Campus Mentis

Failed attempt

2012-01-21T10:49:00.004-05:00

Well, my first attempt at Root beer failed. Something must have gone wrong with my ginger bug, because when I went to stir the mix yesterday, there was mold growing along the sides. So I poured it out. I will say though, that the fermentation was working. The puddle foamed up very nicely on the ground. :( I've ordered some water kefir grains as well, so I'll be beginning again pretty soon. I already started another ginger bug. I want to keep this moving until I get something worth my time.

Here are a few pictures from the initial attempt.

Here are the bottle my wife bought me for this project.

Here is my first ginger bug. It was doing great in this picture, but something went wrong along the way. I'll have to keep my eye on it this time.

Here we are stirring in the various roots and herbs that make up the concentrate for the ro

ot beer.

Here are better pictures of the pit we made the concentrate in and them whole mixture being stirred together.

Update on Root Beer

2012-01-17T10:02:00.003-05:00

All of my roots and barks came in yesterday from Monterey Bay Spice Co. This morning we opened everything up and began the process of steeping our Root Beer base. The kitchen smells awesome as we let the concoction steep. After four hours, it will be ready to strain out and into a 1 gallon jug with the ginger bug culture to ferment for about several days before we bottle it.

Making Root Beer

2012-01-07T20:13:00.003-05:00

I have decided to make Root Beer. I did Ginger Ale a few weeks back and was pretty happy with the results. I am using a combination recipe from the Nourished Kitchen and the Learning Herbs websites. Basically, I am using the method from Learning Herbs and a modified recipe from Nourished Kitchen. My wife bought me the bottles to keep it in for Christmas, though we just picked them up today because they were on order. I am really excited about it. I love the taste of Root Beer and can't wait to try my own. It should be a more healthy version of the drink (sans high fructose corn sugar), using real ingredients and no artificial colors. I'll let keep up a running post on the progress and the results. It should take about a month from start to finish.

Analyzing my nostalgia

2011-08-15T11:53:00.004-04:00

We've been getting old TV shows on Netflix. We've been streaming some and ordering the DVD's for others not available. Specifically we've been watching old cartoons that I grew up on: G.I. Joe and Voltron. A few weeks ago while watching G.I. Joe, I got into a discussion with my oldest boys about how these cartoon were different from the one's that they and their friends watched now. We contrasted G.I. Joe with Star Wars: The Clone Wars. We noted that no one ever died in G.I. Joe, while characters often died in Star Wars: The Clone Wars. We also noted that the lines between good and evil were drawn a lot more carefully in older cartoon than they were today.

However, recently, my wife and I were talking and she pointed out something else. She pointed out that the objective of the older cartoons was problematic, in that they often held as the goal the teenage years, versus the adult years. We began thinking this through and noted a lot of the old stories on video that did this. If not the teenage years, certainly the early adult lifestyle.

It made me remember how subtle these things are. Of course, this can happen in books as well, but in books you spend so much more time with the narrative, that you can catch on more easily and defend yourself. Film often doesn't give you the time to reflect on the issues enough to make the distinctions.

Crisis of the Republic

2011-05-27T21:48:00.002-04:00

Earlier this week I was able to go to one of the sessions of the Classical Conversations Parent Practicum. The speaker, David Lahones, introduced me to some new thoughts and helped crystallize some things I'd been trying to say for years but never been able to put into words as effectively as he did. One idea he mentioned was that of inoculation. We introduce our children to the ideas in great books to help inoculate them against the reality in life. I'll be further examining this for a while.

He also introduced me to a series of essays former presidential candidate Alan Keyes wrote during the 2008 campaign. He read from one of them to help illustrate a point about freedom and education. He said the essays were very difficult to obtain now but had a copy of them in PDF format. He posted them on his own blog, here. I downloaded the file and may, as I read them, post them or excerpts from them to this blog.

Waiting

2011-05-19T09:14:00.002-04:00

I'm patiently waiting until my life calms down somewhat to where I think I can adequately reflect on the things that have taken place this past year. I am no longer a full-time teacher, in the traditional sense of the word. I now work a second shift job that has played havoc with my family life and we still haven't adjusted to that completely. This job presents me with excellent material for contemplation of the human condition, the importance of worldviews, and the task of education, but precious little time to reflect of it and blog about it. Nevertheless, I will eventually get around to doing this. Sometime...

A Risky Video

2011-01-20T10:52:00.002-05:00

I was skeptical about this one at first, but I ended up laughing a lot. Enjoy.

Ask Doug

2011-01-06T09:13:00.001-05:00

Canon Wired has a video with Roy Atwood, president of New Saint Andrews College in Moscow, ID. Check it out.

http://www.canonwired.com/ask-doug/k-12-classical/

What's good for the Goose...

2010-09-26T08:41:00.004-04:00

In a recent history book I'm reading on the global history of the concept of the City, Joel Kotkin complains that Christianity had an "antiurban perspective." (37) He argues that Jesus himself was a homeless nomad and had no use for the urban centers of society. He states that the principal concern of Christians was "faith in a single, transcendent god." (36) Fair enough. I think Kotkin is missing the bigger picture by ignoring the fact that up until 315 AD, Christianity was a persecuted religion throughout the Roman empire and had to hide to exist. I think antiurban is hardly the term I would use to describe Christianity after Constantine.

The problem for me is that a few pages later, when discussing Islam's development, Kotkin praises Islam for being an "profoundly urban faith." (44) Kotkin asserts that the "need to gather the community of believers was a critical aspect of Islam....Islam virtually demanded cities to serve as 'the places where men pray together.'" (44) Just two pages later, however, Kotkin argues that Islam fosters "a sophisticated urban culture" while managing to not worship the city for its own sake. The city becomes a vehicle for "the integration of the daily lives of men with a transcendent God." (46)

So somehow, Christianity's emphasis, as Kotkin sees it, on a transcendent deity is antiurban while Islam fosters "a sophisticated urban culture" by having an emphasis on "the integration of the daily lives of men with a transcendent God." (46)

Go figure...

*Quotes are from Joel Kotkin, The City: A Global History (New York: Random House, 2005).

FCS Welcome message from Dr. Grant

2010-09-22T12:01:00.001-04:00

Study Guides

2010-06-23T09:31:00.003-04:00

I am working on a new project while I am unemployed. I have been writing study guides for books I teach for years now for my students, but have never really had the opportunity to revise them at all. While I am trying to find a job, I am doing some revision of those guides and thinking of ways to earn a little money with them. I finished the Iliad yesterday and am almost done with the Odyssey as well.

They are pretty straightforward guides. They have author, date, and context introductions as well as a summary of the book, themes, and literary notes for things to watch for and understand while reading. Each have several multiple choice comprehension quizzes periodically throughout the book which have answer keys, but the most important thing is that I have included no answers to anything but the quizzes. I did this intentionally. Daily reading is accompanied by either review and recitation worksheets which are pretty straightforward or specific worldview discussion sessions which are a little more complicated. In either case, the ideal is that Mom and Dad, or the teacher/tutor are reading this book along with their kids and they can talk through the answers together. On the review and recitation pages, there isn't much to dig for. On the discussion sessions, I wanted to allow for honest discussion in a group or even amongst members of a family. So I didn't provide answers for questions like, What is pride? I think the family/classroom discussion is far more valuable than any answer I could provide would ever be.

If you are interested in one of the guides I've got ready, let me know and I'll send you a sample. I haven't worked out a price yet for the whole guide, but it'd be under $10.

Aristeia

2010-06-22T08:29:00.002-04:00

Aristeia is a Greek word meaning excellence. When used in the Iliad, it refers to the best fighting a hero may accomplish. An excellent example of this is in book 21 when Achilleus almost single-handedly routs the entire Trojan army and succeeds in killing Hektor, the hero of the Trojans.

Pride in the Iliad

2010-06-21T21:40:00.002-04:00

This theme of the Iliad is mentioned in the proem (the first several lines of the poem) and describes the most basic outline of the plot of the story. While the main theme of the work is widely recognized as “the wrath of Achilleus” it is obvious with the most cursory read-through that this wrath stems from Achilleus’ sense of pride. Pride is the most basic problem in Greek literature. Taken from the Greek term hubris which means an exaggerated self-pride or self-confidence, our conception of pride is very fitting. Pride is thinking too highly of oneself and acting like everyone else should think as highly of you as you do.
Both Achilleus and Agamemnon are guilty of pride (or hubris) in the Iliad. The argument that erupts between them over the war bride Briseis is a perfect example of this. Agamemnon feels that since he is the great king of the war fleet, he should have the best prizes. When Chriseis is taken from him to appease Chryse and Apollo, he demands that he get Achilleus’ war bride in return for his loss. This is an amazing amount of pride on Agamemnon’s part, but Achilleus’ response is no less prideful.
Achilleus responds to Agamemnon’s demand by retreating from the battle, sulking at his own ships, and begging his goddess mother to make Agamemnon pay for his rash behavior and dishonoring of her son. He insists that for the dishonor he has been shown he will no longer fight with the Achaians.
As Christians we know that pride is one of the greatest sins we can fall into. It was the very sin that cast Lucifer, that angel of light, from the presence of God in heaven and doomed him to spend eternity in hell. Therefore as we see pride writ large upon the characters of Homer’s Iliad, we must consider the worldview implications of such thinking. Homer, like most Greek writers, often condemned hubris, but also recognized that a certain amount was necessary for survival. In the Christian life, our greatest strength often becomes our most challenging weakness as well. Are you a gifted athlete? That can be a source of pride for you as well then. Do you do well in classes without much labor? That can also turn into a pride issue. Unlike the Greek heroes in the Iliad, we have the opportunity to lay our pride before God and recognize our own weakness. The Greeks, in some ways, felt their gods were simply stronger, immortal, people. There was no majesty involved. No holiness before which they could humble themselves. This represents one of the chief reasons so many Greek heroes get in trouble with the gods. They too often act like gods and take glory away from the gods themselves.

Some quotes from Abolition of Man

2010-06-19T09:34:00.002-04:00

For every one pupil who needs to be guarded from a weak excess of sensibility there are three who need to be awakened from the slumber of cold vulgarity. The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles but to irrigate deserts. The right defense against false sentiments is to inculcate just sentiments. (27)

ordo amoris, the ordinate condition of the affections in which every object is accorded that kind and degree of love which is appropriate to it. (28-29)

Aristotle says that the aim of education is to make the pupil like and dislike what he ought. (29, Aristotle, Nic. Eth. 1104B)

The heart never takes the place of the head, but it can, and should, obey it.

In battle it is not syllogisms that will keep the reluctant nerves and muscles to their post in the third hour of the bombardment. The crudest sentimentalism ... about a flag or a country or a regiment will be of more use. (35)

Their scepticism about values is on the surface: it is for use on other people's values: about the values current in their own set they are not nearly sceptical enough. (43)

I will not insist on the point that Instinct is a name for we know not what (to say that migratory birds find their way by instinct is only to say that we do not know how migratory birds find their way), for I think it is here being used in a fairly definite sense, to mean an unreflective or spontaneous impulse widely felt by the members of a given species. (46-47)

If nothing is self-evident, nothing can be proved. (55)

if nothing is obligatory for its own sake, nothing is obligatory at all. (55)

A dogmatic belief in objective value is necessary to the very idea of a rule which is not tyranny or an obedience which is not slavery. (81)

For the wise men of old the cardinal problem had been how to conform the soul to reality, and the solution had been knowledge, self-discipline, and virtue. For magic and applied science alike the problem is how to subdue reality to the wishes of men: the solution is a technique; and both, in the practice of this technique are ready to do things hitherto regarded as disgusting and impious - such as digging up and mutilating the dead. (83-84)

Herodotus and Homer

2010-06-18T09:29:00.006-04:00

Having taught Herodotus several times, I can tell you that students either love him or hate him. Most come in on the latter, primarily because it is so long and full of material that really doesn't seem relevant. If he is writing about the Persian Wars, they reason, why does it take him until book 5 (of 9) to get to the Battle of Marathon? Why does he have to go off on so many rabbit trails (the mark of a great teacher, IMHO)? I think the answers to these questions lie in his reliance upon the Homeric tradition, in part, and his understanding of the task of history.

I have written elsewhere of Herodotus' understanding of the nature of history, and I don't think reflection has made much difference in my mind yet. Specifically that Herodotus is not just concerned with events in-and-of-themselves, but with the causes of events. This is why after making his opening statement he immediately goes into a discussion of mythological abductions and explains that they were really just part of a long-standing war between East and West, of which the Persian Wars is but the most recent episode.

In terms of his reliance upon the Homeric tradition, this is why Herodotus is so long-winded about such seemingly trivial things as the history of Egypt. In Homer, especially the Iliad, when two warriors come together, they must often have a interview, of sorts, to determine who they are and what their history is. In that culture, Olympian curses have been meted out for less than justly slaying an enemy in a war that your great, great grandfather had made a pact with a hundred years ago. Such is the case for Glaucus and Diomedes (Il. vi.119-236). Upon coming together in battle in book six of the Iliad, Glaucus and Diomedes are smart enough to ask each other's parentage and history before they fight. When it is determined that their grandparents had been friends, they decide not to fight each other (though they turn a blind eye to the killing of their friends). They even exchange gifts to seal the deal.

This exchanging of ancestry is what Herodotus picks up on in his Histories. As he is going through the history of Persia, for example, he comes to the conquest of Egypt by Cambyses. Realizing that his hearers (readers) have little or no knowledge of Egypt, he proceeds to share the history of that great nation before allowing Cambyses to summarily dispense with it. This is simply Homeric in its literary style. Two warriors (this time on the national level) come together to fight. They share their ancestry (but, of course, Herodotus's audience knows their own history) and then proceed to fight.

Knowing this may not make Herodotus any easier to wade through, but it should give comfort that he wasn't just a rambling storyteller (as Thucydides accused). He did it on purpose.

Ebenezer and Ozymandias

2010-06-15T08:11:00.002-04:00

Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer, saying, "Thus far the Lord has helped up." (1 Samuel 7:12)

Samuel takes the above action in the presence of the army of Israel immediately after the Lord has acted for his people. The people are worshiping their covenant God when the Philistines come to attack and God thunders from the sky and confuses the Philistine army. At that moment Samuel decides it is appropriate to mark the place with a special stone. This stone, called Ebenezer, marks the place that the Lord helped. It is a constant reminder for all generations of the power of God to save to the uttermost. But, like the sacraments, it is not just a reminder of what has happened, it is a testament to what will be done as well. Thus far the Lord has helped us does not imply that he will help no longer. Driving from Greenville to Asheville one changes from I-85 to I-26. One might remark upon changing roads that thus far the interstate road system has helped us get to our destination. It would be foolish to suggest that the roads will fail to continue their helpfulness. It is not the nature of the roads. In like manner, Samuel makes a testament to how God's faithfulness will continue and the monument is meant to show that faithfulness in the past with a view toward the future.

One might compare this with Shelley's famous poem, Ozymandias. In Ozymandias a monument is also present, yet this monument is to the power of man and pride. The traveller tells of "two vast and trunkless legs of stone" standing in the desert with "a shattered visage" lying nearby. The pedestal proclaimed, in the fashion of Near Eastern kings of old, "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" The traveller then describes "nothing beside remains" and "The lone and level sands stretch far away."

How different are these two monuments and markers? One points to human power and human pride the other to the power and fidelity of the triune God. One is still standing, if not in fact, in the hearts of those who read and understand the Scriptures. One stands only as a shattered testament to the lack of human power and the worthlessness of human pride.

Set up Ebenezers in your life to remember that the Lord has protected till now and will protect henceforth.

Harry Potter and the Rules

2010-06-02T13:14:00.002-04:00

"Yes, but ... they wouldn't do anything against the law to get gold."
"Wouldn't they?" said Ron, looking skeptical. "I dunno .. they don't exactly mind breaking rule, do they?"
"Yes, but this is the law," said Hermione, looking scared. "This isn't some silly school rule .... They'll get a lot more than detention for blackmail! Ron ... maybe you'd better tell Percy...."
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, 568-569.
I find it very interesting that the antithesis being set up here is between rules which count (the law) and rules which don't (silly school rules). Rather than pointing out that rules like school rules and house rules are to prepare children to accept the legitimacy and authority of state rules, we have accepted a dichotomy that says rules at home and school are OK to break, so long as sometime, somewhere, children learn the difference between the ones that matter and the ones that don't. But where are children supposed to learn this difference, as if it existed, if not at home and at school. Why are we surprised when students who break rules at home and school continue their rule breaking after they have left home and school? We have never taught them not to!

Good Vampires, Twilight, and Metaphor Morphing

2010-06-02T10:04:00.003-04:00

Can there be such a thing as a good vampire? I am not sure I have an answer to this but Doug Wilson is convinced that there cannot be a good vampire. To him it is a clear example of metaphor morphing "trying to overturn the meaning of symbols that have served our people well for centuries" (Vampires with Self-Control). This is, itself an example of "moving the ancient landmarks" which is warned against in Deuteronomy 19:14. To prove this, Wilson embarked on a commitment to read Twilight and blog his way through the book. His entries can be found at the Credenda/Agenda site, here. I have really enjoyed them. They have been eye-opening in a number of ways. I have decided, partly because of Wilson's decision to read some of the literature my students are reading and that my own kids will soon want to read. I read the Percy Jackson and the Olympians books not long ago and am in year four of Harry Potter. I had watched the movies, but not read the books. I had impressions of the stories and their dangers, but nothing hard to back it up with. I realized that the instant I said "Well I haven't actually read the books, but..." my credibility to critique the books would be gone. I don't think we necessarily have to read to watch everything to critique it (Prov. 24:30-34) but sometimes it can be useful to critique with hard facts. I felt that to be the case here.

Some observations on Percy Jackson

2010-04-23T07:49:00.003-04:00

I will be brief. While waiting for my wife to finish The Chestnut King, I buzzed my way through the five volumes of Percy Jackson and the Olympians. The movie had recently been released and I though I'd like to know the story before going to see it. Needless to say, I needn't have bothered. The movie was only barely related to the book. But I digress.
Rick Riordan is very clever. He has a fun way of bringing Greek myths into modernity and maintaining some of their unity. Medusa shows up as the owner of a yard statue emporium and greasy spoon diner outside of New York City. The gods have traded their togas for clothing that befits their personalities in the modern world. Poseidon, for example, is wearing Bermuda shorts, flip-flops and a Hawaiian shirt while Zeus is in a business suit.
The story, through all five books, is fun. But that doesn't make it good. The writing lacks character and quality. I had a hard time deciding if I was reading bad writing or if Riordan was trying extra hard to make it sound like the first-person narrative of a twelve-sixteen year old boy.
I have a host of other observations, but no time to write them. This will have to do for now.

The Death of Books and the Continuity of Stories in Modernity

2010-04-16T17:37:00.004-04:00

I have been turning something over in my mind recently. From creation until around 400 BC (different date for different regions) stories took the form of oral tradition. Think about the Epic of Gilgamesh or The Iliad. I know that oral tradition left the culture earlier in some places (Babylon) and later in others (Britain), but the gist is sound I think. There is always overlap in a paradigm shift. Thomas Kuhn and Neil Postman have discussed this in science and technology. I am combining their discussions in a cultural way.
From 400 BC until AD 1940, stories took the form of written documents. From scrolls to books, written stories were the way people got their stories. From Herodotus to Rudyard Kipling, the written narrative was the place to find stories. But another paradigm shift took place around the 1940's that unseated the written narrative as the dominant means of story communication. I mean film, of course, the visual narrative.
From the 1940's onward, we have been increasingly getting our cultural stories from visual narratives. It is no longer the norm for people to rush to the bookstore when a new novel is published, unless that new novel is a J.K. Rowling fantasy narrative or a Stephanie Meyer vampire bit. But it is quickly becoming the norm for the season premier of Lost to unseat even the President's State of the Union Address. The competition is over. Visual narratives have won.
We are still in the vast overlap of this shift, so you can still get written narratives of stories. You can even get written forms of movies and television programs. But this will eventually happen less and less, I think. The more dominant trend is for written narratives to be transformed into visual narratives.
So what does this mean for those of us who want to know the stories of our generation? Well, it depends on whether those stories are worth knowing. I found the overall story of the X-Files to be very good. thoroughly enjoyed Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly. I have liked most of the stories of the Star Trek manifestations. I was captivated by Alias, until it self-destructed (same problem with the Matrix and Pirates of the Caribbean movies). I am currently following Lost and sometimes the Mentalist.
Like literature, we go with what intrigues us and we pick up trivia about the rest. The commercials and previews are about all I need to know about Desperate Housewives, probably more than I need to know. Just like you pick up a book and read its dust jacket, or over time get to have a feel for certain genres, we determine what we watch as well. Just because it is a book, doesn't mean you have to read it. Just because it in the theaters doesn't mean you have to watch it.

Calling for Truth, again

2010-04-02T15:44:00.002-04:00

I have been away for far too long and am just getting back into the swing of blogging. One thing I missed while I was away was another appearance on Dr. Paul Dean's Calling for Truth radio program. My thanks go out to another board member who set this up. I had a lot of fun doing it. I could imagine doing something like that professionally.
You can listen to / or download the program here.

On the Nightstand

2010-03-31T22:11:00.003-04:00

The Landmark Thucydides

The Man Who Would Be King and Other Stories

Christianity and Liberalism

Jesus: Made in America

The Man Who Would Be King

2010-03-30T23:13:00.002-04:00

Just finished reading The Man Who Would Be King (hereafter, MWWBK), by Rudyard Kipling. I enjoy Kipling, though I know others do not. I get his imperialism, I think. MWWBK is a short story, though I didn't realize this at first. The volume I have, published by Oxford World Classics, gave me access to a lot of Kipling short stories in the genre.
MWWBK is about a journalist who, by chance, meets a man on the train. The man on the train asks the journalist to deliver a message for him to another man on another train. The journalist decides to do this and then promptly reports both men for con-artists (which they are). Some time later they both show up at the newspaper printer and ask the journalist to hear their plan for the domination of some mysterious kingdom in the hills of Afghanistan. He gives them some assistance and off they go. Two years later one of them shows up and tells the journalist their story. This is the real meat of the story.
The delivery is fun and energetic. I won't spoil the real story, but instead direct you to read it yourself. Enjoy!

Listening

2010-03-16T18:42:00.003-04:00

Ludovico Einaudi - Nightbook

Sumner McKane - Night Blooming Cereus

100 Cupboards

2010-03-11T16:09:00.004-05:00

About two years ago, while at the ACCS conference in Atlanta, I discovered that Doug Wilson's son, Nathan, had been doing some writing. He had published two cute books on Noah's flood and Adam's fall at that time and was prepping for his first big release (as in Random House), Leepike Ridge. I picked up the two small books and brought them home. We enjoyed them. The next year for Christmas I ordered Leepike Ridge from Amazon for my son. He read it and enjoyed it, so did my wife. Then I heard about 100 Cupboards. I ordered it too. My son read it, but got a little freaked out while reading it. My wife read it, and understood why James had been a little tense about it. I still didn't get around to it. I had too many other things to be reading and preparing for. So I went on about my merry way. Then I heard that there was a second volume to the 100 Cupboards, Dandelion Fire. And a third to be released eventually. I decided to read 100 Cupboards.
That was one of the best reads I have done in a long while. Over the summer, I had made it my mission to read what James would read this year, so I would be able to talk with him about it. So I had read some children's literature in the recent past. But Wilson's prose is fantastic. Far better than anything I had read recently.
The story is really good too. What happens when a twelve year old boy goes to live with his aunt and uncle in Kansas because his parents are taken hostage while on a South American bicycle expedition? Well, obviously he discovers that there are magic cupboards in the attic where he is sleeping and accidentally wakes up a witch. This is a story that was clearly the product of a mind steeped in some of the best writing of the world. Lewis, Tolkien, Chesterton, O'Connor all find voice here.
One of the most fun things about the book though is its relationship to modern fiction. At first glance, it seems very like Harry Potter or other similar books. However, there are differences that need to be noted. In Harry Potter, as in many books today, the protagonists make really bad decisions, deceive others and go against authority figures. Much of these things happen to Henry York as well. The difference is in modern fiction, this behavior is almost always praised implicity or explicitly. What I mean is, either the characters are victorious in their tasks because they lie, cheat, or otherwise break the rules (hence implicitly teaching that breaking the rules is often a good thing) or they are outright told that by someone else in the book ("If you hadn't stolen the thing no one is supposed to touch and gone where no is allowed to go and told these lies to us, the world would have ended. Way to go!"). In Wilson's hands, these actions take place. Henry and his cousin Henrietta deceive their authorities (uncle or dad), sneak around when they aren't supposed to, and hide information from others so they can do something cool. But this book makes it very clear that if they had told Uncle Frank what was going on, things could have been much better. Henry is not rewarded for doing bad. This is what makes Wilson's book different from other books I've seen recently.
I think this is a worldview difference. Wilson is a Christian and writes like a Christian. That doesn't mean someone is saved in the book or evangelized. It means that the events of the book take place in a world governed by biblical values and biblical reality.
I have read the second book too, and am beginning the third. More to come.

An Apology for being away...

2009-11-25T13:20:00.002-05:00

This has been an extremely taxing school year thus far. I've had very little time to think much about anything other than my classes. But I haven't written on that either for a while. Just been very busy. Child #5 is due in about two weeks and we are busy preparing for that as well. Life, I have found, has a way of taking the moments you want to do something constructive with and turning your mind to jell-o before you can get there. Therefore, I think I have watched more movies and television than I would normally consider good. But on that thought, I have a certain theory I'm working on that I may be in a position to post on later this year.
Nonetheless, I am hopeful that Thanksgiving break and Christmas break after that will give me enough down time to begin contributing to my blog again. I have been posting on my facebook account, which has a somewhat larger following.

Calling for Truth

2009-10-03T09:06:00.002-04:00

Thanks to some very active Board members, I had the opportunity to be interviewed about Classical Education on Dr. Paul Dean's Calling for Truth a talk radio program on WLFJ here in Greenville. You can listen to it here.

The Science of Refutation

2009-09-12T10:13:00.002-04:00

"Bless me, what do they teach them at these school?"
Thus spoke Professor Digory Kirk at the end of C.S. Lewis' The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. Earlier in the book he had lamented the apparent lack of logical training in modern schools, a fact which has been proven over and over again in government-funded schools across the world and is as true today as it was when Lewis wrote in 1950.
The current health care debate has many more details than I can possible comment on, but one of the more puzzling aspects of this is the very public debate over death panels. If I am hearing correctly, former Governor Sarah Palin first alerted most of us to the essential nature of this aspect of the Obamacare plan, not as something spelled out in a particular section of the bill, but as something that would take place in essence if the bill were passed as is. There is a big difference between saying we are going to pull the plug on Grandma and doing it because it makes sense to someone in authority because Grandma is just too much of a drain on the money pot.
The interesting thing about this for me has been the apparent lack of ability to form a real refutation of this charge. Everyone I have listened to, speaking from the left, has denied the death panel charge and said something to the effect of, "Of course we would never want to do that" without ever actually saying it would not happen. All they really ever get around to saying is that the bill does not call for death panels. But again, this is different from saying we will write language in that prevents the bill from being enacted in such a way as to make death panels a essential characteristic of Obamacare.
Doug Wilson wrote on this a while back from a different point, but I think the point still stands. You can read his post here. If you want to refute a charge, it is important that you speak to what the charge actually says. Neither Palin nor anyone else said that on line such-and-such of the bill it says there will be death panels composed to determine if it is in the best interest of the government or the people to continue paying for medicine or treatment for the elderly or terminally ill. What they said it that the language of the bill is sufficiently weak as to allow for this to take place and that given human nature and the federal government, it most certainly will eventually list in that direction if imposed as is.
So all these media guys and senators and whatnot running around saying it's ridiculous to suggest that the bill has death panels written in are not refuting the charge, they are stating the obvious, which is not what the charge is about. The charge of death panels is about the consequences of ideas, not about what words are on the page.
If this health care bill is passed, this is what will happen down the road.
"Why don't they teach logic at these schools?"

A Chestertonian Hymn

2009-08-17T16:11:00.003-04:00

O God of earth and altar,
Bow down and hear our cry,
Our earthly rulers falter,
Our people drift and die;
The walls of gold entomb us,
The swords of scorn divide,
Take not thy thunder from us,
But take away our pride.

From all that terror teaches,
From lies of tongue and pen,
From all the easy speeches
That comfort cruel men,
From sale and profanation
Of honour and the sword,
From sleep and from damnation,
Deliver us, good Lord.

Tie in a living tether
The prince and priest and thrall,
Bind all our lives together,
Smite us and save us all;
In ire and exultation
Aflame with faith, and free,
Lift up a living nation,
A single sword to thee.

- G.K. Chesterton

My Opinion of the Health Care Debate

2009-08-14T13:47:00.002-04:00

The Green Book

2009-08-03T12:08:00.002-04:00

In 1944, C. S. Lewis did a series of essays, lectures I think, that were published as The Abolition of Man. These lectures were a rebuttal of a book for "boys and girls in the upper forms of school." This book, known to Lewis fans as The Green Book because he graciously withheld the identity of the authors and the real title to the book, has been a mystery to me for several years now.
Not anymore. Doing some reading and searching about The Abolition of Man, I came across this web site and discovered the identity of The Green Book and the authors.
I already did an Amazon search and came up empty-handed on used copies. I'll bet there are none to be had. With the scathing review Lewis gave it, I'll bet the publisher did not even renew the copyright. Surely someone could scan the thing into Google Books or Internet Archive or something. I'd love to see some of the passages Lewis talks about in their original context.
Oh, and the actual title of The Green Book is The Control of Language: A Critical Approach to Reading and Writing and it was written by Alex King and Martin Ketley.

Christopher Columbus (1435-1506)

2009-07-31T12:45:00.003-04:00

One day in the autumn of 1486 a stranger knocked at the gate of a convent called "La Rabida," not far from the little Spanish seaport of Palos. He held by the hand a little boy, and when the monk who opened the door asked what was wanted he answered, "My child and I are tired and hungry. Will you give us a morsel of bread, and let us rest here awhile?"
They were invited to enter, and food was set before them. During the meal the stranger began to talk about the Western Ocean and what must be on the other side of it. "Most men," he said, "think that beyond the Azores there is nothing but a sea of darkness; but I believe that beyond those islands there is another and a larger land."
The prior of the convent, and the physician of Palos who happened to be present, were greatly interested in what their visitor had to say, and asked him to tell them his name and something of his history.
"I am called Christopher Columbus," he said. "I was born in Genoa, and there my boyhood was spent. I loved when a child to watch the sailors haul up the anchor and let loose the sails when a ship began her voyage. My play was to learn the names of the ropes and find out what each was for.
"My father sent me to the University of Pavia; and there I learned about the stars that guide the seaman on his way. I also learned to draw maps and charts. While drawing those maps I used to wonder whether there was not some land beyond the Canaries and the Azores.
"At fifteen I became a sailor. I went on voyages to England and Ireland, to Greece and elsewhere. On one of my voyages our ship was wrecked on the rocky coast of Portugal, but I got to land by the help of a plank. I stayed awhile in Portugal, and there I married the daughter of a sea captain who was the governor of Porto Santo, one of the Madeira Islands.
"I afterwards visited Porto Santo, and there I met many men whose lives were spent in sailing the sea. They told me some wonderful tales. One said that a Portuguese pilot named Martin Vicente had picked up at sea, twelve hundred miles west of Portugal, a piece of strange wood that had been carved by the hand of man. My brother-in-law said that he had seen at Porto Santo great pieces of jointed canes; and that a friend had told him about two human bodies which had been washed up at Flores, 'very broad-faced' and not at all like Christians.
"All these things made me believe more firmly in the idea of a land to the westward; and at length I determined to find that land.
"But I was poor. I could not buy a ship nor pay a crew. I went to my native Genoa, where the masts in the harbor rise as close as the trees in a wood. I explained my plans to the rich merchants there, and begged them to help me. But my countrymen were afraid to send any vessel of theirs beyond the Azores. They thought that west of those islands, there was nothing but the 'Sea of Darkness.'
"I went to Lisbon and asked the Portuguese king for help. Again I was disappointed; but I was not discouraged.
"I then came to Spain, and at last the good Queen Isabella heard my story. A council of learned men was called to consider my plan. They said it was wild, and advised her Majesty to give me no aid.
"Thus, I am again disappointed. The little money that I had is spent, and I am a beggar. It seems as if the world is against me. Yet I am sure that there is a land beyond the sea."
The prior, the physician, and the monks who had gathered about Columbus were much interested. Father Perez, one of the monks, had been confessor to Queen Isabella, and he wrote a letter to her begging that she would see Columbus again. She consented, and Columbus went from the convent to the palace to see her.
The queen again refused his request, and Columbus set out for France hoping that the king of that country might help him. But one of the officers of Isabella's court persuaded her to change her mind, and a messenger was sent to bring Columbus back into the royal presence.
King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella were in camp at Santa Fe near Granada, which they had but lately captured from the floors; and there they signed an agreement to supply Columbus with two ships, and to pay the crews.
It was easy for the sovereigns to promise crews and to pay them; but it was very hard to find men who were willing to sail on such a voyage. Even the criminals who were promised pardon if they would go, refused. To sail into the "Sea of Darkness" seemed certain death to them.
At last, however, all difficulties were overcome. Two wealthy gentlemen added a third ship to the two supplied by the king and queen; and the wonderful voyage began. The Santa Maria with a crew of fifty men was commanded by Columbus himself; the Pinta with thirty men was in charge of Martin Pinzon; and the Nina or "Baby" with twenty-four men was commanded by Martin's brother, Vicente Pinzon.
At eight o'clock on the morning of August 3, 1492, the sails were hoisted, and the little expedition left the harbor of Palos.
On the third day out, the Pinta lost her rudder. Fortunately they were then not far from the Canary Islands. They therefore steered for Teneriffe where they had the vessel repaired.
When they had sailed about six weeks they were astonished to find that the magnetic needle varied from its usual direction. Soon after observing this, they reached a part of the ocean where a great field of seaweed lay all around them. This was what is called the "Sargasso Sea," and the ships of Columbus were the first that ever sailed across it.
They observed another strange thing. The wind in this part of the ocean blew steadily, night and day, to the westward. It was the northeast trade wind, which was unknown to sailors along the coast and in the inland seas.
They had excellent weather; but the men began to be fearful lest they could never beat back against the trade wind; and it was hard to keep them in good spirits.
Happily, soon afterward, they saw some birds, and that made them sure that land was not far off. Then the Pinta fished up a fragment of sugar cane and a log of wood; and the Nina sighted a green branch covered with dog-rose flowers.
At ten o'clock one night, Columbus saw a light ahead; and the next morning they landed on one of the Bahama Islands. Which island this was we are not quite sure; but it was probably the one which the natives called Guanahani. Columbus named it San Salvador.
When Columbus stepped from his boat he carried with him the royal banner of Spain. Kneeling upon the shore with his companions, he kissed the ground, gave thanks to God, and took possession of the land in the name of Ferdinand and Isabella.
The expedition afterwards discovered the islands of Cuba, Haiti and others of the West India group.
On the shore of Haiti the Santa Maria went aground and became a wreck. With the two remaining vessels, Columbus soon afterwards set sail for Spain, and on the 15th of March, 1493, he dropped anchor in the port of Palos.
Ferdinand and Isabella were then at Barcelona, and they received him with great honor. He showed them curious plants and gayly-colored parrots, and, more interesting than these, nine natives whom he had brought from the newly-discovered islands.
There was now no doubt that Columbus was right, and that the "Sea of Darkness" beyond the Azores was only a dream.
It was determined that Columbus should make another expedition. In six months seventeen vessels and fifteen hundred men were ready to sail, and the second great voyage was begun. It was on this voyage that Jamaica, Porto Rico, and several smaller islands were discovered.
Most of the fifteen hundred men, however, went with Columbus, not in the hope of discovering new lands, but for the purpose of colonizing the island of Haiti. Columbus had learned on his first voyage that on that island there were deposits of gold; so now a mining town was founded in the gold region of Haiti, and the work of digging was begun. But the Spaniards were not fond of work. They therefore made slaves of the natives and forced them to dig in the mines; and a large quantity of gold was secured.
Some of the greedy colonists thought of another and easier way of making money. They captured a number of the natives and sent them to Spain to be sold as slaves; and, strange to say, Columbus permitted this.
When Queen Isabella heard of it she was very angry with Columbus, and asked him who had given him the right to make slaves of her subjects. She commanded that every one of the Indians should be made free and sent home.
This enslaving of the Indians was the beginning of the downfall of Columbus. Isabella never afterwards felt toward him as she had before.
However, when he returned to Spain he related a pitiful tale about the sufferings of the colonists in Haiti; and the queen furnished him with supplies for them, and provided a fleet of six vessels with which he set sail on May 30, 1498.
On this third voyage a new land was discovered. One day, three hill-tops were seen rising out of the sea, and soon the ships approached a large island. Columbus called it, from its three peaks, Trinidad, and the island is still known by that name.
From Trinidad they sailed to the southwest until they approached another shore. Columbus had now discovered the southern grand division of the New World, but he did not know this. He supposed that the land was only another island.
He was anxious to get back to the colony on the island of Haiti, and so, sailing now to the northward, the ships in due time reached their harbor.
In Haiti there were men plotting against Columbus. Some of the colonists who had not found so much gold as they had hoped for, returned to Spain and complained to the king that Columbus was managing the colony badly.
Ferdinand and Isabella partly believed what they said. As Columbus had done one wrong thing when he made slaves of the Indians, the king and queen thought he might do wrong in other things.
Accordingly, they sent to Haiti a man named Bobadilla (bo ba deel' yd) to take charge of the colony; and Bobadilla on his arrival, accused Columbus of cruelty and injustice, and sent him to Spain in chains. The captain of the vessel in which he sailed wished to remove these fetters, but Columbus would not allow him to do so. He wore them to the end of the voyage, and kept them as relics ever afterwards.
As soon as the vessel reached Spain, Columbus wrote a letter to the king and queen telling them what he had done, and what had been done to him. When Isabella read it, she is said to have shed tears. His fetters were at once removed; and Ferdinand and Isabella refused to listen to the charges which Bobadilla had made against him.
Columbus never so much as imagined that he had discovered a new continent. He supposed that Cuba, Jamaica, and the other islands which he visited were some of what are called the "Indies", or islands near India. For a long time everybody else supposed so too; and hence it is that Cuba and the neighboring islands have always been called the West Indies.
About this time, the Pope divided between Spain and Portugal all the newly-discovered lands, and all that might afterwards be discovered. The dividing line was a meridian passing three hundred leagues west of the Azores. Spain's share was all that lay west of this meridian, and Portugal's all that lay east of it.
Spain was jealous of Portugal, and anxious to secure a part of that kingdom's share. Columbus suggested a way to do this. He assured Ferdinand and Isabella that by sailing still farther to the westward, beyond the West Indies, it would be possible to reach some of the islands which might be claimed by Portugal; and of course he was correct in this view.
He asked the sovereigns for a fleet with which to make the attempt; and in 1502, with four ships and a hundred and fifty men, he set sail from Cadiz. On the voyage he landed at Jamaica and other islands; but although he was absent more than two years, he accomplished nothing of importance.
He returned to Spain in 1504, and died two years later.
His body was buried at Valladolid (val ya do leed'), but was afterwards carried across the ocean and interred in the cathedral of Santo Domingo on the island of Haiti. When that island was ceded by the Spaniards to France, the remains of the great navigator were removed to Havana; and there they rested until after the war between the United States and Spain, when they were taken back to Spain.

From Famous Men of Modern Times by John Haaren (public domain)

2009-07-29T09:29:00.004-04:00

Google has gone too far now, perfecting the art of time travel, they have taken their satellites back in time to capture some important moments in history from a Google Earth perspective. Here is one image they have brought us.

This is the top of Mount Ararat, just as the ark has settled onto the dry ground.

Seriously though, this image came from a website called the Glue Project and they have done a few interesting images called God's Eye View, essentially photoshopping some images to look like events from the Bible. The Ark one was neat. So it this one from the Red Sea Crossing.

Now more than ever, we cannot believe our eyes and must use the reason God gave us. That reminds me of a great line from "The Blue Cross" the first Father Brown story. When asked how Father Brown was sure that the thief masquerading as a priest was not a priest, Father Brown responds, "'You attacked reason,' said Father Brown. 'It's bad theology.'"

Cute? Not really.

2009-07-15T10:30:00.002-04:00

A friend on facebook posted this recently. I watched it, chuckled, and then stopped chuckling. It reminded me that we, too often, think things like this are cute. Our little children do things that are rebellious and we have a hard time holding back the snickers because it looks cute at the time. But cute sin turns into ugly sin when it is not dealt with properly and promptly.
This little girl has obviously been exposed to the language she is using. There is no mystery here. I am beginning to think that exposure is tantamount to approval in our culture. I have learned, even recently, how important it is to shield my own children from certain things. I've sat at the dinner table and had my children say things that I know they picked up from me, and been ashamed that they said it. My pastor often says that our children will take the sins we play with and perfect them. Sin is covenantal.
Don't think it's cute when three year olds do as this little girl does. If it is your three year old, don't approve of it by laughing, getting her to do it again so you can tape it, and don't post it in public.

Lorenzo the Magnificent - John Haaren

2009-07-10T18:29:00.004-04:00

The thousand years between the downfall of the Roman Empire and the Discovery of America are called the Middle Ages—which means the ages between ancient and modern times. This was a very stormy period. In the early part, the barbarians overran Europe and destroyed almost every sign of civilization. They were brought under some control through the efforts of the Church, and, as time advanced, there was progress in the arts of civilized life. Schools were established in monasteries, and here and there in large cities, but there was no general popular education as we consider it now. This is not so strange, for there were no printed books. The printing press had not been invented; all books at that time were manuscripts, that is they were written by hand, for that is what the word manuscript means. They were written on parchment, which was sheepskin specially prepared so that it would take ink. Of course books written by hand were expensive, for it took a great deal of time to write them. Most of the people in Europe, therefore, lived and died without ever having a book in their hands. In only a few of the largest cities and monasteries was it possible to find a library containing as many as five hundred volumes. When at length the printing press was invented, the desire for knowledge became widely spread. People felt that they must have books to read, and to study. They saw the necessity for schools in which their children might be taught. Of all the countries of Europe none was more thoroughly awakened than Italy; and among the places that were thus aroused to a desire for knowledge of all kinds, one of the first was the city of Florence. Florence early became the home of many learned men, and no city did more for the enlightenment of Europe than she. Here lived the famous family of the Medici. For several generations the Medici had been engaged in what was then almost the only commerce of the world. This was trade with India. Caravans of camels brought silks and shawls, spices and precious stones from the far East to the shores of the Mediterranean. Ships transported them to Florence. Trains of pack horses and mules carried them from Florence across the passes of the Alps to the cities of northern and western Europe. This traffic had made the Medici very wealthy; and not only wealthy but powerful. For three hundred years the family ruled the city and people of Florence. But it was not their wealth alone that gave them their power. Their political influence based on industrial conditions was great also. The city was, like ancient Athens, a state. It made its own laws, and had the right to coin its own money; it made war or peace with foreign countries. The government of the state was republican. But Florence was one of the strangest little republics that ever existed. It had this peculiar law, that no man should hold the office of chief magistrate, unless he belonged to one of the guilds, or "arts" as they were called. These were about the same as our modern trades unions. But the Florentines had even more such unions than we have. Not only were there unions of carpenters and masons and others who worked with their hands, the people who worked with their heads were also united. There were "arts" or unions of the bankers, the merchants, the doctors, and the lawyers. From the members of the "arts" the Florentines chose their officers. The government of the city was vested in the "Great Council of Nine." These Nine consisted of seven who were head workers, and two who were hand workers. This arrangement brought those who worked with their heads and those who worked with their hands very close together. It caused the lawyers and merchants and bankers to have a friendly feeling for the carpenters and masons and others who made their living by "the sweat of their brows;" and no man could long be ruler in Florence who did not love the working people.
The Medici family were famed for doing good with their money among the people of Florence. And therefore one after another of them found it easy either to be made the "standard-bearer" as the president of the republic was called; or to have men put into office who would carry out his wishes. In 1449, just about the time when Europe was preparing to enter upon a period of renewed activity, one of the Medici line was born who was named Lorenzo. He died in 1492, the very year in which Columbus discovered America. His grandfather, Cosimo de Medici had given many fine buildings to Florence, among which was its famous cathedral. Lorenzo's father had also spent immense sums of money for the benefit of Florence. He had been really the ruler of the city for many years, although he very seldom held the office of standard-bearer, or had any official title. When he died the people of Florence desired that another Medici should manage the republic, and therefore they invited Lorenzo to do for them as his father had done. He accepted their invitation, and became their ruler. He proved to be much like the famous Athenian, Pisistratus—a tyrant who was not tyrannical. He ruled for the welfare of the people. He did not think that the first duty of a good ruler was to make his people soldiers. He saw that the best thing to be done for the Florentines was to enlighten them—to furnish them with books and schools. But where were books to be procured? There were monasteries in various parts of Europe in which were large numbers of books; and among these were manuscripts of many works of the old Greeks and Romans. But the principal hiding-place of manuscripts, especially those of Greek writers, was Constantinople. And it happened in a very strange way that the books of Constantinople were at that very time being brought to Western Europe. The inhabitants of Constantinople were Greeks. They read the writings of Homer and Plato, and the Gospels and Epistles of the New Testament, in the original Greek. The Turks who had long been menacing the city cared nothing for Homer and Plato; and they hated the books of the New Testament. They thought that men needed no book but the Koran of Mohammed. Many of them believed that no one ought to read any other book. At length, in 1453, Constantinople was actually taken by the Turks, and a great number of its people escaped and went forth to seek new and peaceful homes in Western Europe. Many went to Italy; and of these, several found their way to Florence. Some of these men brought manuscripts with them; and they told their new Italian friends that others might be obtained in Constantinople. After this the Medici, and men like them, carried on for years a diligent search for books. They sent men to the monasteries of Italy, Germany, and England, and to Constantinople to purchase whatever ancient manuscripts they could find. One of those who went to the old Eastern capital brought back two hundred and thirty-eight, among which were the writings of Plato and Xenophon, who lived in Athens four hundred years before Christ. Lorenzo caused many of the old manuscripts to be copied; and, what was better, he had them printed. For just before Lorenzo's birth, Gutenberg had perfected his printing press; and, three years after Lorenzo was born, the first book printed in Florence had made its appearance. It was an edition of Vergil, the great Latin poet; and very likely Lorenzo used a copy of it when he studied Latin. He lived to see books wonderfully multiplied. By the time he was thirty years old, Vergil and Horace, Homer and Xenophon could be printed so cheaply that they were bought for school boys. Like other merchant princes of the time, Lorenzo established a famous school in Florence. It was a Greek high school. So many learned men graduated from it and became celebrated teachers, that the people said it was like the wooden horse at the siege of Troy, out of which came so many Greek warriors fully armed for the fight. Although Lorenzo was called "The Magnificent" by the people of Florence, and was apparently so generous toward them, yet Florence was not really enriched by him. He only made it grander and more famous by his administration, but he completed that subversion of the Florentine republic for which his father and his grandfather had well prepared the way. Florence, although so splendid, was full of corruption, her rulers violating oaths, betraying trusts, and living only for pleasure. From the days of Lorenzo de Medici her power has steadily declined.

From Famous Men of Modern Times, by John Haaren. This text is in the public domain.

Debt Help

2009-07-10T14:54:00.000-04:00

On Indians and Cupboards

2009-07-07T16:29:00.004-04:00

I read The Indian in the Cupboard over the past week. I've never read it and my son (9) will be reading it this next year. I wanted to tackle some of his books over the summer so I could help him out with it. It was a good read. Some of the themes that I encountered were well written into the storyline. The boy, Omri, matures quite nicely in the context of the story.
I like the way the boy matures. He goes from thinking it would be super cool to turn all his toys into real things to understanding that the living toys are really people, not just animated toys. I also like the way he turns from a kid who throws stuff anywhere to a kid who cleans up. Losing the magic key helped on that one. The developing friendships were also interesting. As Omri matured, his status quo friendship with Patrick had to evolve. This was rough at times, but evolve it did. The friendship that developed between Boone and Little Bear was also fun to see happen. One other thing I liked was how the boys learned that their candy-coated westerns and such did not represent real life for Indians or Cowboys. Even the World War One medic gave them a pretty good lesson in the reality of trench warfare.
Some criticisms though are pertinent. The family structure in the book is awful. It is clear that the kids run the house. They are afraid of their domineering parents who take action when things get too far out of hand, but they do not respect them. Same goes for the authority structure at school and the shop where the boys buy their little plastic figures.
The whole paradigm of alternate universes made me think in terms of the antithesis. The lesson of the book is that no matter who you are or where you come from (time, country, etc.) you can befriend your opposite and even become "blood brothers" with him.
Overall, I think I'll enjoy talking through this with my son.

Verizon employees fail at math - or, what good is math in real life

2009-06-30T14:53:00.003-04:00

Integration in Classical Curriculum

2009-06-24T10:33:00.002-04:00

As people have spoken to me about classical education and the school at which I teach, to get a better understanding of our approach one of the things that often sets them back is our focus on integration of subjects. Why would we put history and literature in the same category? A glance through our book list for a grade or two will make anyone see immediately what I am referring to. We have third grade students read about the Trojan War and our sixth graders read about Winston Churchill. I thought it might be appropriate to give a brief defense of the integration of subjects such as history, literature, and theology.
Every book is a work of history, literature and theology. Any printed material that you pick up can be minded successfully for all three of these disciplines. Some are going to lean heavily in one area over the others, but they will always say something in each area. All books have a history and are written in a particular time and place. This can affect the position the book takes upon particular events or ideologies. There are American history books written when Richard Nixon was in office but before the Watergate scandal that paint a very different picture of that man than those appearing just a couple of years later. Novels written prior to the 20th century will praise the glory of mankind’s increasingly benevolent spirit; a quality that most readers no don’t have as much trust in.
Every book must be written with a degree of style and structure. This quality of making information readable gives it a place in literature. Is it well organized and well written? Does it have grammatical or structural flaws? Is the argument developed just as carefully as the plot of a good novel would be? These things make any book a work of literature. It does not matter that it is not Oedipus Rex or Pride and Prejudice. Literature has a definite structure and style. A novel, a good novel anyway, will follow a basic pattern in its story. The author will make introduction of characters and setting. Then the plot will take over as some need or want will motivate the characters. A similar pattern could be duplicated by a theological or philosophical treatise or a study in the Peloponnesian or Vietnam war.
Finally every book, regardless of its audience or content, is a work of theology. Every author has a worldview that governs their relationship to and with the world god has made. A worldview is a combination of elementary assumptions about reality, knowledge, and ethics that governs the way information is processed and acted upon. Every person has a worldview and attempts to live according to it. However, what we will find is that most authors strive for consistency in written works even if they fail in their day-to-day lives. A worldview is a very theological thing. A person’s thoughts about God will ultimately be determined by their presuppositions. Hence, what worldview a person holds will have a direct relationship to how they present information concerning God. Imagine an avowed Atheist writing a science textbook and including a chapter on Creationism. While this author may get facts, numbers, equations, and the basic narrative correct, their presentation of what God did at creation is going to be affected by the fact that they don’t believe in God. A children’s book written by a homosexual will likely present a less-than-true model of marriage. These examples are extremes and sometimes you have to look pretty hard for the influence of a competing worldview, but it is always there.
So Classical Education integrates these subjects to teach all of these skills and tasks at one time. It is the best way I know of to introduce our students into the real world. After all, no one on the evening news begins their report with “I am a Darwinist and a Socialist, so bear that in mind as I report on the happenings of the day.” And yet, we must be prepared to see that in everything we come in contact with that we might take “every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5).

Orthodoxy and Blasphemy

2009-06-19T18:26:00.003-04:00

"[E]very orthodoxy protects its sacred things with blasphemy laws. Because our culture likes to keep up its secularist pretense, we do not use the term othodoxy or blasphemy. But we do have politically correct thought, and we do have laws against hate speech."
Douglas Wilson, A Serrated Edge, 22

Wishing I could go back to school

2009-06-16T09:56:00.003-04:00

I am a student. I have known that about myself for some time. My wife jokes about it, until I start thinking of actually going to school again. I remember when I started going to graduate classes at Clemson. I thought, "Wow, I wish I could have done my B.A. here." Not that I was unhappy with the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga, I just loved being on campus and going to classes. They had a bigger and better library and the sorts of classes were more inspiring than some I had taken for my B.A. But then again, I had changed so much by then that I probably would not have majored in the same subjects as I did for my B.A. Nonetheless, whenever I am on a college campus or visiting a school I wish I could be there as a student. I wish I could learn from the men and women I see teaching young students at Christian and Classical schools I visit. I wish I could be a student in a classroom perpetually. Alas, such is not my fate.
That is a large part of why I teach at a Christian and Classical school and homeschool my own children. I feel very much the failure of modern education in my own life. I cry out with Dr. George Grant, "I've been robbed!"
For those of you who feel you've been robbed of a decent education and have the ability to correct that, I have some suggestions for you. New Saint Andrews college is in Moscow, Idaho and seems to be an offshoot of Logos school there, headed by Douglas Wilson. I've met several folks who have either gone to school there or graduated from NSA and I can attest to the high quality education they get there. It's a place I'd love to do another graduate degree. Another is Gutenberg College in Eugene, Oregon. Gutenberg, like NSA focuses on the Great Books. It is a liberal arts college and I've personally talked to the President at ACCS conferences in the past. I know what they are trying to do there and it is solid. A new recommendation is New College Franklin, otherwise known as Bannockburn Fellowship in Franklin, TN.
Bannockburn has been around for a while but now it is a degree granting, accredited institution. Dr. Geroge Grant began giving homeschool tutorials in Moral Philosophy and Humanities in 1992 and that eventually grew into Franklin Classical School. I don't know this for sure, but from what I've heard, students who wanted more of Dr. Grant's teaching after graduating from high school were allowed, or invited, to stick around for another round of non-accredited Moral Philosophy seminars and tutorials that became known as the Bannockburn Fellowship. King's Meadow Study Center used to have a reading list of the three years of Bannockburn at their website. It was pretty impressive. I wish they'd re post it or something. Nevertheless, eventually Dr. Grant decided to convert the Fellowship into an accredited institution with authority to grant a degree that would be recognized in the state of Tennessee and elsewhere. It took them a long time because the red tape in Tennessee is a mile thick and as long as the state but they were finally able to meet the requirements of the state. The name, New College Franklin was put on the back burner for the accreditation process so the college is operating its inaugural year under the older Bannockburn Fellowship title. Boy, I'd really love to go there and take the classes.
Like many others, I've realized that while my education in Tennessee and South Carolina taught me a lot of stuff, it failed at teaching me how to think about stuff. A Classical education is a little lighter on the stuff, but not much (ask my children who memorized over 500 different things this year [grades 3, 1, and pre-K]). The real goal of a classical education is to instruct in thinking. This is done through a systematic interaction with the languages of creation. Mathematics reveal God's order in creation. Science reveals God's intricate design and precision. History reveals God's providential purpose for mankind and creation as it unfolds across time and space. Literature reveals God's word to mankind, both through the written Scriptures (which alone are absolute truth) and those things men have written under common grace that reflect the truth of God's economy in things. Each of these "subjects" as we often call them are studied for the tools they give us, not necessarily for the information they give. In other words, the tools are the goal, not the information. The information is valuable, but only for the training of the tool. Subjects, taught the right way, give the tools of Grammar, Logic (Dialectic), and Rhetoric. Put another way, students learn what there is to think about in creation, how to think about those things, and then finally how to communicate what they think about those things to others.
With that in mind, I am always seeking and searching for new ways to regain some of that education I missed. I have many people to thank for what little progress I have made. Among them are Douglas Wilson and George Grant. I have listened to more lectures, speeches, and sermons of these two gentlemen than almost any other person, save my own pastor and friend, Carl Robbins. Wilson and Grant both seek to give us ways to "repair the ruins" of our own shattered and mangled education, in part by taking responsibility for our children's education. I realized a while back that my children are going to be smarter than I am. This is not because they will know more stuff (which they probably will in some sense) but because they will be able to think better. My task there is to help them, and pray the Spirit to help them, not become arrogant about this knowledge but to submit it to Christ, as we do all things.
If you are at the stage where college options are open to you and you are looking for something more than just a job that will get you lots of money, you should look into the three schools I have mentioned. There are others I have not mentioned because I know less about them, not because they are inferior institutions. Perhaps they'd like to send me some information or invite me up for a tour (hint, hint). I'd be happy to mention them here if I had more information with which to work.

No More Gold (1 Kings 14:25-28)

2009-06-13T09:40:00.004-04:00

"It happened in the fifth year of King Rehoboam that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem. And he took away the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king’s house; he took away everything. He also took away all the gold shields which Solomon had made. Then King Rehoboam made bronze shields in their place, and committed them to the hands of the captains of the guard, who guarded the doorway of the king’s house. And whenever the king entered the house of the Lord, the guards carried them, then brought them back into the guardroom." (1 Kings 14:25-28)
I was reading this passage the other day and was struck by a couple of things. It was interesting to me that Rehoboam so desired the image of sovereignty that he had bronze shields made to replace the gold ones that Shishak took away. The heart of the king was not touched by the Lord's wrath upon him for his wickedness. Instead, and this is true of all men, I believe, Rehoboam was undaunted by the clear sign of God's disfavor and sought to continue whatever path he had set for himself with whatever means he still possessed. I've read stories that depict drunks who graduate from fairly affluent lifestyles and high quality liquor to homelessness and whatever cheap whiskey they can find. "No one seems to be around, Just this monkey that I've found...And tonight he grins again"
However, there is another way of seeing this passage of Scripture. It isn't one I'm used to finding, but this time it kind of struck me. Perhaps Rehoboam is still trying to honor the Lord with whatever the Lord has left him. "The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord" Perhaps Rehoboam is here trying to make sure the Lord's name is held in high regard and the mystery of His presence is still honored even when Judah is under His judgment.
But then why would the shields only be used when Rehoboam entered the Lord's house? It seems, that while I'd like to give Rehoboam the benefit of the doubt, the text doesn't give much room there.
Don't be like Rehoboam. Don't make bronze shields when the Lord takes away the golden ones. Fall down in repentance and plead the Lord's mercy that He might return the golden shields.

Hapy Birthday Tetris

2009-06-06T10:05:00.003-04:00

Tetris was released today in 1984. I'm not sure how significant the year is. You may consult Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death to determine this. Nevertheless, today marks the day that millions upon millions of people became addicted to the little blocks falling upon each other.

On iTunes

2009-06-06T09:46:00.004-04:00

Andy McKee
The Gates of Gnomeria

Michael Halaas
The Lucidity Project

Ron Paul on Homeschooling

2009-06-01T23:14:00.003-04:00

Ron Paul gave the commencement address to a group of 14 homeschooled students recently. A nice write-up about it and what Ron Paul said about homeschooling can be found at "The Facts." Essentially, Paul reiterated the reason thinking homeschoolers homeschool, because they are passionate about their children and know that they are the ones in charge, not the state.

“It’s very important we encourage home-schooling and make sure it’s always legal, and our governments never decide they know best,” Paul said. “Too often, our government would like to be the parent. Home-schoolers know exactly who’s responsible for education, and that’s the parent.”

A big thanks to Representative Paul for taking the hard stand, as he usually does, on what matters.

Ideas Have Consequences

2009-06-01T21:12:00.003-04:00

"It will not suffice to point out the inventions and processes of our century unless it can be shown that they are something other than a splendid efflorescence of decay" (12)

"The whole tendency of modern thought, one might say its whole moral impulse, is to keep the individual busy with endless induction." (12)

"The unexpressed assumption of empiricism is that experience will tell us what we are experiencing." (13)

"A great material establishment, by its very temptation to luxuriousness, unfits the owner for the labor necessary to maintain it, as has been observed countless times in the histories and of nations." (15)

"Civilization has been an intermittent phenomenon; to this truth we have allowed ourselves to be blinded by the insolence of material success." (17)

Happy Birthday G.K. Chesterton

2009-05-29T20:39:00.004-04:00

Gilbert Keith Chesterton, author of Orthodoxy, What's Wrong With The World, the Father Brown Mysteries, and many other well-known books, was born on this day (May 29) in the year 1874. His writing continues to be influential to many readers around the world. If you have not been exposed to his writing, check out the American Chesterton Society (on the sidebar) and read a little about this literary giant.

This Day in History-The Beginning of Philosophy

2009-05-28T18:18:00.004-04:00

Today, May 28 is one of the beginning dates offered for the beginnings of philosophy in Ancient Greece. The reason is quite simple really. A solar eclipse happened, as predicted by Thales of Miletus on this day in 586 BC. This solar eclipse happened to lead to truce between the Lydians and the Medes, a truce that would be in effect until Croesus of Lydia was conquered by Cyrus the Great of Persia in 546 BC. But that is another story.
Why would a solar eclipse begin philosophy? Because under the paradigm of Greek mythology, the religion of the Greeks, he should not have been able to do it. Under Greek mythology every event takes place because of the gods. Consider the cause of the plague in Homer's Iliad that is distressing the Greeks as the epic opens. "Apollo, who in anger at the king drove the foul pestilence along the host, and the people perished, since Atreus' son had dishonoured Chryses, priest of Apollo" (Il. i.9-11). Typically, as in Homer, events have an immediate course in the wrath of the gods. Thales usurps the possibility of the gods by predicting something. Prediction implies one of two things for the Greek worldview. Either the gods to not exist or Thales is a prophet with the mind of the gods.
This involves just a just brief foray into causality. In human experience (shut up Hume), causes always precede events. In Greek mythology, all events had supernatural causes with immediate causes. By predicting an event, Thales called into question the immediate supernatural causes of this event, and thus all events. If Thales can predict the effect, the cause is known or knowable. But Greek mythology held that the causes of storms, plagues, even the seasons are known only to the gods. The consequences of Thales prediction are obvious. Either the gods did not really control events like the eclipse Thales predicted or they planned the event do far beforehand that Thales was able to deduce it or discover it. But either of these negates the traditional understanding of causality according to the worldview of the Greek mind.
Thus Thales, by using reason and science, began philosophy by predicting an event that the gods did not cause.

The Grotesque in Fiction

2009-05-27T22:03:00.002-04:00

In the greatest fiction, the writer's moral sense coincides with his dramatic sense, and I see no way for it to do this unless his moral judgment is part of the very act of seeing, and he is free to use it. I have heard it said that belief in Christian dogma is a hindrance to the writer, but I myself have found nothing further from the truth. Actually, it frees the storyteller to observe. It is not a set of rules which fixes what he sees in the world. It affects his writing primarily by guaranteeing his respect for mystery.
In the introduction to a collection of his stories called Rotting Hill, Wyndham Lewis has written, "If I write about a hill what is rotting, it is because I despise rot." The general accusation passed against writers now is that they write about rot because they love it. Some do, and their works may betray them, but it is impossible not to believe that some write about rot because they see it for what it is.
Flannery O'Connor, "The Fiction Writer & His Country" in Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose, 31.

The Trouble with Socialism

2009-05-20T21:55:00.003-04:00

"The trouble with Socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money."
Margaret Thatcher, former British Prime Minister.

On This Day in History

2009-05-16T15:06:00.004-04:00

On May 16, 1532 Sir Thomas More resigned as Lord Chancellor of England. This was done because he could not condone either the divorce of King Henry VIII from Catherine or the marriage of Henry to Anny Boleyn.
Thomas More (1478 - 1535) was the leading anti-Protestant in England at the time of the Reformation. More spoke vehemently against Luther and his views. He held a number of offices in English politics as he worked his way up to being Lord Chancellor.
In 1530, however, he had refused to sign a letter asking the Papacy for an annulment of the marriage of Henry to Catherine. This put a serious wedge between the monarchy and More. The decision of the monarchy to terminate the Roman Catholic Church and institute the Church of England with the king as the head did not sit well with More. Whereupon, in 1531 he refused to take an oath demonstrating loyalty to the king as the Head of the Church of England.
In 1532, following several attempts, More was finally allowed to resign when it became clear that no reunion between the King and More was going to take place. The next year when More refused to attend the coronation of Anne Boleyn as the Queen of England, Henry had More arrested on charges of accepting bribes and high treason, although no evidence existed for either crime.
In 1534 More appeared before a parliamentary commission and accepted that Parliament had the right to declare Anne the legitimate queen of England but refused to swear an oath himself to that effect. More's problem was not with the Act of Succession, but with the language in it that declared the Parliament had more right that the Pope to legislate in matters of religion.
More was imprisoned in the Tower of London. In 1535 he was brought to trial for denying the validity of the Act of Succession, which he did not do. More maintained he could not be convicted of denial of the Act if he did not actually deny the Act. He refused to answer questions related to the King's authority as Head of the Church or any of his opinions on the subject.
Nevertheless, the jury convicted him of the crime of high treason based on testimony of other witnesses. More was executed on July 6, 1535 by decapitation.
More was canonized by the Roman Catholic Church in 1886.
A fantastic film version of his life and trial exists in the adaption of A Man for All Seasons.

Wisdom from Chesterton

2009-05-09T09:34:00.004-04:00

Many clever men like you have trusted in civilization. Many clever Babylonians, many clever Egyptians, many clever men at the end of Rome. Can you tell me, in a world that is flagrant with the failures of civilization, what there is particularly immortal about yours?
The Napoleon of Notting Hill

This Day in History

2009-05-05T18:28:00.005-04:00

While every one else is blogging about Cinco de Mayo, I am going to write about another event that had greater ramifications but led to fewer parties and less drunkenness.
On this day, May 5, in 1640, Charles I dissolved the Short Parliament. This event has been claimed as the fuse of the English Civil War. Charles had learned from his father, James I, that kings owed their position to God. So far so good (as per Rom. 13:1-7). But James also taught his son that he was above the law and could do anything he wanted to because he owed nothing to the people. Problem! Charles repeatedly tried to rule without respect to the people of England, even though Magna Carta required certain powers be reserved for the people (represented in Parliament). When his foreign wars began costing more money than he actually had, he was forced to call Parliament into session. Only Parliament could authorize monies for war and soldier's wages.
When Parliament came into session on April 17, they refused to conduct any business until Charles recognized the authority of the people in government. After only three weeks, Charles dissolved the body and attempted to raise the money to fight his Scottish war alone. Charles was able to hold out until November of 1640 when lack of funds forced him to recall Parliament. This Parliament session lasted until 1649 and saw the outbreak of the English Civil War.
Royalists and Puritans fought each other over basic principles of government. Was the monarchy totalitarian or did it derive its power from the consent of the people? Charles fled before the Puritan Parliament and gathered his own forces. Oliver Cromwell rose as the leader of the Puritan forces and eventually Charles was captured, tried for treason against the state, and beheaded.
Issues such as religious freedom also entered the picture. Charles had appointed William Laud as Archbishop and Laud wanted to force the Anglican liturgy and form of worship on Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and others. In the period following Charles death, Parliament called together a diverse group of religious leaders, called divines, and charged them with drafting a confessional statement for the Protestant churches in England that all could assent to. The result, in 1648, was the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Larger and Shorter Catechisms.
So while I have nothing against beer and margaritas, I prefer to raise a glass in honor of the Short Parliament and the men who stood firm in their resolve against tyranny today.

How to Change a Culture

2009-05-04T16:57:00.002-04:00

The other night my wife and I were flipping through channels in hopeless attempt to find something to watch. For one thing, we don't have cable, by design. We have decided that we already watch too much television with only the over-the-air broadcast channels we receive. For another thing, we can't justify spending the money. But the first reason is more important.
Nonetheless, we were flipping the channels and lighted upon NBC for a few moments. I could tell it was one of the incarnations of Law and Order. I have enjoyed some of these, especially the way they take a story currently in the news and twist it a little to make a fictional story. However, what I saw that night was nothing to be amused about.
The version I caught was SVU (Special Victims Unit). I rarely like these because of their attention to children and sexual crimes. I didn't like this one either, but for different reasons. I caught the story most of the way through, but I got the gist of it pretty quickly. A child had died and the evidence had led the investigators to a mother whose own child was known to play at the same public park as the victim. What happened next left me dumbfounded. The woman was arrested for murder because she had refused to vaccinate her own child and that child had spread a mild disease to the victim.
I actually didn't even finish the episode. I had seen everything I needed to see in those few moments. The characters provided the commentary that was necessary to change or establish public opinion on the issue at stake.
The people who make Law and Order and most of the other shows like it are at the forefront of culture change in our day. They are the George Eliot's of today, making it seem reasonable to think in ways that are actually quite contrary to biblical attitudes. Eliot, as I've posted here before, used the subtlety of her novel to slowly change attitudes toward aristocracy and wealth. Law and Order and the shows like them do the same thing for sexual preference, socialism, abortion, and the whole host of social actions in the news today.
The longer we watch shows like this without questioning them and their assumptions, the easier we make it to change the very foundations of our culture. The people who make these shows know this. This is the big game now. We are having our attitudes of culture and society changed around us without our even knowing it. These new thoughts are presented as matters of justice and common sense. Only really uptight and bigoted folks would reject the premises presented by the show. Only prudes would maintain sexual purity in the modern world. Only over-protective religious freaks would homeschool their children in the modern world (also seen lambasted in a Law and Order show).
This is the world we inherit if we watch carelessly and without thinking.

Antigone

2009-05-02T09:38:00.005-04:00

Last night I had the unique opportunity to see a production of Antigone. Some friends told me they had a spare ticket and asked if I'd like to go. I met them at Bob Jones University's Performance Hall and we chatted a while before they opened the doors. When we got in we were given programs which informed us that it was not Sophocles' Antigone we were watching, but one written by Jean Anouilh.
Anouilh was a French playwright who lived from 1910 to 1987. He was largely unsuccessful as a playwright until 1942 when he wrote his version of Antigone. It was first performed on February 6, 1944, during the Nazi occupation of Paris. As the ancient work of the same title, Anouilh's Antigone addressed issues such as state control and the citizen's responsibility to obey.
To get it past the Nazi sensors, the play pictures a very different Creon from Sophocles. The message that men have the responsibility to obey God rather than men is less central. Creon appears less like a tyrant and more like a man trying to hold together a bad situation in the midst of modernity. Antigone begins with a carefully worked out righteousness that crumbles into something like whining and a simple dogged resolution that she was already right and no new information can alter her own opinion.
The play is very similar to Sophocles' original and does little damage to the well-known story line. Anouilh made some modern alterations, but managed to keep the Chorus who solemnly proclaim at one point that they know how things will end up because it is their "job to know."
I was enthralled. I watched eagerly as the events I knew took form and played themselves out on stage. I have not fully processed the message of the play and want to get my hands on the text to read it.
The production itself was fantastic and I was glad I went.

A Kingdom Divided

2009-04-28T18:00:00.004-04:00

I've thought about Jesus' proclamation in Matt. 12:25 and Luke 11:17 several times and been troubled by it. I am not sure I get the logic of it. Perhaps I am too modern for my own good, but in the age of James Bond and Jack Bauer, it seems perfectly reasonable to me that Satan might place a double agent on Earth to influence some people by casting out a few demons.
But then I have Jesus saying that it is impossible. A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. It is in my Bible, therefore it is true.
Which leads me to question the issue from a different perspective. The inevitable result of a divided kingdom, in this case one demon casting out other demons, is destruction. If that is true, what does it say about our world in modernity? We have used secret agents and double agents for most of modernity.
In reading Greenmantle with my Humanities class, I have been forced to reevaluate this issue again. The main character in the novel is a secret agent sent behind enemy lines to discover some secret plot to generate a jihad among Muslim Turks during the Great War. The narrative borrows much from typical British "Great Game" language and the terms and phrases are used often.
If we use agents and spies and such, are we doomed to destruction? What real benefit have they given us? Is the use of such tactics in peacetime and warfare a foray into national violations of the 9th commandment.
I still have much to consider here.

Star Trek

2009-04-25T11:42:00.002-04:00

I have the feeling that nostalgia is going to get the best of me...again. I am planning on going to see the new Star Trek movie when it comes out. I have hopes for it, but they are mediated by similar situations in recent years. I am a little excited and very concerned to see what J.J. Abrams will do with Star Trek. I liked Alias for a little while, then it got weird and imploded. We didn't even bother watching the last season or two. I am still watching Lost, but know that it has gotten past the possibility of making sense. I want to see what he does with it, not much more.
He has a habit of beginning something on a really clever idea and then letting it roll. I get no indication that he knows where his plots need to end up. I am hoping he can do better with a simple 2 hour timeframe, but we'll see.
The other thing that concerns me is his very postmodern worldview. I have seen it writ large on both Alias and Lost, very Matrix-esque with lots of symbolism borrowed or stolen from other contexts, and am a little concerned about how it will affect something as modernist as Star Trek. I watched Quantum of Solace recently and was amazed at how postmodern Bond has become. Gone are the modernist toys of Q as well as other basic Bond standbys. It was eerie to watch it.
I half-expect the new Star Trek to be this way as well, to some extent. It is sci-fi after all, a typically modernist genre anyway.

Teaching children to speak boldly

2009-04-16T20:54:00.003-04:00

I was in a teacher interview today and was reminded about the importance of teaching our children to speak boldly. That means, for practical example, not looking down when you speak, speaking in a strong, clear voice, and meaning what you say. This is of great importance in our schools and homeschools because we, of all people, have something to say. When we speak, we are to speak the truth. The truth should not be spoken apologetically, but loudly. We should not worry whether our speech will bring ridicule upon us, but should expect this. Since we are speaking the truth, we should be clear and bold in our proclamation.
I reapplied this immediately in family worship tonight, requiring my children to answer their catechism questions with clear, bold answers. I also required them to use their voices to praise God in song this way.
I had basically forgotten this principle until speaking with this teacher candidate who was very precise on this point in her own speaking. I have had a vague notion that I didn't like my children or students speaking like wimps, but couldn't put my finger on a principle to correct it. Now I have remembered the principle.

On iTunes recently

2009-04-14T20:53:00.003-04:00

Morgan Doctor - Other Life (esp. Silver City)

H.U.V.A. Network - Ephemeris (esp. Something Heavens)

Socialism in Silas Marner

2009-04-13T16:54:00.003-04:00

While reading Silas Marner with my students, I have been struck by the very subtle leanings of its author, George Eliot (aka, Mary Ann Evans). The Darwinism and anti-religious statements were expected, but somehow I missed that Evan (Eliot) had been influenced by Marx as well.
Eliot published Silas Marner in 1861, a good thirteen years after Marx and Engels hit the bookshelves with The Communist Manifesto. I had been reading various statements about class without very little recognition of what Eliot was subtly trying to suggest. Then, all of a sudden, she came out and said it.

...there's never a garden in all the parish but what there's endless waste in it for want o' somebody as could use everything up. It's what I think to myself sometimes, as there need nobody run short o' victuals if the land was made the most on, and there was never a morsel but what could find its way to a mouth. It sets one thinking o' that—gardening does.

Aaron's comment on the possibility of finding pretty much anything Eppie wants for her new garden betrays Eliot's thinking about the haves and have nots of England in the nineteenth century. If only those who have so much would give to those who have very little, there would surely be plenty to go around.
The socialism is subtle, and undeveloped, which actually makes it more dangerous. If Eliot threw it out there very obviously, the novel might be dismissed as extremist ranting. However, if Eliot simply subtly suggests the ideas and lets them develop in the mind of her reader, then eventually the fruit will come. Socialism won't look so bad once we think about how nice it would be if everyone could eat all they wanted.
No one initiating something as dangerous as Socialism goes around talking about the bad parts of the plan. That would be dumb. They use the strategy of Eliot and suggest what might be better if things were done just a little differently. Who could argue against wasted fruits and vegetables, after all?
Remember this the next time our leaders suggest Smart Meters so that everyone will have enough electricity to heat them and keep them cool.

The End of the War

2009-03-04T10:50:00.000-05:00

Henry V invaded France in 1415, taking advantage of the volatile state of the French monarchy. The civil strife between the duke of Burgundy and the duke of Valois had sunk France into anarchy and left the question of national defense a real issue. Henry’s invasion was fast and deliberate. He captured much of Normandy and moved with great speed throughout France. However, he soon found himself low on supplies and cornered near the village of Agincourt. The French army engaged him there, and in a terrific battle, Henry emerged victorious with the French army in ruins. Henry followed up this victory by ransacking much of northern France and demanding peace with Charles VI.
The resulting peace treaty, the Treaty of Troyes (1420) disinherited the dauphin, Charles VII, from the throne and arranged the marriage of Henry V to Charles VI’s daughter Catherine. This effectively made Henry V the ruler of France. Because not all of the French nobles recognized Henry’s claim to the throne, he continues military campaigns in France until he died in 1422. Henry VI was immediately crowned king of France. Charles VI died the same year.
By 1428 the English were fighting in France again. The siege of Orléans began in that year but was not able to fully take the city. It is at this point that the events of the Hundred Years’ War become popular. In 1429 a peasant girl from Domrémy convinced the dauphin that God had sent her visions of French victory if she led the forces against the English. For some reason he allowed this to take place and her presence was, in fact, able to break the siege of Orleans and begin a surge of French military victories that opened Rheims and Paris again to the French. The dauphin was crowned Charles VII in Oct. 1422 amid great fanfare.
Joan was captured by the Burgundians, who were not happy at the resurgence of French monarchial power, and sold to the English in 1430. Joan was tried for heresy and condemned to be burned at the stake. She was an extremely popular figure in France and continued to be so after the war was over. In 1920 she was canonized as an official saint in the Roman Catholic Church. Nevertheless, at the time she was viewed as a heretic by most officials in the church. How much this has to do with her execution, as opposed to her surprising victories in turning the French tide of the war against the English, remains a matter of historical debate. All we can say is that Joan rallied the French to victory and changed the course of the war.
Not long after Joan was captured, the Burgundians made a separate peace with and returned to the French side of the war. This allowed a more unified defense of France from this point forward. From 1435 to the end of the war in 1453, France was able to mount sure resistance and recovered town after town that had been in English hands.
When the war was finally over, the English had lost nearly all of their holdings in France. When the final battle was fought at Castillon in 1453, the roles were decidedly reversed. The French fought a calm and deliberate battle, whereas the English were frantic and foolish in their maneuvering. When the dust settled nothing remained of the English territory in France but the city of Calais and an empty claim to the throne of France.
The significance of the war is more important than its actual course and battles. The Hundred Years’ War was an experiment in evolution. Military tactics, traditional understandings about chivalry and its place on the battlefield, politics and popular conceptions of monarchy and nobility all came under fire during the course of this 116 year conflict. In many ways it signals the final collapse of the medieval world and bridges the gap to the developments of the next century. Like a wave breaking on the shore, the medieval world collapsed under the pressure of its own weight and the Hundred Years’ War is the greatest effect that collapse has to present.
During the 1420’s and 1430’s Prince Henry began making annual voyages into the Atlantic Ocean that would change the shape of the world drastically. Less than fifty years after the war ended Christopher Columbus had landed on the Caribbean Islands of North America. Within a hundred years the Renaissance and the Reformation were sweeping across Europe. The medieval world gasped for life during the Hundred Years’ War and eventually gave up its spirit to renewal and reformation of its cardinal beliefs.

Conduct and Course of the Hundred Years' War (1337 - 1360)

2009-03-03T22:47:00.002-05:00

Once underway, the Hundred Years’ War was conducted in a series of phases that were often interrupted by truce or other reason to stop hostilities. Edward III made the first strike, hoping to secure the Flemish lands. He invaded the region of Flanders with a naval campaign that shocked contemporaries, not because of the amount of ships he used, but at the way he won the battle. Jean Froissart records that upon reaching Sluys, Edward saw “such a huge number of ships that their masts resembled a forest.” Edward redeployed his ships so that his archers could have the greatest effect. The French had no experience with the relatively new innovation of English archery: the longbow. Standing about six feet tall and boasting arrows of three feet in length, the longbow could shoot accurately up to 200 yards, which was more powerful even than the crossbow. The English decimated the French in the fight and took the port of Sluys easily. This impressive first victory led to a truce in 1342. The English held the port of Sluys and had a decent foothold in Flanders.
The truce of 1342 was broken in 1345 by the French and the English prepared to fight again. This second phase lasted only a year but created havoc among the French. The English landed at Normandy and began a long march down the Seine toward Paris. Philip VI had been stung, but not defeated when he lost Flanders. He gathered a large force of men and followed the English army at a safe distance until they could find a place to fight. In the course of events, they were brought to the town of Crećy in August of 1346. Unfortunately for the French, the English got the better ground in the battle. The English chose the higher ground and simply waited for the French to begin the assault. When they did, it was an absolute slaughter. At the end of the battle more than 4,000 French knights lay dead. The English chose to capitalize on their victory by laying siege to the port city of Calais, the closest point between England and France. It took the English almost a year to subdue Calais, but when they did in 1347 a truce was forced. The truce lasted five years, and held off hostilities during the period of the Black Death in Europe.
After the Black Death abated, both English and French were still willing to fight. The truce signed in 1347 expired in 1351 with no continuance. When it did, two English armies were ready to move on French lands. They were held up only by Pope Innocent VI who desperately wanted to stop the fighting in Europe. When the treaty designed by the Pope fell through the Prince of Wales, known to history as the Black Prince, sailed to Bordeaux in 1355 and was ready to make war. Edward III was already prepared to cross the English Channel and fight in Normandy.
In 1350 Philip VI had died and had been succeeded by his son Jean II. Jean had alienated many of his nobles in the first year of his reign and could not count on them for support as much as he needed. In light of this, it is easier to understand how the Black Prince ravaged Aquitaine and other areas of France for the better part of a year. Known by the French as “the proudest man ever born of woman,” he raided towns, murdered peasants, and burned mills over a 250 mile stretch of French countryside. The fascinating thing is that the French nobility in the region did little to stop this disaster.
In 1355 Edward III was able to make his crossing, although he had to settle for the port of Calais rather than Normandy. Hoping to bring the coastal region of Brittany under his control, Edward fought his way south into France. As he did so, followed by a French army, it became clear that a major battle was at hand. When Edward and the Black Prince met and joined near Poitiers, the result was inevitable. The Battle of Poitiers remains one of the greatest losses the French have ever seen on their own soil. In the aftermath, not only was the King himself captured, but also “one fighting arch-bishop, 13 counts, 5 viscounts, 21 barons and bannerets, and some 2,000 knights, squires, and men-at-arms of the gentry.” The result was a France without a king and without a great part of its noble class.
King Jean II was eventually ransomed, after a third estate uprising known as the Jacquerie, for the price of three million écus , as well as complete cession of Aquitaine and Calais to English control. Jean II returned to France and the war stopped. Edward rescinded his claim to the throne of France.
However, after Jean II died in 1364 and Charles V ascended the throne, the war began to take shape once again. Charles was very unhappy about the settlement and began strategically retaking English possession in France and in 1369 declared the Treaty of Bretigny to have been broken by the English. Between 1369 and 1389 the English tried to reassert control over territory ceded to them by Bretigny and establish control over Brittany. The main battle of the period, the Battle of Auray ended well for the English but had no lasting effects. The dukes of Brittany reconciled with the French crown and in the course of the period Edward III, the Black Prince, and many of England’s best generals died. By 1389, the war had wound down to a stalemate and another truce was called. This truce lasted until 1415, but hardly meant a peaceful condition for either France or England. The medieval world continued to unravel around the great conflict.
England faced revolts from Scotland and Ireland under the brief reign of Henry IV (1399-1413) and was unable to make any serious moves in France. The reign of Henry IV is featured in two plays by Shakespeare (Henry IV Part One and Two) and mentioned in Richard II. Shakespeare characterized Henry’s reign as one of constant defense from plots, assassination attempts and rebellions. While Shakespeare obviously dramatizes the situation for his audience, this was not far from the truth. Henry IV was succeeded in 1413 by Henry V who was finally able to resume tactics in France.
France also faced internal problems. With the death of Charles V, his twelve-year old son became Charles VI and ruled from 1380 until 1422. However, very early in his reign madness was detected and the regency was assumed by the duke of Burgundy creating a civil war in France between the Burgundians and the Valois. The feud brought anarchy to France and led to the invasion by Henry V in 1415 AD that began the final and most harrowing portion of the war.

The Gibeonite Famine (2 Samuel 21:1-14)

2009-02-28T09:04:00.003-05:00

A three year famine hit Israel shortly after the revolt of Absalom had been finished. David did some asking and learned from God that this famine was the result of a broken covenant with the Gibeonites. Saul had apparently slaughtered many of them and now God was taking vengeance on the perpetrators of the crime, Israel. Now, to understand how odd this is, we must remember who the Gibeonites were. Back in Joshua 9, shortly after the fall of Jericho and Ai, many of the Canaanites decided to amass a great army and stand against Israel. The Gibeonites decided upon a different strategy. They dressed in ragged clothing, took old, moldy bread, and worn-out waterskins and approached the camp of Joshua. They claimed to be from a far-off land and were seeking the protection of such a mighty army as Israel. They fooled Joshua and the elders of Israel into making an everlasting covenant with them.
The ruse didn't last forever. Eventually Joshua and the Israelites realized they'd been had. They had made a poor decision and now had to live with the consequences, however bad they might be. After all, Psalm 15 tells us it is the mark of a godly man to be constant even when we have sworn to our own hurt. And these might be terrible consequences. God had given strict instructions to not leave any of the Canaanites alive. The children of Israel were to make no covenant with any of the peoples in the land. And here, Joshua had done just that.
So, did the fact that Joshua had been deceived by the Gibeonites invalidate the covenant made with them? No! This sounds strange to our ears, but it is true. The people of Israel were quite upset about this as well. They complained to Joshua and the elders of Israel. But the elders replied, "We have sworn to them by the Lord God of Israel; now therefore, we may not touch them. This we will do to them: We will let them live, lest wrath be upon us because of the oath which we swore to them” (Josh. 9:19-20). They did have some recourse to alter the relationship between Israel and the Gibeonites, and this they did. They decreed that Gibeonites would be woodworkers. Be this as it may, they honored their covenant with the Gibeonites.
That is, until Saul came along. Saul did not honor the covenant with the Gibeonites and the entire land paid dearly for it. Even after Saul was dead, the stench of the broken covenant made God nauseous. He sent a famine among His own people to remind them how injurious it was to break a covenant oath. David learned of the details and made things right with the Gibeonites. The author of Samuel says that he entreated the Gibeonites, "What shall I do for you? And with what shall I make atonement, that you may bless the inheritance of the Lord?" (2 Sam. 21:3) David wrote the Gibeonites a blank check. He made it clear that having the Gibeonites affirm the Lord's covenant and know the Israelites to be covenant keepers was of more importance to him than gold, silver, or any other precious thing.
We should learn much from David in this event. If we make a covenant, we must keep it. This is the way the Lord works on our behalf and it is the way we must work with others.

Background and Causes of the Hundred Years' War

2009-02-28T08:52:00.002-05:00

Historian Barbara Tuchman has claimed that the fourteenth century was “calamitous,” by which she means that great calamity attended the years 1300 AD to 1450 AD. Of course, it is not so neat as that, but in general it is true that the world changed dramatically in that century. We have already witnessed one major aspect of that change: the Black Death. In the five years of the plague’s major activity, it wiped out more than 70 million people, roughly one-third of Europe’s population. The plague was not over in 1351. It returned from time to time, although with less disastrous effects. Another major event of Tuchman’s calamitous fourteenth century is the Hundred Years’ War.
The Hundred Years’ War was a massive conflict that began in 1337. It mostly involved the countries of England and France, but the region of Flanders was involved somewhat as well. With some respite while under various truces, France and England fought for 116 years, until 1453. The causes of the Hundred Year’s war are varied and form a major plank in understanding what would bring these two countries to fight for such a long period of time. In order to fully understand the causes, the background should be reviewed.
The French had long been concerned with the English feudal holdings in Aquitaine. For two hundred years French kings had been seeking ways to remove the English presence there. Since the days of King John Aquitaine had slowly been reduced in size and would never reach the expanse it had under the Angevin Empire (except during rare moments of the coming conflict). The French also permitted the subjects of Aquitaine to bring any complaints against their lord directly to the French crown. This was a violation of the English lord’s rights in practice, but one which the French subjects repeatedly took advantage of. It was a constant source of friction between the English and the French and had conflict written all over it.
Another major piece of background information is the Babylonian Captivity of the Church. The relationship between papacy and monarchy had always been difficult as events like the Investiture controversy proved. The issue of church and state was a constant, some would say defining, problem during the Middle Ages. The period surrounding the Hundred Years’ War stands as the high point of the medieval world. Under the weight of so many conflicting relationships, the medieval world began to collapse in on itself and the Babylonian Captivity of the Church was but one effect of that collapse.
One of the defining struggles leading up to the Babylonian Captivity was the right to tax clergy members. Traditionally, the clergy were exempt from all local and state taxes. This did not mean they were not taxed; they were not taxed by secular authorities. Clergy were taxed by their superiors. Priests paid taxes (a portion of the tithe) to bishops, who paid taxes to arch-bishops, and so on until the papacy received its portion of ecclesiastical revenues. This system was so standardized that parishes and bishoprics were said to allow a certain income to the priest or bishop who oversaw it. Nonetheless, Philip IV wanted a share of the clerical coffers and insisted he had a right to it. This insistence prompted the Papal Bull called Clericis Laicos. This important letter, issued in 1296 AD proclaimed that no clergy “pay nothing under pretext of any obligation” to secular authorities.
Philip was not happy and the typical game of excommunication and force ensued. With such an unrepentant king on his hands, Boniface VIII issued another Papal Bull that made the most sweeping statement of any regarding papal authority. The Bull of Unam Sanctum claimed “it is absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman Pontiff.” Te die had been cast. Even as Boniface prepared to excommunicate Philip IV, Philip prepared a physical response to the bull. Philip kidnapped Boniface and held him for three days at a castle in Anagni near Rome. Though he was released, the event had traumatic consequences for Boniface, who died about a month later.
Philip then saw to the election of a new pope who was French. Clement V mot only became, as most historians and theologians have viewed him, a puppet pope for the French king, but also moved the center of papal authority from Rome to the French city of Avignon. Six popes ruled the papacy from Avignon in France for about seventy years. This period has been called the Babylonian Captivity of the Church for a number of reasons. The humanist Petrarch (see chapter twenty-six) once called Avignon the “Babylon of the West.” Every office and permission for any crime or sin was able to be bought and sold in Avignon. The corruption already present in the papacy and the Roman Catholic Church took on heinous dimensions that were immortalized in works like Dante Aligheri’s Divine Comedy. Tuchman describes the general corruption of the church. “When bishops purchased benefices at the price of year’s income, they passed the cost down, so that corruption spread through the hierarchy from canons and priors to priesthood and cloistered clergy, down to mendicant friars and pardoners. It was at this level that the common people met the materialism of the Church, and none were more crass than the sellers of pardons.”
All of this was apparently done to satisfy the French kings lust for power and wealth. The Babylonian Captivity eroded, to a great extent, the last real power that the Roman Catholic Church possessed in Europe. As the years waned on, reformers became more and more numerous, facing the corruption of the papacy with doctrinal and practical changes. Within two hundred years Martin Luther would set the final nail in the coffin of the strangle hold Roman Catholicism had on the European mind.
A final piece of background information necessary to understand the causes of the Hundred Years’ War is the obliteration of the Knights Templar. The Knights Templar had been formed as a multi-national organization for knights to participate in the crusades. After the crusading period they found themselves in possession of a great deal of wealth. This attracted the eyes of Philip IV of France. Using his puppet pope, Clement V, Philip had the Knights arraigned on charges of devil-worship, witchcraft and sorcery and other heretical beliefs and practices. The papacy confiscated all property and wealth and gave it to a rival organization, the Hospitallars of St. John, who very soon gave a large donation to Philip IV of France.
A final piece of background information review is the unique place that chivalry had in medieval society. Chivalry, as we have discussed, was an ideal that wedded Germanic warrior customs, Roman legal customs, and Christian ethics and morality into a complicated framework of behavior and duty for the medieval knight. We have already seen how the code of chivalry has developed from a mere attitude between two knights to a more complicated system of courtly love and romance. Chivalry deserves a place in the background of the Hundred Years’ War because it was the knights that fought the conflict. Their behavior, as captured by chroniclers like Jean Froissart, shows the darker side of chivalry that the external coverings of Christian morality over a diseased heart can never totally hide. Knights who were not converted men with their hope and trust in Christ could be fiendishly evil and perpetrators of inhuman suffering. Many knights in Europe were itching for a fight. They loved to perform at tournaments and gain popularity. The crusades had siphoned off some of this spirit, but they had been over now for a hundred years. Chivalry, at this time, meant that there were warriors who wanted a war.
With this background information in place, it is time to consider the causes of the Hundred Years’ War, that crowning event of the High Middle Ages that signaled the end of the medieval way of life. There are generally four causes of the Hundred Years’ War given by historical accounts. They come in no particular order, but some are weightier than others.
The first cause is typically listed as the English claims in Aquitaine. This contest mentioned earlier fueled a great conflict of interest that was bound to boil over eventually. The second cause is Anglo-Frankish competition over the region of Flanders. Flanders, on the northern border of France and sharing the English Channel was strategically located both for military matters and economic matters. The third cause is the very aspects of chivalry we have just mentioned. The fourth, and possibly most direct cause of the Hundred Years’ War, has to do with the succession to the French throne in 1328.
In 1328 Charles IV died without a male heir. He had three possible claimants to the throne. Philip IV’s daughter had married the king of England and their son, Edward III, had a possible claim to the throne. The other two claimants were sons of a brother and half-brother of the deceased king. Philip of Valois was the favored candidate and Philip of Evreux was unlikely to gain recognition. The dispute over the crown seemed settled on Philip of Valois until the control of Flanders came into question. Edward III used the dispute over the French crown to justify a full-scale invasion and the Hundred Years’ War began in 1337 AD.

Reactions to the Plague and Other Events

2009-02-26T16:01:00.000-05:00

When examining the reactions of the Black Death in Europe, we must remember the amount of death involved. Europe’s population was reduced by over 70 million people in the space of five years. Reactions to this onslaught were varied and unpredictable. There was no enemy to fight against. There was no one to take vengeance upon for the disease. Europe was completely helpless in the face of this faceless killer that had no respect for class, station, birth, or religion. In light of this, it should not surprise us to find that reactions included explanations from religious experience, a denial of traditional mores and social customs, and scapegoating.
“See how England mourns, drenched in tears. The people stained by sin, quake with grief. Plague is killing men and beasts. Why? Because vices rule unchallenged here.”[1] Reactions like this were fueled by traditional understandings of God and the universe; medieval understandings. The people of the medieval world, more so than we, tended to think of every event as part of God’s unfolding plan for His universe. Unfortunately, the Roman Catholic theology of the High and Later Middle Ages caused them to see themselves as perpetually under the divine wrath of God and that He was just looking for a good excuse to pour that wrath out on humanity. Religious interpretation of the plagues cause also sparked reactions like the flagellants: people who went about with whips (flagella) with which they “beat and whipped their bare skin until their bodies were bruised and swollen and blood rained down, spattering their walls nearby.”[2] They did this as an act of public penance for the sins that brought about the plague. As can be imagined, the amount of death present in Europe brought concerns about the end of the world. There was no lack of millennialism to account for the events surrounding the bubonic plague. There were rumors in 1349 that Antichrist had appeared and was even then a boy about ten years old.[3]
Many abandoned the traditional religious interpretation and the social structure established by Christianity in light of the plague. Looking around at the death around them and the powerlessness of established authority (ecclesiastical or secular) to control the plague, many began living for the moment, considering they could die at any moment. They completely gave themselves over to hedonism, forgetting that the trials of this life are used to purify the soul. They indulged in alcohol and sexual immorality.
Scientific reactions ranged from astrological explanations concerning the positions of all the planets at the time the plague broke out to theories about the content of the air being poisonous. Germ theory and basic sanitation to avoid infectious disease were a long way off at this point. We must admire these people for attempting an explanation even as we snicker at the absurd things they came up with.
Other reactions included flight from the heavily populated cities. The fourteenth-century writer Giovanni Boccacio captured much of this in his great work the Decameron. The Decameron is a frame narrative, like the Canterbury Tales, where a situation gives rise to the setting of the story. In Boccacio’s tale, ten people flee from Floerence to escape the ravages of the plague and tell stories to each other to pass the time. Once again, the reaction of flight is the setting of Edgar Allen Poe’s short story, The Masque of the Red Death.
There were a host of social reactions as well. One of the most hateful was that of scapegoating. As already noted, there was no enemy with the plague. There was no person responsible for the death that each and every town in Europe felt. Mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, husbands, wives, sins, daughters; all were affected by the death rampant between 1347 and 1351 ad. Human nature desires to blame someone or something for our misfortunes. We see this from the beginning of our sorry state, the Garden of Eden. As soon as God called Adam’s attention to his sin, Adam pointed to his scapegoat to avoid punishment himself. The medieval world was no different. They looked for any possible scapegoat to deliver them from their pain. Oftentimes the Jews were made the scapegoat of the anger flowing out of Europe. Pogroms, organized massacres of Jews, were frequent in towns and cities with Jewish populations. Many Christians still held Jews responsible for the death of Christ and the Jewish populations of Europe were often persecuted in various ways. At the time of the Black Death, they were made the scapegoat; beaten and killed as a way of venting anger or placing blame. Many Jews fled western Europe to eastern Europe and Russia at this time. This made for a large Jewish population in Russia, Poland, Prussia, and other developing countries there. An increase in witchcraft accusations and trials also seems to be due to the sense of helplessness many people felt in the face of the Black Death.
[1] From “On the Pestilence” anonymous English poem in Rosemary Horrox, The Black Death (New York: Manchester University Press, 1994), 126.
[2] From “Chronicon Henrici de Hervordia” The Black Death, 150.
[3] Robert E. Lerner, “The Black Death and Western European Eschatological Mentalities, ” American Historical Review LXXXVI, 1981: 552.

The Black Death

2009-02-25T11:00:00.000-05:00

The Bubonic plague, better known as the Black Death, broke out in Europe around 1347 in the port cities of Sicily and Merseilles. It came from Asia. It is thought that Mongol warriors brought it out of central China during their occupation of the region. The disease spread through rats and the fleas on them. It spread quickly to the port cities of Asia. Since trade was stronger now than it had been it easily spread to Europe. Once in Europe it spread quickly, devastating the population in European countries.
The Bubonic plague was a version of the bacterium Yersinia pestis and was carried by fleas and rats into the ships of merchants bound for European port cities. Its spread in Europe was vast and with amazing speed. The traditional dates of the Black Death, the name given to the plague by Europeans, are from 1347 – 1351 AD. It is often said that the Black Death wiped out one to two-thirds of the European population, or 70 million people. Such a massive reduction in the population of Europe cannot but have had radical consequences as we will see later.
The plague first arrived in Europe through the ports of Sicily and later Marseilles in 1347. The new trade networks that had been established since the end of the crusading period guaranteed that goods were being traded between Asia and Europe. The plague spread like wildfire. In the five years of the plagues main activity it spread throughout most of Europe. By June of 1348 the plague had penetrated deep into France and had consumed Italy and the Balkans. Spain was also affected on its Mediterranean coast. By December of 1348 the plague had spread to portions of England and had almost completely engulfed most of southern Europe. In the next six months it spread further into England and began to infiltrate Germany and Russia. By December of 1349 almost all of England was affected as well as the North Sea region. Throughout 1350 and 1351 the plague continued to spread into Russia and other northern lands. As we can see in the map, very little of Europe was spared the devastation of the plague. There are a few places that seemed little touched by the disease and death of the plague. It is unknown why this is the case, except that they were low population areas and had less contact with the broader European community than most other areas.
The Black Death is of three varieties. The bubonic plague, the pneumonic plague, and the septicemic plague, but all have the same bacteria and initial transmission. Distinctions are made to acknowledge the different ways the plague was spread from carrier to host. The bubonic plague was spread through the fleas on black rats from Asia. The bacteria multiplied in the fleas’ stomach, making it ravenous. It ate constantly, trying to satisfy its hunger, but eventually died of starvation because the bacteria consumed everything. Its eating, however, allowed the bacteria to transmit to new hosts: rats, cats, and humans. From there pneumonic and septicemic plague took over to transmit the bacteria among the human population of Europe. Pneumonic plague was spread through saliva coughed out of infected hosts. Septicemic plague was spread through contact with the infected blood of a host.
The close living conditions of medieval cities made the plague spread all the faster and the limited knowledge of physicians at the time did not help anything. Physicians knew nothing about the scientific causes of the spread of infectious disease. The field of medicine was still dominated by the Greek physicians Galen and Hippocrates. Hippocrates, often called the father of modern medicine, thought that disease was caused by an imbalance in one of the four fluids, or humours, of the body. When this imbalance took place the humors must be brought back into balance. This was often done by bleeding or resting and waiting. Both of these methods of dealing with the plague in Europe proved disastrous. Bleeding brought others in contact with infected blood and waiting simply gave the disease more time to develop.
The symptoms of the black plague were obvious and quick. An infected person would develop large red blotches of infected blood and these would ooze pus and blood. The red blotches gave rise to the term Red Death in some literature dealing with the plague, notably the short story Masque of the Red Death by American writer Edgar Allen Poe.
The death rates for Europe during this period changed everything about society at the time. Most cities could not keep up with the death rate and mass graves were inaugurated to deal with the great amount of death. In the next section we will see how individual people and institutions dealt with the pandemic on social, ethical, and psychological levels.

Famine and Population

2009-02-24T15:55:00.001-05:00

Many historians have commented that one of the most important factors in the history of any civilization is population. This would seem obvious once stated, but is often overlooked in historical accounts. When we say population is important, we mean the fact that there are people, not the more social issues of whether those people are of a particular class or not. Every civilization has to deal with the problem of either having too many people or not having enough. Sometimes God, in His providence, handles the issue for us. Beginning in 1347 ad, a plague ripped across Europe and devastated the population. We will take the story of that particular event up in a moment. There are other ways that population can be affected without reference to an apocalyptic plague.
The Bible tells us that life is a vapor, and that we are like flowers in a field. These images are meant to remind us of the fragility of life. As we consider the forces of history; the wars, the social changes, and the theology of various periods, we must remember that we are dealing with actual people, like you and I, not abstract characters in a play or novel. Population is nothing but a fancy word for thinking about how many people are in a given place at a given time. The reason population is so important is that, as we mentioned already, without it, there is no civilization.
The fragility of life is affected by weather and food. Weather can be too hot or too cold. Food can be plentiful or in low supply. These two broad factors are often influenced by each other or influence each other. Good weather may produce an abundant supply of food. An abundance of food means people eat better, are stronger, and are more productive. There is also more food to go around. Poor weather can have the opposite effect. A lack of food, often called a famine, will tend to be evidenced by falling population figures for a given time period or region.
Around the end of the thirteenth century (the 1200’s) Europe entered what historians and other scholars call a “little ice age.” A small shift in temperature patterns caused the growing season to be shorter, thus affecting food production. This “little ice age” also affected other weather conditions, causing storms and heavy rain for many areas. These events precipitated what has been called the Great Famine of 1315. It lasted for two years in northern Europe and killed as much as ten percent of the population there. Ten percent doesn’t sound like a high figure. However, prior to this change in conditions, Europe had been experiencing a growth in population. Population figures in countries are often expressed in millions. If there were one million people in Europe, we are talking about the death of 100,000 individuals. The population figures are actually much higher than that. Sometimes individual cities reported deaths of that magnitude. The pattern established in northern Europe continued in southern Europe. The 1330’s and 1340’s saw hunger become a real problem for many cities.
One reason why the change in harvest levels had such a dramatic effect in Europe was that by the 1300’s Europe had reached what some scholars refer to as “the upper limit of its population.”[1] This meant that given the agricultural and technological factors, no more people could be supported. Unless some factor changed, such as an increase in productive land or an advance in technology, the maximum population had been reached. With the changes in temperature that this “little ice age” brought about, the same amount of land was being farmed, but the production level had declined. This meant there was less food for a level population.
A common reaction to this was migration. Many cities grew in size about this time as people moved from the rural areas to the more urban areas. This took place on a grand scale and often accompanies a shift of this magnitude. All across history, severe changes resulting in famine have caused migrations to more populated areas. While this seems counterproductive to us, the idea was that a city has more opportunities to succeed than a small town. We see this paradigm played out in the classical and biblical world over and over again (cf. Ruth) and in more modern times as well. The American novelist, John Steinbeck, based The Grapes of Wrath, on the migration of people from Oklahoma to California during the Great Depression of the 19930’s. This reaction to famine is not new, nor has it been replaced in our history.
Many cities saw increases of up to 18% in the years of the famines. This obviously meant that the rural areas saw a marked decrease in their population. Nonetheless, all this marks an overall decrease in population throughout Europe during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Famine was a major contributor to this population decline. Famine led to malnutrition which caused higher infant death rates and lower births in general. However famine was not the only factor. The other major factor in the population decline on the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries was the bubonic plague, otherwise known as the Black Death.
[1] Jackson Spielvogel. Western Civilization, 4th ed. (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1999), 297.

Uzzah and the Ark

2009-02-17T16:02:00.003-05:00

The saga of Uzzah and the ark is often cited as evidence of the capricious nature of the God of Scripture, or maybe just of the God of the Old Covenant. This would presumably be in favor of the more rational, loving God of the New Covenant, or some other squishy substitute. Let's review. David is occupying his new home at Jerusalem. He decides it is a good idea to bring the ark of the Covenant up to the new capital and so he orders it be done. The ark is set on an ox cart and begins its long trip up to the city. While on its way, it begins to slip off of the cart and poor Uzzah sticks his hand out to steady the ark. BLAM!! God strikes Uzzah dead and nobody has any idea why Uzzah died.
Well, not quite. Let's back up. God tells Moses to build an ark of testimony for the people. This ark is to be made of acacia wood and overlaid with gold. It is to have a solid gold top called the Mercy Seat on which are placed two golden Cherubim with outstretched wings over the seat. This Mercy Seat is the top of the ark of testimony. The ark also has gold rings on its sides through which poles are placed so that that the Levites can carry the ark wherever it needs to go. The tablets of the covenant are to be placed in the ark as well as manna (showing God's provision and providential care) and Aaron's staff which budded showing who was to lead the people. This ark is to go wherever the tabernacle goes and is the very heart of the worship of Old Covenant Israel. It is, of course, a copy of something in the heavenly places (see Hebrews 9 and 10).
But this is where things get tricky. David put the ark on an ox cart. It was not being carried by Levites as was commanded. But it was faster or easier, you might say. Great! Was this the way God commanded His seat to be carried? Was this the way He indicated He wanted to be worshipped? Any old way we want to?
When Uzzah reached out and touched the ark with his hand, he was in direct disobedience to the command of God concerning the ark. Only the Levites were to carry it and then only using poles through golden rings aside the ark itself. It was not in David's or anyone's prerogative to transport the ark however they wished. Uzzah did not follow directions, and like Nadab and Abihu, he paid the penalty for disobedience.
But surely God overreacted, right? Not even slightly. Read the passages in the latter part of Exodus about what the priests had to wear to go into God's presence. They wore garments that essentially made them look as close to the tabernacle as they could. Think of this a camouflage. The priests of the Old Covenant had to be clothed in the garments of the tabernacle much as we in the New Covenant are clothed in the righteousness of Christ.
Uzzah did wrong and we need to understand that God cares how He is worshiped. We are not free to do whatever we want. We must worship Him as He comands. Uzzah is a prime example of this priciple laid down clearly or us to see.

Are you a dancer?

2009-02-11T16:51:00.002-05:00

No, I'm just drunk.

Angels in the Architecture "The Font of Laughter"

2009-02-07T16:01:00.002-05:00

How important is laughter to the Christian life? According to Wilson and Jones, it is central. Why, then, are so many Christians found to be dour, stern looking folks? Wilson and Jones suggest it may be because they do not understand Christianity.
We must state at the outset that Wilson and Jones are, as I am, reformed in their soteriology and therefore in their view of the Christian worldview. Much of this essay derives its chief argument from a reformed understanding of the doctrines of predestination and total depravity.
As Christians, we often think our total depravity or predestination are difficult things to be resigned to. You mean, I am really that bad? Huh. You mean to say I can't do anything to save myself? Huh. What a drag.
On the contrary, argue Wilson and Jones. What a cause for rejoicing. "Congratulations Mr. Sisk, you just survived a fall of three hundred feet because someone put this inflated thing-a-ma-bob under you." "I was that high up! Man, I'll spend the rest of my life being downcast about how high up I was and what would have happened to me."
Wrong! Spend the rest of your life rejoicing that the inflated thing-a-ma-bob was put under you for your salvation. Laugh about it for heaven's sake.
Laughter is the proper response to our salvation because of predestination and total depravity, not in spite of those things.

Why Israel demanded a king

2009-02-05T15:05:00.002-05:00

There are two reasons Israel demanded a king mentioned in 1 Samuel 8. The first reason is one we can hardly have cause to disagree with and gives us much room to discuss and think pastorally about our own parenting (or the way we hope to parent when the time comes). The second is generally given the greater attention in most sermons and discourses about this topic.
In 1 Samuel 8:4 the elders of the people gather and say to Samuel "Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways." This is a massive indictment against the parenting of Samuel. We wonder, how can such a godly man like Samuel bring up rotten sons? The answer lies closer than we may think, or want to think. 1 Sam. 2:12 says that the children of Eli were corrupt. It even goes further and says that they did not know the Lord. Eli's sons were apostate. Who raised Samuel? Eli. Where did Samuel learn how to parent? Eli. How did Samuel's sons turn out? Not much better than Eli's. The Scriptures presume upon covenant faithfulness from generation to generation. It is to be assumed (Deut. 6:6-25) that our children will not depart from the teachings we place in front of them (cf. Prov. 22:6 ). Thus when elders of the Old Covenant or the New are chosen, one of the major requirements is that his household be in order, especially concerning the faithfulness of his children (cf. 1 Tim. 3:4-5; Titus 1:6). The old saying, an apple doesn't fall far from the tree, is appropriate when considering this narrative. Our children's faithfulness is our responsibility. If our children depart from the faith, it is on us. We live in a far too individualistic age to take these issues seriously, it seems. We seem to believe that once we have done our 18 years (or less) of parenting, the choices our children make are totally theirs and on their heads. God does not think like this at all. God thinks covenantally and generationally.
The rest of 1 Sam. 8:4 continues by saying that the children of Israel desire a king like the other nations. Like the other nations. It was for keeping separate that so many of the God's diverse laws were given in the first place. He even says specifically not to walk in the ways of the nations in the land (cf. Lev. 18:3, 24; 20:23). And yet, now the children of Israel are demanding a king like the other nations. It is right, therefore, when God declares that they have rejected His government, not Samuel's (1 Sam. 8:7). It would seem like we would like having the Lord as our king, but sinful people continue to insist that the Lord's commandments exclude fun and enjoyment, rather than considering that ther eis only joy in obedience to God and His commands.
Poor Israel.

Angels in the Architecture "Where Righteousness and Mercy Kiss"

2009-01-23T20:52:00.002-05:00

It has been awhile since I blogged a essay in Angels in the Architecture, but I'm going to try to get back into this. I am teaching through the book in my Humanities class right now, so I'm having to read the essays again.
In this essay, Doug Jones discusses the doctrine of Justification. No real shock there, since when do Protestants not talk about Justification? But Jones comes at this from a slightly different angle. Jones rehashes the issues separating Protestant Justification from Roman catholic Justification. He argues, however, that Roman Catholic Justification, aside from being Scripturally wrong, is philosophically wrong as well. Only the Protestant vision of Justification keeps God's attributes of Righteousness (Justice) and Mercy from warring against each other. Any system that elevates either of these two over the other makes for a lop-sided Justification and fails to do God justice, so-to-speak.
To simply forgive sin without punishment would indeed be merciful, but would leave justice unsatisfied. To punish sin wholly and immediately would be just, but would lack mercy. Roman Catholicism keeps these two at odds while the Protestant doctrine of Substitionary Atonement and Vicarious Sacrifice leading to Justification by Faith satisfies both requirements.
Why must God be just, you may ask? Because it is a self-proclaimed attribute of His holiness (cf. Neh. 9:32-33). Why must God then be merciful? God, Himself, declares this to be an attribute as well (cf. Ex. 34:6-7). Righteousness and Mercy must kiss for true Justification to happen. Only the Protestant vision of this Justification satisfies the demands of a holy and merciful God.

YouTube and visiting other blogs

2009-01-19T16:19:00.002-05:00

Sometimes I feel like I have no original thoughts or content for this blog, but it does serve as a dumping ground for other stuff. I tend to watch YouTube and post videos I find there. I also tend to visit a group of other blogs (seen to the right) and occasionally just say what they have said (with due credit, of course). That is the case today. I just visited Andrew Kern's blog (Quiddity) and found a hilarious math video he mentioned. It is all the funnier because I have a student this year who, in jest, tried to get me with this same Math gag.
Enjoy.

Who's on first - Elizabethan-style

2009-01-17T12:09:00.002-05:00

I found this a little while ago and linked it to my Facebook account, but never thought to put it up here. This is hilarious. It actually made me go find the original and watch it too. I used it in Rhetoric class to illustrate the concept of word play and how it can be humorous and confusing at the same time.

Do you use the library? Read this.

2009-01-16T12:41:00.001-05:00

Fascinating thought from a writer at the New York Times. If Public libraries didn't already exist, could we start one today?
Read his article here.

Addendum to Positively Medieval blog entry

2009-01-14T12:22:00.004-05:00

As I began teaching through this book, I realized something I didn't catch the last time through. A significant portion of Wilson and Jones's argument is that the Reformation cut the medieval conversation short. However, what I did not pick up on before is the suggestion that we normalized the way of life dictated by reacting to and living through the Reformation.
Think with me, if you will, of the other end of the medieval period, say, the Edict of Milan. There were essentially two reactions to the Edict of Milan. Monasticism was one reaction. Some Christians said to themselves, "It is not living for Christ if I cannot be killed for being a follower of Christ anymore, so I'll go off into the desert and live a hermit's life and deprive myself of all worldly fellowship and community." The other response was to emerge from the catacombs and instead of remaking Christian culture in the image of the catacombs, taking the best of the culture around them and putting it to good use. Churches and cathedrals were soon built, massive structures given over to the worship of the triune God.
Wilson and Jones are, to some extent, arguing that we descendants of the Reformation have been living in the desert. We decided to normalize the experience of the Reformation and reject anything, ANYTHING, that looked at all like it could have been used by Roman Catholicism. Thus we have protestants who reject infant baptism, vestments, ornate buildings, music in worship, wine in communion, a clear liturgy, and all sorts of other things that have little to nothing to do with the errors of Roman Catholic theology.
What we should have done, I guess, is correct the theology of the Roman Catholic Church and examine with a clear mind whether the rest of it was a abuse of corrupted theological thinking, or simply the conquest of culture that the church is called to.

On Regional Writing, by Flannery O'Connor

2008-12-24T12:12:00.003-05:00

The best American fiction has always been regional. The ascendancy passed roughly from New England to the Midwest to the South; it has passed to and stayed longest wherever there has been a shared past, a sense of alikeness, and the possibility of reading a small history in a universal light. In these things the South still has a degree of advantage. It is a slight degree and getting slighter, but it is a degree of kind as well as of intensity, and it is enough to feed good literature if our people - whether they be newcomers or have roots here - are enough aware of it to foster its growth in themselves.
Every serious writer will put his finger on it at a slightly different spot but in the same region of sensitivity. When Walker Percy won the National Book Award, newsmen asked him why there were so many good Southern writers and he said, "Because we lost the War." He didn't mean by that simply that a lost war makes good subject matter. What he was saying was that we have had our Fall. We have gone into the modern world with an inburnt knowledge of human limitations and with a sense of mystery which could not have developed in our first state of innocence - as it has not sufficiently developed in the rest of the country.
Not every lost war would have this effect on every society, but we were doubly blessed, not only in our Fall, but in having means to interpret it. Behind our own history, deepening it at every point, has been another history. Mencken called the South the Bible Belt, in scorn and thus in incredible innocence. In the South we have, in however attenuated form a form, a vision of Moses' face as he pulverized our idols. This knowledge is what makes the Georgia writer different from the writer from Hollywood or New York. It is the knowledge that the novelist finds in his community. When he ceases to find it there, he will cease to write, or at least he will cease to write anything enduring. The writer operates at a peculiar crossroads where time and place and eternity somehow meet. His problem is to find that location.

From "The Regional Writer" in Flannery O'Connor, Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose, 58-59.

Ivanhoe and Romance

2008-12-23T08:53:00.004-05:00

I've been reading Ivanhoe during Christmas Break. It is a romance, which does not mean that it has a cover with a scantily clad woman being swept into the arms of a loosely-dressed but obviously very muscular man (which is what we see most in Barnes and Noble or the checkout of Bi-Lo).
Instead, a literary romance refers to an adventure story typically set in medieval times with knights, castles, ladies, jousting, and chivalry. There's not much of that left in our modern notion of romance. Romance is typically highly-idealized. It does not often deal with the realities of life but instead focuses on the high ideals of society, in the form of chivalry. Chivalry is a term used to describe, loosely, the code of behavior practiced by knights and lords under the system of feudalism.
Sir Walter Scott is said to have revived the art form in the nineteenth century with his Waverly novels, of which Ivanhoe may be the most famous (but there is also Rob Roy). Scott wrote a great tale of love, honor, and duty and set it in one of the most turbulent times of merry old England: the reign of Richard the Lion-Hearted. Richard is away, but may be on his way home and his brother Prince John is acting as regent. The major conflict is between the favored Normans and the oppressed Saxons. Racism is a major theme of this novel and it is interesting how Scott makes it play out. While Normans are guilty of racism toward the Saxons, both are guilty of the same thing toward the Jews represented in the novel.
As I read more, I'll post some entries on the way these themes work out.

Death of Bryan

2008-12-20T14:18:00.003-05:00

In researching Donald Davidson for my thesis, I came across lots of stuff I would otherwise not have known. A good deal of it was about my hometown and state, some of which can be read in previous blog entries. One thing I haven't noted much here is how much the Dayton Trial of John T. Scopes, known commonly as the Monkey Trial, was a part of Davidson's thinking. Much of his shift to Southern Agrarianism came after the Scopes Trial was concluded. In his second volume on the history of the Tennessee River, he devotes many pages to a discussion of the trial and its effects on the culture of Tennessee and the South.
In this second volume I discovered that William Jennings Bryan, the Great Commoner who served to assist the prosecution in the case, gave his last public address in Winchester, TN (my hometown) before dying unexpectedly on July 25, 1925 on his way back to Chattanooga. According to The Truth and Herald (July 30, 1925) between 6,000 and 7,000 people attended the public address given by Bryan in Winchester.
I doubt anything Bryan said there was substantially different from what he said at any other time, but it was interesting to me that my little hometown had even been visited by someone like William Jennings Bryan, not to mention that he gave his last public address there.

New Domain

2008-12-19T18:44:00.001-05:00

For those who follow this blog a little, I have a new domain you can take note of. One of my students (with his own techno blog, here) gave me a domain name for Christmas. You can now point your browser to www.campusmentis.net and it will forward you right here. Thanks John.

Christmas Break

2008-12-19T18:37:00.003-05:00

It's that time of year again. It is that time when I am supposed to get to take a break from school and sit around a warm fireplace sipping spiced cider (or scotch, depending on my mood), smoking my pipe, and reading to refresh and relax. So how come that never happens? We've spent the last few days running around looking for Christmas presents we would normally already have bought. The van being broken down for three weeks did NOT help our present buying timeline. Consequently, I have spent very little time at home period. And not only that, we appear to be having some kind of heat wave in the Southeast. I am very appreciative of the rain, but it should not be 65 degrees in December unless you live on the equator.
Oh, the present buying is not working out so well either. By this point all the Lego sets under $50 have been bought (which isn't that many anyway), all the bikes under $80 are gone, and nothing is available online either. I don't think I'm going to like living in a depression, if it comes to that.
Hopefully things will look up though. We have most everything bought that we are going to buy. I plan to spend a good bit of tomorrow doing exactly what I want to. I really want to finish Ivanhoe.

Christmas lights

2008-12-17T09:16:00.004-05:00

I love taking the kids out to look at Christmas lights. I remember doing thsi as a child and enjoying it very much. The internet and especially YouTube has made doing this a lot of fun as well. You can see Christmas displays from all over the country. A new trend is to use electronic control modules to time lights to a piece of music. The passerby can tune to a particular FM frequency and hear the song while seeing the lights timed to it. YouTube has some interesting displays of this, but a favorite for a couple of years now has been this one. The song is by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. TSO has become very popular in recent years for their Christmas albums mixing progressive metal and traditional Christmas tunes. I have followed them since they began as a progressive metal band called Savatage. Savatage began their transformation as early as 1991 with their self-proclaimed rock opera Streets. There is an interesting review of Streets here. Savatage was famous for recycling lyrics from one song into other albums songs and making it work because the theme was similar or the sentiment was the same.
For example, on their 1991 album Streets, the final song "Believe" declares:
I am the way
I am the light
I am the dark inside the night
I hear your hopes
I feel your dreams
And in the dark I hear your screams
Don't turn away
Just take my hand
And when you make your final stand
I'll be right there
I'll never leave
And all I ask of you
Believe

Savatage recycled this sequence in their 1994 release, Handful of Rain, on the final track "Alone You Breathe," written for Christopher Oliva, brother of band member Jon Oliva. Shortly after Handful of Rain, Dead Winter Dead (1995) became the second rock opera released by Savatage and contined the now popular "Christmas Eve Sarajevo 12/24." The band released another album of two after this, but mostly began the transition into the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. The song, "Christmas Eve Sarajevo 12/24" was re-released on their first album Christmas Eve and other Stories.
Besides an amazing sound, one of the things that interests me about TSO and the predecessor Savatage is their emphasis on storytelling. In a 2003 interview with Christianity Today (found here) producer, Paul O'Neill stated, "I'm a strong believer in the power of storytelling. I grew up in a large Irish Catholic home, and my parents wouldn't allow us to watch TV. That forced us to learn to read. Also, before we went to bed, my father would weave these incredibly intricate fairy tales and stories from the top of his head. Even as I got older, I'd hang around him telling stories to my little siblings. And Irish music tends to have strong storytelling."
The guys of TSO have some very interesting stories to tell, even if they aren't the most theologically accurate, they can still spin an interesting yarn. For some of us, it might be better to hear a story that is a little lacking in the theology department but makes us think in theological terms. TSO's music and stories do just this.
Give them a listen if you are into Classical and Progressive Metal fusion.

Herodotus' flying snakes?

2008-12-09T20:00:00.002-05:00

Probably not, but a student of mine who actually pays attention sent me this link to an article he found while excavating the web one day.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/dec/03/flying-reptile-lacusovagus-magnificens
It is worth a read, even if it comes from a evolutionary worldview. God had made such an amazing variety of creatures. I am constantly impressed by the ones that don't even exist anymore.

Really Done!

2008-12-04T16:51:00.004-05:00

I just received word that my manuscript has been accepted by Clemson. That officially ends the process of writing my masters thesis. My degree will be awarded on December 18 and I'll go down on the 19th to pick it up. This has been a very long and tiresome project, but looking back on it, it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. There were some late nights and a few personal days from work, but nothing that really killed me.
Now I get to pay more attention to my classes at school and read what I want to read. Which is not to say I won't be reading Donald Davidson any more. I have some of his stuff still that I'd like to pay more attention to than I could during the thesis writing phase. Not to mention the other Agrarians that I hardly touched at all.
I'll post a picture of my diploma when I get it.

The Vulture by Hilaire Belloc

2008-12-02T18:29:00.002-05:00

The vulture eats between his meals
And that's the reason why
He very, very rarely feels
As well as you and I.
His eye is dull, his head is bald,
His neck is growing thinner.
Oh! what a lesson for us all
To only eat at dinner!

Davidson on economic stability

2008-11-26T10:58:00.000-05:00

The secret of Charleston's stability, if it was any secret, was only the old Southern principle that material considerations, however important, are means not ends, and should always be subdued to the ends they are supposed to serve, should never be allowed to dominate, never be mistaken for ends in themselves. If they are mistaken for ends, they dominate everything, and then you get instability. You get he average modern city, you get New York and Detroit, you get industrial civilization, world wars, Marxist communism, the New Deal.

Donald Davidson, "Some Day, In Old Charleston" Still Rebels, Still Yankees, 222.

I Passed!

2008-11-21T17:09:00.003-05:00

I defended my thesis on Donald Davidson on Nov. 19. There were some pretty tough questions but I managed to answer them to the satisfaction of my committee members. I now have to submit my revised thesis to my adviser and then, once he signs off on it, to the Graduate School for publication. All this has to be done before Dec. 5. After that I just wait until Dec. 19 to go down and pick up my diploma and drop off several milk crates full of books to the Library.
I can't believe I'm done. It has been a very interesting experience to put this much energy into a project of this size and get it done well.

Thesis Defense

2008-11-15T21:13:00.003-05:00

My thesis defense has been scheduled for Wednesday (Nov. 19). I was incorrect in that I am not defending the new draft of my thesis, but rather the draft I sent my committee. I also have to defend coursework I took with these men. For the three men on my committee that means I have to answer questions on General Historiography, American Historiography, and the American South. All of those were fun classes, but I did take them a while ago.
I am nervous, but anxious to be done with this phase of my life. It doesn't mean anything immediately (compensation-wise) nor am I looking to immediately begin working towards a doctorate, but it represents a lot of time and energy on my part and it is exciting to see it coming to a close.
By the end of the day on Wednesday, I should know whether I get to put M.A. on my stuff or not.
Until then, I am reading stuff they have told me they want me thinking about and working on the revisions for my thesis.

Amazing!

2008-11-13T17:57:00.001-05:00

Check out this video from a wonderful classical school in Boise ID. They really know how to integrate curriculum up there.

Armistice Day

2008-11-11T18:17:00.002-05:00

Though we celebrate Veterans Day on November 11, much of Europe (well, Britain and France anyway) celebrate Armistice Day. It remembers the day that the Armistice was signed, ending the First World War. Though some fighting continued until word was spread and the official documents were signed, it still represents the end of that tragic conflict.
In America, we broaden the significance of this day to remember all veterans who have served (or continue to serve) our country in wars. This is a nice sentiment as well. However, I don't like that we observe the day on Monday of whatever week Nov. 11 falls on. This whole business about observing holidays on Mondays so government employees and bank employees can get a long weekend is bunk.
Many people have served and died over the generations so that we can be free. Remember them. Honor them!

What I'm listening to

2008-11-08T16:28:00.003-05:00

Two musical styles I have grown to appreciate more over the past year or so are guitar and piano. To excellent examples of these instruments playing classical and not-so-classical music are Ludovici Einaudi and the California Guitar Trio.

I found both of these artists via Echoes, which I've mentioned before. If you get it on NPR, give it a listen. I have enjoyed a great deal of what I hear there.
The links above are to Amazon. I don't get anything if you buy them there. I like Amazon because they typically have lower prices and I can preview most music there (iTunes does this as well, but I don't know how to link to iTunes).
I hope you enjoy these musicians.

Guy Fawkes Day

2008-11-05T16:19:00.002-05:00

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason, and Plot,
I can think of no reason
Why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.

Happy Guy Fawkes Day!

Classical Thought for the Day

2008-11-05T16:18:00.000-05:00

"The beauty of the classical curriculum is that it dwells on one problem, one author, or one epoch long enough to allow even the youngest student a chance to exercise his mind in a scholarly way: to make connections and to trace developments, lines of reasoning, patterns of action, recurring symbolisms, plots, and motifs." David V. Hicks, Norms and Nobility, 133.

Election Day

2008-11-04T06:28:00.002-05:00

Today is Election Day. I doubt anyone could not know that this year. But nonetheless, get out and vote. Vote for leaders for our nation who will uphold the sanctity of human life. Vote for leaders for our nation who will cherish godliness more than wealth. Vote for leaders for our nation who will lead and not follow.
I am off to my local precinct in just a few minutes to see if I can get in before I have to go to school. I hope I can vote this morning. I have decided to vote for Chuck Baldwin for President since Ron Paul could not be persuaded to run as an independent. I understand Paul's choice, though I wish it weren't true. It will be generations before an independent will be elected to any major political office. We are stuck in a two-party system, whether we like it or not. That being said, I will also be voting Democratic in a couple of races here. After looking through the candidates, I believe the choices are solid choices. They best represent what I would like to see happen in this country.
Well, here we go. Enjoy the returns tonight. It is sure to be an interesting evening.

Why it is important to always do your best

2008-11-01T18:33:00.001-04:00

Halloween

2008-10-31T16:42:00.003-04:00

I feel like I ought to post something on Halloween, seeing as how it is October 31 and all. I know many blogs are posting on Reformation Day, and that is certainly valuable. You can see an excellent blog entry from Dr. George Grant here on the subject. However, a few years ago I ran across an article written by James Jordan on Halloween. I enjoyed it, but have never really taken the time to check out the argument. Nevertheless, I submit it for perusal by any who care to confirm or refute it.You can find a copy of it here.
More recently I have found a similar interpretation of Halloween by Doug Wilson. I also enjoyed it and think it has a lot of very pastoral and informative suggestions, which is why it was written in the first place. His take on "Satan's holiday" can be found here.
We dressed the kids up for a couple of outings this year, nothing scary (per Wilson's remarks) and let them get candy and such. We even carved a Jack O' Lantern for our church Fall festival. We have relaxed our approach to the evils and dangers of Halloween a little this year. It reminds me of something I once heard Dr. Grant say, and have heard repeated by many since. Every new Calvinist should be locked up for five years and then allowed to speak. In the time since I first came to the Reformed faith, I have loosened the net on what Scripture requires and what Christian liberty allows. I hope and pray that I have done so in the light of the Gospel and with the sanctifying grace of the Spirit.

Step Two

2008-10-30T20:19:00.003-04:00

Well, my thesis has been accepted by my adviser. That means that I now send it to the other two members of my committee and they tell me what they think about it. My adviser made lots of comments and suggestions, as the other members will, I'm sure. Once I get all their feedback, I'll make changes and then defend the corrected version of my thesis. This will all need to happen before Thanksgiving. If all goes well, I will graduate with an M.A. in History.
I am very excited about this, and very appreciative of my adviser. He really went out of his way to help me when I came to him saying I needed to graduate this semester. The other members of my committee are all men I respect as well, so I am sure their comments are going to be valuable.
I'll keep the blog posted as to what happens and how it happens.

The Good School

2008-10-28T13:23:00.001-04:00

"The good school does not just offer what the student or the parent or the state desires, but it says something about what these three ought to desire. A school is fundamentaly a normative, not a utilitarian, institution, governed by the wise, not by the many."
David V. Hicks, Norms and Nobility, 13.

Radical Thoughts

2008-10-24T12:13:00.004-04:00

A friend of mine showed this to me recently. It is an excellent look at our problem from a non-American source.

Every homeschooler and private school should see this.
Enjoy.

If you have ever wanted to go to jail, but weren't sure how...

2008-10-21T17:53:00.002-04:00

This is a great way to go to jail for a speeding ticket.