First Word

This book (see biblio info at end) is a nice companion to the Wentorf biography of this dear German Reformed pastor who died (more…)

This movie is based on an actual incident in Matewan, West Virginia (more…)

This report is based on a “target of opportunity” — an old beat up book from a co-worker; though held together with masking tape and rubber bands, (more…)

This is an important documentary for two reasons: it is one of the first “holocaust” documentaries ever made (1955 or 1956), and several of the images (whether created by picture or word) have proven quite durable. It is also blessedly short, coming in at just over a half-hour. For these reasons, it should be seen by everyone. (more…)

An essay by Prof Mark A. Noll of Wheaton College in the collection Religion and the American Civil War (Oxford, 1998) outlines the place of the Bible in the American debate on slavery during the years leading up to the Civil War. Noll identifies the dominant view of the Bible on both side of the debate as “Reformed literalist.” Given that view of the Bible, the proslavery side seemed to have the upper hand. The Abolitionists were willing to move toward a “spirit not letter” type of interpretation, but all the orthodox saw this approach as a trajectory toward liberalism. Noll knows that “proslavery” — his term — is wrong, though a high view of the Bible is right; so he explores what might have gone wrong. He examines four alternative hermeneutical traditions that could have led to a different conclusion on slavery, while still holding to a high view of the Bible:(1) the “African American” way of reading the Bible; (2) the Roman Catholic; (3) High-church Lutheranism or Reformed; (4) the non-Southern Reformed, especially Charles Hodge. Only the last named of these had enough of a foothold in America to temper the discussion, but it fell short because of a root inconsistency in the American outlook which compromised the profession of sola scriptura and led to failure to draw a key distinction that would have unraveled the proslavery argument. (more…)

The best argument for a liturgical calendar is that having a ceremonial calendar seems to be an inescapable concept. I am not there yet, but I have to admit that our secular civic-religious state, built on the ruins of a calendarless Protestantism, proffers a calendar that veritably bristles with memorials. February, for example, is designated Black History Month. So, to honor it in my own way, I propose to quote Hegel on Black History. After listening to his discussion, it will be possible to state rather unhesitatingly what Hegel’s view of Black History Month would be. (more…)

Today, for the remembrance of the 63rd anniversary of the annihilation of Dresden, I review David Irving’s Destruction of Dresden (bibliog. info at end). Dresden, the capital of Saxony, an art city, “the Florence of the Elbe,” had almost no military importance, and was not fortified. Because it was believed that no civilized nation would attack it, it had also become a hospital town, and a destination for refugees. By February 1945, news of horrendous atrocities inflicted on German civilians in towns swept by the Red Army impelled a frightened wave of millions of refugees to flee westward, taking whatever item or two of their most precious possession they were able to carry, and leaving all else forever behind. The lucky ones were able to pack into the dwindling trains, but most went on foot. When the bombers came to Dresden, schools had been suspended in order to convert the buildings into hospitals and so that the children and young people could serve to assist the refugees arriving hourly in trains and by foot in flight from the Red Terror which was now only 80 miles to the east of the city (83). “The city which in peacetime had a population of 630,000 citizens was by the eve of the air attacks so crowded with Silesians, East Prussians and Pomeranians from the Eastern front, with Berliners and Rhinelanders from the West, with Allied and Russian prisoners of war, with evacuated children’s settlements, with forced laborers of many nationalities, that the increased population was now between 1,200,000 and 1,400,000 citizens, of whom, not surprisingly, several hundred thousand had no proper home and of whom none could seek the protection of an air-raid shelter.” (98) (more…)

And now comes Rev Michael Eric Dyson to defend Martin Luther King’s plagiarism.

The facts can be summarized rather succinctly. (more…)

In a discussion with a co-worker last week, I discovered with shock that some people are still not aware of M. L. King’s chronic cheating: plagiarism in his literary production, and serial adultery and worse in his personal life. The burden of this post will be to examine the discussion of this facet of King’s life given by Rev. Michael Eric Dyson in a book summarized elsewhere. Page numbers in parentheses refer to that work. (more…)

In his book, I May Not Get There With You (full bibliog. info at bottom), Rev. Michael Dyson discussed a variety of contemporary topics in racial politics using the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. (hereafter: MLK) as springboard. He is clearly upset that conservatives of many stripes and variations have appropriated the MLK mythos, and wants to set MLK’s iconic status back in service to radical politics. Actually, blacks, whites, liberals, and conservatives have all wandered from the right track due to having come under one or another forms of “amnesia” (290-4) which Dyson details. (more…)

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Two Hundred Years Together: Russo-Jewish History, vol. 1 (1795-1916)

Chapter 1, To End of 18^th Century, fifth installment (see contents).

[G45] Since the start of the reign of Paul I there was a great famine in White Russia, especially in the province of Minsk. The poet Gavrila Romanovich Derzhavin, then serving as Senator, was commissioned to go there and determine its cause and seek a solution — for which task he received no money to buy grain, but instead had the right to confiscate possessions of negligent landowners, sell their stockpile and distribute them. (more…)

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Two Hundred Years Together: Russo-Jewish History, vol. 1 (1795-1916) (more…)

I have prepared a chart showing the Romanov succession of czars, along with the preceding century, in a way that is proportional to elapsed time, and with a few noteworthy parallel events in history indicated. Go here. (May be helpful while reading the Solzhenitsyn selections.)

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Two Hundred Years Together: Russo-Jewish History, vol. 1 (1795-1916) (more…)

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Two Hundred Years Together: Russo-Jewish History, vol. 1 (1795-1916) (more…)

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s recent book, Two Hundred Years Together, covering the intertwined history of Russians and Jews, is published in two volumes. The first volume covers the history up to the 1917 Revolution. The second finishes the story as far as 1995. (more…)

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Two Hundred Years Together: Russo-Jewish History, Vol. 1: 1795-1916. (more…)

During Churchill’s brief tenure as a junior officer stationed in India, he occupied his time in four main activities. (1) playing as much polo as possible; (2) taking long vacations – far more than were normally permitted to a young officer in India; (3) systematically reading through classics, to attempt to remedy his deficient formal education. The reading program was in service to ambition, not knowledge for its own sake. Macaulay, Gibbon, Plato and others, he wrote to his mother, “must train the muscles to wield the sword to the greatest effect” (Gilbert 70). The fourth activity may have required the least amount of actual time, but was probably the most important for understanding his future course: namely, there was scarcely an armed conflict anywhere in the world which he failed to inveigle himself to the front lines of. (more…)

Winston Churchill was educated in four schools. First, was St George’s near Ascot, where he attended from age 7 to 9. The main thing of note here is that the physical discipline was quite harsh, in the manner that has been made famous by English “public schools” of that period; only more so. Delicate health led to transfer to Brighton, where the family doctor resided. Next was prep-school Eton-competitor Harrow, aged 13-17. Winnie was not a particularly good student, and at some point Lord Randolph decided on a military trajectory for his career (but noting that, if worse came to worst, he could tap his connections with the Rothschild family to get Winny started in a business career [Gilbert 32]). (more…)

It is traditional in biography to begin with some notes on genealogy: a bit of background on members upward on the family tree.

Little Winston Spencer Churchill was born into partial British nobility on the father’s side, and American wealth (more…)

Paul Schneider was a German Reformed minister whose early ministry coincided with the ascendancy of the National Socialist movement in the 1930s. His critique of the folk’s movement in view of the Word of God as well as a series of stands for the independent rights of the church vis-à-vis the state led to continual conflicts with Party functionaries, and penalties of increasing severity. At length, the conflict culminated in consignment to the concentration camp at Buchenwald, where his life ended. (more…)

Today is the 64^th anniversary of the Allied fire-bombing of Hamburg known as Operation Gomorrah. The British part, which deliberately targeted civilians, actually involved four night-time attacks beginning the nights of 7/24, 7/25, 7/27, and 8/2 of 1943. (There were supplemental American attacks by day that aimed at military targets.) Thus, this night is actually the anniversary of the third night of bombing; but that was the one that created the fire-storm that killed tens of thousands in horror- (more…)

Since the previous post on “monsters” (The Ten Worst Monsters of American History) proved diversionary for some, I thought a similar treatment of our cousins across the Atlantic would be of interest. (more…)

Not to be confused with another movie with the same title, this is a documentary about the Battle of Stalingrad which was fought between the German and Soviet armies during the fall and winter of 1942-43. Before making a few comments, a little background about the battle may be helpful. (more…)

The British were willing to negotiate with Napoleon, and in August 1806 made generous concessions, only asking for unmolested control of Hannover; Talleyrand favored the agreement, but Napoleon nixed it. (more…)

The view of man and of history presented by Augustine in the City of God is glorious and awe-inspiring. In this vision, all men are active and loyal citizens of one or the other of two invisible Cities: the City of God, or the City of Man. (more…)

You have heard of Sargent York and Audie Murphy, but how many have heard of Sargent David Rubitsky? Probably very few. But you should have. His feats would make York or Murphy blush in comparison. (more…)

Beautifully filmed statement of the key events in the life of Martin Luther. It seems to include the same main facts as Roland Bainton’s great biography, with the exception of ignoring the role of the knights; but liberties are taken with the details, and an episode with a suicide is, so far as I can ascertain, completely made up (though for an acceptable thematic purpose). (more…)

Another holocaust film, this one a heavily fictionalized story of SS officer Kurt Gerstein. Gerstein is portrayed as an officer in charge of pesticides and hygiene, who in 1942 gets pressed into service supporting human extermination facilities in Poland. He is horrified, and tries to slow down the system by various artifices, even while remaining at his post for the entire three years of the war that remained. He tries to notify the world via a discussion with a Swedish bureaucrat that he bumps into on a train ride, and also by visiting Roman Catholic and Protestant officials. (more…)

The return from Lutheran bare orthodoxy to inward change, known as Pietism, was begun by Jakob Spener, though anticipated in the earlier writings of Johann Arndt. It grew wings, however, as a result of the life of August Hermann Francke (1663-1727), and transformed the city of Halle in remarkable ways. This is a brief rehearsal of this amazing story. (more…)