Category Archives: books

Huguenot Psalter in Martyrdom and Resistance

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From James Hastings Nichols, Corporate Worship in the Reformed Tradition, pp. 38-40

As the staple of private and family  as well as of the services of the church, the psalms became known to many by heart.  No other book of the Old Testament, at least, could rival the psalms in the affections and knowledge of the Reformed laymen.  Ministers frequently preached from the Psalms also; the psalter was the only Old Testament book on which Calvin preached on Sundays.  For every occasion, it seems, an appropriate verse would leap to the tongue of a Huguenot.  And all over France, wherever Huguenots of the first generation were confined, often sometimes by the score, guards and jailers became familiar with the psalms, even to prisons on Santo Domingo and Martinique.  The colporteurs who carried the psalters, with Bibles and catechisms, all over France, were frequently caught and burned. Many martyrs died with the words of the Apostles’ Creed, but it is surprising to see what a range of the psalter was drawn on by others.

The courage and joy of these martyrs who, like the ancient Christians, could have had release for a word, won converts among the onlookers.  The authorities tried gags, but the cord would burn and from out of the smoke the psalm would again begin.  The bishops then ordered that the tongues of the Huguenots should be cut out before they were burned.  This became the general practice.  At Orange, peices were torn from the Bible and psalters and forced into the mouths and wounds of the victims.  “Eat your fill; tell your God to come rescue you.”

When the fifty-seven Protestants of Meaux were led off to the dungeon they lamented (to use a modern English version [I’m using the ESV–MH]):

O God, the nations have come into your inheritance;
they have defiled your holy temple;
they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.
They have given the bodies of your servants
to the birds of the heavens for food,
the flesh of your faithful to the beasts of the earth.

The fourteen of them who were later led out to execution sang on from the same psalm until their tongues were cut out:

Why should the nations say,
“Where is their God?”
Let the avenging of the outpoured blood of your servants
be known among the nations before our eyes!
Let the groans of the prisoners come before you;
according to your great power, preserve those doomed to die!

When Armed resistance began, Psalm 68 became the “Huguenot Marseillaise”[vv 1-2]:

God shall arise, his enemies shall be scattered;
and those who hate him shall flee before him!
As smoke is driven away, so you shall drive them away;
as wax melts before fire,
so the wicked shall perish before God!

At the battle of Coutras, the Reformed soldiers knelt and prayed and sang.  Roman Catholic courtiers, observing, cried out that they were afraid and were confessing, but a more experienced officer said it was not so.  They were singing [Psalm 118.24-25]:

This is the day that the Lord has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Save us, we pray, O Lord!
O Lord, we pray, give us success!

To know and love the psalms was the mark of the Protestant.  The use of the psalter became a significant issue in the long nibbling away of the assurances of the Edict of Nantes.  In 1623 singing of psalms was forbidden in the streets and shops.  In 1657 it was prohibited at executions; in 1658, anywhere outside “temples,” as Protestant places of worship must be called.  In 1659 psalms could not even be sung privately if audible outside, and in 1661 the singing of psalms anywhere in French territory became a felony.

Between monarchism and anarchism–Tolkien

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My political opinions lean more and more to Anarchy (philosophically understood, meaning abolition of control not whiskered men with bombs)—or to ‘unconstitutional Monarchy.’ I would arrest anybody who uses the word State (in any sense other than the inanimate realm of England and its inhabitants, a thing that has neither power, rights not mind); and after a chance of recantation, execute them if they remained obstinate! If we could get back to personal names, it would do a lot of good. Government is an abstract noun meaning the art and process of governing and it should be an offence to write it with a capital G or so as to refer to people. If people were in the habit of referring to ‘King George’s council, Winston and his gang,’ it would go a long way to clearing thought, and reducing the frightful landslide into Theyocacy. Anyway the proper study of Man is anything but Man; and the most improper job of any man, even saints… is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity. The mediaevals were only too right in taking nolo episcopari as the best reason a man could give to others for making him a bishop (The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, 63-64).

via “The Hands of a Healer”: J.R.R. Tolkien’s Understanding of Kingship by Lauren Calco.

Henry V, Act 3, Scene 3

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What rein can hold licentious wickedness
When down the hill he holds his fierce career?
We may as bootless spend our vain command
Upon the enraged soldiers in their spoil
As send precepts to the leviathan
To come ashore. Therefore, you men of Harfleur,
Take pity of your town and of your people,
Whiles yet my soldiers are in my command;
Whiles yet the cool and temperate wind of grace
O’erblows the filthy and contagious clouds
Of heady murder, spoil and villany.
If not, why, in a moment look to see
The blind and bloody soldier with foul hand
Defile the locks of your shrill-shrieking daughters;
Your fathers taken by the silver beards,
And their most reverend heads dash’d to the walls,
Your naked infants spitted upon pikes,
Whiles the mad mothers with their howls confused
Do break the clouds, as did the wives of Jewry
At Herod’s bloody-hunting slaughtermen.

Shakespeare always sounds civilized no matter what he says, doesn’t he?

The perfect revenge

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By some strange coincidence I am reading Dambisa Moyo’s Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa and Barack Obama’s Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, which are both worth reading.  Reading them together though, is a bizarre experience.

I may write an argument to show that Moyo is an undercover Austrian, but I’ll have to wait and see.  What is clear from reading her book on development in Africa is why we’re not going to see much more of it in North America in the foreseeable future.  And it is also clear that Barack Obama, Sr., along with many other fresh young optimistic victims, came to the US and got propagandized in how to be powerful bureaucrats.  Apart from aid itself, how much damage and death have we inflicted on the African continent by converting their leaders to Keynsians at best and outright socialists at worst?

It is completely appropriate we have the President we do.  God is not going to let us wreak economic degradation on others and not experience it ourselves.  The son avenges the father even though he has no idea how justice is really unfolding from his administration.

Eye for an eye.

John Frame on Horton’s “Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church”

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The title of this book is alarming, certainly by design. But the subtitle is even more so. Does it mean that the whole American church (all traditions, denominations, locations) is committed to an “alternative Gospel?” Or is it that, though part of the American church upholds the true, biblical gospel, there is within that church a movement (evidently a significant movement) to the contrary?

We should keep in mind that such language makes the most serious indictments. To be Christless is to be doomed to Hell (John 3:36). And if someone preaches an “alternative gospel,” contrary to the gospel preached by the apostle Paul, he is to be accursed (Gal. 1:8-9). People who preach “another gospel” are not Christian friends who happen to disagree with us on this or that matter. Rather, they have betrayed Christ himself. The whole church ought to rise up against such persons and declare that they are not part of the body of Christ and that they have no part in the blessings of salvation. Indeed, if they do not repent, they have no future except eternal punishment.

In my view, many Christians (especially those in the conservative Reformed tradition that Horton and I both inhabit) use this sort of language far too loosely, even flippantly. It is time we learned that when we criticize someone for preaching “another gospel” we are doing nothing less than cursing him, damning him to Hell.

But Horton actually indicates to his readers that these charges are not to be taken seriously.

Read the rest at: Review of Michael Horton, Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church.

J. S. Bach

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I finished this book awhile ago.  It was quite readable and appropriately brief.  Bach was a superior musician who knew he was superior and was usually at the mercy of people who didn’t know enough to appreciate him.  He didn’t always respond well to such circumstances, and when he was younger probably caused himself some trouble.

I found it interesting that the book mentioned two authorities Bach had to wrangle with who opposed his musical and educational efforts.

The first was a “pietist” pastor–the continental version of a Puritan.  He was suspicious and hostile to exceptional music in church.  (To the extent that such artistry got in the way of congregational participation, I could be sympathetic to this, but I don’t think that was his issue.)  The second was an enlightenment-oriented school master, who thought that music was a waste of time and that education should be focused on science and economically productive skills.

I can’t help but suspect that what these two people had in common reveals something important about Puritanism, the Enlightenment, and the surpising roots and fruits of secularism.

5 books every Anglo-American Evangelical Reformed Bookworm should read

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OK, the rather lengthy title is there for a reason.

First an apology: I don’t mean to be sectarian.  Ideally the subject matter of these books should be grasped by every Christian, period.  But most of them are written to a certain audience and make certain assumptions about them.  So I’m trying to aim these books were I think they would be best received. [Similar apology for “Anglo-American.”]

I do mean to include “Reformed Baptists,” by the way.  “Calvinism” is spreading relatively rapidly among Bible-believing Christians, from what I hear (I’m not going to take the time to link the news reports).  I think these five books are the ones they all need to read.  I started thinking about this blog with two in mind, but realized a few more were necessary.  Still, I also tried to keep the list as short as possible.  There are other books that would be helpful, but these I consider the minimal core and also to be “primary sources” in what they communicate.

Finally, why am I addressing “bookworms”?  Because that is a more honest and helpful designation than the self-serving term currently in vogue: theologians.  Has there ever been a more casually arrogant word than “theologian” among Christian laymen?  We have somehow trained productive people who actually have better things to do with their lives than read lots of books, pontificate, and argue, to diminish themselves before the exalted label.

I hear people say, “He’s no theologian but he’s a godly man.”  What does this mean?  Typically, one or more of the following:

  • He is no longer a college student.
  • He has a real job that takes up his time and concentration.
  • He doesn’t blog.
  • He doesn’t start arguments in chat rooms.
  • He doesn’t read a lot of theological books (just as Solomon would advise).

I guess what has happened is that respect for the calling of pastor (good thing) has generated a lay-custom of imitating some visible (and very sedentary) aspects of that calling.  But in my opinion this doesn’t work.  And it actually leads to disrespect since everyone starts thinking they can do it too, as a hobby.  Pastors are not paid hobbyists.

But I pass no judgment on bookworms.  There are worse things to be.  The main issue I have is that a bookworm who reads theology not think he is a better bookworm than the one who reads Stephen King.

But if you are one, and want to read important theological books.  Here is the list:

Continue reading →

Because this blog can never say enough good regarding Against Christianity

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I just finished reading Against Christianity by Peter Leithart. In this book, Dr. Leithart contrasts compares and contrasts “Christianity” and “Christendom.” Christianity is defined as “a set of doctrines or a system of ideas.” Unfortunately, as the good doctor points out, “The Bible gives no hint that a Christian ‘belief system’ might be isolated from the life of the Church, subjected to a scientific or logical analysis, and have its truth compared with competing ‘belief systems.'” Jesus didn’t come to propose a new philosophy, but rather to establish a new society, the Church. And the Church is not only a new society, but a new humanity, the beginning of the eschatological state of the human race. As Leithart writes, “…the Church presented herself not as another ‘sect’ or cult that existed under the umbrella of the polis; she was an alternative governing body for the city and the beginning of a new city.”

Read the rest at: The Flying Inn: Against Christianity.

When were we not a corporate fascist state?

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By some weird coincidence of impulse and information, I ended up getting from the library The President Makers: The Culture of Politics and Leadership in An Age of Enlightenment 1896-1919 by Matthew Josephson.  I just read the first few pages of “The Golden Years of McKinley and Hanna” and feel like I have just taken the Red Pill.

Is trying to decipher the problems in American history always like pulling up a weed and finding the root is so long that it never pulls free?

Secular freedom personified (instead of a book review)

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I finished this book, finally, and am not sure I can do it justice.  As you may have noticed when I mentioned it before, it is the kind of book that has a lot of personal connection to me that might not apply to anyone else.  Still, here is my attempt.

An Enemy of the State was written by one of my favorite political columnists, and it is the most fun I have had in awhile.

Not a teen anarchist who never grew up.

One of the big surprises to me was how long it took for Rothbard to embrace anarchism.  I had assumed that he had reacted to the marxism of his family and become an anarcho-capitalist as a teenager.

But, for one thing, I was wrong about one aspect of Rothbard’s upbringing: his father was very much a pro-American supporter of the free market.  They remained close while his father was alive.  And Murray himself was an active participant in the “old right” movement to promote free markets and to oppose foreign interventionism.  Even in grad school he had not yet become the radical libertarian he is now known as (for better or worse).

It used to be worse.

With the Democrat hegemony currently in place, many who grew up during the Reagan victories are tempted to think things are as bad as they could be.  This was a good time, therefore, to read Rothbard’s biography.  He had a much more hostile environment to deal with from the New Deal to World War II to the Cold War and the Great Society, the pro-peace, pro-freedom principles of the Old Right was increasingly isolated, ignored, and mocked by virtually everyone.

It was especially hard for Rothbard to see old allies who had opposed American involvement in WWII suddenly get on board the National Review band wagon in favor of nuclear war with Russia.  He saw virtually all the remnants of the anti-war conservatives completely subverted to support the rising welfare-warfare state.

The fact that Rothbard continued to be optimistic and keep looking for strategic avenues to communicate his vision is nothing less than inspiring.

Reaching out to the New Left not a Productive Strategy

I first heard of Rothbard because I was part of a group that received “The Rothbard-Rockwell Report.”  It was the result of severing ties with the group who had formed the Libertarian Party and represented an alliance with paleo-conservatives, who after the end of the Cold War were interested in reverting to a pro-peace and pro-freedom foreign policy.

Before this time, from the late sixties through the seventies, Rothbard had tried to reach out to the New Left and to college students.  The results were not productive.  College radicals could spout off libertarian slogans, but they couldn’t become a mass movement.  Rather than trying to reach Middle America, Libertarians wanted to define themselves as “low-tax liberals.”  Furthermore, with the anti-state attitude came many more anti-establishment attitudes that no healthy society (stateless or not) could ever sustain.

To some extent, Rothbard brought this on himself.  He had an ideological streak that, while not as unhealthy as the Rand Cult, got him involved in some messes.  The whole account of Karl Hess “converting” to anarchism in Rothbard’s living room set my teeth on edge.

The History of Economic Thought

This climactic chapter alone deserves a series of posts.  I expected it to be boring but by the end it was my favorite part of the book.  Rothbard had wanted to write a history of economic thought for years, and finally got two volumes of it done before he died.  He shows that Adam Smith was by no means a pioneer, let alone the founder, of the discipline of free market economics.  In fact, he was a step back.  He also showed there has been a long-standing struggle between those who thought that they could control the world through values-free mathematics and those who wanted freedom.  Especially eye-opening to me was Rothbard’s discussion of how Jonathan Swift was opposing such people in his own day.  I have read all of Gulliver’s Travels and caught some obvious barbs toward some relying on mathematical ingenuity, but had no idea who he was responding to.

Here is an entertaining audio from his wife Joey.

audio

This book is worth reading on several levels.  Since I am a Christian, and not a secularist, I can’t follow Rothbard in all his thought.  But he is still quite helpful, and just as important, quite fun to read and read about.