Veritas Academy Blog

This week marks the conclusion of the Spring H&H posts, though there may be a short postscript. We will be tested this Friday (May 11) on posts 5-8.The Spring 2012 H&H Test will follow at the end of May.

 Johann Reuchlin — (Almanac,April 24)

This German linguist (1455–1522), uncle to Lutherʼs lieutenant Philipp Melanchthon, advanced Old Testament translation and helped preserve the literature of the Jews? In his day many writings of a Hebraic or Jewish cast, including his own, were threatened with suppression by both church and state.  Nonetheless, his scholarly good will prevailed to the delight of those seeking a return “to the sources,” that is to the ancients, including the prophets and apostles, in their original languages.

 King Arthur — (Almanac,April 26)

The life and times of this legendary English king were first recorded and brought into Western literature by Welsh chronicler Geoffrey of Monmouth in the 1100s?  Monmouth, in his Historia Regum Britanniae, sought to make of the collected tales of the kingdom not a biography or a history, but a romance to refresh Anglo-Saxon traditions in the wake of the Norman (French) conquest. To this day all we know for sure of Monmouthʼs royal subject is that he ruled sometime after the Romans left Britain in the 400s.

 Pactum Salutis — (Michael Horton, Tabletalk,April 2012)

This Latin title identifies the biblical “covenant of redemption,” in which the three persons of God, from all eternity, mutually pledge to save an elect people, out of a mass of perishing sinners, from their sins?  In this covenant, says theologian Michael Horton, “The Father gave the Son a people whom the Spirit would eventually unite to Him in history,” while “the Son signed His death warrant, joyfully assuming the office of Mediator between God and man.”

 Church of the Holy Sepulcher — (Almanac, May 3)

Still a prime pilgrimage site in Jerusalem, this sacred structure was raised as a result of a determined search for relics in the 300s AD and was rebuilt by European Crusaders in the 1000s? It was Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine and known herself for acts of piety, who in Palestine in 326 discovered what she believed was the mount of Christʼs crucifixion (Golgotha) as well as remains of His true cross.The mount became the site for the sacred dwelling.

 Lachlan Macquarie — (Almanac, May 3)

Born on a small isle in the Scottish Inner Hebrides, this British soldier (1761–1824) is known to history as the “Father of Australia?” Appointed governor of New South Wales, a colony for convicts, in 1810, he preserved its penal status while issuing a call to his fellow Hebrideans and Highlanders to come and settle the “land down under.”As it turned out, Scots soon made up a quarter of the population, setting the stage for an advanced Christian civilization.

This weekʼs summaries or Q&A are all based upon W. Bennettʼs America, Volume 1.

 “Lighthouses of the Sky” — (America, Vol. 1, p. 217)

Chosen the 6th U.S. president in the 1824 contest, it didnʼt take long for John Quincy Adams (MA) to propose an ambitious governmental program including a national version of astronomical observatories, “lighthouses of the sky” as he called them.

His initial Message to Congress also urged significant spending increases for the navy, funds for “internal improvements” (roads, canals, & harbors), and high tariffs (taxes) on imports to protect the products of domestic industry.

Sweepingly, the son of the second president called for “laws promoting the improvement of agriculture, commerce, and manufactures, the cultivation and encouragement of the mechanic and of the elegant arts, the advancement of literature, and the progress of the sciences, ornamental and profound.”

Adams had assumed the mantle, as he said, of a “national Republican,” supposedly a member of the movement championed by Jefferson, but with dreams and visions for the country calling for political centralization more on the order of Hamilton.

Good Counsel for the Young (and for us all) — (America, Vol. 1, p. 218)

Jefferson, in retirement, wrote lots of letters including his running correspondence with John Adams (once their strained relations were healed).  What follows is his advice to a young man (Thomas Jefferson Smith), the son of a good friend:

Few words will be necessary, with good dispositions on your part.Adore God. Reverence and cherish your parents.  Love your neighbor as yourself, and your country more than yourself.Be just.Be true.  Murmur not at the ways of Providence.  So shall the life into which you have entered be the portal to one of eternal and ineffable bliss. And if to the dead it is permitted to care for the things of this world, every action of your life will be under my regard.  Farewell.

House of Representatives — (America, Vol. 1, p. 221)

As required by the Constitution, this federal lawmaking body determines the outcome of a presidential contest when no candidate gets a majority of electoral college votes?

In such instance, the members of the body choose (with one vote allotted to each state delegation) from among the top three candidates in the electoral vote tally. This happened in 1800 (when Jefferson was chosen over Burr andAdams) and again in 1824 (when John Q. Adams won out over Andrew Jackson and William Crawford.

 Our entries this week include content from Tabletalk magazine as well as William Bennettʼs America, Vol. 1 and George Grantʼs The Christian Almanac.

Creek Confederacy — (America, Vol. 1, pp. 207-208)

“Until this is done, your nation cannot expect happiness or mine security.” Thus said General Andrew Jackson to this southwestern Indian league, demanding that it cede millions of acres (much ofAlabama & Georgia) to the United States? The confederacy had incurred U.S. wrath when it brutally massacred about 250Americans at Fort Mims (near todayʼs Mobile, Alabama) inAugust 1813; Jackson in turn routed them at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend (eastern Alabama) in March 1814.

 Battle of New Orleans — (America, Vol. 1, pp. 208-212)

With the British poised to wrest Louisiana from the U.S., the Americans scored one of their greatest military triumphs ever in this January 1815 battle?  Jackson led a motley force of 5,000, including Kentucky & Tennessee militia, that in a matter of minutes inflicted devastating losses on the redcoats (almost 2,000 casualties). Curiously, the war (War of 1812) was actually over when the battle was fought; a peace pact, word of which spread slowly, had been signed in Belgium on Christmas Eve, 1814.

 “the Hero” — (America, Vol. 1, pp. 212-214)

For most early 19th-centuryAmericans, this unembellished title summed up their view of TennesseeʼsAndrew Jackson? The general was lauded for beating back the British at New Orleans, fiercely repressing Indian raids (Creeks & Seminoles) in the South, and forcefully challenging Spanish possession of Florida.  Speaker of the House and “war hawk” Henry Clay (KY), however, publicly admonished Jackson for reckless and autonomous acts which, he said, endangered republican government.

 Missouri Compromise — (America, Vol. 1, pp. 214-215)

This congressional act (1820) admitted two states (one free & one slave) to the Union, while also prohibiting slavery in the northern reaches of the Louisiana Territory?Most were pleased with the careful arrangement, conciliatory to North and South, but Jefferson in retirement heard “a fire bell in the night” and the “knell of the Union.” What alarmed him most was the loss of liberty for new states, their domestic affairs (in this case the status of Negroes) now subject to federal mandate.

 Monroe Doctrine — (America, Vol. 1, pp. 215-216)

“It would be more candid as well as more dignified to avow our principles explicitly to France and Russia than to come in as a cock-boat in the wake of a British man-of-war.” Thus John QuincyAdams advised President Monroe, recommending that this policy statement (1823) on colonization in the New World be issued independently of Britain? Nonetheless, it was truly the British fleet, not American parchment, that safeguarded the newly-independent nations of Latin America at the time.

For a printable copy. click here…

We continue our study ofAmerica & the West (having just taken a test on Spring H&H posts1-4) with the following entries and the sources indicated:

 TheApostlesʼCreed — (Tabletalk magazine, March 6 & 29)

A product of early church history originating perhaps as early as the 100s AD, this classic creed may be subdivided into three articles related to the Trinity?The articles, according to the Heidelberg Catechism, may be titled “God the Father and our creation; God the Son and our deliverance; God the Holy Spirit and our sanctification.” The creed summarizes aptly, both in what it says and what it does not say, the biblical gospelʼs insistence that “Salvation is of the LORD” (Ps. 3:8).

 Samuel Johnson — (Almanac,April 3)

“The chief glory of every people arises from its authors; whether I shall add anything by my own writings to the reputation of England must be left to time.”  So said this English man of letters (1709–1784), a devout Anglican and a brilliant stylist whose wit and wisdom were recorded for all time by biographer James Boswell. In his famed Dictionary of the English Language (1755), 40,000 words are defined succinctly and illustrated with selections from classic prose and poetry.

 Booker T. Washington — (Almanac,April 5)

Author of Up From Slavery, this American educator (1856–1915) led the way for emancipated Negroes to participate more fully inAmerican trades and professions? For such a purpose he was called in 1881 to directAlabamaʼs Tuskegee Institute, a mere dream for state officials with no money, nor land, nor buildings, nor students, nor faculty. By the time he died, however, the institute could boast of over 100 buildings, about 200 teachers, 1,500 students, and a $2-million endowment fund.

 Booker T. Washington and Race Relations inAmerica — (teacherʼs commentary) Unlike many civil rights leaders who came after him, Booker T. Washington (d. 1915) didnʼt urge his brethren to join a mass movement to agitate for their rights, nor did he press for U.S. laws forcing states and localities to honor such rights. An example of his rhetorical substance and style, as quoted by philosopher Claude Polin in the March 2012 issue of Chronicles, follows below: 

We are to be tested in our patience, our forbearance, our perseverance, our power to endure wrong, to withstand temptation, to economize, to acquire a new skill. . . . [T]his country demands that every race measure itself by theAmerican standard. . . .This is a passport to all that is best in life, and the Negro must possess it or be debarred.  No race that has anything to contribute to the markets of the world is long in any degree ostracized.

 Seems like itʼs an appeal, as old as the hills, to faith, character, and community. In so many words:  attend to duty, to industry, to education, to your souls, and to service to your neighbors wherever you happen to be.  It may not be the quickest or easiest way to gain the respect of the white majority, but itʼs the surest.  (One might add that itʼs the only way to please the One whose judgment outweighs that of any human tribunal.)

Our study of the seemingly infinite heritage of America and the West continues with the entries below (in Q & A or summary form) and the sources indicated.

 providence — (Tabletalk magazine, March 20)

This term in Christian theology refers to Godʼs sovereign superintendence and governance of all things, especially His personal direction of the course of history? Among its many dimensions, says the Heidelberg Catechism (1563), it encompasses the work of the Deity to uphold “heaven and earth and all creatures.”And as Hebrews 1:3 makes abundantly clear, it is particularly the Son, “the radiance of Godʼs glory,” who does the upholding by “the word of his power.”

 Poor Laws — (Almanac, March 22)

Paraphrasing the Talmud, Benjamin Franklin observed that American charity “is the noblest charity, preventing a man from accepting charity, and the best alms, enabling men to dispense with alms.”  Franklin spoke in praise of a welfare system conditioned by work, frugality, keeping faith with oneʼs family, and local administration.  Such was the legacy of Old World Christendom, particularly these 1589 English decrees, wisely conserved by generations of Americans?

 Great Migration — (Almanac, March 29)

“Anno Domini 1630, March 29, Easter Monday.  Riding at the Cowes, near the Isle of Wight, in the Arbella, a ship of three hundred and fifty tons.” Thatʼs how English Puritan John Winthrop (1588–1649), a lawyer and the first governor of Massachusetts Bay, began his illuminating journal entries, a rich resource for scholars ofAmericaʼs origins. Winthrop was among hundreds of Puritans who braved an Atlantic crossing bound for New England in 1630, an event known to history by this name?

 Minims — (Almanac, March 27)

This Catholic order of monks, founded by Francis of Paola (southern Italy) in the 15th-century (1400s), derives its name from the Latin word for “least”? It received the sanction of the Roman Church, and devoted itself primarily to service to the needy in the spirit of Christʼs teaching that the last would be first and the least the greatest of all. Like other Catholic communions it had its scholars, like French mathematician Marin Mersenne who greatly facilitated exchanges among scientists in the 1600s.

 Joseph Damien de Veuster, “Father Damien” — (Almanac, March 29)

In some sense the Mother Theresa of the late 19th-century, this Belgian Catholic priestʼs epitaph reads, “Died a Martyr of Charity”?  He spent a decade in Honolulu (1864-1873) before requesting transfer to the central Hawaiian island of Molokai to minister to the lepers there. “Out of a chaos of neglect,” said one biographer, “he brought order, hope and support for the community” (including schools, churches, hospitals & the like) before succumbing to the dread disease himself in 1889

 Zora Neale Hurston — (Jack Trotter; Chronicles, March 2012)

A Floridian and a folklorist, this African-American novelist (1903–1960) is perhaps best known for her Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937)?  No friend of Jim Crow era segregation, she nonetheless decried the “race pride” and “black consciousness” of the African-American elite in her 1942 autobiography Dust Tracks on a Road.  Her betrayal of her color, in liberal eyes, reached its nadir when she protested Brown v. Board of Education (the Supreme Courtʼs lauded school desegregation mandate, 1954).

 Islamic Spain — (Dario Fernandez-Morera; Chronicles, March 2012)

This medieval civilization (Al-Andalus), running roughly from the 700s to the 1400s, is more often than not hailed for its enlightened multiculturalism by modern scholars? The society supposedly rescued Europe from the “Dark Ages” by preserving Greek knowledge, and promoted peace between otherwise hostile ethnic and religious groups. For the record, Greek knowledge was preserved in the Greek (Eastern) Roman Empire, and tolerance of outsiders wasnʼt one of Al-Andalusʼs virtues.

 Iceland — (Almanac, March 15)

Alegendary land discovered by Norsemen in the 800s, this European country teemed with fresh water, fish, forests, and pastureland despite its far north Atlantic location? The  Vikings who settled it were known for their ferocity on the continent, though they were mostly Christians intent on building a society to the glory of their new-found Savior. TheAlthing, the first European parliament charged with settling disputes by law, was one of their sterling achievements.

 Christ of theAndes—(Almanac, March 13)

Located high in the mountains on the border of Chile andArgentina, this 1904 statue commemorates peace between the countries?  Itʼs a tall bronze representation of Christ (holding out His right hand in blessing while clutching a cross with His left) standing in Uspallata Pass with Mt.Aconcagua towering in the background. Chile and Argentina had been warring in the Tierra del Fuego region, but they settled their differences with President Theodore Roosevelt and Englandʼs King Edward VII acting as mediators.

 Jeffersonʼs First Inaugural —  (America, Vol. 1, pp. 175-176)

In this conciliatory address, delivered in Washington City on March 4, 1801, President Jefferson endeavored to heal the divisive wounds of the contentious election of 1800? “We have called by different names,” he said, “brethren of the same principle.  We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists.”  Jefferson also affirmed “the support of the State governments in all their rights, as the most competent administrations for our domestic concerns and the surest bulwarks against anti-republican tendencies.”

Our entries this week are based on our usual sources with an assist from Forrest McDonaldʼs Statesʼ Rights and the Union: Imperium in Imperio (1776–1876). 

Cornelius Jansen — (Almanac, March 6)

This Flemish theologian (1585-1636) was censured by the papacy (Urban VIII) and the Jesuits for his Augustinus, a book about the teachings of the famous church father? ACatholic professor at Louvain in todayʼs Belgium, his writings influenced profoundly the French clergy, of whom about a fifth conceded agreement with his theses. In his feud with the Jesuits, he accused them of relying too much upon manʼs unaided reason and his good works as opposed to a truly Christian trust in Scripture and grace.

secularism — (Almanac, March 8th)

This modern ideology, prominent in the wake of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution, requires what it regards as strict religious neutrality in political matters?It allows for nearly any input in the public square—reason, science, business, labor, race, gender, party—except the voice of the church or a traditional religion like Christianity. Curiously, the ideology has triumphed both in communist countries, where overt persecution is the norm, and democratic ones where propaganda holds sway.

Washingtonʼs Farewell — (America, Vol. 1, p. 164)

With assistance from Alexander Hamilton, Washingtonʼs wise and carefully crafted Farewell Address was first published in a Philadelphia newspaper in 1796.  It was never delivered publicly as a speech.

The main thrust of the message was to warn of what author William Bennett called “twin evils:” a divisive spirit of party and longterm commitment to the interests of foreign powers by means of entangling alliances. This was good counsel in the era of the Founders and, frankly, good counsel for any era. By Washingtonʼs second term (1793–1797), Federalists and Republicans were often at each otherʼs throats and the influence of foreign nations and their agents (France, England, Spain) made the political divide even wider.

Lastly, Washingtonʼs eloquent reminder about the importance of Christianity, and the manners and mores derived therefrom, to the cause of ordered liberty merits attention in all ages, particularly our own with its secular zeitgeist (“spirit of the times” in German). The Father of our Country wrote (in part):“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and morality are indispensable supports.  In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great Pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of Men and citizens. . .

We begin our spring posts with entries (Q&Aor summaries) based on readings in The ChristianAlmanac (Grant/Wilbur) and America, Vol. 1 (Bennett).

Look for 8 or 9 posts for the months of March, April, and May, followed by our Spring 2012 History & Heritage Test at the end of May.

 Mardi Gras — (Almanac, Feb. 23)

Seemingly of Celtic Christian origin, this festival (meaning “Fat Tuesday” in English) was introduced to NorthAmerica by the French in the early 1700s?Associated mostly with the Winter Carnival finale in New Orleans, the revelry is a lively component of culture in the entire Gulf Coast region.Author George Grant describes it as “a celebration of lifeʼs excesses before the austere self-sacrifices of the Christian season of Lent,” traditionally a time of fasting commencing on Ash Wednesday.

Hudson Taylor — (Almanac, March 1)

“My feelings on stepping ashore I cannot attempt to describe.My heart felt as though it had not room and must burst its bonds, while tears of gratitude. . .fell from my eyes.” So wrote this English missionary (1832–1905), a medical student of Methodist upbringing, when he first arrived on the streets of Shanghai in March 1854? Facing difficult cultural barriers, he adopted native dress and ways, founded an indigenous church, and evangelized far and wide through his China Inland Mission.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon — (Almanac, March 6)

A Calvinist and a proponent of Puritan writings, this English Baptist (1834–1892) was so masterful in the pulpit that he was dubbed the “Prince of Preachers”?  Under his leadership, Londonʼs Metropolitan Tabernacle became the largest single Christian congregation in the world.But however impressive his success as an orator, writer, and evangelist, he maintained his many charitable works (schools, orphanages, hospitals, and the like) were truly his most blessed endeavors.

From Whiskey Rebellion to Civil War? — (America, Vol. 1, pp. 161-162)

Author William Bennett points out, rather approvingly, that President Washingtonʼs armed response to the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794 would be taken up byAbraham Lincoln as a precedent for his use of force against the secessionist South in 1861.

 As Lincoln read the events of his day, the laws of the United States were once again being opposed (this time in several Southern states) “by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings,” a phrase found in the Militia Act of 1792 under which Washington acted.

But were the two events so similar?  Were they both instances of unlawful rebellion or insurrection on the part of delinquents or bands of protestors?The events in western Pennsylvania in the late 18th-century did seem to be of that variety. They were blamed on Democratic-Republican clubs whose zealotry, including a threat to take over Pittsburgh, was stirred up in part by the French ambassador Citizen Genet.  Neither the government of Pennsylvania nor the people of Pennsylvania gave any formal sanction to the protestors, and over half of Washingtonʼs militia consisted of Pennsylvanians.