New Patriot's Edition Released

“Whatever makes a man a good Christian also makes a good citizen.” Daniel Webster once asserted. Although the subject of informed public virtue has been much maligned of late, it is no less true today than it was in Webster’s day. That is why I compiled an anthology of speeches, poems, sermons, profiles, documents, and songs several years ago. Published by Cumberland House, The Patriot’s Handbook quickly became a staple in the Civics, History, and Humanities curricula of a goodly number of homeschools, Christian schools, and classical schools. Now I am happy to announce a new, updated version of the book has been released by Cumberland. The second edition doesn’t remove any of the original material. But we’ve updated it to the post-9/11 world, added a few new features, and given the look a bit of buffing up. I hope you are as pleased with the result as I am. And I pray that it may be used in the good providence of God to raise up a whole new generation of good Christian citizens.

Country Music Half Marathon

Well, we did it! All five of the Servant Group runners not only completed Nashville's premier road racing event yesterday, we all beat our target times. The race was delayed for 30 minutes due to thunderstorms--so we were a bit soggy at the start. But once we finally got underway, there was little to dampen our spirits--except maybe that awful hill at mile 11! It really was a fun event and a great accomplishment by all of the runners. I am still collecting snapshots, but the first few are posted at the King's Meadow photo site.

Culture Shapers

A dear pastor friend of mine in Texas, Ernie Fitzpatrick, started an amazing outreach to his community a few years ago. Culture Shapers is an art contest for high school students throughout the entire Houston metropolitan area--including public schools, Christian schools, prep schools, parochial schools, and homeschools throughout Harris, Waller, Liberty, Chambers, Galveston, Brazoria and Fort Bend counties. Offering more than $90,000 in cash prizes and boasting a growing list corporate sponsors, the event has become one of the hottest tickets in a city not easily wowed. Though not specifically billed as a Christian contest, the event has allowed one pioneering local church to promote excellence in the arts among young people--speaking into their lives with the objective Scriptural aesthetic as its reference point. As a result, Ernie and the other members of this little covenant community are helping to shape a city and a city's future. I would love to see this idea replicated all across the nation. Wouldn't you?

Lodge's Washington

According to the majority of eighteenth and nineteenth century historians, the most remarkable event during America's Founding Era did not take place on a battlefield. It did not occur during the course of the constitutional debates. It was not recorded during the great diplomatic negotiations with France, Spain, or Holland. It did not take place at sea, or in the assemblies of the states, or in the counsels of war. It was instead when the field commander of the continental armies surrendered his commission to the congressional authorities at Annapolis.

It was instead a humble demonstration of servanthood. It was when General George Washington resigned his officer's commission.

At the time, he was the idol of the country and his soldiers. The army was unpaid, and the veteran troops, well armed and fresh from their victory at Yorktown, were eager to have him take control of the disordered country. Some wanted to crown him king. Others thought to make him a dictator--rather like Cromwell had been a century earlier in England.

With the loyal support of the army and the enthusiasm of the populous, it would have been easy enough for Washington to make himself the ruler of the new nation. But instead, he resigned. He appeared before President Thomas Mifflin and his cabinet and submitted himself to their governance on December 23, 1783.

Writing of the remarkable scene that then ensued, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, exclaimed, “Which was the most splendid spectacle ever witnessed--the opening feast of Prince George in London, or the resignation of Washington? Which is the noble character for after-ages to admire--yon fribble dancing in lace and spangles, or yon hero who sheathes his sword after a life of spotless honor, a purity unreproached, a courage indomitable, and a consummate victory?”

The answer to most Americans was obvious: Washington was “first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.”

Though he had often wrangled in disagreement with his superiors over matters of military strategy, pay schedules, supply shipments, troop deployment, and the overlap of civil and martial responsibilities, there was never any question of his ultimate loyalty or allegiance. In the end, he always submitted himself to the authority God had placed over him. And that was no mean feat.

“His true greatness was evidenced,” said Henry Adams, “in the fact that he never sought greatness, but rather service.” The dean of American historians, Francis Parkman concurred that it was this “remarkable spirit of the servant” that ultimately “elevated him even higher in his countrymen's estimations than he already was.” And biographer Paul Butterfield, wrote, “He never countenanced the sin of omission when it came to duty to God or country. His was a life of constant service in the face of mankind's gravest need.” Thus, historian John Richard Green commented, “no nobler figure ever stood in the forefront of a country's life. Never did he shrink from meeting the need of the hour. He was our national guardian.”

George Washington lived a life of service. Writing at on the threshold of the twentieth century, Henry Cabot Lodge ((1850-1924) believed that a recovery of such statesmanship was the only hope for the American nation--then mired in political corruption, bureaucratic wrangling, and legislative gridlock. Thus, it was a story he was particularly eager to tell. Thankfully, it is now a story that we can all read. Lodge's magisterial biography of Washington will be republished by Cumberland House this fall.

Lodge was a wealthy Boston Brahmin--the scion of two of the most distinguished families in New England. After short stints teaching at Harvard, practicing law, and holding local political office, he served in the United States Senate for more than thirty years. He was an expert in foreign affairs and served as the Chairman of the Senate’s powerful International Relations Committee--where he gained fame following the First World War as a fierce opponent of any and all entangling alliances that might compromise the sovereignty of the United States. Indeed, Lodge almost single handedly caused the demise of Woodrow Wilson’s pet project, the League of Nations. In addition though, he was an accomplished scholar and wrote or edited a number of important works, including a rich twelve-volume anthology of the world’s greatest literary classics and definitive works on the pioneering thought of the great American Federalists Alexander Hamilton and Fisher Ames.

While at Harvard, he had become enthralled with the idea of recovering the old servant leadership ideals of Washington and the other Founding Fathers. That passion had been largely instilled in him through the lectures of Henry Brooks Adams (1838-1918). Adams had long been an influential voice at Harvard, serving as an adjunct lecturer in history off and on since 1858. But it was when he was appointed Professor of Mediaeval History in 1870 that he gained an especially ardent following among students, alumni, and faculty alike--among them men such as John Morse and Theodore Roosevelt. Over the course of the next few years Adams and his enthusiastic followers bucked the trend of the scholastic and scientific modernists, emphasizing instead a much more classical approach to Moral Philosophy. In the process he revolutionized both Harvard and the discipline of history.

Morse enlisted the help of Lodge, Roosevelt, and several of the other Harvard intellectuals who had been influenced by Adams and his classical view of Moral Philosophy to put together a whole series of new biographies of the American Founders and the succeeding generations of likeminded American Patriots--of which the two-volume biography of Washington was one. The series was immediately lauded by the critics and embraced by the reading public. Several of the volumes became blockbuster bestsellers and have in the intervening years been repeatedly reprinted. But perhaps more importantly, the books helped to usher in a new era of political and social reform, which enabled the still gangly young American nation to become an undisputed world power and a beacon light of freedom to oppressed peoples everywhere.

The republication of Lodge's biography of Washington--and the whole American Statesmen Series--just over a century later is a welcome opportunity to remind yet another new generation of leaders of the great story of liberty. In an age when politicians abound but statesmen are all too rare, Lodge’s brilliant portrayal of servant leadership is timelier than ever before.

Rebukes for Israel's Nukes

The man who leaked details of Israel's clandestine nuclear weapons program nealry two decades ago has finally emerged from prison. Mordechi Vanunu's first stop after his release was St George's Anglican Cathedral in Jerusalem where he went to pray. Converted to Christianity while incarcerated, he defiantly declared that he was still proud of his actions and that he had suffered "very cruel and barbaric treatment" at the hands of his jailers because of his conversion. He asserted, "Israel doesn't need nuclear arms. My message today to the world is: open the Dimona reactor for inspections." The former goverentment worker will be severely restricted by the Israeli government--he is not allowed to travel, cannot speak to foreigners, and will be monitored at all times. And this from the "only democracy" and "freedom's best hope" in that troubled corner of the world!

Marathon Countdown

Only three more days until the Country Music Marathon begins! I will be running with at least four other members of the Servant Group Running Team. Together we are hoping to raise thousands of dollars for the three campuses of the Classical School of the Medes in Iraq. It is not too late to pledge: just contact the King's Meadow office or send your donations to the office and we'll make sure that your gift is added to the total. Meanwhile, do pray for all the "wounded knees and creaky ankles." We've trained hard, but just a few of us--not to name any names--crested the proverbial hill quite a few miles ago!

Gleanings in the Blogosphere

I always try to read Bruce Green's daily blog. Bruce is my dear friend, a King's Meadow board member, and the founding dean of the new Liberty University School of Law. He is always provocative, insightful, and timely in his observations about law and culture, history and literature. Yesterday, his comments on symbolism were particularly cogent.

One of the ways I follow the progress of the war against terror around the globe is through the Army Times photo site. It also serves as a sober reminder to pray for the men and women who have sacrificed so much for our freedom, comfort, and prosperity.

Mere Comments is blog site for Touchstone Magazine. It never fails to get me thinking and reading. I particularly appreciate the contributions by editor David Mills.

Doug Phillips and his gifted team at Vision Forum have assembled what I like to think of as a remarkably useful educational and discipleship toolbox for faithful families. I am always blessed by his ministry blog--where he posts sundry project updates, observations, and social critiques.

American Statesmen

Starting this fall, Cumberland House will begin republishing the venerable American Statesmen Series--a library of biographies first published on the threshold of the twentieth century in an effort to restore the ideals the American Founders stood for and fought for all their lives. I have already written introductions to the first coouple of volumes--the one on Thomas Jefferson by John Morse and the one on George Washington by Henry Cabot Lodge.

John Torrey Morse (1840-1937) was not only the author of the volume on Jefferson, he also served as the editor of the series. He was born into a prominent family of Boston Brahmins and graduated from Harvard in 1860. Two years later he was admitted to the Massachusetts bar and began to practice law. But like Jefferson, Morse had wide ranging interests. He was a lecturer in history at his alma mater. He served in the state legislature. He wrote widely on public policy, economics, and social theory. With Henry Cabot Lodge he served as editor of the International Review.

While at Harvard, he had become enthralled with the idea of recovering the old ideals of American freedom. That passion had been largely instilled in him through the lectures of Henry Brooks Adams (1838-1918). Adams had long been an influential voice at Harvard, serving as an adjunct lecturer in history off and on since 1858. But it was when he was appointed Professor of Mediaeval History in 1870 that he gained an especially ardent following among students, alumni, and faculty alike--among them men such as Morse and Lodge as well as Theodore Roosevelt, W.G. Sumner, Edward Shepard, A.B. Magruder, John Stevens, and Moses Tyler. Over the course of the next few years Adams and his enthusiastic followers bucked the trend of the scholastic and scientific modernists, emphasizing instead a much more classical approach to Moral Philosophy. In the process he revolutionized both Harvard and the discipline of history.

Adams himself had been born into one of the nation’s most prominent families--both his great-grandfather and his grandfather had been presidents of the United States and his father had been ambassador to England during the tumult of the Civil War. Adams saw himself as a conservative traditionalist championing the old Democratic and Republican ideals of the 17th and 18th century Founders. He was appalled by the corruption and bureaucratization of modern American politics and believed that freedom’s only hope lay in retelling the story of liberty in a vibrant and fresh fashion for a whole new generation.

Thus, Adams sought to teach history as a means of preserving the practical lessons and profound legacies of the American experience without the petty prejudice of Humanistic fashions or the parsimonious preference of Enlightenment innovations. He wanted to avoid the trap of noticing everything that went unnoticed in the past while failing to notice all that the past deemed notable. He shunned the kind of modern epic that today is shaped primarily by the banalities of sterile mechanical scientism or the fancies of empty theater scenes rather than the realities of historical profundity.

He believed that the best sort of history is always a series of lively adventure stories—and thus should be told without the cumbersome intrusion of arcane academic rhetoric or truckloads of extraneous footnotes. History from that perspective, he thought, is a romantic moral drama in a world gone impersonally scientific—and thus should be told with a measure of passion, unction, and verve. For him therefore, the record of the ages is actually philosophy teaching by example—and because however social conditions may change, the great underlying qualities which make and save men and nations do not alter, it is the most important example of all.

Morse enlisted the help of Lodge and the other Harvard intellectuals who had been influenced by Adams and his classical view of Moral Philosophy to put together a whole series of new biographies of the American Founders and the succeeding generations of likeminded American Patriots. Every major figure in the first century of American independence would be covered: from presidents like George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, and Andrew Jackson to statesmen like Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, Alexander Hamilton, John Marshall, Henry Clay, Gouverneur Morris, and Thomas Hart Benton. The series was immediately lauded by the critics and embraced by the reading public. Several of the volumes became blockbuster bestsellers and have in the intervening years been repeatedly reprinted. But perhaps more importantly, the books helped to usher in a new era of political and social reform, which enabled the still gangly young American nation to become an undisputed world power and a beacon light of freedom to oppressed peoples everywhere.

The republication of these volumes just over a century later is a welcome opportunity to remind yet another new generation of leaders of the great story of liberty. At a time when our freedoms are both taken for granted and threatened as never before, I trust we will be able to recover the passion for truth that so animated Morse, Lodge, Adams and the others lest all they worked for be ignominiously lost.

The Punic Wars and the Culture Wars

My good friend Ben House has written a wonderful essay on the long-forgotten Punic Wars. I am so captivated by his approach and so delighted by his style that I could not resist reprinting it here:

Americans rarely ponder the Punic Wars. In the midst of a host of spiritual, political, social, economic, and intellectual problems, we probably should not lament this negligence of the ancient conflict. But I am in the midst of teaching Ancient History, so the Punic Wars are more relevant to me than the overdue Spring weed-eating job beckoning me outside.

The Punic Wars were a series of three wars fought by the then up-and-coming expansionist Roman state against the mercantilist Carthaginian empire. Rome was a land power, interested only in whatever lands were adjoining their own property lines. Given time, this would place Roman legions and tax programs over a huge expanse of land stretching from Britain to Egypt. Carthage, an offshoot of the Phoenician trade empire, was the Ancient World’s equivalent of Wal-Mart and Sam’s Wholesale Clubs. If it could be bought, sold, or traded for, the Carthaginians wanted it. The Punic Wars, which took place between the years 264 BC. and 146 BC, mainly centered on the question of “Whose pond is the Mediterranean Sea?” The final answer was either “Rome” or “Rome,” take your pick.

The most commonly remembered image and story of the Punic Wars is Hannibal crossing the Alps with elephants. It really happened; it was an ordeal to move an army of 50,000 men with horses and elephants through the passes between snow banks and landslides, across rivers, and over mountain crags. To make matters worse, the locals weren’t too hospitable. Hannibal had to fight both natives and nature to cross the Alps. The elephants did not fare too well; along with about half Hannibal’s army, a number of elephants perished in the making of that historical drama.

Hannibal is the most fascinating figure out of the Punic Wars. The son of a great general, Hamilcar Barca, and the brother and brother-in-law of other great Carthaginian generals, Hannibal pledged his life from his youth to opposing Rome. For fifteen years, he roamed up and down the Italian peninsula turning Roman armies by thousands into spaghetti sauce. For fifteen years, little children had the spadittles scared out of them by the whispered words “Hannibal ad portas”—“Hannibal is at the gates.” For fifteen years, he dominated the local gossip and political news as his armies alternately won allies, creamed disloyalists, pillaged wheat fields, and ravaged the land.

Hannibal was one of history’s all time great military leaders. Whatever characteristics we associate with Alexander the Great, Napoleon, Genghis Khan, Cortez, Robert E. Lee, or Douglas MacArthur that made them military geniuses can be found in Hannibal. He was courageous, tactically brilliant, innovative, sneaky, recklessly bold, ruthless, and most often successful. He typically drew the Roman army onto ground of his own choosing. At the Battle of Lake Trebia, he ambushed an entire Roman army. At the Battle of Cannae, he succeeded in a textbook-perfect double envelopment of the Roman army’s flanks. In that one engagement, he slaughtered 40,000 plus Romans.

Whether bribery or threats, diplomacy or intimidation, cavalry raids or set battles, Hannibal was the master of the art of war. Years after the Punic Wars, Scipio Africanus (the only Roman to truly defeat Hannibal on the battlefield) asked Hannibal to name the three greatest military leaders in history. Hannibal gave first place honors to Alexander the Great, second place to Pyrrhus, a king of Epirus, who invaded Italy in 280 BC, and third place to himself. “And what if you had defeated me?” Scipio asked. “In that case, I would place myself as number one,” Hannibal replied.

Yet, despite his greatness on the battlefield, despite his perseverance, despite his unswerving dedication to opposing Rome, Hannibal joins the losers of history. He is a brilliantly attractive loser, but still a loser. There are no second place honors on the battlefield.

With that in mind, we should focus a bit of attention to the winners; that is, we should look at the Roman generals and Roman system that did triumph in that war. Hannibal will not lose his attractiveness as a historical figure, anymore than will other losers like Napoleon or Rommel, the Desert Fox of World War II fame.

G.K. Chesterton, in his wonderful book The Everlasting Man, makes the point that the defeat of Carthage and the triumph of Rome was a great blessing to the world. The Baal religion of the Carthaginians was, he said, much more pagan and oriented to human sacrifice than were the Roman idolatries. The Carthaginians were Phoenicians, of whom we read in the Bible, and Hannibal’s very name meant "the grace of Baal." The victory of Rome helped prepare the Ancient World for the advent of Christianity—when the fullness of time was come.

Maybe Chesterton was right; he quite often was. His defense of Rome against Carthage is entertaining and thought provoking. But whether the Carthaginian paganism and commercialism (which does not sound all that foreign to us) would have aided or inhibited the later spread of the Gospel is a question of speculation only. God is His wise providence predestined that Carthaginian strip malls and human sacrifices would be buried under Roman sandals, salt, and sand. Meanwhile, the Gospel would travel through the cultural conduits devised by crafty Greeks and controlled by imperialistic Romans.

How did Rome win? Obviously, they did not have anything like the modern American media broadcasting defeatism and pessimism while Hannibal and his multi-national army terrorized Italy. Rome had its peace-at-any-price party, as did Carthage. But Rome had enough of a long-term commitment, enough of a stable structure, enough of an eschatology of victory (to borrow a title from Marcellus Kik), that it sustained over a decade of defeat before it decisively defeated Carthage. Rome survived battles like Cannae, which destroyed not just the flower of their youth, but a large number of political and military leaders. Rome survived economic disasters that make the American Great Depression look like a bull market. Rome even survived an inept political system that put two rulers in at a time for a period of one year, giving them divided, often incompetent leadership. Thus Rome survived political incompetence of a magnitude that can only be found in a gathering of Democrat presidential hopefuls every four years in Iowa. Rome survived a terrorist attack on their soil for a decade and a half; Rome did not have a 9-11; Rome had a 218-203.

Rome obviously never knew such alternative courses of action as those made famous by an unnamed Gallic nation in the second half of the Twentieth Century that has its capital located in a town called Paris. Had they known such, they could have opted for any one of the following responses: Retreat, surrender, collaboration, adoration.

Two men of the Roman army presented different, yet complementary, approaches to the threat that Hannibal posed. These two men were Quintus Fabius Maximus and Publius Cornelius Scipio. Fabius became known as ‘the Cunctator’ or ‘the delayer.’ From Fabius, we get the term “Fabian tactics.” Unlike his more bold predecessors and successors, Fabius avoided direct confrontation with Hannibal and thus avoided allowing himself and his army to be ‘the delicate feasting of dogs, and all birds.’

Ernle Bradford said, “The one thing that Fabius had to do, he realized, was avoid defeat.” Just like the Russians in their later campaigns against the French and Germans, Fabius practiced a ‘scorched earth policy.’ Every field, every delicious animal, every warm shelter, and every farm that lay within the reach of Carthage’s mercenaries was destroyed. Fabius was dedicated to the long-term, gradual wearing down of Hannibal’s army. Just like President Bush’s campaign against Iraqi terrorists, Fabius’ campaign came under severe criticism. But he avoided his critics, just as he avoided Hannibal.

While Fabius never won the acclaim and honors of the battlefield victor, his methods worked. He made use of resources that Hannibal did not have: Time, supply sources, patience, and long-term objectives. Bradford says that Fabius ‘had done more than any other to teach the Romans the way to wear down and finally defeat’ Hannibal.

In later centuries, Fabian Socialists borrowed Fabius’ name and methods to ‘successfully’ bring about a socialist evolution in Britain. ‘Fabian Tactics’ refers to the use of methods of slowly wearing down the opposition.

The other and more prominently successful Roman was Scipio. Unlike Fabius the Cunctator, Scipio was confrontational. Like all great men, Scipio studied his enemy. He had plenty of opportunities. He saved his wounded father on the battlefield during one of Hannibal’s early battles in Italy. Later, he fought in and survived the Battle of Cannae.

Like all great men, Scipio figured out the vital, but weaker chinks in the armor of his enemy. Scipio’s early successes were not against Hannibal himself, but against the Carthaginian army fighting in Spain. He tilted the military fortunes in Spain toward Rome. The loss of Spain to Carthage meant the loss of money and metals. The metals were used to forge weapons and the money was used to pay armies. Carthage, as implied throughout this essay, depended on a hired band of assorted warriors. After turning the war in Spain to Rome’s favor, Scipio began to draw away Carthage’s key ally, the North African Kingdom of Numidia.

Rather than fielding an army in Italy and adding to the ever-increasing list of deceased warriors for Rome near Rome, Scipio ported his army across the sea to the outlying areas near Carthage. By whatever methods of contact available, Carthage ‘e-mailed’ Hannibal and said, “Please come home. Now.” At this time, Hannibal’s raid into Italy was in its fifteenth year, and his near invincible army’s heyday had long since passed. Whatever ragtag troops he was able to load onto ships then went with him back to Carthage.

Amazingly, Hannibal the Carthaginian was geographically disoriented back in Carthage. He knew Italy better than his home turf. Meanwhile Scipio had used his time in North Africa to build up his army, win allies, and bruise the locals. Before actually confronting Scipio on the battlefield, Hannibal tried to wheedle a peace agreement out of the Roman general. In doing this, Hannibal in effect revealed his vulnerabilities. Scipio used even the negotiations to his advantage by drawing up his allied units to the battlefield while he and Hannibal talked.

So, in 202 BC at the Battle of Zama, the world changed forever as Scipio defeated the Carthaginians and Hannibal. The tactical elements of Scipio’s success consisted in arranging his army in such a way that Hannibal’s front line of elephants proved ineffective. After the confused and injured elephants lumbered off the battlefield, Scipio hit Hannibal’s flanks with the skilled Numidian cavalry units, which once served under the Carthaginian flags. As lines of Romans and Carthaginians converged with the clashing of swords, spears, and shields, the Carthaginians slowly got pushed back. When they realized that the enemy cavalry had flanked their army, a rout ensued. Hannibal escaped death both death and capture. He lived on to rule Carthage for a time, until later pressures sent him into exile. Scipio, for his accomplishments, was given the title “Africanus,” the only Roman given a name of the land he conquered.

What, if any, are the ‘lessons of history’ for us? Personally, I tend to want to find my lessons from Hannibal. He’s a historical loser, an underdog, and a brilliant man who is bested by a bureaucratic organization. But for the Christian in today’s culture wars, we would be better served by observing history’s winners. Christ promised us that the gates of Hell would not prevail against His church. We tend to read it as though it says that we shall not be totally defeated by the enemy who is camped at our gates. Jesus issued a victory-oriented image, not a defeatist or underdog or loser image.

Christians need to learn from Fabius (and even from the Fabian Socialists). We need to fight long-term battles, avoiding foolish defeats, destroying enemy resources, and using time and patience to our advantage. Why battle for prayer in public schools? The Fabian approach would be to build a Christian school and concentrate on changing the next generation or the one after that.

Wear down the opposition. Preach, pray, evangelize, build churches, and support Christian education, read Christian books, live Christian lives. Abortionists and homosexual unions and hedonists and atheists cannot produce either families or culture. Don’t despair if unbelieving modern-day Hannibal’s are camped outside the gate. Hannibal never got inside Rome’s city limits and Christ’s church will never succumb to His enemies.

Aim toward producing Godly grandchildren. Have a long-term vision of victory. Be Fabian, be Augustinian, be Medieval, be anything, but impatient. Focus on Cathedral building and be multi-generational in expectations.

Along with this, Christians need to learn from Scipio. Study about and from our enemies. If unbelievers develop better universities, write better novels, create taller skyscrapers, and make more money, learn from them. Anything they do right, they accomplish because they have stolen from God. Take back the technology and artistry.

Find the sources of the enemies ‘metals and money’ and win it back. Again, Christian schools are battlefields for confronting the enemy—both short-term and long-term. Mel Gibson’s movie has done more to draw the enemy out of Italy and back to North Africa than anything else Christians have done in decades.

Whether it’s Hannibal’s elephants or Mordor’s oliphants, the bloated enemy forces are vulnerable. It may take a few more arrows than usual, but big ugly things die when punctured enough times. Fascism and Marxism did not last out the last century. Darwinian Evolution, Freudianism, Nietzsche’s notions, unbelieving Existentialism, Humanism, Feminism, Abortionism, Homosexual fanaticism, and whatever other deviations are lined up for battle, are all easily outflanked or directly defeated by a vigorous Christian confrontation with faithful doctrine, life, and culture.

Victory is often simply a matter of not having a culture of defeat.

Good News from Iraq

Not all the news coming out of Iraq is bad news. Alas, you could hardly tell that by the reporting of the major media. And it is not just that organizations like Servant Group International have been able to maintain and even expand the work of Christian education and outreach--certainly that is good news. But there is more. In the economy. In the rebuilding of the infrastructure. In the return of students to the universities. Even the military has good news despite the violent initiative of the Shia radicals in recent days. This past week the Houston Chronicle published an amazing letter from one of our soldiers serving on the front lines of the worst of the fighting with the U.S. Army's 16th Combat Engineer Battalion in Baghdad. If only the networks would broadcast stories like this! But then, for most of them, good news is no news.

After Acts

This Saturday, April 17, Servant Group International and King's Meadow will sponsor a conference at Christ Community Church in Franklin, TN focusing on the first century and a half of church history following the conclusion of the book of Acts. Who were the disciples of the Apostles? What did they do in their worship services? How did they reach out to their Pagan neighbors? How well did they coexist with the Roman authorities? What kinds of art, music, and literature did they create? Who were their greatest heroes? We'll cover all these topics and more.

The tapes of the sessions will be packaged for Sunday School classes, Bible studies, homeschoolers, and Christian Schools as unit studies--including lesson plans and reading lists. Even so, the subject is really too vast to cover in such a short space of time. Thus, I've created an abbreviated reading list for those who would like to go a little deeper.

For additional study of early church history:

Ted Byfield, ed., The Veil Is Torn: AD 30-70 (Christian History Project)
Ted Byfield, ed., A Pinch of Incense: AD 70-250 (Christian History Project)
Tim Dowley, ed., The History of Christianity (Fortress Press)
Paul Johnson, A History of Christianity (Penguin)
N.R. Needham, 2000 Years of Christ’s Power (Grace Publications)
Stephen Neill, A History of Christian Missions (Pelican)
Carolinne White, Early Christian Lives (Penguin)
G.A. Williamson, tr., Eusebius’ History of the Early Church (Penguin)

For additional study of imperial Roman history:

Edward Brooks, tr., Caesar’s Gallic War (MacKay)
John Buchan, Augustus (Hodder and Stoughton)
John Buchan, Julius Caesar (Daily Express)
Will Durant, Caesar and Christ (Simon and Schuster)
Edward Gibbon, The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire (Viking)
Michael Grant, Nero: Emperor in Revolt (American Heritage)
Michael Grant, The Roman Emperors (Barnes and Noble)

For additional study of the theological backgrounds:

Gustaf Aulen, Christus Victor (Macmillan)
Gustaf Aulen, The Faith of the Christian Church (Muhlenberg)
Raymond Brown, Antioch and Rome (Paulist)
F.F. Bruce, The New Testament Documents (IVP)
Douglas Jerrold, The Lie About the West (Sheed and Ward)
J.N.D. Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines (HarperCollins)
Philip Schaff, Principles of Protestantism (Mercersburg)
Alexander Schmemann, The Historical Road of Eastern Orthodoxy (SVS Press)

For additional study of first century worship:

Gregory Dix, The Shape of the Liturgy (Dacre Press)
Kendall Jones, Worship, Old and New (Presbyterian Herald)
Peter Leithart, From Silence to Song (Canon Press)
Jeffrey Meyers, The Lord’s Service (Canon Press)
Alexander Schmemann, For the Life of the World (SVS Press)
Herbert Tilton, First Century Worship: Reformed Antecedents (Grace)
Stephen Vollier, Worship in the Early Church (Krupps)
Robert Weber, Twenty Centuries of Christian Worship (Star Song)

For additional study of the Patristic writings:

J.B. Lightfoot and J.R. Hammer, ed., The Apostolic Fathers (Baker)
George Jackson, ed., The Apostolic Fathers (Appleton)
Jack Sparks, ed., The Apostolic Fathers (Light and Life)
Maxwell Staniforth, ed., Early Christian Writings (Dorset)
Philip Schaff, Creeds and Councils (Baker)
Philip Schaff, et al, ed., The Ante Nicene Fathers (Baker)
Lawrence Tammerlaine, The Words of the Fathers (Hartlene)
John Zwolle, The Patristics (Marks and Sons)

Lots to read. Lots to think about.

American Statesmen

Starting this fall, Cumberland House will begin republishing the venerable American Statesmen Series--a library of biographies first published on the threshold of the twentieth century in an effort to restore the ideals the American Founders stood for and fought for all their lives. I have already written introductions to the first coouple of volumes--the one on Thomas Jefferson by John Morse and the one on George Washington by Henry Cabot Lodge.

John Torrey Morse (1840-1937) was not only the author of the volume on Jefferson, he also served as the editor of the series. He was born into a prominent family of Boston Brahmins and graduated from Harvard in 1860. Two years later he was admitted to the Massachusetts bar and began to practice law. But like Jefferson, Morse had wide ranging interests. He was a lecturer in history at his alma mater. He served in the state legislature. He wrote widely on public policy, economics, and social theory. With Henry Cabot Lodge he served as editor of the International Review.

While at Harvard, he had become enthralled with the idea of recovering the old ideals of American freedom. That passion had been largely instilled in him through the lectures of Henry Brooks Adams (1838-1918). Adams had long been an influential voice at Harvard, serving as an adjunct lecturer in history off and on since 1858. But it was when he was appointed Professor of Mediaeval History in 1870 that he gained an especially ardent following among students, alumni, and faculty alike--among them men such as Morse and Lodge as well as Theodore Roosevelt, W.G. Sumner, Edward Shepard, A.B. Magruder, John Stevens, and Moses Tyler. Over the course of the next few years Adams and his enthusiastic followers bucked the trend of the scholastic and scientific modernists, emphasizing instead a much more classical approach to Moral Philosophy. In the process he revolutionized both Harvard and the discipline of history.

Adams himself had been born into one of the nation’s most prominent families--both his great-grandfather and his grandfather had been presidents of the United States and his father had been ambassador to England during the tumult of the Civil War. Adams saw himself as a conservative traditionalist championing the old Democratic and Republican ideals of the 17th and 18th century Founders. He was appalled by the corruption and bureaucratization of modern American politics and believed that freedom’s only hope lay in retelling the story of liberty in a vibrant and fresh fashion for a whole new generation.

Thus, Adams sought to teach history as a means of preserving the practical lessons and profound legacies of the American experience without the petty prejudice of Humanistic fashions or the parsimonious preference of Enlightenment innovations. He wanted to avoid the trap of noticing everything that went unnoticed in the past while failing to notice all that the past deemed notable. He shunned the kind of modern epic that today is shaped primarily by the banalities of sterile mechanical scientism or the fancies of empty theater scenes rather than the realities of historical profundity.

He believed that the best sort of history is always a series of lively adventure stories—and thus should be told without the cumbersome intrusion of arcane academic rhetoric or truckloads of extraneous footnotes. History from that perspective, he thought, is a romantic moral drama in a world gone impersonally scientific—and thus should be told with a measure of passion, unction, and verve. For him therefore, the record of the ages is actually philosophy teaching by example—and because however social conditions may change, the great underlying qualities which make and save men and nations do not alter, it is the most important example of all.

Morse enlisted the help of Lodge and the other Harvard intellectuals who had been influenced by Adams and his classical view of Moral Philosophy to put together a whole series of new biographies of the American Founders and the succeeding generations of likeminded American Patriots. Every major figure in the first century of American independence would be covered: from presidents like George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, and Andrew Jackson to statesmen like Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, Alexander Hamilton, John Marshall, Henry Clay, Gouverneur Morris, and Thomas Hart Benton. The series was immediately lauded by the critics and embraced by the reading public. Several of the volumes became blockbuster bestsellers and have in the intervening years been repeatedly reprinted. But perhaps more importantly, the books helped to usher in a new era of political and social reform, which enabled the still gangly young American nation to become an undisputed world power and a beacon light of freedom to oppressed peoples everywhere.

The republication of these volumes just over a century later is a welcome opportunity to remind yet another new generation of leaders of the great story of liberty. At a time when our freedoms are both taken for granted and threatened as never before, I trust we will be able to recover the passion for truth that so animated Morse, Lodge, Adams and the others lest all they worked for be ignominiously lost.

Happy Easter

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

Dangers, Toils, and Snares

The dragon without St. George ceases to be menacing and grotesque. But St. George without the dragon ceases to be heroic and iconic.

Nefariography

It is said that economics is the “dismal science.” And as long as it limits its vision to such artificial matters as share prices, stock futures, budget deficits, and consumer price indices rather than productivity, property, and preparation. It is indeed more than a little dismal.

But perhaps more dismal than the business of economics is the business of nefariography--the study of wicked men’s lives. Researching and reading the likes of Pilate, or Caiaphas, or Judas--or for that matter, Freidrich Neitzsche, or Karl Marx, or Richard Wagner, Horace Mann, or Margaret Sanger, or Pablo Picasso, or Pol Pot, or Yassar Arafat--is a bit like circling with Dante the sulfurous realms. It is rather like playing the role of CSI to history’s most malignant and vicious intellects.

Nevertheless such dismal undertakings are not without peculiar merit. That is because when any one of these madmen ascend the lofty soapboxes of art or science to announce their I-am-you-and-you-are-me-and-we-are-all-together-joo-joo-ga-joob profundities, they afford us great lessons we dare not ignore (as per 1 Corinthians 10:1-13).

Sunrise 5K and 1M

The Franklin Classical Track and the Servant Group Running teams participated in the Sonic Sunrise 5K and 1 Mile runs this morning. It was unseasonably cool. Nevertheless, everyone was able to do personal bests--even the aged among us--and one of the FCS speedsters actually grabbed an age-group second place! As always, we were able to raise yet more money for our schools overseas. A good time was had by all.

The Theology of Mel's Passion

In a fascinating Zenit article, Romanus Cessario argues that Mel Gibson was working from a set of very technical theological assumptions when he made certain aesthetic decisions during the making of his blockbuster film, The Passion of the Christ. Cessario, a Dominican Monk who teaches at St. John's Catholic Seminary, Brighton, Massachusetts, makes the case that the director's presuppositional Thomism colors virtually every aspect of the epic portrayal of Christ's suffering and sacrifice. Very helpful insights.

The Stalwarts

Of all the distortions Modernity has wrought in our culture, the Gnostic transformation of the Liberal Arts into the Social Sciences is perhaps the most emblematic. It epitomizes the tragic reduction of Moral Philosophy to mechanical presumption that so marks our time. Thankfully, a small number of modern historians bucked that trend and fought for a more Christian, and thus, a more human dimension in our comprehension of our world. Three recent biographies portray the immensity of the task that such stalwarts faced.

Cosmos in the Chaos (Eerdmans) is a biography of the pioneer church historian, Philip Schaff. Author Stephen Graham has vividly captured the great man’s soaring intellect, his unswerving spiritual integrity, and his resolute resistance to the smothering humanistic ideologies of both liberal and conservative sectarianism. He also vividly portrays at what cost such a character is maintained. Though Philip Schaff’s contribution to the discipline of church history is undeniable—his works included the translation and editing of all the Nicene, Ante-Nicene, and Post-Nicene church fathers as well as seminal works on the creeds and confessions through the ages. But, his life was hardly a picture of ivory tower ease—his suffering for the sake of truth is equally undeniable. Mr. Graham has made this lonely prophet’s saga come to life for a whole new generation.

A Historian and His World (Transaction) is a biography of the conservative English scholar Christopher Dawson. Written by his daughter, Christina Scott, the book details the tensions between great minds and small agendas, between advocates of truth and advocates of conformity, and between moral righteousness and political correctness. Like Philip Schaff, Christopher Dawson was a brilliant historian who paid a great price for his insistence on spiritual, cultural, and intellectual integrity. His best-known works, including The Dynamics of World History, The Dividing of Christendom, and The Making of Europe, were informed by a rich acquaintance with the classical Christian legacy and were marked by an erudite facility in English prose. Carrying on the tradition of his beloved Distributivist mentors G.K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc, he was a model of the Christian academic aesthetic. We can all be grateful for the glimpse of such a worldview—and its rare practitioner—Mrs. Scott has afforded us.

J. Evetts Haley: A True Texas Legend by Bill Modisett (Staked Plains) details the life and career of one of the most remarkable men of our time. Perhaps best known for his blockbuster political polemics—such as the bestselling exposé of Lyndon Johnson, A Texan Looks at Lyndon—J. Evetts Haley was also the author of several highly acclaimed historical works—including Charles Goodnight: Cowman and Plainsman and The XIT Ranch of Texas. In addition, he was a rancher, a publisher, a teacher, a politician, a librarian and archivist, a community activist, an art aficionado, and a museum curator. He was a kind of renaissance man—Texas-style (he once told me that the only thing better than a really good book was a really good barbeque brisket sandwich, to which I joyously replied, "Amen"). Like Dawson and Schaff, he stood against the tide of systemic institutionalism in the arts by refusing to reduce his pursuit of truth to the Gnostic exigencies of either patronizing reductionism or conforming pragmatism. Thus, Mr. Modisett has reminded us once again that the cost of virtue is often high—but is always worth the price.

Bach and Mozart for the Uninitiated

As a child of the Fifties and Sixties, my appreciation of music was rather stunted early on by a steady diet of Herman’s Hermits, Paul Revere and the Raiders, and the Dave Clark Five. My only introduction to Western Civilization’s great musical legacy was the background score to the Mighty Mouse cartoons which followed Clutch Cargo and Sky King on Saturday mornings. Thankfully, I have gradually come to appreciate the rich legacy of classical music--though I must confess that my appreciation is still shrouded by a rather dense pop-culture fog of artistic illiteracy. You can imagine then my glee when I discovered a recently rereleased series of multi-media publications from HarperCollins aimed at long-deprived boomer-types like me.

More than a book, more than a recording, and more than both together, each Play-by-Play title is a kind of musical travel guide for listeners who want to do more than simply appreciate the classics--they are for those who actually want to understand them. The texts briefly chronicle the life, times, and work of each composer and then offer movement-by-movement and moment-by-moment commentaries of pivotal pieces. Those commentaries are then linked directly to recordings of the pieces by a unique digital indexing system embedded in the compact disks. The performances are top-flight, the accompanying discographies indicate appropriate avenues for further investigation, and the crystal clear glossaries help map out any unfamiliar terrain.

In Bach Play-by-Play, the analysis and commentary by the renowned classical critic Alan Rich is informative, comprehensive, and sufficiently technical while remaining very entertaining and surprisingly free of unexplained jargon. The performances by Joshua Rifkin’s famed Bach Ensemble are of sterling quality--and the selections are very apropos. Cantata No. 147 is among the best-loved Bach choral works. Atop a gentle dance-like orchestral outpouring, the familiar movement known as Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring rides confidently and exultantly. Add to that Cantata No. 80, Bach’s great Reformation Day treatment of A Mighty Fortress, and you have a marvelous introduction to this Baroque master’s rich repertory.

In Mozart Play-by-Play, the analysis and commentary by Mr. Rich is once again substantive but accessible. And the performances are magnificent. Alfred Brendel’s virtuoso work is highlighted in the Piano Concerto No. 20, one of my all-time favorites with its melding of the symphonic sonata form and the vocal cadenza form. The Piano Concerto No. 21 features a majestic call-and-response encounter between a bassoon march and a piano lilt. Thankfully though, every step of the way through Mozart’s soaring score, the textual guide heightens the listener’s enjoyment and understanding of the piece. Again, the editors have afforded us with a fine introduction to the prolific work of this great eighteenth century prodigy.

With additional titles profiling Beethoven and Tchaikovsky--and hopefully, many more to come--the volumes of the Play-by-Play series comprise a helpful mini-course in music history, theory, appreciation, and composition. Thank goodness. This is one area where I for one, can use all the help I can get.

April Fools

Since at least the fifteenth century this day has been observed with practical jokes and spurious news. It was one of a series of what the Medievals called the “Dismal Days” or alternatively, the “Egyptians’ Woes.” Such days were associated with the plagues of Egypt and thus were seen as seasons of woe and mourning. The word “days” in the phrase was actually an etymological tautology since the word “dismal” was actually just the English form of the Latin dies mali or “evil days.” Thus at first, “dismal” was used as a noun; only later did it become an adjective. Observed soberly and somberly, this occasion was intended to be a reminder of the consequences of rejecting the gracious beckoning of God. Mark Twain commented in his Pudd’nhead Wilson’s Calendar, “This is the one day upon which we are reminded of what we are on the other three hundred and sixty-four.”

An April Fools Novel

The number of truly masterful American writers can probably be numbered on a single hand: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Mark Twain, Henry Adams, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and of course Herman Melville. Each of these authors achieved great success during their lifetimes and were mourned at their deaths--all except Melville. He died in his New York City home just over a hundred years ago at the age of seventy-two in utter obscurity--his brilliant career and voluminous writings by then, long-forgotten.

A short obituary appearing the day afterward in the New York Press recalled, "Melville had once been one of the most popular writers in the United States," but added, "The later years of his life had been so quiet that probably even his own generation has long thought him dead." Another paper in the city, the Daily Tribune, noted, "The deceased had won considerable fame as an author by the publication of a book entitled Typee, which was the account of his experience while a captive in the hands of the savages of the Marquesas Islands. This was his first and best work although he later wrote a number of other stories, which were published more for private than public circulation."

The obituaries demonstrate one of the most remarkable ironies in the history of American letters--aside from some early renown as an adventure writer, Melville was a publishing failure. During the eleven short years of his literary activity, he was either misunderstood and miscast or castigated and ignored. Even so, some of the best fiction ever produced in the English language flowed from his pen including Moby Dick, Billy Budd, Pierre, Redburn, The Piazza Tales,White-Jacket, and Omoo. By the time he had reached forty though, he had abandoned his writing in order to provide for his family.

It was not until some thirty years after his demise that academics rediscovered his genius. They marveled at the richness of his prose, the depth of his characterizations, the complexity of his symbiology, and the passion of his theology. Moby Dick in particular, was widely heralded as a genuine masterpiece, while several of his other works were made the subjects of serious critical acclaim. Soon Melville was deservedly enshrined in the pantheon of literary greatness.

Amazingly though his finest work has yet to attract the attention it deserves. The Confidence Man is a multi-layered novel of subtle intrigue and stunning mystery. Like much of his writing, the story is constructed as a kind of literary and theological puzzle. But this surprising and scintillating double-coded labyrinth--which seems to follow the thematic structure of John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion--never obstructs the pace or the sense of the story. Powerful scenic images and a rip-roaring series of illusions, cons, ploys, and deceptions give the book a page-turning quality generally unknown in serious literary works. It is, in short, brilliantly conceived and passionately executed.

Taking up the great themes of the pioneer West, the story is part satire, part allegory, and part hoax, against which Melville explores the essence of America and American values. A motley cast of characters including gamblers, pilgrims, farmers, Indians, and east coast dandies, become foils for a slippery metaphysical comedy set on April Fool's Day aboard a Mississippi riverboat. It is the kind of book that haunts you for days afterwards--sudden insights will shed a new light on obscure passages at the oddest moments. The story just won't let you go.

Born in 1819, the son of a struggling merchant, Melville had an adventurous youth—serving on whaling vessels and trading ships throughout the Pacific and across the Atlantic. His literary career, such as it was, grew out of a desire to tell of those experiences. His maturity as a writer blossomed quickly and he was drawn into the high-brow literary circle that included Longfellow and Hawthorne. But his unwillingness to compromise either his style or his content to suit popular tastes doomed his commercial appeal. When he quit writing altogether in 1857, he asserted that he'd rather lay down his pen than lower his standards: "What I feel most moved to write will not pay. Yet write the other way, I cannot."

Sadly, what was true then is even more so today--as any serious writer will quickly attest. Thus, with the force of an unerring moral capunction, he put away his parchments and went to work as a customs inspector at the busy New York harbor.

That kind of uncompromising ethical conviction, readily apparent in Moby Dick, is even more evident in The Confidence Man--particularly in Stephen Matterson's painstakingly edited Penguin Classics edition. The book is an unrestrained expression of originality and verve. But it is also a forceful exertion of will against all odds erupting upon the intellectual stage with a lusty obsession for truth and resolution: "Unconsciously my chirography expands into placard capitals. Give me a condor's quill. Give me Vesuvius's crater for an inkstand."

He wrote of leviathans. Indeed, he was himself a leviathan.