tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-159215102024-03-07T18:00:21.850-05:00Cumberland IslandChristianity applied to all of life.Adrian C. Keisterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12601165797762278028noreply@blogger.comBlogger157125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921510.post-43513376373838232552021-01-12T13:23:00.001-05:002021-01-12T13:35:15.873-05:00Marxism and the One Ring of Power<p>J. R. R. Tolkien hated allegories, so I freely admit that what I'm about to do violates one of those sacred trusts: respecting the authorial intent. But the parallel I'm seeing here is just too good to pass up: Marxism is like the One Ring. Why do I say that? </p><p>Well, here are the characteristics of the One Ring: very powerful, seductive, and evil. But the most interesting characteristic I'd like to point out is the reason why neither Elrond, Gandalf, nor Galadriel would take the ring: they knew that they could overthrow Sauron with his own ring, but then they would themselves become evil and tyrannical. To use rather leading language: the One Ring had the ability to replace one kind of oppression with another. </p><p>And that's just what Marxism does. Marxism starts with the incredibly naive (i.e., flat-out wrong!) assumption that all history is based on class oppression, and then procedes blithely to replace one oppression with another. Marxism, of course, insulates itself against all truth or logic, so that the glaring inconsistencies, including the one I've just mentioned, don't bother any poor brainwashed soul inside the system. Indeed, truth, logic, and even language itself are conveniently labeled as weapons of oppression, despite being quite the opposite! Marxism has an inveterate hatred of Christianity so that Christians are 100% certain to be oppressed by Marxists. One is highly tempted to wonder at what point in that oppression (such as happened in the USSR and is happening right now in China) the Christians could claim to be in the oppressed group, but I digress.</p><p>I was wondering if we might take another page from Tolkien's book, again greatly against his wishes, and ask the question: is there a Frodo who can take this One Ring to Mount Doom? Here's a wonderfully appropriate Gandalf quote during the Council of Elrond, concerning the idea of casting the Ring into the fires of Mount Doom, from <i>The Fellowship of the Ring: </i></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">'Despair, or folly?' said Gandalf. 'It is not despair, for despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt. We do not. It is wisdom to recognize necessity, when all other courses have been weighed, though as folly it may appear to those who cling to false hope. Well, let folly be our cloak, a veil before the eyes of the Enemy! For he is very wise, and weighs all things to a nicety in the scales of his malice. But the only measure that he knows is desire, desire for power; and so he judges all hearts. Into his heart the thought will not enter that any will refuse it, that having the Ring we may seek to destroy it. If we seek this, we shall put him out of reckoning.'</p></blockquote><p>So it is with Christianity, except that we DO know the end beyond all doubt: we look at the repulsive Marxist ideology, and reject it. Its fundamental assumptions, epistemology, all the way up to its applications are false and ugly. Just like Sauron, Marxism obsesses about power. We must be like Gandalf, here, and, if we ever do get power, we must use that power to get rid of oppressive power wherever we find it!</p>Adrian C. Keisterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12601165797762278028noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921510.post-33117278989570166222021-01-11T12:39:00.000-05:002021-01-11T12:39:22.785-05:00On DuoLingo and the Usual Tired, Leftist Narrative<p>Don't know if you've ever used DuoLingo, but I have quite a bit, and I find it nice for learning languages. The thing is, like so many large companies lately, it's gone quite left, politically. Here's how it plays out at DuoLingo:</p><p>Certain language courses, like Latin-from-English and German-from-English (and probably quite a few more, though I have not noticed it in Hebrew-from-English) introduce obnoxious sentences like these:</p><p></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">Livia uxorem habet. (Livia has a wife; note that Livia is a female name.)</p></blockquote><p></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p></p><p style="text-align: left;">Julia hat eine Frau. (Julia has a wife.)</p><p></p></blockquote><p>In the Latin-from-English course, this would be a comical anachronistic error if it wasn't so deadly serious. Of course, it's extremely preachy, self-important, not to mention outright sinful.</p><p>The problem is, the presence of these sentences makes DuoLingo inappropriate for children. I can grit my teeth and bear it, because I want to learn and DuoLingo is a great platform in many ways. There is NO WAY I would let my children learn a language from DuoLingo if it has sentences like that. </p><p>So, just a heads-up: be discerning in your use of DuoLingo.</p>Adrian C. Keisterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12601165797762278028noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921510.post-4489870040444668592021-01-06T10:59:00.000-05:002021-01-06T10:59:18.347-05:00The Beginning of the Accelerated End of the United States of America<p>It is Jan. 6 as I write this; yesterday, two Democrats got elected as the Senators from Georgia. Today, the Electoral College votes will be opened. It sounds like there will be objections, both from the House and the Senate, but I have little doubt that Kamala Harris <i>[sic]</i> will be sworn in as President (I don't consider Biden to be of much weight, nor likely to live long). That the United States of America, the land of the free, could even consider a Communist like Harris for president is astounding. It really means that the United States of America no longer exists. Welcome to the communist Union of American Socialist Republics (UASR). The door is wide open for the persecution of Christians (and people of other faiths, but primarily Christians) in the UASR on a scale not seen since... last week in China. </p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But the moral and ethical decline of the United States began a very long time ago. It was <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Alexis de Tocqueville who wrote that America was great because America was good. Well, America isn't good any more: </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Abortion was the number one killer in 2020. </span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Pornography is rampant, and somehow considered to be "free speech", despite its exploitation of women and children, but also of men.</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Sexual ethics from the Bible are largely ignored by most people. Having a child outside of wedlock is considered normal.</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Laziness is enshrined and even encouraged in the government welfare system, in direct opposition to what the Bible says in 2 Thess. 3:10b. </span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Crimes such as rioting and looting go unpunished.</span></span></li></ol><div><span style="color: #222222;">So these incredibly evil "leaders" that we've "elected" are precisely what the UASR deserves. </span></div><div><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #222222;">How did we get to such an evil pass? No doubt there are many reasons, but I would put the blame largely at the feet of the church (including myself), and I mean the true church that preaches the gospel of free salvation crafted by the only true and Triune God who has revealed himself in the 66 books of the Bible as well as in the incarnation of the second person of the Trinity, God the Son, in hypostatic union with a completely human nature in the person of Jesus Christ. That true church has failed to do many things:</span></div><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Preach the gospel. </li><li>Evangelize the lost.</li><li>Help the poor and the oppressed (about to become a much larger group of people).</li><li>Disciple the nations. </li></ol><div>But I would also put the blame somewhat on the shoulders of the Founding Fathers. Bless them, they did well, but they failed to recognize mechanisms of the power grab, such as Saul Alinsky outlines in his book <i>Rules for Radicals</i>, which I would put at the second-most-evil book ever written, just behind <i>The Communist Manifesto</i>. The Founders recognized that a disarmed people is a vulnerable people, and hence you get the Second Amendment. The Second Amendment, unfortunately, wasn't worded as strongly as it should have been, with that somewhat confusing tie to the militia. It should have been worded like this:</div></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.</span></span></div></div></blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><div><br /></div><div>But there are two other major sources of power that the Founders didn't account for fully: education and money. </div><div><br /></div><div>It was in the mid-1800s that the Unitarians took over Harvard from the Calvinists, the single most important event in the entire history of American education. That led to public "education", the most powerful weapon of brainwashing ever seen. Military oppression pales in comparison to it. So the Founders should have had strong language to prevent public "education" from ever arising. Governments always do things worse than private citizens (unless it's national defense, making laws, or enforcing laws, and possibly roads), so education should be privatized to be the best it can be.</div><div><br /></div><div>Money, and I include goods and services of any kind along with that, has been shown in all ages to be a powerful corrupting force when used as a bribe. Let me be clear: the Bible establishes quite clearly the right to private property. It simply assumes that. Moreover, there is nothing inherently evil about being rich, or wealth in general. However, the Bible has a LOT to say about bribery. And what is lobbying these days, mostly, except bribery? If lobbying were simply reasoned debate back-and-forth, who could object to that? But when a lobbyist says to a senator, "Hey, I'll take your family out to Disney World.", the line has been crossed into bribery, which is utterly evil. So the Founders should have had strong language about how money, goods, and services get from public officials to private people, and vice versa. Because there is inverse bribery as well, and we've seen that on a large scale: the buying of votes. In the 2020 election there was a lot more voter fraud than that, contrary to the completely untrustworthy Far Left Formerly Mainstream Media (FLFMM). And there should be strong laws about voter fraud.</div><div><br /></div><div>But really, if you have a generally righteous, self-governing people, with all the safeguards in place I have mentioned in order to protect the people from the encroachments of government, then public officials will have very little power, anyway. Those offices will be much less attractive to the power-hungry, and the issue of bribery will likely be a lot less.</div><div><br /></div><div>So now what are we to do? I just read <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2056&version=ESV" target="_blank">Psalm 56</a> this morning for devotions, and I would commend it to you. We must trust in God. God's people have been in worse situations than this, and God has never let his people down or failed on a single promise. He will not leave us or forsake us. Strengthen yourself in God, as David did when he came back to Ziklag and found all his family gone. </div><div><br /></div><div>Pray that you will not forsake your God when persecution comes your way, and it is coming. Remember that evil people can kill your body, but not your soul. And you will eventually get a resurrected body! </div><div><br /></div><div>God is greater than all your enemies; so pray for them. If they do not repent of their evil actions, they will go to a place so horrible you wouldn't wish it on your worst enemy: hell itself. Communists need the gospel, the same as do we all. Love your enemies, as Jesus said. Hate the evil ideas, absolutely. Tear down every idea or argument that sets itself up against God, as Paul says in 2 Cor. But don't hate the people who hold to bad ideas, even when they persecute you, hate you, say all kinds of bad things about you, etc.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div>Adrian C. Keisterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12601165797762278028noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921510.post-66303081740330271032020-12-15T08:41:00.004-05:002020-12-15T08:41:44.545-05:00Pride vs. Humility<p><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Spiritual pride is the number one sin - the worst one - the great granddaddy sin of them all. It's the root cause of all your other sins. And it's the sin aimed at in the very first of the Ten Commandments: you shall have no other gods before me. And that gives us a hint as to a very closely related sin: idolatry. As John Calvin said, "Our hearts are idol factories." We can make an idol out of anything: drink, sex, ambition ... SELF.</span></p><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit !important;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Humility is the virtue opposed to pride. But what exactly is humility? Andrew Murray in his work on humility defined it as a "right view of God and a right view of self." When you see God as he has revealed himself in the Bible, and you see yourself as the rotten, stinking sinner we all are, you are getting humility.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit !important;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit !important;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">There are not many books on humility; <a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Humility-Updated-Annotated-Holiness-Classics-ebook/dp/B01E9KVPUA/ref=sr_1_6?dchild=1&keywords=andrew+murray+humility&qid=1608039508&sr=8-6" target="_blank">Murray</a> is one. One of my previous pastors, Chris Hutchinson, <a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Rediscovering-Humility-Why-Way-Down/dp/1945270969/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=chris+hutchinson+humility&qid=1608039598&sr=8-1" target="_blank">wrote one</a>. He found it hard to do. C. S. Lewis wrote about it some in <a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Screwtape-Letters-C-S-Lewis/dp/0060652934/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=screwtape+letters&qid=1608039655&sr=8-1" target="_blank">Screwtape Letters</a>.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit !important;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit !important;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">As for pride, it's easier to find stuff on that. Here's a great, gigantic list of ways to be spiritually prideful. I certainly found myself a lot there. One I would add: if someone is trying to teach you something, but is not doing it EXACTLY the way you think it ought to be done, maybe that's a sign of pride. Does that person know the subject better than you? Then perhaps that person might have a clue as to how to teach it!</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit !important;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit !important;" /><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.901960784313726); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, Segoe UI, Roboto, Helvetica Neue, Fira Sans, Ubuntu, Oxygen, Oxygen Sans, Cantarell, Droid Sans, Apple Color Emoji, Segoe UI Emoji, Segoe UI Symbol, Lucida Grande, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><a href="https://saddlebackleather.com/signs-of-pride" target="_blank">https://saddlebackleather.com/signs-of-pride</a></span></span><br />Adrian C. Keisterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12601165797762278028noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921510.post-12528304555014786462020-11-25T18:47:00.000-05:002020-11-25T18:47:03.246-05:00The Burden of Bad Ideas<p>I've been burdened by a boatload of bad ideas all my life: sinful ideas, unwise ideas, or just plain idiotic ideas. The burden is both from ideas I've held and ideas others have held. As Richard Weaver (should have - I haven't managed to make my way all the way through his book) taught me, <a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Ideas-Have-Consequences-Richard-Weaver/dp/022609006X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2K3S1WGBIMPHF&dchild=1&keywords=idea+have+consequences&qid=1606343785&sprefix=ideas+have%2Caps%2C167&sr=8-1" target="_blank">ideas have consequences</a>. What are some of these bad ideas, and why are they so bad?</p><p>1. <i>Man is basically good</i>. This is one of the worst and most egregious lies ever created, and it goes all the way back to Satan in the garden. In fact, it's one of the father lies - lies that generate a lot of other lies.</p><p>2. <i>There are no absolutes</i>. This is perhaps best illustrated by one of the dumbest movie lines ever, in <i>Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith</i>, when Obi-wan Kenobi is about to fight Anakin, and he says, "Only a Sith deals in absolutes." Really? Is that true of all Sith? And make no mistake, Obi-wan is making a statement about all people: everyone who is not a Sith does not deal in absolutes. Is that true for all people? Then you've got yourself a truth that is true for everybody - and hence an absolute. The badness of this idea lies in obliterating the basis for knowing anything. It's logically incoherent, and no one can consistently hold to this.</p><p>3. <i>Marxism, communism, socialism, postmodernism, identity politics, intersectionality, and critical (race) theory are good ways to think about history, and good ways to combat injustice. </i>Actually, <a href="http://cumberlandisland.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-spectre-haunting-world.html" target="_blank">these ideas all tend to intolerable totalitarianism</a>. Together, these ideas are responsible for over 100 million murders. Think of that: don't you think there's something wrong with ideas that are that murderous?</p><p></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">3.a. <i>Antiracism can only exist within the framework of identity politics, critical theory, and intersectionality.</i> This is one we're seeing a lot recently. And I flatly deny this one as much as any of the others in this list. First of all, you must define racism carefully. I define racism as the sin of partiality applied to people based on their people group (as the concept of race itself certainly <a href="https://smile.amazon.com/One-Race-Blood-Revised-Updated/dp/1683442032/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1TZ61OUDXE9DO&dchild=1&keywords=one+blood+one+race+by+ken+ham&qid=1606347348&sprefix=one+blood+one+r%2Caps%2C196&sr=8-1" target="_blank">has no scientific basis</a>). There can be such a thing as "systemic racism", where the system itself treats people differently based on their people group, but I would argue that the systemically racist aspects of the US system today have more to do with Affirmative Action and welfare and Planned Parenthood than anything else. I would certainly deny that capitalism is inherently racist, but I would argue that all forms of Marxism, based as they are on the erroneous doctrine of evolution, are inherently racist. Affirmative Action and welfare and Planned Parenthood are most definitely racist. Nothing has held down people with more melanin in their skin more than government welfare (more on that in 4.b. below) and Planned Parenthood.</p></blockquote><p></p><p>4. <i>Solving societal problems is largely the job of the government</i>. Um, no. The government's job is to solve a <i>few very specific problems:</i> national defense, making and enforcing and interpreting just laws. And I'm willing to pay taxes to support roads. Otherwise, the government's job is to get out of my way so that I can largely try to solve my own problems, my family can solve its problems, and so that the church can help as well. At the root, the government should be absolutely the last resort to solving any problem, mainly because the government (especially the US government) was actually <i>designed</i> to be <i>terrible</i> at solving problems! The Founding Fathers of the US knew what they were doing, both in setting up so many checks and balances to prevent a lot of power from getting concentrated in one place, and in locating the US capital in a swamp so that people wouldn't want to be there very long. The best guarantee of freedom is a limited government from which the people can protect themselves if necessary.</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p>4.a. <i>The government should be in the business of educating people, because we need educated people for a good society. </i>This is related to 4, which is why I've labeled it 4.a. What we have seen is that government education, particularly the near-monopoly that public education in the US is, is one of the greatest instruments for perpetuating totalitarian ideas ever conceived by man. The public schools and the public universities now do more harm than good by spewing out their Marxist garbage. Students are not taught how to think, they are taught what to think: that Marx was actually a good person, and that his ideas are the best way to solve the world's problems (inevitably defined as inequities or disparities among people groups). </p><p>4.b. <i>The government should be in the business of helping people out of poverty. </i>If you read the book <i><a href="https://smile.amazon.com/When-Helping-Hurts-Alleviate-Yourself/dp/0802409989/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=when+helping+hurts&qid=1606345822&sr=8-1" target="_blank">When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor ... And Yourself</a>, </i>by Corbett and Fikkert, which I have read, you realize just how complex the problem of poverty is, and how utterly inadequate the "solution" of throwing money at it is. The government is totally unable to solve this problem. In the US, the first amendment (with which I certainly fully agree) alone makes the kind of solution the authors speak of absolutely impossible for the government to do. This means that all the liberal policies starting with LBJ onwards are not only completely ineffective, they hurt the people who advocate those policies, and they hurt the people the policies are supposed to help! Now I would also add that the typical conservative approach of simply getting out of the way will work for some people, but not all. So I'm not saying the conservative approach is complete, but it will work for some people. The liberal policies work for no one. What we need here is for the church to step in and do what it should have been doing all along: helping poor people by coming alongside them, as Corbett and Fikkert have shown us.</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">4.c. <i>The government should be in the business of solving COVID. </i>This is the job of the medical community, and of people in general acting wisely. Do the people advocating these draconian lockdowns and mask mandates actually think people <i>want</i> to get the virus and perhaps die from it? If so, I would simply claim that such people are radically mistaken, and out of touch with reality. People always act in their own perceived best interests: that's the Law of <a href="https://mises.org/library/human-action-0" target="_blank">Human Action</a>. </p></blockquote><p> 5. <i>Logic and careful definitions and good statistics are outdated ideas.</i> This idea goes back a ways - all the way to "... William of Occam who propounded the fateful doctrine of nominalism, which denies that universals have a real existence. His triumph tended to leave universal terms mere names serving our convenience." - <i>Ideas Have Consequences</i>, p. 3. We absolutely must get back to good logic, careful definitions, consistency, and well-done statistics (I would argue with the new causal revolution folded in). </p><p>6. <i>Disparities imply discrimination.</i> <a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Discrimination-Disparities-Thomas-Sowell/dp/1541645634/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1SXCP7T9INYTJ&dchild=1&keywords=discrimination+and+disparities+sowell+2019&qid=1606346911&sprefix=discrimina%2Caps%2C167&sr=8-2" target="_blank">Thomas Sowell</a> has taught us that this variant of <i>post hoc, ergo propter hoc</i> is no more valid than its parent fallacy. Just because Asians do better academically than Americans with pale skin doesn't mean that the Americans are discriminated against. There are all kinds of causal questions bound up with why disparities exist, and not all of them are bad. The liberals (and particularly the critical theories and intersectionality folks) would have you believe that if people with more melanin in their skin don't do as well in college as people with less melanin in their skin, that therefore there must be discrimination against those with more melanin. Sowell has effectively destroyed that argument in the book to which I linked; I would highly recommend that book, which I have read. </p><p>7. <i>Christianity has been tried and found wanting.</i> This one is, of course, older than the hills (literally). Chesterton's refutation cannot be bettered: "Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried." And this is really the most important of all the bad ideas I've listed. For it is in the Bible that we find the refutation of these bad ideas; perhaps not specifically, but we get wise principles that guide us. We need God the Holy Spirit to show us what the Bible means, for sure. </p>Adrian C. Keisterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12601165797762278028noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921510.post-15337614516253841872020-03-10T13:00:00.000-05:002020-03-10T13:00:22.387-05:00The Spectre Haunting the WorldIn 1848, Karl Marx and Frederick Engels published <i>The Communist Manifesto</i>, quite possibly the most evil (and just plain wrong) books ever written in the entire history of mankind. It is not my intention to argue that right now, although the reasons are many.<br />
<br />
I want to point out the current situation. The first line of <i>The Communist Manifesto </i>is as follows:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
A spectre is haunting Europe—the spectre of Communism. </blockquote>
<br />
Marx wrote that line, sort of from the point of view of the opponents of Communism, and it was his intention to explain what Communism is so that the critics would become proponents. However, I interpret the line very differently, and not at all how Marx intended (I would ask forgiveness for yanking something out of context, but Marx deserves to be paid zero attention, anyway.) I interpret that line as someone unalterably opposed to the evils of Marxism, Communism, socialism, and its ugly off-shoots of post-modernism, critical theory, and intersectionality. This spectre is now haunting the entire world!<br />
<br />
Consider that the communists now control the media, the state universities, the public schools, and much of the political machinery of many countries in the world - certainly the United States. As a result, the media is not to be trusted an inch on... anything. The public schools and state universities are brain-washing their students instead of teaching them to think, and politics, at least in the U.S., has run amok to the point of seriously considering electing a Communist like Bernie Sanders for the President of the United States.<br />
<br />
It would be easy to simply cave in and give up. How can people work against those odds? The Communists in the U.S. are working very hard to curtail both First and Second Amendment rights (this working of theirs is fully in accordance with their bizarre epistemology - see the article <a href="https://americanmind.org/essays/welcome-to-culture-war-2-0/" target="_blank">"Welcome to Culture War 2.0"</a> by atheist Peter Boghossian for an extremely helpful discussion of this.) so that the American people will not be able to fight back against them, once they gain power.<br />
<br />
But here's the thing, and this is my main point: when the situation looks this black, we must look to 2 Kings 6:16. The context there is that the king of Syria wants to "order" the prophet Elisha to appear before him, as before a tribunal, because Elisha has been repeating everything the king of Syria says to the king of Israel, with the result that Syria has not been able to oppress Israel and defeat Israel the way they want. So the king of Syria sends a huge army to get Elisha. Then the passage reads thus:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span class="text 2Kgs-6-15" id="en-ESV-9690" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 16px;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">15 </span>When the servant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was all around the city. And the servant said, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?”</span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"> </span><span class="text 2Kgs-6-16" id="en-ESV-9691" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 16px;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">16 </span>He said, “Do not be afraid, <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-9691D" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-9691D" title="See cross-reference D">D</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”</span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"> </span><span class="text 2Kgs-6-17" id="en-ESV-9692" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 16px;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">17 </span>Then Elisha prayed and said, “O <span class="small-caps" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Lord</span>, please <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-9692E" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-9692E" title="See cross-reference E">E</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>open his eyes that he may see.” So the <span class="small-caps" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Lord</span> opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-9692F" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-9692F" title="See cross-reference F">F</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"> </span></span></blockquote>
This is what we must never forget. We're not allowed to despair, because God is in control, and he wins (this is what the book of Revelation is all about). In the end, the current control of the media, the universities, and much of the political system by the Communists will be irrelevant in the face of Almighty God judging the nations. I've often heard the phrase, "You want to be on the right side of history." - usually from the extreme leftists. This represents a fundamental misunderstanding as to what that "right side of history" is going to be. Revelation makes it all clear!Adrian C. Keisterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12601165797762278028noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921510.post-84418990435192064282016-01-18T14:00:00.002-05:002016-01-18T14:06:03.608-05:00Aorist Passive Participle in the Great Commission<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In Matthew 28:19, the original Greek reads</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<a class="text" href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=poreuqe%2Fntes&la=greek&can=poreuqe%2Fntes0&prior=]" style="color: black; font-family: 'New Athena Unicode', Gentium, 'Palatino Linotype', 'Lucida Grande', Galilee, 'Arial Unicode MS', sans-serif; text-decoration: none;" target="morph">πορευθέντες</a><span style="font-family: "new athena unicode" , "gentium" , "palatino linotype" , "lucida grande" , "galilee" , "arial unicode ms" , sans-serif;"> </span><a class="text" href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=ou%29%3Dn&la=greek&can=ou%29%3Dn0&prior=poreuqe/ntes" style="color: black; font-family: 'New Athena Unicode', Gentium, 'Palatino Linotype', 'Lucida Grande', Galilee, 'Arial Unicode MS', sans-serif; text-decoration: none;" target="morph">οὖν</a><span style="font-family: "new athena unicode" , "gentium" , "palatino linotype" , "lucida grande" , "galilee" , "arial unicode ms" , sans-serif;"> </span><a class="text" href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=maqhteu%2Fsate&la=greek&can=maqhteu%2Fsate0&prior=ou)=n" style="color: black; font-family: 'New Athena Unicode', Gentium, 'Palatino Linotype', 'Lucida Grande', Galilee, 'Arial Unicode MS', sans-serif; text-decoration: none;" target="morph">μαθητεύσατε</a><span style="font-family: "new athena unicode" , "gentium" , "palatino linotype" , "lucida grande" , "galilee" , "arial unicode ms" , sans-serif;"> </span><a class="text" href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=pa%2Fnta&la=greek&can=pa%2Fnta0&prior=maqhteu/sate" style="color: black; font-family: 'New Athena Unicode', Gentium, 'Palatino Linotype', 'Lucida Grande', Galilee, 'Arial Unicode MS', sans-serif; text-decoration: none;" target="morph">πάντα</a><span style="font-family: "new athena unicode" , "gentium" , "palatino linotype" , "lucida grande" , "galilee" , "arial unicode ms" , sans-serif;"> </span><a class="text" href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=ta%5C&la=greek&can=ta%5C0&prior=pa/nta" style="color: black; font-family: 'New Athena Unicode', Gentium, 'Palatino Linotype', 'Lucida Grande', Galilee, 'Arial Unicode MS', sans-serif; text-decoration: none;" target="morph">τὰ</a><span style="font-family: "new athena unicode" , "gentium" , "palatino linotype" , "lucida grande" , "galilee" , "arial unicode ms" , sans-serif;"> </span><a class="text" href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=e%29%2Fqnh&la=greek&can=e%29%2Fqnh0&prior=ta\" style="color: black; font-family: 'New Athena Unicode', Gentium, 'Palatino Linotype', 'Lucida Grande', Galilee, 'Arial Unicode MS', sans-serif; text-decoration: none;" target="morph">ἔθνη</a><span style="font-family: "new athena unicode" , "gentium" , "palatino linotype" , "lucida grande" , "galilee" , "arial unicode ms" , sans-serif;">, </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><a class="text" href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=bapti%2Fzontes&la=greek&can=bapti%2Fzontes0&prior=e)/qnh" style="color: black; font-family: 'New Athena Unicode', Gentium, 'Palatino Linotype', 'Lucida Grande', Galilee, 'Arial Unicode MS', sans-serif; text-decoration: none;" target="morph">βαπτίζοντες</a><span style="font-family: "new athena unicode" , "gentium" , "palatino linotype" , "lucida grande" , "galilee" , "arial unicode ms" , sans-serif;"> </span><a class="text" href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=au%29tou%5Cs&la=greek&can=au%29tou%5Cs0&prior=bapti/zontes" style="color: black; font-family: 'New Athena Unicode', Gentium, 'Palatino Linotype', 'Lucida Grande', Galilee, 'Arial Unicode MS', sans-serif; text-decoration: none;" target="morph">αὐτοὺς</a><span style="font-family: "new athena unicode" , "gentium" , "palatino linotype" , "lucida grande" , "galilee" , "arial unicode ms" , sans-serif;"> </span><a class="text" href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=ei%29s&la=greek&can=ei%29s0&prior=au)tou\s" style="color: black; font-family: 'New Athena Unicode', Gentium, 'Palatino Linotype', 'Lucida Grande', Galilee, 'Arial Unicode MS', sans-serif; text-decoration: none;" target="morph">εἰς</a><span style="font-family: "new athena unicode" , "gentium" , "palatino linotype" , "lucida grande" , "galilee" , "arial unicode ms" , sans-serif;"> </span><a class="text" href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=to%5C&la=greek&can=to%5C0&prior=ei)s" style="color: black; font-family: 'New Athena Unicode', Gentium, 'Palatino Linotype', 'Lucida Grande', Galilee, 'Arial Unicode MS', sans-serif; text-decoration: none;" target="morph">τὸ</a><span style="font-family: "new athena unicode" , "gentium" , "palatino linotype" , "lucida grande" , "galilee" , "arial unicode ms" , sans-serif;"></span><a class="text" href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=o%29%2Fnoma&la=greek&can=o%29%2Fnoma0&prior=to\" style="color: black; font-family: 'New Athena Unicode', Gentium, 'Palatino Linotype', 'Lucida Grande', Galilee, 'Arial Unicode MS', sans-serif; text-decoration: none;" target="morph">ὄνομα</a><span style="font-family: "new athena unicode" , "gentium" , "palatino linotype" , "lucida grande" , "galilee" , "arial unicode ms" , sans-serif;"> </span><a class="text" href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=tou%3D&la=greek&can=tou%3D0&prior=o)/noma" style="color: black; font-family: 'New Athena Unicode', Gentium, 'Palatino Linotype', 'Lucida Grande', Galilee, 'Arial Unicode MS', sans-serif; text-decoration: none;" target="morph">τοῦ</a><span style="font-family: "new athena unicode" , "gentium" , "palatino linotype" , "lucida grande" , "galilee" , "arial unicode ms" , sans-serif;"> </span><a class="text" href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=patro%5Cs&la=greek&can=patro%5Cs0&prior=tou=" style="color: black; font-family: 'New Athena Unicode', Gentium, 'Palatino Linotype', 'Lucida Grande', Galilee, 'Arial Unicode MS', sans-serif; text-decoration: none;" target="morph">πατρὸς</a><span style="font-family: "new athena unicode" , "gentium" , "palatino linotype" , "lucida grande" , "galilee" , "arial unicode ms" , sans-serif;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><a class="text" href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=kai%5C&la=greek&can=kai%5C0&prior=patro\s" style="color: black; font-family: 'New Athena Unicode', Gentium, 'Palatino Linotype', 'Lucida Grande', Galilee, 'Arial Unicode MS', sans-serif; text-decoration: none;" target="morph">καὶ</a><span style="font-family: "new athena unicode" , "gentium" , "palatino linotype" , "lucida grande" , "galilee" , "arial unicode ms" , sans-serif;"> </span><a class="text" href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=tou%3D&la=greek&can=tou%3D1&prior=kai\" style="color: black; font-family: 'New Athena Unicode', Gentium, 'Palatino Linotype', 'Lucida Grande', Galilee, 'Arial Unicode MS', sans-serif; text-decoration: none;" target="morph">τοῦ</a><span style="font-family: "new athena unicode" , "gentium" , "palatino linotype" , "lucida grande" , "galilee" , "arial unicode ms" , sans-serif;"> </span><a class="text" href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=ui%28ou%3D&la=greek&can=ui%28ou%3D0&prior=tou=" style="color: black; font-family: 'New Athena Unicode', Gentium, 'Palatino Linotype', 'Lucida Grande', Galilee, 'Arial Unicode MS', sans-serif; text-decoration: none;" target="morph">υἱοῦ</a><span style="font-family: "new athena unicode" , "gentium" , "palatino linotype" , "lucida grande" , "galilee" , "arial unicode ms" , sans-serif;"> </span><a class="text" href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=kai%5C&la=greek&can=kai%5C1&prior=ui(ou=" style="color: black; font-family: 'New Athena Unicode', Gentium, 'Palatino Linotype', 'Lucida Grande', Galilee, 'Arial Unicode MS', sans-serif; text-decoration: none;" target="morph">καὶ</a><span style="font-family: "new athena unicode" , "gentium" , "palatino linotype" , "lucida grande" , "galilee" , "arial unicode ms" , sans-serif;"> </span><a class="text" href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=tou%3D&la=greek&can=tou%3D2&prior=kai\" style="color: black; font-family: 'New Athena Unicode', Gentium, 'Palatino Linotype', 'Lucida Grande', Galilee, 'Arial Unicode MS', sans-serif; text-decoration: none;" target="morph">τοῦ</a><span style="font-family: "new athena unicode" , "gentium" , "palatino linotype" , "lucida grande" , "galilee" , "arial unicode ms" , sans-serif;"> </span><a class="text" href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=a%28gi%2Fou&la=greek&can=a%28gi%2Fou0&prior=tou=" style="color: black; font-family: 'New Athena Unicode', Gentium, 'Palatino Linotype', 'Lucida Grande', Galilee, 'Arial Unicode MS', sans-serif; text-decoration: none;" target="morph">ἁγίου</a><span style="font-family: "new athena unicode" , "gentium" , "palatino linotype" , "lucida grande" , "galilee" , "arial unicode ms" , sans-serif;"> </span><a class="text" href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=pneu%2Fmatos&la=greek&can=pneu%2Fmatos0&prior=a(gi/ou" style="color: black; font-family: 'New Athena Unicode', Gentium, 'Palatino Linotype', 'Lucida Grande', Galilee, 'Arial Unicode MS', sans-serif; text-decoration: none;" target="morph">πνεύματος</a><span style="font-family: "new athena unicode" , "gentium" , "palatino linotype" , "lucida grande" , "galilee" , "arial unicode ms" , sans-serif;">,...</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "new athena unicode" , "gentium" , "palatino linotype" , "lucida grande" , "galilee" , "arial unicode ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "new athena unicode" , "gentium" , "palatino linotype" , "lucida grande" , "galilee" , "arial unicode ms" , sans-serif;">Now that first word, </span><a class="text" href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=poreuqe%2Fntes&la=greek&can=poreuqe%2Fntes0&prior=]" style="color: black; font-family: 'New Athena Unicode', Gentium, 'Palatino Linotype', 'Lucida Grande', Galilee, 'Arial Unicode MS', sans-serif; text-decoration: none;" target="morph">πορευθέντες</a>, is an aorist passive participle. I have not seen a single translation that gets this correct. They all translate this word as "Go" - an imperative. But the aorist passive participle does not have "mood". A better translation would be, "Having been sent".</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The theological implications of this translation are important, I think. The passage most emphatically does NOT mean that you must <i>leave</i> your current location, go somewhere else, and make disciples. The passage says that you are already where God has called you to be. Now make disciples <i>where you are</i>.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Now you should not interpret my comments here as saying that nobody is ever called to move anywhere. Nor should you think that I am saying we do not need missionaries: we do. I am saying that the missionary calling to go elsewhere should not be foisted on people from this passage. This passage will not bear that weight. </span>Adrian C. Keisterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12601165797762278028noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921510.post-23718276388249908232014-02-16T15:32:00.001-05:002014-02-16T15:32:22.374-05:00Sabbath Musings<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">I've been puzzling a great deal about the Sabbath. I've found it extraordinarily difficult to sort out what this commandment is all about, what it means and what it doesn't mean. So I thought I'd blog about it, so as to order my thoughts about it better, as well as perhaps get some feedback. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Where to start? Well, the Bible is always the Christian's epistemology: the Holy Spirit persuades us the Bible is true. So here are some relevant passages (all in ESV):</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Exodus 20:8-11 </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="text Exod-20-8" id="en-ESV-2060"><sup class="versenum">8 </sup>"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.</span> <span class="text Exod-20-9" id="en-ESV-2061"><sup class="versenum">9 </sup>Six days you shall labor, and do all your work,</span> <span class="text Exod-20-10" id="en-ESV-2062"><sup class="versenum">10 </sup>but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the <span class="small-caps" style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span>
your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your
daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock,
or the sojourner who is within your gates.</span> <span class="text Exod-20-11" id="en-ESV-2063"><sup class="versenum">11 </sup>For in six days the <span class="small-caps" style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the <span class="small-caps" style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy."</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="text Exod-20-11" id="en-ESV-2063">Deuteronomy 5:12-15</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="text Deut-5-12" id="en-ESV-5066"><sup class="versenum">12 </sup>Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the <span class="small-caps" style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> your God commanded you.</span> <span class="text Deut-5-13" id="en-ESV-5067"><sup class="versenum">13 </sup>Six days you shall labor and do all your work,</span> <span class="text Deut-5-14" id="en-ESV-5068"><sup class="versenum">14 </sup>but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the <span class="small-caps" style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span>
your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your
daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your
donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your
gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you.</span> <span class="text Deut-5-15" id="en-ESV-5069"><sup class="versenum">15 </sup>You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the <span class="small-caps" style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the <span class="small-caps" style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="text Deut-5-15" id="en-ESV-5069">Isaiah 58:13-14</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="poetry top-1">
<div class="line">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="text Isa-58-13" id="en-ESV-18800"><sup class="versenum">13 </sup>If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath,</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text Isa-58-13">from doing your pleasure on my holy day,</span></span><br /><span class="text Isa-58-13">and call the Sabbath a delight</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text Isa-58-13">and the holy day of the <span class="small-caps" style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> honorable;</span></span><br /><span class="text Isa-58-13">if you honor it, not going your own ways,</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text Isa-58-13">or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly;</span></span><br /><span class="text Isa-58-14" id="en-ESV-18801"><sup class="versenum">14 </sup>then you shall take delight in the <span class="small-caps" style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span>,</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text Isa-58-14">and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth;</span></span><br /><span class="text Isa-58-14">I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father,</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text Isa-58-14">for the mouth of the <span class="small-caps" style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> has spoken.</span></span></span></span></div>
</div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="text Exod-20-11" id="en-ESV-2063"> Also of interest: Matthew 12, Mark 2 and 3, Luke 6, 13, and 14. There are plenty of places in the Bible where the Sabbath is mentioned - especially in the Pentateuch. </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="text Exod-20-11" id="en-ESV-2063"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="text Exod-20-11" id="en-ESV-2063">So, what can we say from all this data? First, let me define some terms. The "Sabbath" is the one day in seven that God has set aside for rest and public worship. Until the Resurrection of Christ, this was on the last day of the week: Saturday, to reflect the original creation. But, since the Resurrection, the Christian Sabbath has been on Sunday, to reflect the new creation we have in Christ. </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="text Exod-20-11" id="en-ESV-2063"><br /></span></span></span>
<br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="text Exod-20-11" id="en-ESV-2063">I think it is fairly clear that the Sabbath has been around since the Creation. See the Exodus 20 passage, and the reason for the Sabbath commandment. Since it's a creation ordinance, I see no reason why we should stop observing the Sabbath. Jesus did not abolish the law in the NT, He fulfilled it. And when He was "breaking" the Sabbath, if you read those passages in context, I think you would rather say that He was restoring the Sabbath back to what it should have been. The Pharisees had put up all kinds of additional commandments around the Sabbath, ostensibly to prevent themselves from actually breaking the Sabbath. But these burdensome commandments had obscured the true meaning of the Sabbath. </span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="text Exod-20-11" id="en-ESV-2063">We are not to obey this commandment in order to earn salvation. That's impossible. We are to obey this commandment, because loving God and obeying God are the same thing, and God has loved us first. We are to obey it because we are grateful for the tremendous salvation God has given us. This is the third use of the law: to inform the life of the believer. Furthermore, to say that someone who is serious about trying to keep the Sabbath must be a legalist is nonsense. Would you say that a believer who is doing his best not to murder someone or commit adultery is being a "legalist"? Give the Sabbatarians a break, here! Because of this, I think it is definitely worthwhile to think about just what this commandment means. </span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="text Exod-20-11" id="en-ESV-2063">The gist of the Exodus and Deuteronomy commandments seems to be this: cease doing your work that you need to do in order to have food on the table, a roof over your head, and clothes on your body; devote the day to resting and to God. Delighting in God seems a major theme, when you consider the Isaiah passage. This should not be a drudgery, as Laura Ingalls Wilder portrayed it in her Little House series. We should want to worship God on this day. </span></span></span></li>
<li><div class="poetry top-1">
<div class="line">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class=""><span class="text Isa-58-14"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="text Exod-20-11" id="en-ESV-2063">The
Isaiah 58 passage is challenging. To me, the debate hinges on the
meaning of the word translated "pleasure", in verse 13. If you look this
word up in Strong's (it's translated "pleasure" in the KJV as well),
you can find the exact word used. Then, if you look that word up in the
Concise Hebrew-Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (CHALOT), you find
that this word has four meanings: 1. Joy, pleasure. 2. Wish. 3. Costly
jewels. 4. Affair, business. CHALOT quotes Isaiah 58:13 has having the
fourth meaning: affair or business. I think you can see that this
meaning (that of "affair" or "business") has a more restricted meaning
than "pleasure", at least for the purposes of this passage. If we take
this word in the fourth sense, then Isaiah is not adding anything to the
meaning already present in Exodus and Deuteronomy. Here's the passage
in "Keister Standard Version":</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="line">
<br /></div>
<div class="line">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="text Isa-58-13" id="en-ESV-18800"><sup class="versenum">13 </sup>If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath,</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text Isa-58-13">from doing your <b>business</b> on my holy day,</span></span><br /><span class="text Isa-58-13">and call the Sabbath a delight</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text Isa-58-13">and the holy day of the <span class="small-caps" style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> honorable;</span></span><br /><span class="text Isa-58-13">if you honor it, not going your own ways,</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text Isa-58-13">or seeking your own <b>business</b>, or talking idly;</span></span><br /><span class="text Isa-58-14" id="en-ESV-18801"><sup class="versenum">14 </sup>then you shall take delight in the <span class="small-caps" style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span>,</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text Isa-58-14">and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth;</span></span><br /><span class="text Isa-58-14">I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father,</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text Isa-58-14">for the mouth of the <span class="small-caps" style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> has spoken. (Emphasis added.)</span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="line">
<br /></div>
<div class="line">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="indent-1"><span class="text Isa-58-14">Wonderful
promises! If we needed more incentives to keep the Sabbath, here are
some great ones! Probably you can see what I'm getting at here: Isaiah
58:13-14 is the only passage that the strict Sabbatarians (Puritan view,
Westminster Standards view, bless them!) can muster to support their
view that recreations lawful on other days of the week are not lawful on
the Sabbath. Here's an imaginary conversation between a strict
Sabbatarian and a Continentalist:</span></span></span></span><br />
</div>
<div class="line">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="indent-1"><span class="text Isa-58-14"><i>Strict Sabbatarian:</i> Isaiah 58:13-14!!!</span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="line">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="indent-1"><span class="text Isa-58-14"><i>Continentalist:</i> You keep using that verse. I do not think it means what you think it means. </span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="line">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="indent-1"><span class="text Isa-58-14"><br /></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="line">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="indent-1"><span class="text Isa-58-14">So
I do not hold to the strict Sabbatarian view, or the Puritan view, of
the Sabbath. I have respect for it, and I do think that the
Westminster Standards teach the Puritan view. So, this has to
be my one exception (or "quibble", as we say in the OPC!) with the
Westminster Standards. </span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="line" style="margin-left: 40px;">
<br /></div>
</div>
</li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Where does the rubber hit the road? When you decide what you will actually do and not do on the Sabbath. How can you decide what that will be? Well, I propose this grid for determining what is lawful on the Sabbath (and here I have to make exceptions for pastors, doctors, police, etc., who have to work on Sunday. For them, they should simply celebrate the Sabbath on a different day.): whatever is necessary for you to do in order to put food on the table, a roof over your head, and clothes on your body, is, generally, what you should not do on the Sabbath. Exceptions: when your ox is in the ditch, so to speak, you get it out. What does that mean? It means that if something happens that would severely interfere with your ability to put food on the table, etc., then you deal with it when you need to. If that's on the Sabbath, that's ok. You can think of it as a work of necessity. Examples: normal chores that simply have to be done, like dishes. Or if, through no fault of your own, you've found out something at work has to be dealt with asap, then you do that. I think this is predicated on having prepared for the Sabbath. If you find yourself getting oxes out of ditches pretty much every Sabbath, then you should ask yourself whether you've prepared for the Sabbath adequately! Another exception is works of mercy. Jesus healed on the Sabbath, and we should do likewise. I think lawful recreations are perfectly fine on the Sabbath. You need to rest your body on the Sabbath, so that Sunday afternoon nap is a great idea! You should worship on Sunday as well. I particularly like morning and evening worship on Sundays, but a lot of churches <a href="http://www.opc.org/new_horizons/evening_service.html" target="_blank">don't have that any more</a>, alas. </span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">So here's what I would recommend when you are thinking about whether something is lawful to do on the Sabbath or not: ask yourself if it's necessary for you to do in order to put food on the table, or a roof over your head, or clothes on your body. If so, you should not do it unless your ox is in the ditch. If not, then ask yourself if it will be relaxing, or stressful. If it will be stressful, then think twice about doing it! If relaxing, then it's probably fine. However, whatever it is shouldn't get in the way of public worship, which is the single <b>most important thing you do all week</b>. It also shouldn't get in the way of works of mercy and necessity. I doubt this little rubric will cover all possibilities, so I'm open to suggestions. What are your thoughts? </span></span></li>
</ol>
Adrian C. Keisterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12601165797762278028noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921510.post-8497933729292060842014-02-16T13:13:00.000-05:002014-02-16T20:51:01.402-05:00<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 130%;"><span style="font-family: times new roman;">So here it is, my ginormous humanities reading list. I've constructed it painstakingly out of many other lists. I've included most major works of literature, history, philosophy, and economics. I've left out mathematics, most science, and medicine.</span></span><br />
<h3>
Humanities Reading List</h3>
<ul class="fKtGDc">
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input checked="checked" type="checkbox" /> (Sum.) (c. 2000 BC): Epic of Gilgamesh</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> Learn Hebrew: Weingreen's A Practical Grammar for Classical Hebrew</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Heb.) (1400 BC) God: Old Testament</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> Learn Greek: Groton's From Alpha to Omega</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Gr.) Homer (850 BC): Iliad, Odyssey</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Gr.) Hesiod (750 BC - 650 BC): Complete Loeb Edition</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Gr.) Sappho (630 BC - 570 BC): Poetry</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Gr.) Aesop (620 BC - 564 BC): Fables (Babrius Collection)</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Ch.) Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC): Analects</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Ch.) Tzu (544 BC - 496 BC): The Art of War</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Gr.) Aeschylus (525 BC - 455 BC): Oresteia: Agamemnon, Libation-Bearers, The Eumeides, Prometheus Bound</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Gr.) Pindar (522 BC - 443 BC): Complete Loeb Edition</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Heb./Gr.) (500 BC - 0 AD): Apocrypha</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Gr.) Sophocles (497 BC - 406 BC): Ajax, Electra, Oedipus Tyrannus, Antigone, Oedipus at Colonus, Philoctetes</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Gr.) Gorgias (485 BC - 380 BC): Encomium, Defense of Palamedes</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Gr.) Herodotus (484 BC - 425 BC): The Histories</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Gr.)
Euripides (480 BC - 406 BC): Iphigenia at Aulis, Orestes, Iphigenia
amoung the Taurians, Electra, Heracles, Children of Heracles,
Hippolytus, Andromache, Hecuba, The Bacchae, Medea</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Gr.) Thucydides (460 BC - 395 BC): History of the Peloponnesian War</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Gr.) Aristophanes (446 BC - 386 BC): Frogs, Birds, Lysistrata, Clouds, Wasps, Peace</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Gr.) Xenophon (430 BC - 354 BC): Memorabilia, Oeconomicus, Symposium, Apology</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Gr.)
Plato (428 BC - 427 BC): The Republic, Euthyphro, Apology, Crito,
Phaedo, Phaedrus, Laws, Meno, Gorgias, Symposium, Parmenides,
Theaetetus, Sophist, Timaeus, Protagoras</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Gr.)
Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC): Rhetoric, Nicomachean Ethics, Physics,
Metaphysics, Politics, Poetics, Categories, On Interpretation, Prior
Analytics, Posterior Analytics, Topics, Sophistical Refutations, On the
Soul</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Gr.) Demosthenes (384 BC - 322 BC): Orations</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Gr.) Menander (342 BC - 291 BC): Complete Loeb Edition</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Gr.) Aratus (315 BC - 240 BC): Phaenomena</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> Learn Latin: Orberg: Lingua Latina</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (La.) Plautus (254 BC - 184 BC): Complete Loeb Edition</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Gr.) Polybius (200 BC - 118 BC): Histories</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Gr.) (132 BC): Septuagint</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (La.) Cicero (106 BC - 43 BC): Rhetorica ad Herennium, On Friendship and Old Age, Orations, On Invention</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (La.) Caesar (100 BC - 44 BC): Commentaries</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (La.) Lucretius (99BC - 55BC): On the Nature of Things</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (La.) Catullus (84 BC - 54 BC): Poetry</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (La.) Vitruvius (80 BC - 15 BC): On Architecture</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (La.) Virgil (70 BC - 19 BC): Aeneid</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (La.) Horace (65 BC - 8 BC): Odes, Epodes, Satires, The Art of Poetry</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (La.) Livy (59 BC - AD 17): History of Rome</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (La.) Ovid (43 BC - AD 17): Metamorphoses</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (La.) Phaedrus (15 BC - AD 50): Fables Collection</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (La.) Seneca (1 BC - AD 65): Tragedies, Natural Questions, Moral Essays</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (La.) Pliny (AD 23 - AD 79): Naturalis Historia</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (La.) Quintilian (AD 35 - AD 100): Declamations, Orations, Institutio Oratoria</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Gr.) Josephus (AD 37 - AD 100): The Jewish War, Antiquities of the Jews</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Gr.) Plutarch (AD 46 - AD 120): Lives, Moralia</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (La.) Juvenal (c. AD 50 - AD 150): Juvenal and Persius</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Gr.) Epictetus (AD 55 - AD 135): Discourses, The Encheiridion, Manual</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (La.) Tacitus (AD 56 - AD 117): Annals, Histories, Dialogue on Oratory, Agricola, Germania</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Gr.) God: New Testament</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Gr.) Arrian (AD 86 - AD 160): Anabasis of Alexander</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Gr.) (c. 100) Didache</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Gr.) Marcus Aurelius (AD 121 - AD 180): Meditations</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Gr.) Lucian (AD 125 - AD 180): The Way to Write History, The True History, The Sale of Creeds</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Gr.) Clement of Alexandria (AD 150 - AD 215): The Exhortation to the Greeks, The Rich Man's Salvation, To the Newly Baptized</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (La.) Tertullian (AD 160 - AD 220): Apology, De Spectaculis, Minucius Felix: Octavius</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Gr.) Plotinus (AD 204 - AD 270): Enneads</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Gr.) Eusebius (AD 263 - AD 339): Ecclesiastical History</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (La.) Jerome (AD 347 - AD 420): Letters, Vulgate</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (La.) Augustine (AD 354 - AD 430): Confessions, City of God, On the Teacher, Christian Doctrine</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (La.) Capella (AD 410 - AD 429): De nuptiis</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (La.) Boethius (AD 480 - AD 524): The Consolation of Philosophy</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (La.)
Cassiodorus (AD 485 - AD 585): Chronica, Gothic History, De anima, De
Artibus ac Disciplinis Liberalium Litterarum, Institutiones Divinarum et
Saecularium Litterarum</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Ar.) Muhammad (AD 570 - AD 632): Koran</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (OE) Caedmon (c. AD 657): Hymn</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (La.) Bede (AD 672 - AD 735): Ecclesiastical History of the English People</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (La.?) Einhard (AD 775 - AD 840): Vita Karoli Magna</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (OE) (c. AD 800): Beowulf</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (OE) (AD 991): The Battle of Maldon</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> Learn
Icelandic: Einarsson's Icelandic: Grammar, Text and Glossary, Bayldon's
An Elementary Grammar of the Old Norse or Icelandic Language, Gordon's
An Introduction to Old Norse</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (O.Nor.) skaldaspillir (AD 900's): Hakonarmal</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (La.) Anselm of Canterbury (AD 1033 - AD 1109): Proslogion</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (La.)
Abelard (AD 1079 - AD 1142): Abelard and Heloise, Dialectica, Tractatus
de intellectibus, Dialogue of a Philosopher with a Jew and a Christian,
Ethics</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (La.) Lombard (AD 1100 - AD 1160): Four Books of Sentences</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Ar.) Averroes (AD 1126 - AD 1198): Commentaries on Aristotle and Plato, Decisive Treatise and Epistle Dedicatory</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Heb.) Maimonides (AD 1135 - AD 1204: Mishneh Torah</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> Learn Old French: </li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Fr.) (AD 1155): La Chanson de Roland</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> Learn Middle High German:</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (MHG) Eschenbach (AD 1170 - AD 1220): Parzival</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (MHG) Vogelweide (AD 1170 - AD 1230): Poetry</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Ice.) Sturluson (AD 1179 - AD 1241): Snorra Edda, Heimskringla</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Sp.) (AD 1195 - AD 1207): The Lay of the Cid</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (MHG) Strassburg (AD 1210): Tristan</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Ice.) (AD 1220): Fagrskinna</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (La.) Aquinas (AD 1225 - AD 1274): Summa Theologica, Summa contra Gentiles</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Fr.) de Lorris (AD 1230) and de Meun (AD 1250 - AD 1305): Roman de la Rose</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (MHG) (AD 1250): Das Nibelungenlied</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Ice.) (AD 1250): Völsungasaga</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Fr.) Polo (AD 1254 - AD 1324): Livres des merveilles du monde</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Ice.) (AD 1270): Poetic Edda</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Ice.) (AD 1275): Njáls saga</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> Learn Italian:</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (It.) Dante (AD 1265 - AD 1321): La Grande Commedia, La Vita Nuova, De Monarchia</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (La.) Occam (AD 1288 - AD 1347): Summa logicae, Quaestiones et decisiones in quattuor libros Sententiarum Petri Lombardi</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (It.) Petrarch (AD 1304 - AD 1374): Il Canzoniere, Trionfi</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (It.) Boccaccio (AD 1313 - AD 1375): Decameron</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (ME) Langland (AD 1332 - AD 1386): Vision of Piers Plowman</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (ME) Chaucer (AD 1343 - AD 1400): Canterbury Tales, Troilus and Criseyde</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (ME) (AD 1390): Sir Gawain and the Green Knight</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (ME) Malory (AD 1405 - AD 1471): Le Morte d'Arthur</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (It.) Machiavelli (AD 1469 - AD 1527): Il Principe, Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (La.) Erasmus (AD 1469 0 AD 1536): Stultitiae Laus</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (It.) Ariosto (AD 1474 - AD 1533): Orlando Furioso</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (La.)
More (AD 1478 - AD 1535): Libellus vere aureus, nec minus salutaris
quam festivus, de optimo rei publicae statu deque nova insula Utopia</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> Learn High German: Hammer's German Grammar</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Ger.)
Luther (AD 1483 - AD 1546): An den christlichen Adel deutscher
Nation, Prelude on the Babylonian Captivity of the Church, Von der
Freiheit eines Christenmenschen, Tischreden, Bibel, Disputatio pro
declaratione virtutis indulgentiarum</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Cranmer (AD 1489 - AD 1556): Book of Common Prayer, Thirty-Nine Articles</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> Learn French: </li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Fr.) Rabelais (AD 1494 - 1553): La vie de Gargantua et de Pantagruel</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (It.) Cellini (AD 1500 - AD 1571): Autobiography</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Wyatt (AD 1503 - AD 1542): Poems of Thomas Wyatt</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (La., Fr.) Calvin (AD 1509 - AD 1564): Institutes</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (It.) Vasari (AD 1511 - AD 1574): Le Vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori, ed architettori</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Foxe (AD 1517 - AD 1587): Book of Martyrs</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Fr.) Montaigne (AD 1533 - AD 1592): Essais</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Ice.) Thorlaksson (AD 1541 - AD 1627): Bible</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Sp.) Cervantes (AD 1547 - AD 1616): Don Quixote</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Spenser (AD 1552 - AD 1599): Faerie Queene, Prothalamion</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Sydney (AD 1554 - AD 1586): Defense of Poesy</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> Bacon (AD 1561 - AD 1626): (La.) Novum Organum, (La.) Nova Atlantis, (Eng.) Essays, (Eng.) Advancement of Learning</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Marlowe (AD 1564 - AD 1593): Doctor Faustus, The Jew of Malta</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Shakespeare (AD 1564 - AD 1616): Complete Works</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Donne (AD 1572 - AD 1631): Songs and Sonnets, Holy Sonnets, Sermons</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Jonson (AD 1572 - AD 1637): Timber</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (It.) Diodati (AD 1576 - AD 1649): Bible</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (La.)
Ussher (AD 1581 - AD 1656): Annales Veteris Testamenti, a prima mundi
origine deducti, una cum rerum Asiaticarum et Aegyptiacarum chronico, a
temporis historici principio usque ad Maccabaicorum initia producto</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Hobbes (AD 1588 - AD 1679): Leviathan</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Bradford (AD 1590 - AD 1657): Of Plymouth Plantation</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (La.) Comenius (AD 1592 - AD 1670): Didactica Magna</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Herbert (AD 1593 - AD 1633): The Temple</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.)
Walton (AD 1593 - AD 1683): The Compleat Angler, The Lives of - John
Donne - Sir Henry Wotton - Richard Hooker - George Herbert & Robert
Sanderson</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> Descartes (AD
1596 - AD 1650): (Fr.) Discours de la méthode pour bien conduire sa
raison, et chercher la vérité dans les sciences, (La.) Meditationes de
prima philosophia, (La. or Fr.) Regulae ad directionem ingenii</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Rutherford (AD 1600 - AD 1661): Lex Rex</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Browne (AD 1605 - AD 1682): Religio Medici</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Milton (AD 1608 - AD 1674): Sonnets, Paradise Lost, On Education, Areopagitica, Samson Agonistes</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) (AD 1611): King James Bible</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Fr.) La Rochefoucauld (AD 1613 - AD 1680): Maximes</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Evelyn (AD 1620 - AD 1706): Diary</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Ger.) Grimmelshausen (AD 1621 - AD 1676): Simplicius Simplicissimus</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Marvell (AD 1621 - AD 1678): "To His Coy Mistress"</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Fr.) La Fontaine (AD 1621 - AD 1695): Fables Choisies</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Fr.)
Moliere (AD 1622 - AD 1673): Tartuffe, ou l'Imposteur, Le Misanthrope,
L'Avare, L'école des femmes, Dom Juan ou le Festin de pierre</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Fr.) Pascal (AD 1623 - AD 1662): Pensees, Lettres provinciales</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Bunyan (AD 1628 - AD 1688): Pilgrim's Progress</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Dryden (AD 1631 - AD 1700): Absalom and Achitophel, MacFlecknoe</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (La.) Spinoza (AD 1632 - AD 1677): Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, Ethics</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.)
Locke (AD 1632 - AD 1704): An Essay Concerning Human Understanding,
Second Treatise of Government, Letter Concerning Toleration, Thoughts
Concerning Education</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Pepys (AD 1633 - AD 1703): Diary</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Fr.) La Fayette (AD 1634 - AD 1693): La Princesse de Cleves</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Fr.) Racine (AD 1639 - AD 1699): Andromache, Phaedra</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Fr.) Leibniz (AD 1646 - AD 1716): Monadology, Discourse on Metaphysics, Nouveaux essais sur l'entendement humain</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Defoe (AD 1659 - AD 1731): Robinson Crusoe, Moll Flanders</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Swift (AD 1667 - AD 1745): Gulliver's Travels, A Tale of a Tub, Journal to Stella, A Modest Proposal</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Congreve (AD 1670 - AD 1729): The Way of the World</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Addison (AD 1672 - 1719): The Spectator</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Berkeley (AD 1685 - AD 1753): Principles of Human Knowledge</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Pope (AD 1688 - AD 1744): The Rape of the Lock, The Dunciad, Essay on Criticism, Essay on Man</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Fr.) Montesquieu (AD 1689 - AD 1755): The Spirit of the Laws</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Richardson (AD 1689 - AD 1761): Clarissa</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Montagu (AD 1689 - AD 1762): Letters</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Fr.) Voltaire (AD 1694 - AD 1778): Letters on the English, Candide, Philosophical Dictionary</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Franklin (AD 1706 - AD 1790): Poor Richard's Almanack, Autobiography</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Fielding (AD 1707 - AD 1754): Tom Jones, Joseph Andrews, Shamela</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.)
Johnson (AD 1709 - AD 1784): Preface to Shakespeare, The Vanity of
Human Wishes, Rasselas, The Lives of the Poets, A Journey to the Western
Islands of Scotland</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.)
Hume (AD 1711 - AD 1776): Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, A
Treatise of Human Nature, Essays Moral and Political, The History of
England</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Fr.) Rousseau (AD
1712 - AD 1778): Emile, Julie, Confessions, Discourse on the Origin of
Inequality, On the Social Contract, On Political Economy</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Sterne (AD 1713 - AD 1768): Tristram Shandy, A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Fr.) Diderot (AD 1713 - AD 1784): Jacques le fataliste et son maitre, La religieuse</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Gray (AD 1716 - AD 1771): "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Blackstone (AD 1723 - AD 1780): Commentaries</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Smith (AD 1723 - AD 1790): The Wealth of Nations, The Theory of the Moral Sentiments</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Fr.) (AD 1724): Ostervald Bible</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Ger.)
Kant (AD 1724 - AD 1804): Critique of Pure Reason, Foundations of the
Metaphysics of Morals, Metaphysics of Morals, Critique of Practical
Reason, Critique of Judgement, Perpetual Peace</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Ger.) Mendelssohn (AD 1729 - AD 1786): Phädon, Jerusalem or on Religious Might and Judaism</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Burke (AD 1729 - AD 1797): Reflections on the Revolution in France</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Ger.)
Hamann (AD 1730 - AD 1788): Sokratische Denkwurdigkeiten, Aesthetica in
nuce, Gedanken uber meinen Lebenslauf, Kreuzzuge des Philologen,
Golgotha and Scheblimini! By a Preacher in the Wilderness</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) MacPherson (AD 1736 - AD 1796): The Works of Ossian</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Gibbon (AD 1737 - AD 1794): History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Autobiography</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Paine (AD 1737 - AD 1809): Rights of Man, Common Sense</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Boswell (AD 1740 - AD 1795): The Life of Samuel Johnson</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Fr.) Laclos (AD 1741 - AD 1803): Les Liaisons Dangereuses</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Ger.) Wyss (AD 1743 - AD 1818): Swiss Family Robinson</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Ger.)
von Herder (AD 1744 - AD 1803): Treatise on the Origin of Language,
Auszug aus einem Briefwechsel über Ossian und die Lieder alter Völker</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Bentham (AD 1748 - AD 1832): Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, Theory of Fictions</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Ger.) Goethe (AD 1749 - AD 1832): Faust, The Sorrows of Young Werther, Poetry and Truth</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Blake (AD 1757 - AD 1827): Songs of Innocence and of Experience</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Burns (AD 1759 - AD 1796): Songs and Poems</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Wollstonecraft (AD 1759 - AD 1797): A Vindication of the Rights of Woman</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Ger.)
Schiller (AD 1759 - AD 1805): Die Räuber, William Tell, Wallenstein
Trilogy, Über die ästhetische Erziehung des Menschen </li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Ger.)
von Gentz (AD 1764 - AD 1832): The Origin and Principles of the
American Revolution (Eng. Translation by John Quincy Adams)</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Malthus (AD 1766 - AD 1834): An Essay on the Principle of Population</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Fr.) Chateaubriand (AD 1768 - AD 1848): Atala, Rene</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Ger.)
Hegel (AD 1770 - AD 1832): Introductory Lectures on Aesthetics,
Philosophy of History, Science of Logic, Phenomenology of Spirit,
Philosophy of Right</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Hogg (AD 1770 - AD 1835): Confessions of a Justified Sinner</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.)
Wordsworth (AD 1770 - AD 1850): "Tintern Abbey", Preface to Lyrical
Ballads, "Ode: Intimations of Immortality", The Prelude, Lucy poems,
Sonnets</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Scott (AD
1771 - AD 1832): Ivanhoe, Rob Roy, The Lady of the Lake, Waverly, The
Heart of Midlothian, The Bride of Lammermoor, Kenilworth, The Talisman, A
Legend of Montrose</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.)
Owen (AD 1771 - AD 1858): A New View of Society, Book of the New Moral
World, Revolution in the Mind and Practice of the Human Race</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Ricardo (AD 1772 - AD 1823): Principles of Political Economy and Taxation</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Ger.) Schlegel (AD 1772 - AD 1829): Geschichte, Sämtliche Werke</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Coleridge (AD 1772 - AD 1834): The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Kubla Khan, Biographica Literaria</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Austen (AD 1775 - AD 1817): Complete Works</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Lamb (AD 1775 - AD 1834): Essays of Elia</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Landor (AD 1775 - AD 1864): Imaginary Conversations</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) (AD 1776): US Declaration of Independence</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Hazlitt (AD 1778 - AD 1830): Selected Essays of William Hazlitt 1778 To 1830</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Ger.) Clausewitz (AD 1780 - AD 1831): On War</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Fr.) Stendhal (AD 1783 - AD 1842): The Red and the Black, The Charterhouse of Parma, On Love</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Leigh Hunt (AD 1784 - AD 1859): Essays</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Irving (AD 1783 - AD 1859): The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Ger.) Grimm (AD 1785 - 1863): Fairy Tales</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (It.) Manzoni (AD 1785 - AD 1873): I Promessi Sposi</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) (AD 1787) Federalist Papers, Anti-Federalist Papers</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) (AD 1787) US Constitution and Amendments</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Byron (AD 1788 - AD 1824): Don Juan</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Ger.) Schopenhauer (AD 1788 - AD 1860): The World as Will and Representation</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Cooper (AD 1789 - AD 1851): The Deerslayer, The Last of the Mohicans, The Pathfinder, The Pioneers, The Prairie</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Percy Shelley (AD 1792 - AD 1822): "Ode to the West Wind", "To a Skylark"</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Keats (AD 1795 - AD 1821): "Ode on a Grecian Urn", "Ode to a Nightingale", "To Autumn"</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Carlyle (AD 1795 - AD 1881): The French Revolution: A History</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Mary Shelley (AD 1797 - AD 1851): Frankenstein</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Ger.) Heine (AD 1797 - AD 1856): Various Works</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Fr.) Comte (AD 1798 - AD 1857): The Positive Philosophy</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Rus.) Pushkin (AD 1799 - AD 1837): The Captain's Daughter, Boris Godunov, Eugene Onegin</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Fr.) Balzac (AD 1799 - AD 1850): La Comedie humaine, Father Goriot</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Macaulay (AD 1800 - AD 1859): The History of England from the Accession of James II</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.)
Newman (AD 1801 - AD 1890): Apologia pro Vita Sua, Discourses on the
Scope and Nature of University Education, Idea of a University</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Fr.) Dumas (AD 1802 - AD 1870): The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Finn.) Lönnrot (AD 1802 - AD 1884): Kalevala</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Fr.) Hugo (AD 1802 - AD 1885): Les Miserables, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Les Contemplations</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Fr.) Berlioz (AD 1803 - AD 1869): Memoirs</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Emerson (AD 1803 - AD 1882): Essays: First and Second Series, Representative Men, Journal, Self-Reliance</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.)
Hawthorne (AD 1804 - AD 1864): Scarlet Letter, House of the Seven
Gables, Blithedale Romance, Mosses from an Old Manse, Tanglewood Tales</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Smith (AD 1805 - AD 1844): Book of Mormon</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Fr.) de Tocqueville (AD 1805 - AD 1859): Democracy in America, 'Ancien Régime et la Révolution</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Dan.) Anderson (AD 1805 - AD 1875): Fairy Tales</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Elizabeth Browning (AD 1806 - AD 1861): Sonnets from the Portuguese</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.)
Mill (AD 1806 - AD 1873): On Liberty, A System of Logic, Representative
Government, Utilitarianism, The Subjection of Women, Autobiography</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.)
Longfellow (AD 1807 - AD 1882): Paul Revere's Ride, The Song of
Hiawatha, Evangeline, The Skeleton in Armor, The Courtship of Miles
Standish, The Village Blacksmith, Excelsior, The Wreck of the Hesperus</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Poe (AD 1809 - AD 1849): Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesgue</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Rus.)
Gogol (AD 1809 - AD 1852): Taras Bul'ba, Dead Souls, The Government
Inspector, Diary of a Madman, The Nose, The Overcoat, Collected Tales</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Fr.) Proudhon (AD 1809 - AD 1865): What is Property?, The Philosophy of Poverty</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Darwin (AD 1809 - AD 1882): Origin of Species, Descent of Man, Autobiography, The Voyage of the Beagle</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Tennyson (AD 1809 - AD 1892): "Ulysses", In Memoriam, Idylls of the King</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.)
Gaskell (AD 1810 - AD 1865): Cranford, My Lady Ludlow, Mr. Harrison's
Confessions, North and South, Wives and Daughters, Mary Barton</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Thackeray (AD 1811 - AD 1863): Vanity Fair</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Stowe (AD 1811 - AD 1896): Uncle Tom's Cabin</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Dickens (AD 1812 - AD 1870): Complete Works</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Robert Browning (AD 1812 - AD 1889): My Last Duchess</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Rus.) Goncharov (AD 1812 - AD 1891): Oblomov</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Dan.)
Kierkegaard (AD 1813 - AD 1855): Fear and Trembling, The Sickness Unto
Death, The Book on Adler, Concluding Unscientific Postscript to
Philosophical Fragments</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Rus.) Lermontov (AD 1814 - AD 1841): A Hero of Our Time</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Trollope (AD 1815 - AD 1882): Barsetshire and Palliser Novels</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Bronte (AD 1816 - AD 1855): Jane Eyre, Villette, Shirley, The Professor</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Thoreau (AD 1817 - AD 1862): Walden, Civil Disobedience</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Bronte (AD 1818 - AD 1848): Wuthering Heights</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Ger.) Marx (AD 1818 - AD 1883): The Communist Manifesto, Das Kapital, The German Ideology, The Poverty of Philosophy</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Rus.) Turgenev (AD 1818 - AD 1883): Fathers and Sons, A Sportsman's Notebook, First Love and Other Stories</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Douglass (AD 1818 - AD 1895): Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Eliot (AD 1819 - AD 1880): Adam Bede, Mill on the Floss, Silas Marner, Middlemarch, Daniel Deronda</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Lowell (AD 1819 - AD 1891): A Fable for Critics, The Biglow Papers</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Melville (AD 1819 - AD 1891): Moby Dick, Billy Budd, Typee</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Whitman (AD 1819 - AD 1892): Leaves of Grass</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Ruskin (AD 1819 - AD 1900): The Stones of Venice, Praeterita</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Sewell (AD 1820 - AD 1878): Black Beauty</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Fr.) Flaubert (AD 1821 - AD 1880): Madame Bovary, Three Stories</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Rus.)
Dostoyevsky (AD 1821 - AD 1881): Crime and Punishment, The Brothers
Karamazov, The Idiot, Notes from Underground, Demons, The Adolescent,
The Double, The Gambler</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Arnold (AD 1822 - AD 1888): "Dover Beach"</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Collins (AD 1824 - AD 1889): The Woman in White, The Moonstone, Armadale, No Name</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.)
MacDonald (AD 1824 - AD 1905): Phantastes, The Princess and the Goblin,
At the Back of the North Wind, Lilith, Sir Gibbie</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Blackmore (AD 1825 - AD 1900): Lorna Doone</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Ger.) Spyri (AD 1827 - AD 1901): Heidi</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Wallace (AD 1827 - AD 1905): Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.)
Verne (AD 1828 - AD 1905): Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, A
Journey to the Center of the Earth, Around the World in Eighty Days</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Nor.) Ibsen (AD 1828 - AD 1906): Hedda Gabler, A Doll's House, The Wild Duck, Peer Gynt</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Rus.)
Tolstoy (AD 1828 - AD 1910): War and Peace, Anna Karenina. What is
Art?, Twenty-three Tales, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Childhood, Boyhood,
and Youth, The Cossacks</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Dickenson (AD 1830 - AD 1886): Complete Poems</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Dodge (AD 1831 - AD 1905): Hans Brinker</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Alcott (AD 1832 - AD 1888): Little Women, An Old-Fashioned Girl</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Carroll (AD 1832 - AD 1898): Alice in Wonderland, Through the Looking-Glass, The Hunting of the Snark, Jabberwocky</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Henty (AD 1832 - AD 1902): Various Novels</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Butler (AD 1835 - AD 1902): The Way of All Flesh, Erewhon</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.)
Twain (AD 1835 - AD 1910): The Prince and the Pauper, A Connecticut
Yankee at King Arthur's Court, Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer, The
Mysterious Stranger</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Dut.) Kuyper (AD 1837 - AD 1920): Calvinisme</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Pierce (AD 1839 - AD 1914): Various Papers</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Fr.) Zola (AD 1840 - AD 1902): Germinal, Lourdes, Rome, Paris</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Dobson, Henry Austin (AD 1840 - AD 1921): Various</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Ger.) Mengor (AD 1840 - AD 1921): Principles of Economics</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.)
Hardy (AD 1840 - AD 1928): Jude the Obscure, Return of the Native, Far
from the Madding Crowd, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, "Channel Firing", The
Mayor of Casterbridge, The Woodlanders</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.)
William James (AD 1842 - AD 1910): The Principles of Psychology, The
Varieties of Religious Experience, Pragmatism, Essays in Radical
Empiricism</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Henry
James (AD 1843 - AD 1916): The Portrait of a Lady, The American, The
Ambassadors, The Golden Bowl, The Princess Casamassima, The Bostonians,
The Awkward Age, The Wings of the Dove, Collected Stories</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Hopkins (AD 1844 - AD 1889): "Pied Beauty"</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Ger.) Nietzsche (AD 1844 - AD 1900): Thus Spake Zarathustra, Beyond Good and Evil, The Geneology of Morals, The Will to Power</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Pol.) Sienkiewicz (AD 1846 - AD 1916): The Teutonic Knights, With Fire and Sword, The Deluge, Fire in the Steppe, Quo Vadis</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Stoker (AD 1847 - AD 1912): Dracula</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Fr.) Sorel (AD 1847 - AD 1922): Reflections on Violence</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Ger.) Frege (AD 1848 - AD 1925): Begriffsschrift</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Burnett (AD 1849 - AD 1924): The Secret Garden, A Little Princess, Little Lord Fauntleroy, The Lost Prince</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Fr.) de Maupassant (AD 1850 - AD 1893): Bel Ami, La Parure</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.)
Stevenson (AD 1850 - AD 1894): Treasure Island, Kidnapped, Strange Case
of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Virginibus Puerisque, A Child's Garden of
Verses, The Master of Ballantrae, The Weir of Hermiston</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Chopin (AD 1851 - AD 1904): The Awakening</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Ger.) von Böhm-Bawerk (AD 1851 - AD 1914): Capital and Interest</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Pyle (AD 1853 - AD 1911): Robin Hood</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Wilde (AD 1854 - AD 1900): The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Importance of Being Earnest</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Booker T. Washington (AD 1856 - AD 1915): Up From Slavery</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Baum (AD 1856 - AD 1919): The Wonderful Wizard of Oz</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Haggard (AD 1856 - AD 1925): King Solomon's Mines</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Ger.)
Freud (AD 1856 - AD 1939): General Introduction to Psychoanalysis, The
Interpretation of Dreams, Civilization and Its Discontents, The Future
of an Illusion</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Shaw (AD 1856 - AD 1950): Pygmalion, Man and Superman, Major Barbara, Caesar and Cleopatra, Saint Joan</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.)
Conrad (AD 1857 - AD 1924): Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim, Typhoon and
Other Stories, Under Western Eyes, Nostromo, The Secret Agent, Victory</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Doyle (AD 1859 - AD 1930): Sherlock Homes, The Lost World</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Grahame (AD 1859 - AD 1932): The Wind in the Willows</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Housman (AD 1859 - AD 1936): A Shropshire Lad</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Ger.) Husserl (AD 1859 - AD 1938): Logical Investigations, Experience and Judgment, others</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Fr.)
Bergson (AD 1859 - AD 1941): Time and Free Will, Matter and Memory,
Creative Evolution, The Two Sources of Morality and Religion</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Dewey (AD 1859 - AD 1952): How We Think, Democracy and Education, Experience and Nature, Logic, the Theory of Inquiry</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Rus.) Chekhov (AD 1860 - AD 1904): The Stories of Anton Chekhov</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Barrie (AD 1860 - AD 1937): Peter Pan</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (It.) Svevo (AD 1861 - AD 1928): Zeno's Conscience</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Whitehead (AD 1861 - AD 1947): Principia Mathematica</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) O. Henry (AD 1862 - AD 1910): Short Stories</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.)
Wharton (AD 1862 - AD 1937): The Age of Innocence, The House of Mirth,
The Custom of the Country, The Reef, Ethan Frome, Summer, Bunner Sisters</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Stratton-Porter (AD 1863 - AD 1924): Freckles, A Girl of the Limberlost</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Quiller-Couch (AD 1863 - AD 1944): Oxford Book of English Verse, The Pilgrim's Way, Oxford Book of English Prose</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Santayana (AD 1863 - AD 1952): The Life of Reason, Skepticism and Animal Faith, Persons and Places</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Ger.)
Weber (AD 1864 - AD 1920): Die Protestantische Ethik und der Geist des
Kapitalismus, Politik als Beruf, Economy and Society</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Kipling (AD 1865 - AD 1936): The Jungle Book, Just So Stories, The Man Who Would Be King, Kim</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Yeats (AD 1865 - AD 1939): "Among School Children", "The Second Coming"</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Orczy (AD 1865 - AD 1947): The Scarlet Pimpernel Novels</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Potter (AD 1866 - AD 1943): Complete Works</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Wells (AD 1866 - AD 1946): The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, The War of the Worlds, The New Accelerator</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (It.) Pirandello (AD 1867 - AD 1936): Sei Personaggi in Cerca d'Autore</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Wilder (AD 1867 - AD 1957): Little House</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Fr.) Rostand (AD 1868 - AD 1918): Cyrano de Bergerac</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Fr.) Leroux (AD 1868 - AD 1927): Le Fantome de l'Opera</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Du Bois (AD 1868 - AD 1963): The Souls of Black Folk</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Rus.) Lenin (AD 1870 - AD 1924): The State and Revolution, April Theses</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) French (AD 1870 - AD 1946): The Story of Rolf and the Viking Bow</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Belloc (AD 1870 - AD 1953): Essays, The Servile State</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Crane (AD 1871 - AD 1900): The Red Badge of Courage</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Fr.) Proust (AD 1871 - AD 1922): Remembrance of Things Past</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.)
Russell (AD 1872 - AD 1970): The Problems of Philosophy, The Analysis
of Mind, An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth, Human Knowledge: Its Scope
and Limits</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Ford (AD 1873 - AD 1939): The Good Soldier, Parade's End</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Cather (AD 1873 - AD 1947): Death Comes for the Archbishop, My Antonia, O Pioneers!</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Chesterton (AD 1874 - AD 1936): Orthodoxy, The Everlasting Man, Father Brown, The Man Who Knew Too Much</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Montgomery (AD 1874 - AD 1942): Anne Series</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Frost (AD 1874 - AD 1963): "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening", "The Road Not Taken"</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Burgess (AD 1874 - AD 1965): Various</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Churchill (AD 1874 - AD 1965): The Second World War, History of the English-Speaking Peoples</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Maugham (AD 1874 - AD 1965): Of Human Bondage, Collected Stories, The Skeptical Romancer</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.)
Buchan (AD 1875 - AD 1940): The Thirty-Nine Steps, Greenmantle, Mr.
Standfast, The Three Hostages, The Island of Sheep, Witch Wood</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Sabatini (AD 1875 - AD 1950): Scaramouche, Captain Blood</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Ger.)
Thomas Mann (AD 1875 - AD 1955): Der Zauberberg, Joseph und seine
Brüder, Buddenbrooks, Der Tod in Venedig, Doktor Faustus, Sämtliche
Erzählungen</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Ger.) Jung (AD 1875 - AD 1961): Psychology of the Unconcious, Psychological Types</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) London (AD 1876 - AD 1916): White Fang, Call of the Wild, To Build a Fire</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Webster (AD 1876 - AD 1916): Daddy-Long-Legs, Dear Enemy</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Ger.) Hesse (AD 1877 - AD 1962): Der Steppenwolf, Siddhartha, Das Glasperlenspiel</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Sandburg (AD 1878 - AD 1967): The Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg, Corn Huskers, Abraham Lincoln: The War Years</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Sinclair (AD 1878 - AD 1968): The Jungle</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Sanger (AD 1879 - AD 1966): The Pivot of Civilization</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) E. M. Forster (AD 1879 - AD 1970): Howards End, A Passage to India, A Room with a View, Where Angels Fear to Tread</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Mencken (AD 1880 - AD 1956): The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, The American Language, Treatise on the Gods</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) von Mises (AD 1881 - AD 1973): Human Action</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Wodehouse (AD 1881 - AD 1975): Jeeves, Blandings Castle, Mulliner, Psmith</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Joyce (AD 1882 - AD 1941): Ulysses, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Finnegans Wake, Dubliners</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Woolf (AD 1882 - AD 1941): The Common Reader, Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, Orlando, A Room of One's Own</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Milne (AD 1882 - AD 1956): Winnie-the-Pooh</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Fr.)
Maritain (AD 1882 - AD 1973): Art et Scolastique, Les Degres du
Savoir, Les Droits De L'homme Et La Loi Naturelle, Humanisme intégral</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Cz.) Hasek (AD 1883 - AD 1923): The Good Soldier Svejk</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Ger.) Kafka (AD 1883 - AD 1924): Der Prozess, The Castle, The Metamorphosis</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Gibran (AD 1883 - AD 1931): Collected Works</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Keynes (AD 1883 - AD 1946): The General Theory</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Schumpeter (AD 1883 - AD 1950): History of Economic Analysis, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) McCulley (AD 1883 - AD 1958): The Curse of Capistrano (The Mark of Zorro)</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Ransome (AD 1884 - AD 1967): Swallows and Amazons series</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Lawrence (AD 1885 - AD 1930): Lady Chatterly's Lover, Sons and Lovers, Women in Love, The Rainbow, Stories</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Lewis (AD 1885 - AD 1951): Main Street, Arrowsmith, Elmer Gantry, Babbitt</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Pound (AD 1885 - AD 1972): "The River Merchant's Wife: A Letter", Ripostes, Hugh Selwyn Mauberly, The Cantos</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Durant (AD 1885 - AD 1981): The Story of Civilization, The Story of Philosophy</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Williams (AD 1886 - AD 1945): Descent into Hell</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Mansfield (AD 1888 - AD 1923): The Garden Party and Other Stories</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Chandler (AD 1888 - AD 1959): The Lady in the Lake, The Little Sister, The Long Goodbye, Playback, Collected Stories</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Eliot (AD 1888 - AD 1965): "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", The Waste Land</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Ger.) Hitler (AD 1889 - AD 1945): Mein Kampf</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Ger.) Wittgenstein (AD 1889 - AD 1951): Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Philosophische Untersuchungen</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Toynbee (AD 1889 - AD 1975): A Study of History, Civilization on Trial</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Ger.) Heidegger (AD 1889 - AD 1976): Sein Und Zeit, Einführung in die Metaphysik, Was ist das - die Philosophie?</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Delafield (AD 1890 - AD 1943): Diary of a Provincial Lady</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Rus.) Pasternak (AD 1890 - AD 1960): Doctor Zhivago</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Christie (AD 1890 - AD 1976): Various Novels, including The Murder of Roger Ackroyd</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Rus.) Bulgakov (AD 1891 - AD 1940): The Master and Margarita</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Forbes (AD 1891 - AD 1967): Johnny Tremain</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Ger., Eng.) Carnap (AD 1891 - AD 1970): Der logische Aufbau der Welt, Scheinprobleme in der Philosophie</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Buck (AD 1892 - AD 1973): The Good Earth</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.)
Tolkein (AD 1892 - AD 1973): The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, The Lord of
the Rings, The History of Middle Earth, The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Cain (AD 1892 - AD 1977): The Postman Always Rings Twice, Double Indemnity, Mildred Pierce, Selected Stories</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Ten Boom (AD 1892 - AD 1983): The Hiding Place</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Owen (AD 1893 - AD 1918): "Dulce et Decorum Est"</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Sayers (AD 1893 - AD 1957): Lord Peter Wimsey Novels</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Ch.) Tse-Tung (AD 1893 - AD 1976): Quotations From Chairman Mao Tse-Tung</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Ger.) Roth (AD 1894 - AD 1939): Radetzkymarsch, Hiob, Juden auf Wanderschaft</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Kinsey (AD 1894 - AD 1956): Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, Sexual Behavior in the Human Female</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.)
Hammett (AD 1894 - AD 1961): The Maltese Falcon, The Thin Man, Red
Harvest, The Dain Curse, The Glass Key, Selected Stories</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Huxley (AD 1894 - AD 1963): Brave New World</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Dut.) Dooyeweerd (AD 1894 - AD 1977): A New Critique of Theoretical Thought</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Fitzgerald (AD 1896 - AD 1940): Great Gatsby, This Side of Paradise</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (It.) Lampedusa (AD 1896 - AD 1957): Il Gattopardo</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Faulkner (AD 1897 - AD 1962): The Sound and the Fury, Absalom, Absalom, A Fable, The Reivers, As I Lay Dying</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Ger.) Brecht (AD 1898 - AD 1956): Die Dreigroschenoper, Leben des Galilei</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.)
Lewis (AD 1898 - AD 1963): Allegory of Love, Problem of Pain, Preface
to Paradise Lost, Abolition of Man, Miracles, Mere Christianity,
Surprised by Joy, Four Loves, Experiment in Criticism, Grief Observed,
Discarded Image, God in the Dock, Weight of Glory, Pilgrim's Regress,
Space Trilogy, Screwtape, Great Divorce, Narnia, Till We Have Faces,
Boxen</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Ger.) Remarque (AD 1898 - AD 1970): Im Westen nichts Neues</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) d'Aulaire (AD 1898 - AD 1986): Myths</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) O'Dell (AD 1898 - AD 1989): Island of the Blue Dolphins</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Barfield (AD 1898 - AD 1997): Saving the Appearances</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Hemingway (AD 1899 - AD 1961): The Old Man and the Sea, The Sun Also Rises, For Whom the Bell Tolls, A Farewell to Arms</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Forester (AD 1899 - AD 1966): Hornblower series</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Nabokov (AD 1899 - AD 1977): Lolita, Pale Fire, Speak, Memory, Pnin</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) White (AD 1899 - AD 1985): Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Sp.) Borges (AD 1899 - AD 1986): Ficciones, The Aleph, Labyrinths</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Hayek (AD 1899 - AD 1992): The Road to Serfdom</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Fr.) Saint-Exupery (AD 1900 - AD 1944): The Little Prince</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Mitchell (AD 1900 - AD 1949): Gone with the Wind</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Caldwell (AD 1900 - AD 1985): Captains and the Kings, Answer as a Man, A Pillar of Iron, On Growing Up Tough</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Chambers (AD 1901 - AD 1961): Witness</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Mead (AD 1901 - AD 1978): Coming of Age in Samoa</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Voegelin (AD 1901 - AD 1985): The New Science of Politics</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Steinbeck (AD 1902 - AD 1968): Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men, East of Eden</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Bailey (AD 1902 - AD 1983): The American Pageant</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Stead (AD 1902 - AD 1983): The Man Who Loved Children</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Gibbons (AD 1902 - AD 1989): Cold Comfort Farm</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Popper (AD 1902 - AD 1994): The Logic of Scientific Discovery, Conjectures and Refutations, Of Clocks and Clouds</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Latham (AD 1902 - AD 1995): Carry On, Mr. Bowditch</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Henry (AD 1902 - AD 1997): Misty of Chincoteague</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Fr.) Nemirovsky (AD 1903 - AD 1942): Suite Francaise, David Golder, Le Bal, Les Mouches d'automne, L'Affaire Courilof</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Orwell (AD 1903 - AD 1950): 1984, Animal Farm, Essays, Burmese Days, Keep the Aspidistra Flying, Coming Up for Air</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) O'Conner (AD 1903 - AD 1966): Various Works</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.)
Waugh (AD 1903 - AD 1966): Brideshead Revisited, Decline and Fall,
Sword of Honor trilogy, Short Stories, A Handful of Dust, Black
Mischief, Scoop, The Loved One, The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold, Waugh
Abroad, The Collected Travel Writing, Vile Bodies, Put Out More Flags</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Keith (AD 1903 - AD 1998): Rifles for Watie</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.)
Greene (AD 1904 - AD 1991): Brighton Rock, The Power and the Glory, The
Heart of the Matter, The End of the Affair, The Confidential Agent, The
Third Man, The Quiet American, Our Man in Havana, The Human Factor</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Fr.) Sartre (AD 1905 - AD 1980): La nausée, Huis clos, L'étre et le néant, L'âge de raison, L'existentialisme est un humanisme</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Rand (AD 1905 - AD 1982): The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Warren (AD 1905 - AD 1989): All the King's Men</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) White (AD 1906 - AD 1964): The Once and Future King</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Llewellyn (AD 1906 - AD 1983): How Green Was My Valley</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Beckett (AD 1906 - AD 1989): Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnameable</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.)
Narayan (AD 1906 - AD 2001): Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts,
The Dark Room, The English Teacher, Mr. Sampath, The Printer of Malgudi,
The Financial Expert, Waiting for the Mahatma</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Carson (AD 1907 - AD 1964): Silent Spring</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Auden (AD 1907 - AD 1973): "Musee des Beaux Arts"</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Michener (AD 1907 - AD 1997): Tales of the South Pacific, Texas</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Hunt (AD 1907 - AD 2001): Across Five Aprils</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Gipson (AD 1908 - AD 1973): Old Yeller</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Fr.) Beauvior (AD 1908 - AD 1986): Le deuxième sexe</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Speare (AD 1908 - AD 1994): The Witch of Blackbird Pond</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Quine (AD 1908 - AD 2000): Two Dogmas of Empiricism, Word and Object</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Galbraith (AD 1908 - AD 2006): American Capitalism, The Affluent Society, The New Industrial State</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Weaver (AD 1910 - AD 1963): Ideas Have Consequences</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) O'Nolan (AD 1911 - AD 1966): Complete Novels</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Williams (AD 1911 - AD 1983): A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Glass Menagerie</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Golding (AD 1911 - AD 1993): Lord of the Flies, To the Ends of the Earth</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Egyp.) Mahfouz (AD 1911 - AD 2006): The Cairo Trilogy</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.)
Tuchman (AD 1912 - AD 1989): The Guns of August, Stillwell and the
American Experience in China, Bible and Sword, The First Salute</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Fr.) Ellul (AD 1912 - AD 1994): La Parole humiliée, Anarchie et Christianisme, La technique ou l'enjeu du siècle</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Friedman (AD 1912 - AD 2006): Capitalism and Freedom</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Fr.) Camus (AD 1913 - AD 1960): L'Étranger, Le Mythe de Sisyphe, La Peste, La Chute, L'exil et le royaume, Selected Essays</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Rawls (AD 1913 - AD 1984): Where the Red Fern Grows</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Dylan Thomas (AD 1914 - AD 1953): "Fern Hill", "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night", "A Child's Christmas in Wales"</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) O'Brian (AD 1914 - AD 2000): Aubrey-Maturin series</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Boorstin (AD 1914 - AD 2004): The Discoverers, The Creators, The Seekers</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Farley (AD 1915 - AD 1989): The Black Stallion</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.)
Saul Bellow (AD 1915 - AD 2005): The Adventures of Augie March, Herzog,
Mr. Sammler's Planet, Seize the Day, Humboldt's Gift, Ravelstein</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Miller (AD 1915 - AD 2005): Death of a Salesman, Crucible</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Wouk (AD 1915 - ): The Caine Mutiny, War and Remembrance</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Dahl (AD 1916 - AD 1990): Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Collected Stories</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Percy (AD 1916 - AD 1990): Love in the Ruins, The Thanatos Syndrome, The Moviegoer</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (It.) Bassani (AD 1916 - AD 2000): Il giardino dei Finzi-Contini</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.)
Fitzgerald (AD 1916 - AD 2000): The Bookshop, The Gate of Angels, The
Blue Flower, Offshore, Human Voices, The Beginning of Spring</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Foote (AD 1916 - AD 2005): The Civil War</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Cleary (AD 1916 - ): Dear Mr. Henshaw, Ramona Quimby, Age 8</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Burgess (AD 1917 - AD 1993): A Clockwork Orange</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Sp.) Gironella (AD 1917 - AD 2003): The Cypresses Believe in God</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Green (AD 1918 - 1987): Robin Hood, Myths of the Norsemen, The Saga of Asgard</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Kirk (AD 1918 - AD 1994): The Conservative Mind</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.)
Spark (AD 1918 - AD 2006): The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, The Girls of
Slender Means, The Driver's Seat, The Only Problem</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.)
L'Engle (AD 1918 - AD 2007): A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, A
Swiftly Tilting Planet, Many Waters, An Acceptable Time</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> Solzhenitsyn
(AD 1918 - AD 2008): (Rus. then Fr.) The Gulag Archipelago, (Rus.) One
Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, (Rus.) The First Circle, (Rus.)
Cancer Ward</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (It.) Levi (AD 1919 - AD 1987): Se questo è un uomo, Il sistema periodico, La tregua</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Salinger (AD 1919 - AD 2010): Catcher in the Rye</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Lessing (AD 1919 - ): Stories, The Grass is Singing, The Golden Notebook, Canopus in Argos</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Scott (AD 1920 - AD 1978): Raj Quartet</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Herbert (AD 1920 - AD 1986): Dune</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Asimov (AD 1920 - AD 1992): Foundation, Robot</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Adams (AD 1920 - ): Watership Down</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Bradbury (AD 1920 - ): Fahrenheit 451, The Stories</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (It.) Sciascia (AD 1921 - AD 1989): Il mare color del vino (hard to find), Il giorno della civetta</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.)
Highsmith (AD 1921 - AD 1995): The Talented Mr. Ripley, Ripley Under
Ground, Ripley's Game, The Boy Who Followed Ripley, Ripley Under Water</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Friedan (AD 1921 - AD 2006): The Feminine Mystique</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Dut.) Rookmaaker (AD 1922 - AD 1977): Modern Art and The Death of a Culture</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Kuhn (AD 1922 - AD 1996): The Structure of Scientific Revolutions</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Vonnegut (AD 1922 - AD 2007): Slaughterhouse-Five</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (It.)
Calvino (AD 1923 - AD 1985): I nostri antenati, Cosmicomics stories, Le
città invisibili, Se una notte d'inverno un viaggiatore</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Heller (AD 1923 - AD 1999): Catch-22</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Fox (AD 1923 - ): The One-Eyed Cat</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Feyerabend (AD 1924 - AD 1994): Against Method</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) O'Conner (AD 1925 - AD 1964): Everything That Rises Must Converge, The Violent Bear It Away, Wise Blood</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Fraser (AD 1925 - AD 2008): Flashman, Candlemass Road</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Fr.) Foucault (AD 1926 - AD 1984): Folie et déraison, Les Mots et les choses, L'Archéologie du Savoir</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Yates (AD 1926 - AD 1992): Revolutionary Road, The Easter Parade, Eleven Kinds of Loneliness</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Rothbard (AD 1926 - AD 1995): Man, Economy, and State</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Lee (AD 1926 - ): To Kill a Mockingbird</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Morris (AD 1926 - ): Pax Britannica</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Bork (AD 1927 - ): The Tempting of America, Slouching Towards Gomorrah</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Ger.) Grass (AD 1927 - ): Die Blechtrommel</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Sp.) Marquez (AD 1927 - ): One Hundred Years of Solitude, Love in the Time of Cholera, The General in His Labyrinth</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Albee (AD 1928 - ): Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Johnson (AD 1928 - ): Modern Times, A History of the American People</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Dut.) Anne Frank (AD 1929 - AD 1945): The Diary of Anne Frank</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) King, Jr. (AD 1929 - AD 1968): I Have a Dream, Letter from Birmingham Jail</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Potok (AD 1929 - AD 2002): The Chosen</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Juster (AD 1929 - ): The Phantom Tollbooth</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Allen Bloom (AD 1930 - AD 1992): The Closing of the American Mind</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Fr.) Derrida (AD 1930 - AD 2004): De la grammatologie</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Achebe (AD 1930 - ): The African Trilogy</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Morrison (AD 1931 - ): The Song of Solomon, Beloved</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Munro (AD 1931 - ): Carried Away</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Plath (AD 1932 - AD 1963): The Bell Jar, Complete Poems</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Updike (AD 1932 - AD 2009): Rabbit Series (4 novels and 1 novella), Henry Bech series, The Witches of Eastwick</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (It.) Eco (AD 1932 - ): Il nome della rosa</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Ehrlich (AD 1932 - ): The Population Bomb</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Naipaul (AD 1932 - ): A House for Mr. Biswas, In a Free State</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Plantinga (AD 1932 - ): God and Other Minds, The Nature of Necessity, Warranted Christian Belief</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) McCarthy (AD 1933 - ): The Road, The Border Trilogy</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) McCullough (AD 1933 - ): Truman, John Adams, 1776, The Path Between the Seas</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Kesey (AD 1935 - AD 2001): One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Ambrose (AD 1936 - AD 2002): Citizen Soldiers, Undaunted Courage, Band of Brothers</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) McMurtry (AD 1936 - ): Lonesome Dove</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) MacLachlan (AD 1938 - ): Sarah, Plain and Tall</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Atwood (AD 1939 - ): The Handmaid's Tale, The Blind Assassin</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Herr (AD 1940 - ): Dispatches</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Johnson (AD 1940 - ): Darwin on Trial</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Kripke (AD 1940 - ): Naming and Necessity</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Dawkins (AD 1941 - ): The God Delusion</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Sp.) Allende (AD 1942 - ): The House of the Spirits</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Berlinski (AD 1942 - ): The Devil's Delusion: Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Ondaatje (AD 1943 - ): The English Patient</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Ford, Richard (AD 1944 - ): The Bascombe Novels</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Wangerin (AD 1944 - ): The Book of the Dun Cow</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Dillard (AD 1945 - ): Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Holy the Firm, For the Time Being, An American Childhood, The Maytrees</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Hofstadter (AD 1945 - ): Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Port.) Coelho (AD 1947 - ): The Alchemist</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Rushdie (AD 1947 - ): Midnight's Children</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Hitchens (AD 1949 - ): God is Not Great</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Card (AD 1951 - ): Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Turk.) Pamuk (AD 1952 - ): My Name is Red, Snow</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Pearcey (AD 1952 - ): Total Truth</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Wilson (AD 1953 - ): Letter from a Christian Citizen, Collision</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Ishiguro (AD 1954 - ): The Remains of the Day</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Fielding (AD 1958 - ): Bridget Jones's Diary</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Dembski (AD 1960 - ): The Design Inference, Intelligent Design</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Martel (AD 1963 - ): Life of Pi</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Rowling (AD 1965 - ): Harry Potter</li>
<li class="gZ8Cy"><input type="checkbox" /> (Eng.) Harris (AD 1967 - ): Letter to a Christian Nation</li>
</ul>
<span style="font-size: 130%;"><span style="font-family: times new roman;"><br /></span></span></div>
Adrian C. Keisterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12601165797762278028noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921510.post-5124903125271286242014-01-12T17:07:00.000-05:002014-01-12T17:07:18.840-05:00A Fantastic Quote from Phantastes<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 130%;"><span style="font-family: times new roman;">I've finally picked up <i>Phantastes</i>, by George MacDonald, a book that was highly influential in the life of C. S. Lewis, and found a quote well worth passing on. MacDonald is speaking, through a helpful female character, about a dangerous temptress:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 130%;"><span style="font-family: times new roman;"></span></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: times new roman;">"I cannot quite tell," she said, "but I am sure she would not look so beautiful if she did not take means to make herself look more beautiful than she is. And then, you know, you began by being in love with her before you saw her beauty, mistaking her for the lady of the marble - another kind altogether</span>, I should think. But the chief thing that makes her beautiful is this: that, although she loves no man, she loves the love of any man; and when she finds one in her power, her desire to bewitch him and gain his love (not for the sake of his love either, but that she may be conscious anew of her own beauty, through the admiration he manifests), makes her very lovely - with a self-destructive beauty, though; for it is that which is constantly wearing her away within, till, at last, the decay will reach her face, and her whole front, when all the lovely mask of nothing will fall to pieces, and she be vanished for ever. </blockquote>
<span style="font-size: 130%;"><span style="font-family: times new roman;">This sounds much like some empty modern women I could picture. </span></span></div>
Adrian C. Keisterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12601165797762278028noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921510.post-73088893364514733302012-07-11T06:11:00.001-05:002012-07-11T06:11:21.174-05:00How to Find God's Will for Your Life<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 130%;"><span style="font-family: times new roman;">
It's a little something I've heard that's stuck with me over the years. First of all, you have to distinguish between the two wills of God. There are not more than two, nor are there fewer than two. One will of God is the preceptive or revealed will of God. This is the Bible, pure and simple. Then you have the decretive or secret will of God. This is whatsoever comes to pass. You can see already that I believe in predestination, foreordination, etc.
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<br />
Now the key here is that there is no category called the "perfect will of God" distinct from what I have already mentioned. Both the preceptive and decretive wills of God are perfect, in their own ways. Some people don't want to "miss out" on the "perfect will of God", because that would deprive them of happiness. They're thinking of the "perfect will of God" almost as a subset of the "will of God", and they want to aim for that center. But this is an incorrect way of thinking.
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So now that we've defined the two wills of God, you might well ask, "Adrian, if you believe in predestination, then aren't you always following the decretive will of God whether you want to or not?" Answer: Yes! So, evidently, when I'm talking about "finding God's will for your life", I'm not talking about the decretive will. I'm talking about the preceptive will. We don't know the decretive will of God (hence the other name, "secret will"), so the best we can do is attempt to align ourselves with the preceptive will.
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I'm really asking this question: what does the Bible say about wisdom in living your daily life? There are five aspects of which I am aware, that I've found helpful in finding godly wisdom in making choices. Let's consider the aspect of choosing a vocation. What questions are valuable to ask? I would put forth these questions:
<br />
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1. Is this vocation in accordance with the law of God (and therefore the laws of the land)?
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2. Is this vocation something I like doing?
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3. Am I good at this vocation?
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4. Do other people think I'm good at this vocation?
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5. Do I have the opportunity to do this vocation?
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When all of those point in the same direction, I say go for it!
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Question Number 2 includes all those little promptings of the Holy Spirit nudging you one way or another. God does change our desires from time to time, and this question encompasses all of that.
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Also note that these questions presuppose a few things. Most importantly, you must know your Bible. Secondly, you must be in prayer. It is in prayer that God most often changes our wills to align with His revealed will. Also, you will note that the Holy Spirit never, ever contradicts Scripture. If God wrote the Bible, and He did, and God is utterly consistent, and He is, and if the Holy Spirit is a Person of the Trinity, and He is, then it is impossible for the Holy Spirit to go against Scripture. That would be equivalent to the Holy Spirit telling Jesus Christ (the Second Person of the Trinity), "We don't need you anymore - you're kind of superfluous in this whole salvation thing. Leave." It wouldn't happen: God does not change.
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You'd have to modify the questions a bit for different situations in life. There are analogies for other situations.
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I hope this proves helpful to people struggling with how to choose godly paths in life.
</span></span></div>Adrian C. Keisterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12601165797762278028noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921510.post-43733712104332304362012-03-03T21:37:00.005-05:002012-03-06T21:37:18.028-05:00Math Help Boards<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><br /><br />Now that my readership is down to zero, I'm going to post! This is a post about an online forum for which I am an administrator: Math Help Boards. <a href='http://www.mathhelpboards.com/forum.php' rel='follow'>You can find it here</a>. There's an amazing amount of raw mathematical talent there that you can tap into for math help. I'd highly recommend it!<br /><br />Cheers.<br /><br /></span></span></div>Adrian C. Keisterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12601165797762278028noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921510.post-21793726577595645902010-11-01T11:22:00.002-05:002010-11-01T11:30:29.172-05:00What do you do when...<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><br /><br />... there are literally no good candidates running for even one office for which there is a vote? I've thought about possibly voting for the worst, most extreme candidate on the grounds that they would be more easily ousted later. The problem is, how can I justify voting for a pro-death candidate? I could also think about a write-in candidate, but the fact is, if someone isn't on the ballot anywhere, they have very little chance of getting elected. <br /><br />I had no problem voting for the Constitution Party candidate in the last presidential election, because he was on the ballot in a lot of states, though not CT. <br /><br />This sort of thing kind of ticks me off, because now my voice can't be heard. I have no good option. <br /><br /></span></span></div>Adrian C. Keisterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12601165797762278028noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921510.post-40103841227371647582010-10-30T15:50:00.002-05:002010-10-30T15:55:10.416-05:00A New Book Out<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><br /><br />So there's a fascinating <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Eigenvalues-Manakov-System-Parameters-Birefringent/dp/3843363250/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1288471863&sr=8-1">new book</a> out. It's hot off the press, and guaranteed to become a Times Bestseller. The plot is gripping, and the character development deep. I think everyone ought to go right out and buy one in order to support the poor struggling author. <br /><br />Enjoy!<br /><br /></span></span></div>Adrian C. Keisterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12601165797762278028noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921510.post-71040528450949981232010-08-28T12:51:00.002-05:002010-08-28T12:55:03.450-05:00Clever Abortion Clinic Tactic<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><br /><br />It is my opinion that abortion clinics should be harrassed in every possible legal method. <a href="http://theaquilareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2811:virginia-attorney-general-rules-state-can-force-abortion-clinics-to-follow-same-standards-as-hospitals&catid=78:news-from-other-media&Itemid=135">Here's a very nice one</a> served up in Virginia: simply requiring that abortion clinics provide the same standard of medical care that a hospital does. Apparently, according to the pro-death people, this would force 4 out of 21 clinics to shut down. That would be fantastic! Not as good as simply outlawing abortion, as should happen, but a step in the right direction. This would hit them where it hurts: the pocketbook. <br /><br /></span></span></div>Adrian C. Keisterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12601165797762278028noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921510.post-64428067452187951462010-08-23T09:30:00.005-05:002010-08-23T09:50:14.314-05:00Wilson's Recent Pilgrim's Progress Post<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><br /><br />Douglas Wilson has recently <a href="http://www.dougwils.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7923:orthodoxy-in-a-box&catid=46:auburn-avenue-stuff">posted some quotes</a> from Bunyan's <span style="font-style:italic;">Pilgrim's Progress</span>. You can read Wilson's post for the context. Or will you get all the context? I think there's something missing there. The <span style="font-style:italic;">Pilgrim's Progress</span> quote, in its entirety, reads thus:<br /><br /><blockquote>TALK. That is it that I said; for to talk of such things is most profitable; for by so doing, a man may get knowledge of many things; as of the vanity of earthly things, and the benefit of things above. Thus, in general, but more particularly by this, a man may learn the necessity of the new birth, the insufficiency of our works, the need of Christ's righteousness, &c. Besides, by this a man may learn, by talk, what it is to repent, to believe, to pray, to suffer, or the like; by this also a man may learn what are the great promises and consolations of the gospel, to his own comfort. Further, by this a man may learn to refute false opinions, to vindicate the truth, and also to instruct the ignorant.<br /><br />FAITH. All this is true, and glad am I to hear these things from you.<br /><br />TALK. Alas! the want of this is the cause why so few understand the need of faith, and the necessity of a work of grace in their soul, in order to eternal life; but ignorantly live in the works of the law, by which a man can by no means obtain the kingdom of heaven.<br /><br />FAITH. But, by your leave, heavenly knowledge of these is the gift of God; no man attaineth to them by human industry, or only by the talk of them.<br /><br />TALK. All this I know very well; for a man can receive nothing, except it be given him from Heaven; all is of grace, not of works. I could give you a hundred scriptures for the confirmation of this.<br /><br />FAITH. Well, then, said Faithful, what is that one thing that we shall at this time found our discourse upon?<br /></blockquote><br /><br />Here I have quoted the <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/131/131.txt">Project Gutenberg version</a>.<br /><br />If you compare this full quotation with Wilson's quote, I think it's true that the missing parts are rather important, especially Faithful's affirmation of what Talkative says that is true. Isn't it true that non-believers can get some things right? They can say truth? Common grace, I think they call it.<br /><br />I'm not an English major (although I love literature, as evidenced by <a href="http://cucumberlandisland.blogspot.com/">Cucumberland Island</a>). But it does seem to me as if the missing parts greatly change the meaning of the passage. In fact, my impression of the passage is that Faithful is affirming everything Talkative says here, while providing a clarification that Talkative appears to agree with. Faithful does not appear to disagree with what Talkative is saying. <br /><br />So the lesson here isn't that what Talkative says is wrong. The lesson here is that even unbelievers (Talkative, it becomes clear later on, is no believer) can get portions of theology correct. Another example of this is a professor of whom my father heard, who was an Orthodox Jew. He was, oddly enough, teaching in Romans. And he went point-by-point down the tenets of Reformed theology. One of his students raised his hand and asked him whether he believed in any of this stuff. "No," replied the professor, "But that's what the text says." <br /><br />The fact that Talkative doesn't live out this doctrine doesn't mean the doctrine is incorrect. It means that that critical link connecting doctrine and practice was missing in Talkative's life. <br /><br />I'm wondering if one possible implication that Wilson is trying to make is that confessionals tend to spout off on the doctrine, but fail to live it out. Sadly, that's probably true in far too many cases. But, if you reason that, as a consequence, the doctrine that confessionals believe is wrong, you'd have just committed the <span style="font-style:italic;">ad hominem</span> fallacy. I don't recommend that you go there!<br /><br /></span></span></div>Adrian C. Keisterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12601165797762278028noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921510.post-64394764560964643742010-06-02T13:24:00.003-05:002010-06-02T13:37:36.371-05:00Comparing Computers to Pen and Paper<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><br /><br />My boss and I like to joke about the advantages of old-fashioned paper and pen. He and I have made the following comments about them:<br /><br />1. Fast boot-up time.<br />2. High bandwidth.<br />3. Programming language doesn't change very fast.<br />4. Durability (how many computers do you know last hundreds of years?).<br />5. Highly portable. <br />6. Low energy consumption.<br />7. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQHX-SjgQvQ">Easy-to-use GUI</a>.<br />8. Less eye strain than other models.<br /><br />In Christ.<br /><br /></span></span></div>Adrian C. Keisterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12601165797762278028noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921510.post-7008581447801323372010-05-17T07:57:00.003-05:002010-05-17T08:16:39.073-05:00Confessional or Relevant: a False Dichotomy<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><br /><br />Let me rant. I am sick of people claiming that confessions are old, outdated, or irrelevant to today's hip culture and Gen X. I am sick of people saying that doctrine is only for people with pointy heads and has no real value for Joe Shmoe; going along with that, I am sick of people putting up a firm wall of separation between doctrine and practice, as if doctrine isn't practical, and practice isn't doctrinal! (Note: I am NOT saying a pastor shouldn't make practical application in a sermon. I AM saying that we should not assume a doctrine has to be applied in order to be practical; I am ALSO saying that we should not assume that a particular practice does not have doctrinal implications.) <br /><br />Here's an interesting quote: <br /><blockquote><br />Our first parents, being seduced by the subtilty and temptations of Satan, sinned, in eating the forbidden fruit. This their sin, God was pleased, according to His wise and holy counsel, to permit, having purposed to order it to His own glory.<br /><br />By this sin they fell from their original righteousness and communion, with God, and so became dead in sin, and wholly defiled in all the parts and faculties of soul and body.<br /><br />They being the root of all mankind, the guilt of this sin was imputed; and the same death in sin, and corrupted nature, conveyed to all their posterity descending from them by ordinary generation.<br /><br />From this original corruption, whereby we are utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good, and wholly inclined to all evil, do proceed all actual transgressions.<br /><br />This corruption of nature, during this life, does remain in those that are regenerated; and although it be, through Christ, pardoned, and mortified; yet both itself, and all the motions thereof, are truly and properly sin.<br /><br />Every sin, both original and actual, being a transgression of the righteous law of God, and contrary thereunto, does in its own nature, bring guilt upon the sinner, whereby he is bound over to the wrath of God, and curse of the law, and so made subject to death, with all miseries spiritual, temporal, and eternal.<br /></blockquote><br />Could anything be more relevant to the world around us? Does not this explain so many things? It says man is not basically good, he is basically bad, though not as bad as he could be. <br /><br />How about this interesting quote?<br /><blockquote><br />The grace of faith, whereby the elect are enabled to believe to the saving of their souls, is the work of the Spirit of Christ in their hearts, and is ordinarily wrought by the ministry of the Word, by which also, and by the administration of the sacraments, and prayer, it is increased and strengthened.<br /><br />By this faith, a Christian believes to be true whatsoever is revealed in the Word, for the authority of God Himself speaking therein; and acts differently upon that which each particular passage thereof contains; yielding obedience to the commands, trembling at the threatenings, and embracing the promises of God for this life, and that which is to come. But the principal acts of saving faith are accepting, receiving, and resting upon Christ alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life, by virtue of the covenant of grace.<br /><br />This faith is different in degrees, weak or strong; may often and many ways assailed, and weakened, but gets the victory: growing up in many to the attainment of a full assurance, through Christ, who is both the author and finisher of our faith.<br /></blockquote><br />Wow! The first quote shows us the world has a problem. The second quote gives us the solution. Isn't that amazing? Oh, by the way, the first quote was the Westminster Confession of Faith Chapter 6, and the second was the Westminster Confession of Faith Chapter 14. <br /><br />So, if someone says, "Yeah, but you're being confessional and I'm being relevant," you can make the comeback that being confessional is ALWAYS relevant. Human nature does not change over the ages. The problem has always been sin, and the solution has always been Jesus Christ. There is nothing more relevant to the human condition than the sentence before this one.<br /><br /></span></span></div>Adrian C. Keisterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12601165797762278028noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921510.post-41807390232721657842010-03-21T13:00:00.003-05:002010-03-21T13:06:04.629-05:00More Bach<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><br /><br />Today is Bach's 325th birthday, if you take the Julian calender date. What are you doing to celebrate? I'd recommend listening to the <i>St. Matthew Passion</i> or a cantata. Maybe play some yourself, if you're so inclined. <br /><br /></span></span></div>Adrian C. Keisterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12601165797762278028noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921510.post-20820340717841156842010-03-20T17:12:00.007-05:002010-03-20T18:45:17.923-05:00Landau: Mechanics, 3rd Ed., p. 32<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><br /><br />WARNING!!! Serious mathematical question ahead.<br /><br />On the page mentioned above in the book mentioned above, Landau makes the following claim, in the context of talking about motion in a central field; that is, the motion of two particles, where the only forces between the two particles are directed on the straight line joining the two particles. <br /><blockquote><br />Such cases are exceptional, however, and when the form of $U(r)$ is arbitrary the angle $\Delta\phi$ is not a rational fraction of $2\pi$. In general, therefore, the path of a particle executing a finite motion is not closed. It passes through the minimum and maximum distances an infinity of times, and after infinite time it covers the entire annulus between the two bounding circles. The path shown in Fig. 9 is an example.<br /></blockquote><br />A note to the reader: Fig. 9 looks very much like the graph on the front of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Students-Solution-accompany-Classical-Particles/dp/003097304X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269125080&sr=8-1">this book</a>.<br /><br />Now, in classical mechanics, we have no tunneling or other means of teleportation. This implies that the particle must continuously traverse whatever path it is on. We should also note that a particle is like a mathematical point - it has no extension. <br /><br />Now, mathematically, Landau is saying that there is a continuous bijection from the half-infinite line $[0,\infty)$ to the annulus $\overline{B}(0,r_{\text{max}})\setminus B(0,r_{\text{min}})$. Is this possible? The annulus obviously requires two continuous variables to locate a point in its interior. However, given the path of the particle as a function of time, we need only specify one variable (time) in order to locate its position. <br /><br />So help me out, you topologists. Is there a homeomorphism between these two sets? I could believe that the particle's path is dense in the annulus, but I'm not sure about traversing every point. <br /><br />In Christ.<br /><br /></span></span></div>Adrian C. Keisterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12601165797762278028noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921510.post-66456639073650428182010-03-17T11:44:00.003-05:002010-03-17T13:30:03.942-05:00Some Hard Numbers<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><br /><br />According to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas">wiki article on Texas</a>, its area is 268,820 square miles. Now, 1 square mile is exactly 27,878,400 square feet. Ergo, Texas has approximately 7.5 x 10^12 square feet. Now, according to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population">wiki article on World Population</a>, the current population of the world is estimated by the US Census Bureau to be 6,808,900,000. Suppose we were to fit the entire world population into the state of Texas. How much room would each person have? Well, you'd take your 7.5 x 10^12 and divide by 6,808,900,000. According to my calculator, that gives about 1100 square feet / person. That's a small home with two bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen, and one bathroom. That's not too bad. If you do the same calculation, except that you use the area of the entire United States, you end up with approximately 15500 square feet / person. That's an extremely large mansion. <br /><br />Have you ever noticed that the people who argue that the world is over-populated tend to be liberals/socialists? And have you also noticed that liberals and socialists tend to be concentrated in large cities? And have you ever noticed that in large cities, the amount of living area the average person has is considerably smaller than in the country? It makes you wonder, doesn't it, as to whether liberals are able to look beyond the confines of their cities!<br /><br />To take another angle, let us consider wheat. According to the wiki on Norman Borlaug, <br /><blockquote><br />Biologist Paul R. Ehrlich wrote in his 1968 bestseller The Population Bomb, "The battle to feed all of humanity is over ... In the 1970s and 1980s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now." Ehrlich said, "I have yet to meet anyone familiar with the situation who thinks India will be self-sufficient in food by 1971," and "India couldn't possibly feed two hundred million more people by 1980." - Ehrlich, Paul: The Population Bomb, 1968.<br /></blockquote><br />A little bit later, the wiki has the following: "By 1974, India was self-sufficient in the production of all cereals." So, ok, maybe India took a little time to get there, but they did. Ehrlich's basic idea was flat-out wrong. Norman Borlaug has been credited with saving the lives of over a billion people from starvation.<br /><br />When are we going to get it into our heads that Malthus and Ehrlich are wrong? It seems, in the face of such hard numbers as I've given above, that the over-population people are incorrect. So why would supposedly rational people ignore numbers such as these? There might be any number of reasons. Possibly one reason might be that science and hard data is not as important to such people as control over other people. We've seen this first-hand with the climategate scandal, which the extreme environmentalists have ignored to the best of their ability. Their support is waning, however. <br /><br />I would issue a call to liberals and socialists everywhere to re-examine your philosophy and how well it matches up with your rhetoric. Do not invoke science and statistics when you intend to twist them for your own political agenda. <br /><br /></span></span></div>Adrian C. Keisterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12601165797762278028noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921510.post-53837291838527249542010-02-09T17:29:00.003-05:002010-02-09T17:39:35.093-05:00Bach<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><br /><br />It happened. Something I thought would never happen, but it has. My favorite composer has changed. It used to be Beethoven, and it is now Bach.<br /><br />Mind you, my favorite <i>piece of music</i> is still probably Beethoven's Fifth Piano Concerto. However, taken together, I like Bach better than Beethoven now.<br /><br />What, you might ask, achieved this stupendous transformation in my thinking? (Ok, it might not seem quite so stupendous for some of you, but it is true that I don't change things like this very often.)<br /><br />There are two books that achieved this change. One is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Glory-Honor-Artistic-Sebastian-Leaders/dp/158182470X/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_1"><i>Glory and Honor</i></a>, by Gregory Wilbur. That was a book that shattered most of my misconceptions about Bach as being a money-grubbing grump. In fact, while he did stand up for the money due his office, he was one of the most genial composers ever. He was quite the husband and father, and his home was always open. Composers and musicians were always traipsing through his house.<br /><br />The second book was actually one I haven't read, but heard about: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Evening-Palace-Reason-Frederick-Enlightenment/dp/0007156618/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I2R1S2UZ3TIQVA&colid=1OQ0IT2X3BRN3"><i>Evening in the Palace of Reason</i></a>, a very interesting book about the smack-down of Fredrick the Great of Prussia. You can read enough of it on Amazon to get the idea of it. Bach was simply unparalleled in counterpoint, and here is one of the proofs. <br /><br />Ultimately, it was also the spiritual aspect. Very few composers have ever submitted all their work to God the way he did. And there, I think, lies the difference for me. Beethoven is great and all, and wrote some great stuff, but it's not so universally spiritual as Bach. Bach also appeals to the mind more than Beethoven. <br /><br />That's all for now.<br /><br /></span></span></div>Adrian C. Keisterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12601165797762278028noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921510.post-10255875005919868752009-11-06T08:42:00.004-05:002009-11-06T08:45:05.082-05:00A Letter to My Congressman - Concerning the Affordable Health Care for Americans Act, H.R. 3962<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><br /><br />I was contacted by Meredith Dodson, encouraging me to urge you to vote yea on this bill. This email was rather frustrating to me, because it simply assumed that I would want this bill to pass. I most assuredly do NOT, and here's why:<br /><br />1. It would increase governmental intervention in private lives, thus curtailing our freedoms. Why does the government think it can run our lives better than we can? No, the government should limit itself to law-making, law-enforcement, and national defence. This is what our Founders thought government should be, and I see no reason why their ideal should change. Human nature has not changed since they founded this country; hence, one of the best experiments in governance in the history of the world should not be changed.<br /><br />2. The bill would support taxpayer-funded abortions. I am pro-life through and through; certainly abortion on demand should be highly illegal. I OBJECT to paying for the deaths of unborn human beings (to argue that they are just fetuses and not human is clearly a fallacy, since medical science has evolved to the point that "viability" occurs earlier and earlier. That's the argument of the beard. A fetus is a human being with a soul right from the moment of conception, and should therefore be protected by law). <br /><br />3. It would eliminate competition, thus driving prices up and quality down. Far from creating affordable health-care for Americans, it would work very effectively against that goal. Why do so many people think that health care, education, etc., are immune from the laws of supply and demand? Or from other economic laws? Goods and services behave the same way: if you introduce competition, everything gets better for everyone. <br /><br />In summary, there is not one redeeming feature of this immoral bill, and I urge you to vote NAY. <br /><br />If you want to improve health care in this country, I recommend the following steps:<br /><br />1. Significantly de-regulate the entire industry. I don't mean that the FDA should cease to exist (surely drugs should be put through the ringer before they are introduced), or that abortion should be legal. I mean that competition should be encouraged. In addition, it is simply impossible for the government to make all the nitty-gritty little decisions that make health care better, simply because the government doesn't know all the information it needs to know. There's way too much. <br /><br />2. Make it harder to sue doctors for malpractice. America is a sue-happy country, and that drives health care costs up, in this case, because doctors have to pay so much more in malpractice insurance. The doctors, I'm here to tell you, are not going to simply absorb those costs. They will pass them on to their patients. I don't say make it impossible to sue, just make it harder. Have judges dismiss more trivial cases, for example. <br /><br />A Concerned Citizen Who Votes<br /><br /></span></span></div>Adrian C. Keisterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12601165797762278028noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921510.post-15704310025235460682009-08-13T09:01:00.002-05:002009-08-13T09:07:49.132-05:00Humility, II<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><br /><br />So it gets even better. After learning from my <a href="http://cumberlandisland.blogspot.com/2009/08/humility.html">last mistake</a> to plug the alarm clock into an outlet <i>not</i> controlled by the light switch, I went through the same alarm-setting procedure as before. <br /><br />This time, I woke up at 6:04 on my own. No alarm. I look over at the clock, and it's on. The alarm was set for 6:00am, the clock was displaying the current time correctly, including the am/pm, and the alarm was on. So what gives? <br /><br />Apparently, this clock has been a favorite playtoy of my son Hans for some time. He must have rough-housed enough with it to disturb the internal workings, or perhaps the speaker, or whatever. Anyway, it didn't go off as planned.<br /><br />So the moral of the story is never to use an alarm clock your 13-month-old son has played with. Also, since I was humbled the last time, I have no need of further humility. I can stop praying that most dangerous prayer of all: the prayer for more humility. Can I sell you a bridge?<br /><br /></span></span></div>Adrian C. Keisterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12601165797762278028noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921510.post-27061328687875053262009-08-12T19:13:00.004-05:002009-08-13T09:01:08.087-05:00Humility<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><br /><br />Last night, I had great intentions. I was going to wake up this morning at 6:00am, do my walking, do the dishes, and still be ready to go in time to do devotions and everything else before going to work.<br /><br />I had gotten into bed soon after getting back from band. It was 11:00pm. I thought I'd get up and set the alarm clock. No problem. I found the alarm clock; it wasn't plugged in. So I plugged it in and synchronized it to our radio-controlled clock, being very careful to set the am/pm correctly (I've been burned on that before!). As I was doing so, I thought to myself, "You know, it really is quite simple to set an alarm clock, and yet so many times people don't set it correctly, and they're late to places." Of course, I was thinking of <i>other</i> people when I thought of this, not myself, but that's beside the point (or perhaps not-so-beside-the-point!). I continued in my train of thought, "All you have to do is correctly set the time including its am/pm, set the alarm itself with the correct am/pm, and then turn the alarm on." So I did that. Then, because I didn't want to be woken up, or kept up by the bright LED display, I put the clock face-down on the sewing table, turned off the lights and went to bed.<br /><br />Next morning, I wake up with the sunlight streaming into my room, and I keep thinking to myself, "It's after 6. Why doesn't that stupid alarm clock go off?" Finally, I get up and look at the radio-controlled clock. 7:30am. I turn the alarm clock over: there's no LED display. I had forgotten that the outlet into which I plugged the alarm clock was controlled by the light switch (a feature I dislike exceedingly, unless you have very few built-in lights). So when I turned off the lights the night before, I cut off the power to the alarm clock.<br /><br />And the moral of the story is this: Don't count your alarms before they sound. Also, it's a good idea to be humble.<br /><br /></span></span></div>Adrian C. Keisterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12601165797762278028noreply@blogger.com2