Sunday 24 June 2007

Monday in Antwerp



Our seminar began today and we had a chance to meet everyone. The seminar is directed by Dr. John King and Dr. Jim Bracken, both of the Ohio State University. Dr. Guido Latre of the Catholics University of Leeuwen (and Louvain) gave a wonderful introduction to Antwerp, the dual languages of Flemish and French, and the history of protestant John Tyndale’s time in Antwerp. Tyndale had fled England under fear of persecution and come to Antwerp for protection. Here he was able to continue his work on the Bible but was eventually captured and ultimately strangled and burnt at the stake. What a horrible history between Catholicism and Protestantism. Professor Latre took us on a delightful walking tour of the city where, among other sites, he pointed out the religious history of the city as reflected in the architecture—the clean gothic lines of the Protestant cathedral with the baroque alter of the Spanish Catholics who overtook Antwerp. As Antwerp lost the wool trade to England, they developed into a printing center (in 1500).

In the afternoon, I went to the grocery store to buy some fruit and came across a huge wall of packaged deli meat! Each morning for breakfast we have about four to six choices of salami, ham, bologna etc. Cherries and asparagus are also in season, but the restaurant where we ate dinner (stroganoff) was out of the famed white asparagus of Belgium.