @smarcorodriguez.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

well. after years of trying to fight it, I'm finally going to delete my Twitter account.

040

Steven Rodriguez @smarcorodriguez.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

One of the biggest ironies of Rome is that they had this central ideal of the ancient Roman citizen farmer, farming his own land, while in reality Rome had to import basically all of its food from slave plantations in the provinces, managed from afar

120

Steven Rodriguez @smarcorodriguez.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

this morning I'm finding myself reading about grain supply logistics in the Roman Empire and wondering how I became That Guy. I always swore I'd never become a Roman history guy

110

Steven Rodriguez @smarcorodriguez.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Reading medieval Hebrew poetry has offered a fascinating window into medieval Jewish biblical exegesis. At first it was mostly readings of Song of Songs, but slowly, I'm starting to see some patterns of exegesis of the prophets and the Psalms, as well.

010

Steven Rodriguez @smarcorodriguez.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

This passage in Ovid’s Fasti is *so* Dantean! It could have come straight out of Purgatorio or Paradiso. > The use of a novel and obscure epithet for a character, which the reader must puzzle out for themselves > Venus is playing nearly the same role as Beatrice

110

Steven Rodriguez @smarcorodriguez.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

The cat shoved Ovid deep under the couch, where I wouldn’t find it. (I saw her do it.) Gonna rename her Tertullian

010

Steven Rodriguez @smarcorodriguez.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

One of the most important threads emerging in reading Ovid's Fasti is learning about Roman philosophies/theologies of time, especially as they compare and contrast with earlier Greek and later Christian views on time.

000

Steven Rodriguez @smarcorodriguez.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

I need to post a correction: Several people have pointed out that there is no evidence that Augustus ever used this phrase. It appears that Galinsky was trying to be witty. I wish he had been more clear that he was making stuff up.

000

Steven Rodriguez @smarcorodriguez.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

One of my life goals I haven't gotten to yet: Rereading Quixote, but in the Spanish!! Someday.

000

Steven Rodriguez @smarcorodriguez.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Talking with my grandma this morning, she was sharing stories about her Baptist church on the Mexico/Texas border, founded right before the Mexican Revolution.

110

Steven Rodriguez @smarcorodriguez.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

when ur tryna enjoy the mellifluous ballad but HE’S here

010

Steven Rodriguez @smarcorodriguez.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Literally just randomly walked into some fantastic live jazz playing in the Chicago Cultural Center

020

Steven Rodriguez @smarcorodriguez.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Wesley falling out with some charismatic/Pentecostal friends from his youth with whom he shared powerful spiritual experiences—so relatable

120

Steven Rodriguez @smarcorodriguez.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

For me the most important thing about Wesley’s famous Aldersgate conversion is that he had other powerful spiritual experiences and periods of intense spiritual depression immediately surrounding it

120

Steven Rodriguez @smarcorodriguez.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Augustine did not fit in my overnight bag, but Wesley did. Trying to not read this as Meaning Something

000

Steven Rodriguez @smarcorodriguez.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Waiting for my flight and the frat bros behind me are complaining that Percy Jackson “ruined” Nolan’s Odyssey because they already knew what was going to happen

010

Steven Rodriguez @smarcorodriguez.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

I’ve got a couple hours in Chicago this afternoon/evening. Favorite spot is the art institute but it’s pricy. Any recommendations for other museums or exhibits to catch? Might also catch the jazz fest.

000

Steven Rodriguez @smarcorodriguez.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

starting off the morning with some Augustine on the Psalms

110

Steven Rodriguez @smarcorodriguez.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Our paradigm for the establishment vs. folk religion conflict is the centuries long negotiation between official Roman Catholic doctrine and practice and local expressions of folk piety that deviate from centralized norms to varying degrees.

110

Steven Rodriguez @smarcorodriguez.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

It’s been a long time, but we are back.

110

Steven Rodriguez @smarcorodriguez.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Didn’t see this one coming! Apparently in his marriage reforms, Augustus believed that “extra familiam nulla salus,” a strikingly similar phrase to the later Christian axiom “extra ecclesiam nulla salus.” Given Augustus’ importance, they had to have known the allusion, right?

000

Steven Rodriguez @smarcorodriguez.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

I'm still holding out hope that, somehow, sometime during my lifetime, we discover a manuscript of Ovid's lost tragedy Medea.

000

Steven Rodriguez @smarcorodriguez.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Yes we're living in a time when tech oligarchs are destroying old books, literacy, and human knowledge. But it's also an incredible time to be alive. Because of technology, you can freely access things like THE NOTES MONTAIGNE WROTE IN HIS EDITION OF LUCRETIUS from anywhere in the world.

130

Steven Rodriguez @smarcorodriguez.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

digging into the Latin of one of my fave passages in Augustine (the ending of Confessions), because Galinsky was talking about Virgil's use of the Lucretian ideal of quies, and naturally I started to wonder if Auggy is (consciously or subconsciously) transfiguring Virgil here.

100

Steven Rodriguez @smarcorodriguez.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

FINALLY watched One Battle After Another. FANTASTIC movie! Easily one of PTA's best, up there with Magnolia and There Will Be Blood.

000

Steven Rodriguez @smarcorodriguez.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Dipping into Lucretius (Stallings translation) this morning because Galinsky was pointing out a Lucretian allusion in Virgil. This passage is stunning! I really need to settle down and finally finish this whole poem one of these days.

100

Steven Rodriguez @smarcorodriguez.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Today I handily broke my record for the most number of people who came up after the sermon and misunderstood what I said or flat out said they didn’t understand it. Earth to Steven!

030

Steven Rodriguez @smarcorodriguez.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

After I finish this quest on Augustan culture, the next time I'm in the Greco-Roman world, I need, need, NEED to finally read Peter Brown on the body

020

Steven Rodriguez @smarcorodriguez.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

I would like my cars and my computers to be TWO SEPARATE KINDS OF THINGS, as the gods intended, thank you

120

Steven Rodriguez @smarcorodriguez.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

I might retract this after more exegetical work, but, reading his commentary, I suspect that Calvin's double predestinarian hermeneutic is causing him to willfully misread Psalm 145.

000

Steven Rodriguez @smarcorodriguez.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

"For we ought not to kill an heretic, seeing that [thus] a never ending war would be introduced into the world." —Chrysostom

000

Steven Rodriguez @smarcorodriguez.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

“As soon as you can forget the naturally obvious and construct an artificial obvious, then you too will see deer.” —Stewart Edward White

000