On Regional Writing, by Flannery O'Connor

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

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

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

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

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

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 contained 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?

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!

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

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

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!

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

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!

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

Armistice Day

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

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

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

"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

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

Halloween

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

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

"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

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...

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

Attempting to follow politics

With my attention on my M.A. so far, I have been unable to really follow politics like I'd like. I did get to watch the third presidential debate and I have seen the skits SNL has been putting on (though I missed Palin on Saturday night) thanks to YouTube.
I have kept up with Doug Wilson's thoughts on Governor Palin over at his Blog and Mablog site. Very interesting stuff. Andrew Kern's insights at CiRCE are also excellent. I honestly don't know who to vote for. I am not stimulated by either of our two presidential candidates. I also do not buy the "throiwng your vote away" philosophy. In the absence of a write-in candidate I may follow Chesterton's advice and vote for the worse of the evils out there just so we can really see how bad it is.
Gar DeMar's website had a article on not losing sight of where the real action is this election season: the House of Representatives. I'm still pondering all this in my mind and looking at the options. I doubt I'll give any secrets away here even once the election is past.
I always enjoy watching election returns come in. November 4 is right around the corner.

Eliot on Tradition

From T.S. Eliot's "Tradition and the Individual Talent"

Yet if the only form of tradition, of handing down, consisted in following the ways of the immediate generation before us in a blind or timid adherence to its successes, "tradition" should positively be discouraged. We have seen many such simple currents soon lost in the sand; and novelty is better than repetition. Tradition is a matter of much wider significance. It cannot be inherited, and if you want it you must obtain it by great labour. It involves, in the first place, the historical sense, which we may call nearly indispensable to anyone who would continue to be a poet beyond his twenty-fifth year; and the historical sense involves a perception, not only of the pastness of the past, but of its presence; the historical sense compels a man to write not merely with his own generation in his bones, but with a feeling that the whole of the literature of Europe from Homer and within it the whole of the literature of his own country has a simultaneous existence and composes a simultaneous order. This historical sense, which is a sense of the timeless as well as of the temporal and of the timeless and of the temporal together, is what makes a writer traditional. And it is at the same time what makes a writer most acutely conscious of his place in time, of his contemporaneity.

Guess what???

Guess what this is...










It is the first completed draft of my thesis. I still don't have a title for it, but I guess I don't have to for my first draft. It ended up about 109 pages long, with the bibliography.
Now it is time to do the editing process. I have two friends looking into the grammar, which I know will be awful. My wife and I have agonized over the arrangement, and probably are not done with that yet. I am still not satisfied with my introduction.
Nonetheless, the first draft is complete.
Oh, yeah, it has to be turned in Wednesday.

Not on the test

Thanks to Andrew Kern at CiRCE for this one.

To the Autumnal Equinox

Monday, September 22, is the autumnal equinox. Scientifically it means that the sun is right over the equator. How sterile! Nonetheless, it is when the sun begins to shift toward the southern hemisphere, thus transitioning us away from summer and into fall (or autumn). Our days will get a little cooler (in the northern hemisphere anyway) and our nights will get even cooler as well (read tolerable). My air conditioning bill will go down!

Autumn and Winter are my two favorite seasons (not that I particularly despise any of them) because they are the ones where I am most likely to ge to sit by a fire, have a cup of hot apple cider, smoke my pipe and enjoy a book. One of the reasons I appreciate being a teacher is that I have a few weeks around Christmas to do just that.

In honor of the Autumnal Equinox, I offer up some poetry devoted to autumn (by better hands than mine).

Leaves, by Elsie Brady

How silently they tumble down
And come to rest upon the ground
To lay a carpet, rich and rare,
Beneath the trees without a care,
Content to sleep, their work well done,
Colors gleaming in the sun.

At other times, they wildly fly
Until they nearly reach the sky.
Twisting, turning through the air
Till all the trees stand stark and bare.
Exhausted, drop to earth below
To wait, like children, for the snow. 

Nothing Gold Can Stay, by Robert Frost

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold,
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

Biblical Importance of Sumer

Sumer is incredibly relevant to the student of ancient history who seeks to understand the world of the Bible. According to the book of Genesis, Abraham came from Ur. There were several cities called Ur in Mesopotamia, but there are good reasons to believe that the Ur of southern Mesopotamia is the Ur of the Chaldees that Genesis speaks of. For one thing, the names are consistent not only with Akkadian/Sumerian names, but the description of Terah’s business is convincing. Another reason to identify Ur with Abraham is the polytheism on Abraham’s father Terah. Terah left Ur to go to Haran in northern Mesopotamia. Haran was known as a religious center for the worship of Nanna, the moon god. Ur shares this identity for southern Mesopotamia. Finally, according to our best reckoning, Terah fled Ur when the Gutians invaded. This helps us identify the chronology for Abraham as well.
Why is it important to know about Mesopotamia to understand Abraham? Abraham had a polytheistic past and this plays a large role in his life in Canaan. Abraham had to undergo the same sanctification that we do. Understanding this helps us understand some of the choices Abraham made and hang-ups that he had.
For example, the concept of land was very important to people from Mesopotamia. Perhaps very different from other cultures at the time, Mesopotamians like Abraham placed a heavy emphasis on land. They were a business people. Writing had been introduced there to help keep track of inventory and business transactions, and only later used for religious purposes. The cities of Mesopotamia are among the first anywhere to be true cities. The archaeological layouts allow us to see well-defined cultural centers all stationed around a center of worship. The nomadic lifestyle of the surrounding cultures would have seemed very odd to most Mesopotamians. Thus when God comes to Abraham in Haran and tells him to leave and go “to a land that I will show you” (Gen. 12:1) we must understand it in this context.
Another important issue to keep in mind is language. As already noted the reign of Sargon introduced a non-Sumerian element into this culture that would have required bilingual (Sumerian and Akkadian) language. This helps us understand how Terah could successfully travel nearly 600 miles and settle in Haran. This also helps us understand how Terah was so successful in Haran. Being from the Sumerian city of Ur, he would have understood a multiplicity of languages and so could likely have integrated into the more Akkadian culture of Haran.
How does Abraham’s pagan past help us understand his relationship to God? One way is that this was the first time a personal deity had made himself known. To Abraham all gods would have been frustratingly transcendent. Yahweh shows himself to be personal and very much desirous of Abraham’s well-being. God is very much interested in our personal well-being. This is a means for Him to bring glory to Himself, but still very different from the gods Abraham would have known. Another way his past helps us understand the richness of his life is that of the promise. Abraham follows God’s leading based on nothing more than a promise. The newness of this comes through when Sarai laughs at the thought of bearing a child in her old age, even at the promise of a god. These people would not have been used to a god who made Himself known, but the thought of making and keeping promises would have been almost ludicrous to them.
However, Abraham’s worldview does make for some issues for us as Christians. In what world does it make sense to let your wife be taken into a king’s harem, twice? In what way can we understand some of the things that Abraham does that make us cringe with disbelief? It is here that we must attribute his own struggle with his old paganism. Perhaps it has not been totally washed away.
The history of Mesopotamia holds great importance for the student of the ancient world. It helps us understand our own past as descendants of Abraham and builds connections to the world the Bible is situated in.

Sumer to 2040 BC

Sargon’s empire was strong and powerful, but no human kingdom lasts forever. Around 2274 BC, Gutians invaded from the Zagros Mountains to the East. The Gutians shared a language with the Akkadians but not a culture. Unlike many of the other conquerors before them, they had no desire to replace the Akkadian culture with their own, they simply wanted to destroy. They were barbarians in the truest sense of the word. Oftentimes we see people referred to as barbarians, an essentially Greek word that means someone who does not speak Greek. Rarely do we see them live up to the name. Herodotus will call the Persian horde barbarians, but they are as civilized as the Greeks are. The Romans will call the Carthaginians barbarians, but they too had the form of civilization. Only the Germanic tribes much later will seem to fulfill the barbarian name as well as the Gutians.
The Gutians invaded the outskirts of Sargon’s empire first, now controlled by his son. By the time Naram-sin came to the throne, the invasion was well underway and the empire was all but doomed. Naram-sin did not help anything. He expanded the empire to the north along the river valley but left the east undefended and it was quickly overrun by Gutians. They cut the empire in half and invaded nearly every major city in the plain of Shinar. Kish fell, followed by Nippus, Uruk, Lagash, and finally Ur. Anarchy followed. The king lists suggest that no one was able to hold the empire together by asking “Who was king, who was not king?” Sargon’s great empire was gone.
All was not lost. Around before 2280 the city of Lagash gained its freedom from the Gutians. The most famous of these rulers, Gudea, is able to begin trade again. He shows his humility in the statues he has made of himself. Rather than showing himself as a military conqueror, he is dressed in priestly garments with his hands folded.
Following Lagash, a revival of trade and strength flowed from the lower portions of Sumer and spread freedom throughout the plain. Uruk was freed next, followed by Ur and finally Nippur. The king holding most of this newly freed Sumer together was Utuhegal (2280-2277 BC). Utuhegal was not as important as his general and son-in-law, Ur-Nammu whom he left in Ur after driving the Gutians out. Utuhegal went on to continue fighting the Gutians. Ur-Nammu began to consolidate power in Ur and Uruk and amassed his own army. In 2278 he slaughtered his former master and father-in-law and became king of Sumer. He initiated the Third Dynasty of Ur (2278-2170 BC).
The Third Dynasty of Ur was a kind of cultural renaissance for Sumer. Ur-Nammu rebuilt roads and cities and revitalized the land. This renaissance lasted until 2040 BC with the center of influence changing a couple of times. In 2040 BC, the first dynasty of Babylon came to power over Mesopotamia.

Knee Deep in Research

I haven't posted anything recently because I am knee deep in research. Every once in a while, until I get a draft of my thesis, I may post something I find interesting from my research.
Here is an interesting quote from Donald Davidson...
"A civilization cannot feed and flourish upon perishable things. Only imperishable at its center can give it life. Nothing is more imperishable than poetry. In comparison, the material works of science and industry are but fleeting trifles. No civilization of the past has ever lived without poetry. Our civilization can hardly be an exception."

Let's End Women's Suffrage

Not really, but this video once again shows the sorry state of our educational machine in America.
Enjoy!

Sargon the Great (2335-2279 BC)

While the Sumerians fought among each other for cultural and political dominance, the city-state model was changing around them. Semites from the mountains of Zagros and the plains of Elam had been invading for centuries, but had never managed to gain a strong foothold in the southern river valley of Sumer. One location that Semites had controlled was Akkad, to the north of Sumer.
The ancient world is full of myths and stories that are retold over and over again. Over the course of this year we will see the same stories many times. Many of these stories will be familiar to us from biblical accounts. For instance, the narrative of the Flood in Genesis has similar stories from all over Mesopotamia, like the one in the Epic of Gilgamesh. This should not cause us to question the authenticity of the biblical story, but to confirm it. If, as the Bible insists, we are all descended from the sons of Noah every nation should have some collective memory of the Flood. That these stories are similar proves their veracity. That they are different, shows us how man corrupts the things of God when he does not focus his attention on God’s character and worship.
Sargon the Great provides one of the first examples of the river narrative in antiquity. The stories of antiquity are full of this imagery. According to legend, Sargon was set adrift on the Euphrates River shortly after his birth. The goddess Inanna guided his basket to the shores of the city of Kish. Sargon was raised there and eventually given the role of cupbearer to the king of Kish, Ur-Zababa. This river narrative will remind us immediately of Moses, but we see it in many other narratives as well. It becomes a standard narrative for divine providence in the overthrow of a civilization or kingship.
In course of time Sargon overthrew Ur-Zababa and declared himself King of Universal Dominion. Sargon invaded many of the southern Sumerian cities and conquered almost all of them. He joined the disparate Sumerian city-states into an empire of great size. He moved the capital of his empire to Akkad (Agade). In the fifty-five years of his rule he amassed an empire that stretched from the Persian Gulf to the mountains of southern Turkey. The entire river valley of Mesopotamia was his. The new kingdom was called the Akkadian Empire (sometimes called the kingdom of Agade). Sargon established Sumerian culture throughout his kingdom, though he was of Semitic origins himself. Cuneiform became the dominant writing in the empire and would remain so for a thousand years. Three of his descendants reigned after him. The last was Naram-sin who ruled from 2255-2219

Sumer to 2335 BC

This section of our text will focus on the historical development of Sumer during what is called the Early Dynastic period. This period is complicated by the lack of written records as we discussed above. There is also a lack of internal cohesion among the city-states in Sumer. Some scholars refer to this period as a era of civil war and territorial conflict. From around 2900 BC through 2335 BC, the center of power in Sumer shifted often and with much bloodshed.
The map shows several important cities in Sumer. These cities were largely independent of each other and most of them were the center of Sumer at one time or another.
During the Early Dynastic period, these cities rivaled each other for cultural and political dominance. They would conquer each other often. We know this because at this time in the archaeological record, city walls begin to show up. The city-state paradigm is not one known for promoting peace. We will see how the city-state is an evolutionary model in political theory that either advances to imperialism or to republicanism, or is subject to civil war and self-destruction. We see the former in Rome and later European countries and the latter in the Greek cities of Athens and Sparta.

Sumerian Religion

We will take a moment here to give a short introduction to the gods and goddesses of the Sumerians. Before we deal with them particularly, let us spend a moment on the topic of polytheism. Polytheism is the belief in multiple gods. It should be seen as antithetical to monotheism, the belief in one god. Christianity, Judaism and Islam to a lesser extent, are monotheistic religions. Most cultures in the ancient world were polytheistic.
Polytheistic religions have a multitude of gods and goddesses to perform various functions. Many of us are already aware of this in Greek or Roman mythology. Zeus and Jupiter were the chief gods and all others had positions below them in some way. There were messenger gods and gods of war and other such functions. In Sumerian religion, the gods tended to be a little more territorial. There were gods that performed natural or cosmological functions, but they were almost always tied to a city or cities in the region as well. The following chart should give us an idea of some of the more important deities in the Sumerian pantheon.

Deity Name	Patron City	Function
An (Anu)	Erech (Uruk)	Chief god
Enki	Eridu	god of water, wisdom and fertility
Enkil	Nippur	god of rain, wind, and air
Inanna	Erech (Uruk)	goddess of love, fertility, and war
Nanna	Ur	god of the moon
Utu	Larsa	god of justice and the sun
Marduk	Babylon	god of storms and lightning

The layout of Sumerian cities is actually important when the question of religion comes up. Sumerians laid their cities out around the central temple of whatever god or goddess was home to that city. The ziggurat would be in the center of the city and everything radiated from that central point. Coupled with the raised elevation of the ziggurat, we can begin to see how the idea of a “high place” was shared by Sumerians as well as others.

Early Sumer

The first glimmers of what we call civilization began in the Near East, which we now call the Middle East. The Near East of Mesopotamia, or the land between the rivers, is the cradle of the earliest civilization and a fountain for much of our biblical culture. The Tigris and Euphrates Rivers flow out of the Causasus Mountains and toward the Indian Ocean. They form a delta at the Persian Gulf and lay down a tremendous amount of silt (nutrient-rich sediment) along the way. Using the Flood-based Ice Age hypothesis laid down in chapter one, we can surmise that the deep trench of the Persian Gulf was not covered with water at this early period. In fact, some historians have suggested that the land extended as far as modern Qatar in the Arabian Peninsula. As the ice receded, water levels began to rise. It rarely rained on the plain, but rainwater and melting ice would come from the mountains once a year flooding the plain and leaving behind the muddy silt that dried into baked earth.
Sometime between 3500 and 3000 BC people began to settle here and developed techniques of animal husbandry and agriculture. The grasses that grew in the region provided excellent grazing grounds for sheep and goats gathered off the nearby mountains. The animals provided meat, milk, and cheese, as well as clothing from the skins. Soon people began cultivating the grains that grew in the area and harvested barleys and other cereals for their own nutrition. As more and more people flowed into the region, communities began to form along the rivers of the valleys. The people used the mud to bake bricks and build little huts and homes with. These communities eventually coalesced into primitive cities or city-states. Evidence suggests that major decisions were made by a council of elders and a council of adult citizens. Organized labor for canal building or other projects would have leader elected to rule at that time. Government, such as this, developed to keep order and provide protection and trade among the citizens began to allow for stratification of class and vocation. This earliest example is called Sumer.
The earliest records of Sumer are king lists written down about 2,100 BC. They record kings from before the Flood, but are not reliable at this point. For instance, King Alulim of Erech was said to have ruled for 28,000 years. This exceptional reign dwarfs even that of the biblical genealogies, and is clearly accurate.
What we know of Sumer must be drawn from both written and physical sources. We have writings from much later, but give us indications of events and social structures. We also have excavated cities and sites of interest. These give us a great amount of understanding about the buildings they built, the pottery they used, and other social structures. Pottery is fascinating because of the way it is constructed. Once the clay is fired, it really cannot break down or decay any further. The process of baking it unites the molecules in such a way that they can be shattered to dust, but cannot be destroyed or turned into anything else. Thus pottery can be a great vehicle for archaeological knowledge. Pottery was often buried with people, and in excavations, is usually found in dwellings. The styles of pottery are informative, as is the decoration on pottery. In Greek pottery, for example, we can view the way different kinds of people dressed and acted. This is not usually the case with Sumerian pottery, but as a source for ancient history, its value is still high.
From the more reliable portions of the king lists however; we can construct a partial chronology for Mesopotamia and Sumer. Why is this important? Some very important figures and events come to light in this period and it behooves us to take notice of the culture that brought these things into existence. For instance, writing begins in Sumer.

The form of writing that we call cuneiform was invented here. It is done by pressing wedge-shaped sticks into wet wax or clay, making markings that were used as words. It is pictographic, as opposed to phonetic. Words were marked out by specific symbols, not phonetic combinations. Cuneiform writing was apparently invented because of the tremendous amount of trade done in Sumer. Merchants had to have ways to account for inventory and accounting. It is significant that economics brought forth the invention of writing, not literature or religion. Both of these were oral traditions long before writing was used to record them.
The city, or city-state, is first expressed here as well. As people began to gather together in central locations, they began to relate to each other differently than they had before. There is a remarkable difference in the way members of a single household relate as opposed to members of multiple households. As more and more people were drawn to the agricultural way of life, they built houses of mud brick and lived close to other people. This was done for protection. A single raiding party could devastate one household, but with others nearby, they were deterred from their actions. A city-state is a collection of people who voluntarily live near each other, protect each other, and provide for each other with goods and materials. Evidence suggests that “an assembly of free adult male citizens … convened on an ad hoc basis to make decisions for the good of the community.” Some historians suggest that the choosing of ruler was initially only done to assist with large defense efforts or public work projects. This origin of political organization in Sumer is part of its claim as well.

Agrarianism

The more I read of Davidson, the more I get the impression that to him, Agrarianism meant a balance life. He didn't say it very well, all the time, but as I read more and more of what he wrote, he doesn't have a beef with machines per se. He has a problem with a messianic faith in machines. He doesn't have a problem with industry per se, he has a problem with a messianic faith in industrialism to relieve all our woes.
Davidson seems to hold on to Agrarianism as the best way to bring everything back into balance. A clear harmony between the life of the land and the life of the city seems to be in view with him. Now if I can just prove it.

The Fertile Crescent

The first chapter of this book was devoted to the period we sometimes refer to as “prehistory.” This means that there are no contemporary records from that period. The period itself took place before people wrote things down about it. Contemporary records are other writings that can complement the history record we have. If you were to write a biography of Winston Churchill and you used his own diary and documents that he wrote for official business, they would be considered contemporary records. If you mentioned that he began working at the Office of the Admiralty in 1911 and you used either of these sources, you would have contemporary records for the assertion. There are no lists of anything from before the Flood and no catalogs of animals on the ark. The only source of information we have is the book of Genesis and other works that parallel the account given there. For instance, the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, presents a parallel flood narrative that can be instructive if given the proper place.
However, after the Tower of Babel, we begin a new phase of history. Many history books, even those written by Christians, begin here. This is partly because writing about the period prior to this takes a lot of speculation, even if we follow the book of Genesis completely. It is difficult to know exactly when and where things took place. After the Tower of Babel, we have better knowledge of these things. We can focus our attention on a specific region and location, the Fertile Crescent.
The Fertile Crescent is known as the birthplace of civilization. Civilization is a very difficult word to define. It has typically been used to describe a city-dwelling culture. This is an unsatisfactory definition. We will not present a full-blown definition here, but we will begin to construct a definition in which civilization has to do with the transmission of culture from one generation to the next. For now, we will accept part of the traditional definition and acknowledge that civilization involves cities. Cities first spring up in the Fertile Crescent, a band of irrigated land stretching from the Persian Gulf in modern Iraq, up through the Tigris and Euphrates River valleys of Assyria and down through Palestine into Lower Egypt (see map below).
It is easy to see why civilization first began to develop in this region once we begin to understand the region. The Fertile Crescent is made up of river valleys. The basic geography of the Fertile Crescent is important to understand.
Rivers are formed when water runs down out of mountains on its way to sea. The Fertile Crescent is surrounded by mountains. To the north in Turkey and Armenia we find the Causasus and Taurus ranges. To the west we have the Zagros range. Deep in the south of central Africa the Ruwenzori range feeds the Nile River. Mountains also run through Palestine, the ranges of Lebanon and Hermon are particularly important. As water runs out of mountains it inevitably picks up sediment from the mountain and carries it down to the sea. However, as water flows rapidly it often overflows its traditional bed and lays this sediment down along its path. This sediment is often mineral-rich and suitable for growing.
The more important information though is the human side of this equation. All the sediment in the world would do nothing valuable if it were not for people. We learned from the Bible that after the Flood, Noah’s descendants traveled down the river valley and settled in the land of Shinar (cf. Gen. 11:1). Here they built the Tower of Babel and here God’s judgment came upon them. Humanity was forced to travel more and we see various groups of people develop different patterns of civilization all around the region of the Fertile Crescent.
In the immediate Persian Gulf area we find the Sumerians and the Akkadians, who we will look at carefully soon. To the east we find the Egyptians settled in the Nile River valley. Between both of these major groups we find a whole host of smaller groups filling in the lands. This first unit of this book will focus mostly on this region of the Fertile Crescent. The Fertile Crescent represents the foundational geography we will be concerned with for a while.

Home ... where you least expect it

In researching the life and career of Donald Davidson and the Agrarians I have found many interesting notes about my own home, Middle Tennessee. For instance, Donald Davidson great-great-grandfather, Andrew Davidson put down roots near Shelbyville, TN after his first family was murdered by Shawnee Indians in Virginia. Donald's father spent some time in Winchester, TN (my hometown) at a teacher preparatory school I never knew existed.
Allen Tate's family often came down to Estill Springs for a family vacation. Apparently it used to be quite the wealthy Nashvillian hang out. Several of these men spent time in or around Sewanee and the University of the South. Tate edited the Sewanee Review for a while, as did Andrew Nelson Lytle. Lytle actually retired to Monteagle and died there in 1995.
This has been one of the interesting and exciting things about this research. It has given me a new glimpse of the home I grew up in and yet never really appreciated.

The Tower of Babel

After the flood subsided, Genesis tells us that Noah and his children left the ark and made a sacrifice to God on the top of the mountain. There God made a covenant with Noah. This covenant is important because it parallels very closely the original covenant made with Adam. In both covenants God tells humanity to “be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth” (Gen. 9:1; cf. Gen. 1:28). This tells us that the command to control the earth and subdue it (cf. Gen. 1:28) is still in force after the fall. It also sets us an interesting context for the next significant event in human history, the Tower of Babel.
Before we get to the Tower of Babel though, we should notice the tenth chapter of Genesis. It is traditionally called the Table of Nations. In this portion of Scripture, God gives us a catalog of all the major Mediterranean nations descended from Noah and his sons. It is a fascinating study to see that the Greeks, the Arabs, and others are all carefully cataloged in the Bible for us.
The general location of Babel is pretty easy to deduce. Genesis tells us that after a while the descendants of Noah traveled east and dwelt in the land of Shinar. Shinar is the biblical term for Mesopotamia (lit. the land between the rivers). This means that Noah’s descendants came to live between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. It was here that they decided to dwell and to raise the mighty tower to heaven.
Most archaeologists, whether they accept the biblical narrative or not, identify the structure of the Tower of Babel with the Sumerian ziggurat. The ziggurat was a structure utilized often throughout Sumeria. We have several archaeological examples of these structures. It is not necessary for us to settle on this explanation at this time. The far more important issue, historically, surrounds the reasons why the tower was built and what the effects were rather than what it looked like. It is enough to understand the general geography of the Tower of Babel.
When God made His covenant with Noah, which was a renewal of the original covenant with Adam, He instructed Noah again to “be fruitful and multiply, populate the earth abundantly and multiply in it” (Gen. 9:7 NASB). Part of the command here is to move and spread out. However, we can see an unwillingness to obey the command of God in the Tower of Babel event because the people had not moved around. They had stayed exactly where their forefathers had dwelt. There was an inherent disobedience in the descendants of Noah here. The building of the tower was just the physical manifestation of the internal sin of this disobedience. The people even state this. “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a  name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth” (Gen. 11:4).
The tower is constructed to reach heaven. Historians tell us that many primitive religions see high places as the dwelling place of divinity. We will find this to be generally true whether we are discussing Sumeria or Greece. Why is this? Scripture is consistent in maintaining that God is “high and lifted up” (Is. 6:1). Since we are all made in the image of God and have the knowledge of God imprinted on our hearts, it is by constant suppression that we pretend we do not know God. This is the substance of Paul’s argument in Romans 1:18-32. His conclusion to this argument is that all humanity is “without excuse” (Rom. 1:21) and are subject to the judgment of God because they ignored their responsibilities before Him. Since all men know God it is reasonable to expect them to counterfeit true worship. True worship of God is according to His commands. Counterfeit worship flows from the heart of man and is directed at what he wants God to be like, whether this be an impersonal force or a buddy. Also at the heart of the tower is the desire from the garden to “be like God” (Gen. 3:5).
The tower represents a combination of sinful attitudes and actions on the part of humanity. It is our refusal to obey God in His commands. It is our attempt at counterfeit worship rather than authentic worship. It is also our attempt to be God. Thus the judgment of the Tower of Babel is instructive.
God communicates clearly why He acts. Do not miss how important it is that God communicates His will and reasons to us in the Bible. Many religions have gods that supposedly act in human history. However, few, if any, will give their rationale for acting in issues such as divine judgment. Here and in the Flood, we are not left to our own devices to determine why God chose to do what He did. He tells us, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one anothers speech” (Gen. 11:6-7).
Much about history can be learned is episodes such as the Tower of Babel. Of course, the obvious piece of information is that we get all of the different languages from this event. Why do Egyptians speak differently from Greeks or Native Americans? Simply because God confused their language. The variety of languages in the world is not the result of random and cultural forces alone, it is a direct result of the God of heaven and earth acting judiciously on His creation.
The distribution of peoples can also be traced to this event. Many of the languages cataloged have families, (i.e.) they are similar. We can surmise that some of the languages created in the Tower of Babel judgment were similar and allowed the people to live in close proximity to each other. Others, however, were very different and thus people moved far away. From this, languages continued to develop and an entire history of language exists to consider the relationships they have to each other. Language is a fascinating thing and its history is incredible.

On iTunes Now...

The radio program Echoes tuned me into a great artist who distributes his work on the internet. General Fuzz has several albums worth of stuff that you can download. I enjoy his most recent compositions the most, but find all of it good.
Check him out.

Davidson on Education

In an essay written in 1935 to document and explain the history of the book, I'll Take My Stand, Donald Davidson indicates that he and the other Agrarians wrote the book to Southerners as Southerners. He laments that perhaps, this was presumptuous. The Agrarians and the critics of the book did not even use the primary terms (Agrarianism and Industrialism) in the same way. Later he makes the following statement:

It was first of all a book for mature Southerners of the late nineteen-twenties, in the so-called New South - Southerners who, we trusted, were not so far gone in modern education as to require, for the act of comprehension, coloured charts, statistical tables, graphs, and journalistic monosullables, but were prepared to use intelligence and memory.

Wouldn't it be nice to have people like that? He didn't and I doubt we will either for a long time. But that is one of the things a good classical education seeks to remedy. The act of interacting with primary sources, as much as possible, helps build the kind of person who can use his intelligence and memory. Sure we use maps and sometimes charts to help us colect similar types of information. I think Davidson went a little too far. However, the modern education system, including modern journalism (which is supposed to be a primary agent of continuing education for adults) has reduced all learning to statistics, graphs, and monosyllables.

The Process

I have been down to Clemson University several times in the past two weeks. I have registered for my final class, a Master's Research class. I have paid for said class (Thanks, Dad!). I have spoken to advisors in the department and managed to get all the appropriate forms signed and turned in. I have raided the library more times than I'd like to think. My limit on books is 200. I'm not sure how close I am on that.

This is just one part of a bookcase. The stuff you can see is in front of my books.











I have photocopied, scanned, and printed more articles than I ever thought I would. Here are some of them on my
desk

and floor












The process is to begin to read as much as I can about Davidson and figure out what exactly I can say about him or ideas that he had that hasn't been said before. With my Senior Thesis at UTC, I did this by looking at how B.B. Warfield and Charles Hodge both used the philosophy of Thomas Reid, called Common Sense Realism. Stuff had been written on Reid, Warfield, and Hodge, but no one brought it together and said what I tried to say.
At this point I have read two biographies of Davidson, several books on the Agrarian movement, and a ton of Davidson's own writings. I am coming close to something. I can feel it. I just hope it happens before school starts. My ability to read for seven hours at a time reduces severely at that point. If I have a thesis statement by that point, however, then I have about 45 days to write at least 90 pages on my topic. If I make it to October 15 with a draft, I should be home free from there.

Paternalism in Southern History

I find it very interesting that, in Southern historiography, no white southerner can have any concern for an African-American without it being paternalistic. There is no room for generosity, love, compassion, or genuine fellowship. Every attempt by a white southerner to reach out to the African-American is dubbed "paternalism" which means that they are reaching down, not out.
To a large degree I suppose we have brought this on ourselves, but it ticks me off.

Metaphysical Poetry

“About the beginning of the seventeenth century appeared a race of writers that may be termed metaphysical poets.”
Samuel Johnson first used the term “metaphysical poets” in a disparaging way in his Lives of the Poets in 1744. He faulted these writers for using their wit to construct false conceits, tying dissimilar ideas together in a violent fashion. He acknowledged that many of these poets were “men of learning” and that they occasionally hit on truth, saying “their learning instructs, and their subtlety surprises; but the reader commonly thinks his improvement dearly bought, and, though he sometimes admires, is seldom pleased.”
By the end of the seventeenth century the poetry studied in this guide had fallen out of favor and was largely ignored for nearly two centuries. Poets like T.S. Eliot recovered the genius of the metaphysical poets and stated that the metaphysical poets were merely “engaged in the task of trying to find the verbal equivalent for states of mind and feeling. And this means both that they are more mature, and that they wear better, than later poets of certainly not less literary ability.” He noted that English poetry changed significantly after John Milton (1608-1674) and John Dryden (1631-1700) and that poets lost the technique of feeling the experiences that create poetry. In Eliot’s opinion, it is a lost art to convert heterogeneous experiences into poetry, and this is what the metaphysical poets did.
The poets that are generally labeled “metaphysical” are men like John Donne, Andrew Marvell, George Herbert, Henry Vaughan, Abraham Crowley, Edward Herbert, Richard Crashaw and a host of other poets generally living during the seventeenth century (1600’s). From time-to-time sonnets of men like William Shakespeare will be slipped in. As Eliot noted, it was an organic transition from the dramatists of the sixteenth century that gave rise to the conceits of the seventeenth century poets. What makes a poem “metaphysical”? The poets we are concerned with wrote about a broad range of topics, both secular and sacred. However, their poetry is very much characterized by wit. Wit is different from humor, which is what we generally associate the word with today. Humor is more-or-less immediately funny. Wit requires a second glance or reconsideration before it is realized. Wit “suggests intellectual brilliance and ingenuity, verbal deftness, as in an epigram.”
An epigram is a short poem with a witty twist at the end. The form of the epigram comes from Rome, but has been well-developed by English-speaking authors as well. It may be the best way to illustrate the use of wit that is central to metaphysical poetry. Consider the epigrams reproduced below:
Little strokes
Fell great oaks.— Benjamin Franklin

Here lies my wife: here let her lie!
Now she's at rest — and so am I.— John Dryden

Another major characteristic of metaphysical poetry is use of the conceit. A conceit is a “fairly elaborate figurative device of a fanciful kind which often incorporates metaphor, simile, hyperbole or oxymoron and which is intended to surprise and delight by its wit and ingenuity.To put it more simply, a conceit is a comparison of two things which are really nothing alike. Probably one of the best examples comes from John Donne’s poem “A Valediction: forbidding Mourning.” In this poem Donne compares the love he shares with his wife to a drafter’s compass:
Our two souls therefore, which are one,
Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to aery thinness beat.
If they be two, they are two so
As stiff twin compasses are two ;
Thy soul, the fix'd foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if th' other do.

Using this conceit, Donne explains that his going will do nothing more than expand the circumference of their unified love. It cannot diminish the love they share, for their souls are joined as the compass is joined. One leg of the compass provides a footing, an anchor; while the other moves away if needs be, but always they are connected at the center.

---

[1] Samuel Johnson, “Life of Cowley,” in Lives of the Poets, 1744.

[2] Ibid.

[3] T.S. Eliot, “The Metaphysical Poets”

[4] J.A. Cuddon, “Wit,” in The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory, ed. J.A. Cuddon (New York: Penguin, 1999), 985-986.

[5] Ibid., 165.

Going for the Gold, or the hat, or the paper, or something...

I just found out I am about 90 some-odd pages away from my M.A. in History. I thought I had a language requirement hanging over my head but I talked to the director of the Language department and they said I was clear. So now, with all my coursework done I just have to write my thesis.
I met with my advisor yesterday about this and we talked through the timetable. Unless I can graduate this semester (Fall 2008) I will have to wait until August 2009. But my advisor is going on a sabbatical beginning this Spring and will be gone until August 2009. To graduate this semester I have to have a draft of the thing on his desk in September (i.e. 30 days).
I'd like to be done. But I'm not sure I can do this whole thing in 30 days. I think I'm going to give it a try though.
So the saga of the M.A. for Mr. Sisk continues. Mr. Sisk, who is writing a masters thesis on Donald Davidson's attempt to counter modernity through Agrarianism, Distributism, and Regionalism. Donald Davidson who was hopelessly modern but hated modernity (which he identified with nothing more than industrialism).
I have typed a single page with "90 Pages" written on it and taped it above my monitor. That way I will remember for the next 30 days that I have nothing more important (in my spare time) than an essay of 90 pages on Modernism and the futile reaction of one little man from Vanderbilt University.
Follow the continuing saga here, if you wish. Maybe even support me if you can.

Milton on Education

“The end then of learning is to repair the ruins of our first parents by regaining to know God aright, and out of that knowledge to love him, to imitate him, to be like him, as we may the nearest by possessing our souls of true virtue, which being united to the heavenly grace of faith makes up the highest perfection.” John Milton, Of Education
Milton’s words are powerful. They presuppose something very important. They presuppose, in their very statement, that repair work has to be done. We can go through the litany of problems with modern education, but we don’t have to to see where Milton is coming from. You see, Milton does not locate the problem of education in the newest curricular fad, multicultural program, or pro-homosexual textbook selection. Milton locates the problem systemic in education exactly where it is, the fall. The goal of education, according to Milton, is to repair the ruins of the fall. To bring us back into wonderful, blissful communion with our heavenly Father and the glory of His only-begotten son, Christ, our Lord. Not that we reverse the fall through education, but that we seek to suppress it. We seek, through knowing God aright, through loving Him in knowledge, through imitation of His divine attributes, “to be like Him … by possessing our souls of true virtue.” That is the goal of a classical and Christian education.

Uncle Tom's Cabin-Themes Part Two

The other major theme we need to consider when reading Uncle Tom's Cabin is Stowe's understanding of Christian Ethics. This theme goes two ways for Stowe. On the one hand, Christian ethics are lauded on the part of Tom and ultimately George Shelby. They are Christ figures in the novel. Tom accepts the humiliation of his life with the understanding that as long as he trusts his life to God he will persevere. Tom is seen reading his Bible, accepting his humiliating position in life, and taking cruel and undeserved punishment from an authority figure, much as Christ. George Shelby, though a late-comer in the novel, is seen acting out his ethical principles to find and rescue Tom from Legree.
The other way Stowe uses Christian ethics is to condemn most of the white characters in the novel and convict readers of the novel. While each person in the novel confesses Christ, they do not truly represent Christ-likeness as Stowe understands it. True Christ-likeness, as Stowe understands it, would immediately free the slaves since she holds slavery itself to be antithetical to Christian love and charity. Rather, many white characters use Christianity as a means to gain and keep power as opposed to a way of changing the world. In this respect we can see Stowe’s link to the social reform movements of Transcendentalism in America.

Major Technological Breakthrough by Tristan Gylberd

I found this in the recent edition of Arx Axiom. It was originally published December 1998 in the Stirling Bridge newsletter.
"There is nothing new under the sun." Ecclesiastes 1:9

At the recent technology show in Las Vegas, a protocol for a new technological breakthrough was announced. The new protocol, Bio-Optic Organized Knowledge device, will be trade named BOOK. This new BOOK protocol is a revolutionary technological marvel-with no wires, no electric circuits, no batteries, nothing to be connected, and nothing to be switched on. It's so easy to use, even a child can operate it after only a short training session. Compact and portable, it can be used practically anywhere-even sitting in an armchair by the fire-yet it is powerful enough, and contains enough data storage space to potentially hold as much information as a CD-ROM disc.
Here is how it works. BOOK is constructed of sequentially numbered sheets of fully recyclable paper, each capable of holding thousands of bits of information. The pages are locked together with a custom-fit device called a binder which keeps the sheets in their correct sequence. Opaque Paper Technology (OPT) allows manufacturers to use both sides of the sheet, doubling the information density and cutting costs. Experts are divided on the prospects for further increases in information density; for now, BOOKS with more information simply use more pages. Each sheet is scanned optically, registering information directly into your brain. A flick of the finger takes you to the next sheet. BOOK may be taken up at any time and used merely by opening it. BOOK never crashes or requires rebooting, though like other display devices it can become unstable if dropped overboard. The "browse" feature allows you to move instantly to any sheet, and move forward or backward as you wish. Many come with the "index" feature, which enables users to pinpoint the exact location of any selected information for instant retrieval.
Marvel of marvels, it has also been determined, following a series of laboratory tests in the most adverse conditions, the new protocol is altogether Y2K compliant. Indeed, it seems to be entirely unaffected by the seemingly omnipresent Millennium Bug-thus, guaranteeing the survival of the technology regardless of what the next year brings us in the way of basic infrastructure disruptions.
Optional BOOKmark accessories allows users to open BOOK to the exact place they left it in a previous session-even if the BOOK has been closed. BOOKmarks fit universal design standards; thus, a single BOOKmark can be used in BOOKS by various manufacturers. Conversely, numerous BOOK markers can be used in a single BOOK if users want to store numerous views at once. The number is limited only by the number of pages in the BOOK. Users may also wish to make personal notes next to BOOK text entries with yet any one of another series of optional accessories-transferable programming tools: the Portable Erasable Nip Cryptic Intercommunication Language Stylus, known by the trade name, PENCILS. Portable, durable, and affordable, BOOK is already being hailed as a precursor of a new wave of educational and entertainment products. Also, BOOK's appeal seems so certain that thousands of content creators have committed to the platform and investors are reportedly flocking in. Look for a flood of new titles soon.

Hermeneutics Part Five

Today we consider the final major principle in interpreting the Bible.
Scripture must be interpreted according to the genre in which it is written: Poetry should not be interpreted as prose, nor should prophecy be interpreted as prose. Each style of literary genre is to be interpreted differently, not all as the same thing. This hampers the so-called literal interpretation of Scripture. Scripture is full of allusions, allegorical remarks, metaphors and other literary devices. Many students of the Bible claim to interpret the Scriptures literally, but they cannot do this consistently. For instance, John 15:1 portrays Christ as a vine, yet few (if any) interpreters would say that Jesus meant this literally. Is the difference in the text, does Jesus clue us into the metaphor in any way. Not really. He just says "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser." Throughout the Old Testament we see God portrayed in a variety of metaphors. None of these are to be taken literally with respect to God, for God is spirit and cannot be understood as anything literal or physical. He even warned against this in the Decalogue. Anthropomorphism is a frequent literary device among ancient writings and is never meant to be taken literally. Scripture may have a divine origin, but its writers were men who had to follow the rules of grammar for their social context, just as we do today. Idioms and other literary devices are not uncommon in Scripture, and we must not impose literal constraints on passages that do not have them. How do we tell the difference? We return to the previous point and let Scripture interpret Scripture. In the Olivet discourse Christ references events of catastrophic and cosmic proportions. Today most evangelical Christians understand these events to be future because they have not happened in time. However, this presents the problem of expecting a literal fulfillment of prophecy, which cannot be justified. In the book of Isaiah, the prophet records that in God's judgment on Babylon "the stars of heaven will not give their light and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be darkened in its going forth and the moon will not cause its light to shine" (Isaiah 13:10). This passage must be understood to have been fulfilled because of later revelation in the book of Daniel which references the judgment of Babylon by God through other nations (Daniel 2:36-45). Is this passage to be interpreted literally as one would passages such as Genesis 6 where God destroyed the earth with a flood? Some have suggested that events such as these are literal to God. However, this does not really answer the question. In supposing that scripture was written for contemporary hearers, it must also be supposed that they understood what was being written or said. Otherwise the very nature of Scripture as personal revelation from God is useless. Why would God go about telling us what is real to Him if it is not real to us as well? In short, even if passages such as Isaiah 13:10 are to be taken as literal to God, though not to mankind, they must have some form of reference point to mankind and interpretational value. Therefore, are they to be taken as literal to us? The direct answer is obviously not. The heavens are still around, we can look up and see them. This discussion should inform our understanding of the Olivet Discourse. Is it necessary to restrict Christ's words to literal events which were to occur? Not at all.
If we use these principles of hermeneutics carefully and faithfully, the Scriptures will open up to us with very few problems. We will not understand everything. That is part of the hermeneutical problem. We were not alive when they wrote and have a very different perception of things. The problem of translation is that it does not always catch the idioms and figures of speech that a culture like Israel or Babylon, or even Rome would have known instantly. It is perplexing to us to understand why Christ said that the Pharisees strained out a gnat to swallow a camel, but not impossible to understand it. There are some passages of Scripture that have perplexed scholars for years. The great church father Augustine once wrote concerning the "Man of Sin" in 2 Thessalonians, that he had no idea what Paul was talking about. The best efforts have yet to come to a conclusive answer to the question yet. That does not mean that no answer exists, only that we lack the tools to find it with. All of Scripture is meant to be understood. It may not be for our generation to understand that passage yet. It was not meant for the early church to understand the doctrine of justification, it was meant for those men who suffered for the Protestant Reformation to draw on the Scriptures and the insights of godly men to set down clearly the doctrine of sola fides. This is to say that we should be mindful of our task as exegetes of Scripture. It is there to say something. The depths of Scripture are deep, but they are not inpenetrable. We can exegete a passage to learn what that has to say. We can expound a passage based on our exegesis and learn what the Scriptures have to teach us there. We can systematize the passage with other similar passages to see what God would teach us regarding a similar theme. We can systematize the entire Bible and learn God's will for humanity. But we can do none of these things exhaustively, or without the aid of the Spirit. He is the primary agent in the understanding of Scripture. It is He who, as the Westminster Confession says, is the "supreme judge by which all controversies of religion are to be determined, and all decrees of councils, opinions of ancient writers, doctrines of men, and private spirits, are to be examined, and in whose sentence we can rest" since it is He who is "speaking in the Scripture" (WCF I.x).