APilgrimInNarnia has a guest post about Out of the Silent Planet.
the book with the original benevolent E.T.'s and the first CSLewis book that I ever read. It puts Christianity and life on other planets in context, making a benevolent universe where only earth is "silent" because it's guardians rebelled. (a similar context is found in L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, where the children rescue their father from a planet where the rebellion was complete, in contrast to earth, where some still remained true...).
the most amusing part of the book, however, is when Ransom tries to translate the bad scientist's greedy imperialist ideology etc. to the innocent Martians.
I haven't listened to the podcast, but it is part of a series that includes discussions of starwars and Japanese fantasy films too.
Professor Podles continues his survey of classic hymns, many from the Anglican tradition, and short biographies of people who wrote them.
Sigh...
I remember one Catholic musician, seeing the horrors we are forced to sing post Vatican II, quip that we should throw out the newfangled mundane stuff and replace it with the Methodist hymn book. That sounds about right.
Podles series makes one long for this again.
A day ago, I quipped that too many of those who preach the psychobabble of love and forgiveness maybe should go to the depths of hell to try to save those living in their own self chosen hell.
So we see this about the lady who wrote the lyrics of this hymn (set to a Finnish melody)
Anna Letitia Waring (or Anna Laetitia Waring) (19 April 1823 – 10 May 1910) was a Welsh poet and hymn-writer...Anna was pious, reserved, and given to “good works”. Anna became involved in philanthropic work, particularly as a supporter of the Discharged Prisoners’ Aid Society. According to her friend Mary S. Talbot, Waring “visited in the prisons of Bridewell, and at Horfield, Bristol, for many years...
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----he also goes to note the source of the melody.
Often hymns are put to older tunes, or written by someone else. So you might have the same lyrics to different melodies, or several hymns sung to the same melody.
If you note, the song is labled "NYLAND", not Waring. And he explains why:
NYLAND, named for a province in Finland, is a folk melody from Kuortane, South Ostrobothnia, Finland. In fact, the tune is also known as KUORTANE. NYLAND was first published with a hymn text in an appendix to the 1909 edition of the Finnish Suomen Evankelis Luterilaisen Kirken Koraalikirja....
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for the background on secular poets and writes, NPR has a podcast by Garrison Keillor: The Writer's almanac.
Today's poem is "Lives of Great Composers" by Dana Gioia... but today's commentary is about several others, starting with the founder of MAD magazine, and including the author of Look Homeward Angel...
Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.®
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The National Review is doing a podcast series on "Great Books". It is quite basic, with a conservative bent.
Also Mike Duncan (of the History of Rome podcast) has a new series on Revolutions. The one on Germany is interesting: how lowering trade barriers preceeded the unification of that country. Hmm.. sounds like the EU...
A kitchen wizard and a nutrition detective talk about the perfect hamburger, getting the most out of garlic, and why you should use vodka in just about everything.
In this episode, we sit down with doctor, philosopher, and historian Anne Marie Moulin to talk about the history of the Pastorians and the early establishment of Pasteur Institutes in the Ottoman Empire and North Africa. We explore the role of the Ottoman Empire in the creation of the Pasteur Institutes and their global network, and we consider the relationship between medicine and religion, politics, and colonialism in North Africa and the Middle East.
usually the analysis of the Middle East and Islam is based on the "colonialism of the west is evil" type stuff. Fair enough.
Ah but Turks ran the place for hundreds of years so maybe you need to check the backstory.
A lot of the anti Catholic black legends is still believed, never mind it is exaggerated to say the least (see this BBC program about the Inquisition).
But even when religious persecution might have inspired some toward real terrorism, it doesn't mean that all the hysterical accusations should be believed.
I always thought it would make a good western film...but one of the subtexts is that in the middle, everyone decides to become Christians. It doesn't stop the cycle of revenge and violence, but it does give an alternative way to respond.
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and if you like Marie Antoinette, try TeaAtTrianon's podcast here.
The use of singular they builds on centuries of usage, appearing in the work of writers such as Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Jane Austen. In 2015, singular theywas embraced by the Washington Post style guide. Bill Walsh, copy editor for the Post, described it as “the only sensible solution to English’s lack of a gender-neutral third-person singular personal pronoun.”
not a lot is known about King Beornwulf. It’s thought that he was a distant relative of the original Royal dynasty of Mercia, but exactly how he was connected to the family isn’t known. What is known is that this was a pretty rough time to be a Mercian. When King Ceolwulf died and Beornwulf took over, it wasn’t like everything immediately stabilized. Chaos during periods of transition seem to be par for the course in the heptarchy. How many times have we seen a kingdom rise to the top of the pile with phenomenal cosmic power concentrating upon a single man… only to see things go completely crazy when that man dies and the power gets redistributed, either to another noble within the kingdom or to other kingdoms vying for control. Even when mighty King Offa took power, you’ll remember that there was a lot of infighting. So a bit of trouble was to be expected. But it looks like the death of Ceolwulf, who only reigned for 2 years, and the subsequent rise of Beornwulf was worse than most… though that /is/ often a consequence when you enact a coup.
so imagine that: Remove a dictator and you get chaos.
Nah, it could never happen in today's civilized world.
Although what we really need to do is thank God that there have been peaceful revolutions in modern times, including our own EDSA revolution which put in Cory...
there are a lot of good courses on itunesU, but they take forever to download so I prefer to go to Youtube or the university sites to download directly. Alas, some of the lecturers block the program to the public, but I was pleased that this term, Professor TeofiloRuiz didn't block his two history courses as he usually has done in the past.
So for your perusal: Bruincast (check spring quarter) for rss or itunes links.
USCSD has the fall schedule up, including a course on children's literature being podcast. Today's lecture is the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. I haven't listened to it, but usually their lecturers are good. Some however now require sign in, including Matthew Herbst excellent MMWI course, on very ancient history. Luckily his 2011 course is still there to download, and some of his other MMW history courses if you scroll down.
I also am downloading a courses on iTunes and youtube, but haven't listened to them yet. These take longer to download, and then I have to rip the videos to mp3 to listen to them.
A short pamphlet from WWI, first describing basic nutrition,
then discussing what foods may be substituted during food shortages
without loss of nutrition.
People nowadays are probably not aware of the severe food shortages in Europe during and after both world wars: partly due to the naval blockades (as in the UK) and partly due to fighting, and then the post war Chaos.
The collapse of the Hapsburg dynasty after WWI led to economic chaos and hunger, for example: My aunt reports eating tree bark in Austria. During WWII, some of the nuns I worked with in Africa confessed to me that they ate dogs...
Today's Korean History podcast is part one of the Japanese invasion of Korea...in the First Great Asian War.
When you hear propaganda about the evil west or evil "religion", just point them to this podcast, showing how "civilized" Asians fight.
The fight was between the Japanese samurai and they didn't really want Korea, they just wanted to invade China and Korea stood in their way.
And this is the war where Admiral Yi and his turtle ships essentially stopped the invasion by destroying their ability to get supplies (they had destroyed the local crops to punish the locals and guess what? nothing to eat) ...Yi's life was made into a popular local Korean serial on TV...you can watch it on youtube...
Don't think it's in the same box as the "left behind" series. Catholic fiction includes the historical romance of post Viking days by Kristin Lavransdattir, the black humor of Flannery O'Connor, the sardonic musing of Walker Percy, the gay friendly book of Brideshead Revisited, , the R rated romances of Andrew Greeleyand the spy novels of the leftist sympathizer Graham Greene.
Tolkien, like the Anglo Saxons (including Alfred the Great and the author of the Beowulf) was able to mix the good parts of the northern legends with the hope of Christianity.
So when you see "holy cards" with the ever effeminate St Michael the Archangel, remember that in LOTR, Gandalf is an angel incarnate, and able to pack quite a punch with his staff....(and Andrew Greeley has the angels rescuing one of his heroines dressed like Navy SEALS).
