Dedication to Augustus When I saw that you [Imperator Caesar] were giving your attention not […]
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Why Am I a Christian: II. Longing for Goodness
I would have lost heart, unless I had believed That I would see the goodness […]
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Why Am I a Christian: II. Longing for Goodness
I would have lost heart, unless I had believed That I would see the goodness of the Lord In the land of the living. (Psalm 27:13) Let There Be Justice For as long as I can remember, I have believed in Justice, that good ultimately triumphs over evil. Injustice, real or perceived, was the only cause of suffering in my otherwise sheltered life. But it never occurred to me that […]
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Why am I a Christian: I. The Choice of a Lifetime
Background and Disclaimer Over the past few years, I’ve come across many Christians in online forums who are struggling with their belief. Most of them, like the young reader who posted thoughtful comments here recently, never really examined the faith they grew up with, until they became young adults and were exposed to arguments and theories that challenge their belief for the first time. I’m posting this personal testimony on […]
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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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