Dedication to Augustus When I saw that you [Imperator Caesar] were giving your attention not […]
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Nature’s Lessons on Faith: A Guide for the Despondent
In a previous post, I wrote about how a person would draw lessons on faith […]
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Gibbon: How Augustus Undermined the Constitution of Rome
The obvious definition of a monarchy seems to be that of a state, in which a single person, by whatsoever name he may be distinguished, is intrusted with the execution of the laws, the management of the revenue, and the command of the army. … A martial nobility and stubborn commons, possessed of arms, tenacious of property, and collected into constitutional assemblies, form the only balance capable of preserving a […]
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Nature’s Lessons on Faith: A Guide for the Despondent
In a previous post, I wrote about how a person would draw lessons on faith from nature, as shown in Prince Andrew’s encounter with the Oak Tree in Tolstoy’s War and Peace. Similar encounters are scattered throughout the novel. Tolstoy believes that communion with nature is necessary if man is to live with integrity, not just to survive. He could not have written about such communion so vividly, if he […]
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Nature’s Lessons on Faith: II. Tolstoy’s Oak Tree
At the edge of the road stood an oak. Probably ten times the age of the birches that formed the forest, ten times as thick and twice as tall as they. It was an enormous tree, its girth twice as great as a man could embrace, and some of its branches had been broken off and its bark scarred. With its huge ungainly limbs sprawling unsymmetrically, and its gnarled hands […]
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Gibbon: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Emperor Augustus The principal conquests of the Romans were achieved under the republic; and the emperors, for the most part, were satisfied with preserving those dominions which had been acquired by the policy of the senate, the active emulations of the consuls, and the martial enthusiasm of the people. The seven first centuries were filled with a rapid succession of triumphs; but it was reserved for Augustus to relinquish the […]
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Nature’s Lessons on Faith: I. In the Presence of Beauty
Nature is transcendent. No work of art evokes more profound aesthetic feelings than nature. We feel the presence of the Artist, when we are confronted with, and immersed in, the beauty of His masterpiece. In that moment, what is seen becomes insignificant, compared with what is unseen. It is the Beauty that is unseen that we long to be part of, and be one with.
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Masterpiece Cakeshop Round 2: The End of the Beginning
On June 30, 2023, the last day of the court’s term, the Supreme Court of the United Status issued its ruling in the case of 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis. The ruling was the same as I had predicted six months ago. The opinions are a little disappointing, however. Both the majority and dissent seem to have difficulties reconciling rights to free speech and rights to equal access. The majority […]
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Transcripts of the Earliest New Testament Manuscripts
Five years ago, I published a series of blogposts on the earliest New Testament manuscripts, in one of which I tabulated all Greek manuscripts of all 27 NT books that have been dated to between 2nd and 4th century by both LDAB and NTVMR[1]. This particular post and the series have become the most viewed posts of my otherwise obscure blog. Recently, one reader posed a question, “Where can I […]
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