James Leo Garrett Jr. and the Southwestern Theological Tradition
Southwestern Journal of Theology
Volume 65, No. 1 - Fall 2022
Editor: David S. Dockery
By Derek Cooper. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2020, 432pp., $59.99
This Latin textbook, written by Derek Cooper and published by Zondervan, has the feel and rhythm of another textbook that is popular in the market–Mounce’s Biblical Greek. Like Mounce, Cooper offers a similar structure with an engaging curriculum and a grasp of the ecclesiastical tradition of Latin that quickly acquaints his readers with Latin. Cooper explains his justification for a Latin textbook in the Christian tradition in his introduction: the body of Christian literature is greater than that of the classical, even though the classical works are more familiar to the general public.
The layout of the curriculum is straightforward. The first chapter covers nouns, prepositions, and some conjunctions, while also providing the general structure of the language in usage and case system. Vocabulary is key and so a list of prepositions serves as a starting point. The author provides the etymology that the Latin vocabulary serves (or rather, the cognates in the English) to assist with making connections to the English language. It is worth noting that Mounce (the Greek textbook) and Wheelock (another widely used Latin textbook) do not do this but rather prepositions are scattered throughout various chapters.
At the end of each chapter is a reminder that there are exercises in the back of the book under Appendix I: Exercitia. Following this appendix is another appendix with a key for those exercises. These exercises try to familiarize students with translating the Latin text. Even with the first chapter, given the minimal amount of Latin, students are encouraged to look at some (very short) expressions from Genesis. Cooper encourages his readers to look at the English translation. With the key and ample instruction written in the text, it becomes clear that the textbook presents itself as a self-study for the Latin language. It is worth nothing that Zondervan offers a DVD-component of the curriculum that is sold separately ($199); it contains 28 lessons over 5 discs.
After the first chapter, Cooper takes the student through the first declension along with a nice foray into verbs with sum, the verb for “being,” as in “I am” or “I exist.” He assures his reader that these terms will be explained later. At the end of the chapter is another reminder that there are exercises in the back of the book, which students are expected to complete.
The third chapter presents the second declension with the fourth chapter presenting the third declension. Students are instructed to parse for case, number, and gender, along with the dictionary entry of the word (lexical form) and the English equivalent. Up until this point, students are given mostly nouns in all three declensions and the difference in form in each of their gender forms. The exercises convey the importance of students’ pace of vocabulary study with fill-in-the-blank sentences.
Chapter five covers adjectives in all three declensions of all three genders. The next two chapters cover fourth and fifth declensions which are common in usage but not as numerous as those in the first three declensions. This concludes part one.
Part two covers the verb system in the indicative mood with tenses that make use of the first two principal parts: present, imperfect, and future—in both active and passive voices. The other tenses will not be covered until part five, but the author is intent on getting students to translate the Latin sentences framed from the basic structure consisting of subject, verb, and object. With nouns addressed in part one and basic verb tenses in part two, students practice translating Latin sentences taken from Christian literature.
Parts three and four provide instruction for irregular verbs and pronouns along with the vocabulary. The frequent usage of these words will help students. Parts five through eight will give the rest of the instruction on verb tenses (perfect, pluperfect, and future perfect), then with participles and moods other than the indicative (imperative, subjunctive, and infinitive).
The pedagogical method overall is sound. Most of the material covered is for the first year of Latin instruction. With more advanced syntax such as conditional clauses, the author directs his readers to consult another grammar text (e.g., see page 191; Allen & Greenough). There are some peculiarities of ecclesiastical Latin that will become noticeable, but by and large, Cooper has covered sufficient material to get students to start with Latin as quickly as they can. Cooper’s work is tremendous in its ability to keep students engaged in Latin.
While there are other grammar texts used in theological education such as Collins’s A Primer of Ecclesiastical Latin and Wheelock’s timeless text, Cooper’s work offers a unique approach to Latin instruction with copious examples of biblical and patristic literature within each chapter. The book is positioned for self-study, but this curriculum could easily make its way into the classroom setting with additional assignments and tests developed to evaluate the progress of students’ acquisition of the language.
