Gibb’s Christians…
I promised myself I would write more complete reviews this year, keep my blog updated and all that, but after reading Edward Gibb’s Christians and the Fall of Rome I just don’t have a lot to say. I got tired reading it. Despite its short hundred pages I found it difficult to focus on the topic. Gibb spent a lot of the essay comparing Christianity to various mythologies and its a good thing to read and be familiar with differing viewpoints, but I found his writing style tiring and without passion. So I just didn’t care. I will have to re-read it with Ayla when we study the history of Christianity as well as when we cover the Greek and Roman Empire, but I’ll need a good solid pot of coffee in my system to do so. I suppose that’s my review…
Reason for the Season?
I’m not a big fan of Christmas. I hate the consumerism, I hate the blow up creepy Santa Clause’s in people’s yards. Oh, also, I’m a Christian. That being said,
Nothing chaps my hide more than hearing fellow Christians tell me: “Remember the reason for the season!”
The reason for the season, if they looked a bit closer into history was to help aid in the conversion of pagans who already celebrated December 25th, Yule, Mother’s Night, Winter Solstice (whatever you wish to call it) with carnivals, gifts, food, and lots of hooplala. The theory was to keep the month of partying and give the holiday Christian symbolism so that they would not feel such a loss of fun when they converted.
For instance, mistletoe was a plant collected by Druids to ward off witch craft and protect the carrier, pretty much an all around healer. Now, we use it as an excuse to kiss people in doorways. Either way, it has nothing to do with Christianity and everything to do with “Christmas” or Winter Solstice Celebrations.
Now, with all that being said, I don’t mind that Christians today use it to celebrate the birth of Christ. I think the birth of Christ should be celebrated. But don’t tell me to remember the reason for the season when the season existed long before this particular reason. If you want to celebrate the birth of Christ without the consumerism and drunken partying – don’t overlap it on a holiday that was created thousands of years ago for that exact purpose. Pick a different day and celebrate it with all your reasons in tact and no distractions.
All this Easter business
This is an ode to Interested, as this post is actually a comment I made on her blog. I wanted to share it with my personal readers.
As a Christian who some people would call “religious” I have to say: I don’t think Easter should be the most celebrated Christian holiday.
Celebrating the Resurrection is quite different (in my book) from celebrating Easter. Easter, by name, is a celebration of the Spring Equinox.
The ancient Saxons in Northern Europe worshiped the Goddess Oestre at the time of the Spring Equinox. The Goddess Easter represents the sunrise, spring-time and fertility, the renewal of life. Pagan Anglo-Saxons made offerings of colored eggs to her at the Vernal Equinox, putting them at graves. Some people believe that the Egyptians and Greeks did this as well.
“Christians” used the name later and morphed their religion onto a pagan celebration so that new converts wouldn’t find the transition intimidating… and/or new “converts” kept celebrating their old traditions because rather than actually converting they added Jesus to one of the many gods they already worshiped. (I’ve seen the history written both ways, and both is equally believable.)
I would never prohibit a child from attending an Easter Egg hunt, because its now a fun tradition that many people participate in – but I also will never tell my kid that its an important Christian holiday or make up any kind of “Christian” symbolism about the eggs. In my book, the Resurrection celebration and the Easter celebration should be considered separate holidays, but they have been merged for so long people can’t remember the difference
What’s Up With Those Templars?
So in Fall of 2009 I started a discussion thread in my book club about The Templars and Freemasons, and all those other secret societies that seem to have become lumped into one cohesive thought over that last few hundred years. I thought it would be fun and interesting (not unlike the Darwin study I’ve been doing lately). No one joined me.
My Book List was to Include:
Foucault’s Pendulum – Umberto Eco (fiction)
The Holy Bible – I am still using the Archaeological Study Bible put out by Zondervan (religion) as well as another version called ESV.
The Masonic Ritual or Guide to the Three Symbolic Degrees of the Ancient York Rite – Grand Lodge Free and Accepted Masons at San Antonio, Texas (religion/secret societies/ Freemasons/ occult)
Adoptive Rite Ritual of the Order of the Eastern Star together with the Queen of the South – arranged by Robert Macoy (religion/secret societies/Freemasons/ occult)
The Amaranth – Robert Macoy (religion/secret societies/ Freemasons/ occult)
The Templars – Piers Paul Read (history/religion/secret societies/ Freemasons/ occult)
The Meaning of Masonry – W. L. Wilmshurst (religion/ secret societies/ Freemasons/ occult)
Ivanhoe – Sir Walter Scott – (fiction / literature)
also for fun…
The DaVinci Code – Dan Brown (fiction/ mystery)
The Pickwick Papers – Charles Dickens (fiction/ literature)
Out of those, I read Foucault’s Pendulum (which was brilliant, as are all things Umberto Eco) and I just finished the book by Piers Paul Read.
Why did it take so long?
Piers Paul Read has an extensive history that spans three or so centuries – parts are fascinating and I couldn’t put the book down, and other parts were dull and I couldn’t wait to put the book down. What I discovered upon completion of the book, though, is that I was just being made more and more aware of how many interesting people there are in history that I should be reading biographies on! Eleanor of Aquitaine is mentioned a bit right around page 140 or so… There’s a picture of Richard the Lionheart in battle featured in the ‘centerfold’ pictures. I should know more about these people who are so well known among historians that every day people recognize their names too. Its not enough for me to recognize them – I want to KNOW them.
I noticed too that I tended to plod slowly through this book (and this topic in general) because it seems to create more questions than it answers. There is so much documentation of so many conflicting ideas. Were the knights actually crusaders for Christ? Were their actions even remotely compatible with the teachings of Jesus? Or, were they really devil worshipers like so many throughout history convicted them of being? Can the documented confessions be trusted? Or was it all just a a little too similar to events such as the Salem Witch Hunts?
The discussion thread for the book club is still open – join and add your thoughts there: http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32350/discussions/136727/Knights-Templar-Books-
Or, just tell me your opinion below. Also, if you’ve read something interesting on the Templars or the Freemasons, share the book and your review of it as a comment. I plan to continue my studies on the topic.
Intelligent Design: More Than a Bandwagon
A Review of Michael J. Behe’s Darwin’s Black Box
I thoroughly enjoyed Behe’s well-crafted and easy-to-understand argument against Darwinian “science.” I found Biology fascinating when I was in school, and this has sparked some of that forgotten love for studying things under the microscope. I would like more Darwinist groups to actually give this book the time it deserves rather than casting it aside because they think its a soap-box for Creationists. Behe clearly states that he is NOT a Creationist at the beginning of the book – put your pride aside and see what he has to say about his research before you judge his viewpoint.
Origins and Thoughts, and Original Thoughts
January 19, 2010 at 5:44 am (JARS, Reviews, The Whim) (book, creationists, darwin, family relationships, fiction, history, intelligent design, irving stone, religion, review, social commentary, the origin, theology, victorian era)
My thoughts on Irving Stone’s The Origin so far… (I’m on Book Ten)
Despite being an enjoyable novel, its astonishing how much humanity is lacking in the description – it has the feel of a 1950′s family sitcom, Leave It to Beaver meets the Darwin family in Victorian England.
I like Irving Stone’s version of things, however. It gives a detailed time line of publications and events. Its a good source to use as an introduction to the study of evolution: names, dates, and important essays, journals and other writings are handed to you chronologically on a silver platter so that you can jot them down and do additional research afterward.
The book is quite clever, actually, sidestepping every controversy and smiling noncommittally.
“They established a routine in which everyone fitted harmoniously,” (from book nine: the Whole Life) seems to be the theme of the book, rather than the development of the theory of evolution. It is full of lines like: “The Manuscript on Volcanic Islands moved along felicitously.” Even through his many illnesses and the death of his two daughters, Charles Darwin seems to have led a very charmed life.
I discussed all this with a member the physical JARS book club, and she pointed out something important that I failed to notice: this is exactly the way a man of the Victorian Age would want his biography written. The Victorian era was a time when the upper class mastered the art of smiling and pretending everything was fine, introducing what my friend described as “that very British attitude of ‘Get Over It and Move On.’ “
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