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Speed-Read Your Favorite Websites with RSS
by Jon Ritterbush, Associate Librarian

With the increase in information and blogs on the Web, many Internet users have found it difficult to keep up with the latest news, blog discussions, and website updates. One form of publishing – RSS – makes it easier to disseminate or receive these updates.

RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” and uses a basic form of XML to identify and send the title and description for new stories to subscribers. Along with title and description is a link to the webpage with the complete news story or more detailed information.

More and more websites and blogs are advertising their RSS feeds with an orange icon such as this one:

	Screen capture of Firefox, with Sage RSS reader sidebar.

To view these feeds and receive notifications of new stories or website updates, users must have a “feed reader” or a web browser capable of displaying RSS feeds. Fortunately, three major browsers – Internet Explorer 7.x, Firefox 2.x, and Apple’s Safari browser – all have built in support for RSS feeds. If you have a free Google or Yahoo personal account, you can also add RSS feeds to your customized favorites page. There are many other free RSS feed readers available for download on the Internet.

Regent University Library has recently added RSS feeds to its Online Catalog, giving users access to lists of new books and videos at the Library, automatically updated on a weekly basis. Click here to view this list of RSS feeds, or look for the “RSS Feeds” link on the Online Catalog.

Scholars can now also establish RSS “search alerts” within certain library databases to receive notifications of new articles in their field of study. RSS feeds can also be used to keep up with the contents of selected journals as soon as new issues are published. If you are interested in setting up RSS search alerts and would like more information, please contact Jon Ritterbush at 757-226-2985 or by e-mail at jritterbush@regent.edu.

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Regent University Library Receives John Wimber Papers
by Robert Sivigny, Director of Special Collections & Archives

John Wimber was one of the principal founders of the Vineyard church movement that began in the mid-1970s in southern California. His ministry brought new expression to the work of the Holy Spirit as witnessed in the more than 1,500 Vineyard churches that exist today worldwide. His books include Power Evangelism, Power Healing, Kingdom Suffering: Facing Difficulty and Trial in the Christian Life, and Living With Uncertainty: My Bout with Inoperable Cancer. Sadly, John Wimber passed away November 1997.

For the past year and a half, the Library has had the privilege of receiving materials from John Wimber’s personal library and papers, donated by his family. In 2005, Dr. Graham Twelftree, from the School of Divinity, made initial contact with the Wimber family. The collection consists of articles by and about John Wimber, conference materials, course syllabi, Vineyard publications, brochures, newspaper articles, correspondence, and memorabilia. The collection offers a wealth of information about Wimber’s teaching on healing, ministry, evangelism, gifts of the Spirit, and the nature and work of the church.

The materials currently comprise twenty-two boxes. An itemized inventory of these boxes can be found on the Special Collections & Archives page of the Library website. Links to each set of boxes is near the bottom of the John Wimber Collection screen page. You can search the pages by typing a word into the find function of your web browser. The collection is not yet complete since the Library expects to receive more boxes in the coming months.

The collection is available to Regent University students, faculty, and staff. Inquiries should be made to Special Collections & Archives at 757-226-4154 or 757-226-4184.

 

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Undergraduate Research
by Harold Henkel, Assistant Librarian

Does the Library Have Electronic Books?

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Collection Spotlight--Christ, the Eternal Tao by Hieromonk Damascene
Reviewed by Father Timothy Cremeens, Ph.D. candidate, School of Divinity

The 1960s and early 1970s saw the rise of the “Jesus Movement” in which thousands of young people who had previously rejected any form of Christian faith and had gone down the ruinous path of drugs and alcohol embraced evangelical and charismatic forms of Christianity. This new religious movement received extensive attention in the news media, including cover stories in Time and Newsweek.

A lesser known movement also began at this time and continues to the present day. A number of young people, appalled by the counterculture message of hedonism and drugs, began their own search for the Truth. Some seekers looked to the East, exploring Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism, before coming into contact with the Orthodox churches of immigrant communities (e.g. Greek, Russian, Serbian) from historically Orthodox countries. One such person was Eugene Rose. After earning a master’s degree in Chinese from the University of California at Berkley, Rose studied Chinese philosophy with the renowned Taoist scholar Gi-ming Shien before his search for Truth led him to Orthodox Christianity. Rose would go onto become a monk, taking the name Seraphim, after St. Seraphim of Sarov. In extraordinarily primitive conditions in the California Sierras, Fr. Seraphim devoted the remainder of his short life to producing a stream of apologetic, pastoral, and theological works that have made him a figure of veneration among Orthodox worldwide.

One young scholar led to Orthodoxy through Fr. Seraphim’s writings and example was John Christensen, who would also eventually become a monk (taking the name Damascene) at the monastery founded by Fr. Seraphim. Hieromonk Damascene inherited from Fr. Seraphim an abiding interest in the relationship between the Gospel of Christ and the Tao Teh Ching of Lao Tzu. Christ the Eternal Tao is the fruit of that interest.

Christ the Eternal Tao is an excellent appropriation of the person and work of Jesus Christ and its application to a Taoist worldview. Making creative and insightful use of the Tao Teh Ching, in which Lao Tzu introduced the idea of the Tao. Fr. Damascene demonstrates that the Tao is identical to the Greek philosophical understanding of the Logos. Identifying Christ the pre-incarnate Logos as the “eternal Tao,” he then proceeds to apply a distinctly Orthodox Christian spirituality to the teachings of Lao Tzu. Without succumbing to syncretism, Fr. Damascene shows how the Gospel of Christ is hidden in the teachings of Taoism.

Christ the Eternal Tao is a perfect example of the contextualization of the Gospel and offers Christians a correct approach to the study of comparative religion. In addition, the book includes reflections on the Christian life that believers from Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox traditions will all find refreshing and insightful. As one reads the writings of Lao Tzu as presented in Christ the Eternal Tao, the question that must be grappled with is who inspired Lao Tzu, living in China in the 6th century BC, to write these words that undoubtedly point to Jesus Christ?

Fr. Timothy Cremeens is an Orthodox priest living in Windsor, North Carolina. He serves as assistant pastor at St. Basil Orthodox Church in Poquoson, Virginia and is currently a student in the Ph.D. program in Renewal Theology at Regent School of Divinity. He may be reached at timocre@regent.edu.

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