Theodore Letis Dissertation

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larryjf

larryjf

Puritan Board Senior
I am planning on purchasing the Ph.D. dissertation of Theodore Letis. I will try to place my order this upcoming week, and it will take about 4-6 weeks to get the paper copy.

If anyone is interested in this work i would be more than happy to get a list of folks together so that we can "mail it forward" (like the "pay it forward" idea).

Just PM me and i will create a list of all who are interested in reading this dissertation. When i get it I will mail it to the first person on the list and cross their name off. That person will then mail it to the second person on the list and cross their name off. Last of all it will be mailed back to me so that i can send it to the widow of Dr. Letis.
 
Let me just add that if you are interested and PM me...please include your address...otherwise we won't be able to mail it to you :)
 
The "mail it forward" will not work, i'm so sorry.
I had to sign an agreement not to let anyone use my copy in order to get the dissertation.
 
Good news...the "mail it forward" is back on!
Edinburgh gave me permission to do this.
Anyone who wants to be added to the list just PM me. I will keep the list open for a bit longer.

Last on the list will be Mrs. Letis, who will then keep the dissertation.
 
A couple of things...

Everyone who initially asked to be on the list is still on there, so no need to ask to be put on again.

What i have is a copy of the original dissertation. I will mail it to the first person on the list (which will be mailed with the dissertation). When they receive the dissertation they will cross their name off of the list. When they are done reading it they will mail it to the next person on the list.

Nobody is permitted to make copies of the dissertation. This would be in violation of the copyright. We are simply to read it and pass it on.

The last person on the list will be Mrs. Letis, who will keep the dissertation once it gets to her.
 
JonathanHunt said:
That's sweet of you to give her your copy. Weird that they didn't have their own copy, though!
Click to expand...

I just figure, once i'm done reading it (which i am), why not pass it along. No need for me to keep it.

Apparently he had it in some computer files but not in print. I don't think the computer files can be accessed by her....but either way, i think she will be glad to have the hard copy.

But let's not make too big of a deal as i don't want to inflame the nasty pride that wells up inside of me sometimes.
 
Hello Peter,

Ted Letis was a Lutheran, and a church historian, encouraged and supported by E.F. Hills (a Harvard text critic and defender of the King James Bible, staunchly Presbyterian) to pursue textual criticism, which Ted did, and earned his doctorate at the University of Edinburgh in the discipline. He did a lot of work unearthing information on the history of the Textus Receptus, as well as the KJV, and published a few books, packed with insights and information about the history of the texts. He died in an auto accident in 2005, I think, leaving his wife, Susan, and some children behind. He died young.

In these threads there is some info concerning, and/or review of, his books:

http://www.puritanboard.com/f63/what-authentic-new-testament-text-15134/ posts 29, 31, 32 etc

http://www.puritanboard.com/f63/johannine-comma-37481/ post 44

The reason his dissertation is so important to his readers is that it has never been seen (by most), as it costs around $300 to get a hardcopy of it from the University, and has a tight copyright restriction that comes with the purchase. Many want to know what he wrote about, and is it of the same value as his other books.

His books are almost all out-of-print now, and are considered classics, as well as rare.

The Preface to Dr. Hills', The King James Version Defended, is written by Letis.


Hope this helps.

Steve
 
Piggy-backing on Steve's post...

In my opinion the dissertation is not as valuable as his "ecclesiastical text," but it's still certainly worth a read for those who like Dr. Letis.

The title is: "From Sacred Text to Religious Text....."
And he points to Erasmus as the individual to basically pry the text from the matrix of the Church into individual critic's hands, thereby shifting the paradigm that the text is treated in and shifting the text from a sacred text to a religious text.
 
The "mail it forward" list is now finished. I plan to start by mailing out the dissertation this weekend. Along with the dissertation the mailing list will also be mailed.
 
Jerusalem Blade said:
Larry,

Would you please give a brief review of Letis' thesis in the disseration? Thanks!

Steve
Click to expand...

The belief of verbal inspiration gave the Scriptures a sacred status within the matrix of the Church. Textual criticism practiced outside of the Church (first by Erasmus) challenged this belief. This was the beginning of desacralizing the Scriptures. This paradigm shift moved the Scriptures from sacred text to religious text.

He of the role that textual criticism played in introducing the historical consciousness about the developmental stages of the NT text.

He argues that the historical data was framed ideologically. The combination of historical detail and ideology brought about 2 schools of thought during the English Enlightenment. These 2 schools responded to textual criticism in 2 directions...
1 - interpreting the data as affecting dogma
2 - interpreting the data as not affecting dogma

He then explains how the search for the historical text grew into the search for the historical Jesus.
 
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