Reflections on God … Man … Life
Thoughts on history and the historical profession. Clio is the muse of history–this category title is a play on that concept.
It seems to be obligatory that all tourists in England must go see a certain circle of stones. The reason is that they are quite ancient, dating back to the third millennium B.C., and that they remain a source of academic study: how did they get all those huge stones there and what was the purpose of this structure? Stonehenge probably started as a burial place and then developed into a way to calculate the seasons by the position of… Read more »
Another recurring theme in my recent trip to England with university students was the grandeur of major cathedrals and how they point to the glory of God. Some personal history: I grew up in the Lutheran church, which has a lot of tradition. The stained-glass windows of the church told stories, and I loved the atmosphere of the stained glass. Then I left that tradition and became part of the new evangelical and charismatic world that came into prominence in… Read more »
Winston Churchill’s life and legacy was one centerpiece of the trip I took with students in the past couple of weeks. Yesterday, I highlighted Dover Castle and its prominent role in Britain’s defense during WWII, along with a photo of Churchill emerging from the underground tunnels. We also made two other Churchillian stops: Blenheim Palace and the Churchill War Rooms. Churchill was born and raised in this modest home outside Oxford. I know—my definition of “modest” needs some reworking. Blenheim… Read more »
I’ve just returned from two weeks in the UK—only England, specifically (except for one short dash into Scotland for supper)—helping lead a study abroad trip with SEU students. This was only my second time in England, the previous excursion being twenty years ago. So I was looking forward to this, of course, and my expectations were met. I drove a Jaguar (yes, you read that correctly) all over the land, from Dover by the White Cliffs on the southern coast… Read more »
President Trump has stirred the criticism pot with his military actions: striking an air base in Syria and using the largest bomb in the US arsenal to destroy terrorists’ caves in Afghanistan. It has led some to question exactly what authority a president has to use the military without first consulting Congress. That’s an important question because the Constitution gives Congress the authority to declare war, not any president unilaterally. Of course, Congress hasn’t passed an actual war declaration since… Read more »
Every couple of years, I’m privileged to teach my course on Whittaker Chambers. As this semester nears its end, students are also getting near the end of Chambers’s masterful autobiography entitled Witness. Why that title? Chambers, as he shared what he knew about the communist underground of which he had been a part for many years, was a witness. Another word for a witness is a martyr—one who is willing to lay down his life for what he knows to… Read more »
As a historian, I have this faith that people might actually learn something from history. What a quaint notion. The first requisite, of course, is that people know some history. Those kinds of people are becoming a rare commodity. Please excuse the seeming air of resignation in this post. It’s just that some lessons from history are so easy to find that it boggles the mind that mankind continues to repeat all the old errors. Take socialism/communism, for instance. It’s… Read more »