The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places. – Ernest Hemingway CIVILIZATION IN HISTORY Civilization, as a salient topic of the Zeitgeist, came to the fore with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. This was considered by many as the end of history
The concept of human rights, if not centered on some grounding principle, is a mere patchwork of inharmonious preferences that incoherently tribalizes people into a Babel* of mutual incomprehensibility. The defense of human rights needs a foundation of some substantial bedrock standard other than feeling or believing that some rights,
From my previous post on the American Revolution, I covered the nature of revolution itself. I treated this topic as consisting of two forms: first, a background of historical events that move in a lineage from a common ancestral ‘cell’ leading inexorably toward revolution, in which I discuss the nature
As a woman who knows her husband very well, my wife taped a Ken Burns PBS special on Thomas Jefferson, knowing that her husband has a keen interest in early American history. So, on a cold, icy February winter evening in central Michigan we set ourselves down to sup and
There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test him and said, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?” He said in reply, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with
Although the presidential election is now over, with the “vote” in favor of the Republican candidate Donald Trump, the electoral college must still meet to vote on, and certify, that Donald Trump is the President-Elect of the United States. Although many consider it a needless formality, since the electoral college
If you have read the newspapers and watched media accounts of daily news events, you would think that the Russian Federation and its allies were responsible for all that has gone wrong in the world in the third millennium of the Common Era. Whether that is a true account of
In a previous posting (see Prelude: Towards the Consecration of Learning), I made reference to a gathering storm that burst on the face of Europe, in 794 A.D. at the Lindisfarne monastery. It was a story of looting and plunder, murder and mayhem, as the signature calling card of the
At the beginning of the Common Era, nothing seemed as certain to endure as the Roman Empire. Having defeated all contenders and potential adversaries, Octavian (later given the title Caesar Augustus by a pliant Senate), bestrode the Mediterranean world and western Europe in a showcase of marble monuments to his
Two Views of Church and State Whether talking about Church or State lies the principle of authority applied to the practice of power. By accepting the principle of authority as their starting-point, men and women in former ages did not feel its limitations upon creative thought and action. They viewed
