Tag: Rome

Politics and Religion

 

In the first and second centuries, the ruling authoritarian government of Rome persecuted Christians for crimes against the state. What were those crimes? Chief among the reasons for Christian persecution was the refusal of Christians to worship Roman gods. To the Romans, their deities, their gods, were the reason for their victory in war or bountiful resources. When told to give obeisance to these gods, Christians refused, claiming there is only one God who has disclosed Himself in the person and work of Jesus, the Christ. Roman authorities then used their political beliefs to penalize Christians for their speech in their finances and, ultimately, in their deaths.

Christian views that go against the ruling vision of any culture are seen as an attack on the accepted gods of that age, including political viewpoints. Everyone worships something. And by ‘worship,’ I mean a total dedication to current, cultural beliefs. Cultural idols come in many forms. We customize our preferences. We commercialize our consumer desires, equating our views with what we buy. We determine the logic of a thing. If it makes sense to our group – even if it doesn’t conform to created reality – then it must be true. We measure “truth” (in air quotes) by popularity and polls promoted by publicity. We live in the “now,” refusing to consider that there is a “then,” a life after this life, a final judgment.

To many people, politics is their religion. Groups live and die with each election, each ballot cast. And the governance of a nation can become a real idol. Parties and platforms are human-centered idols. Not bowing to the beliefs and threats of a governing body may begin the suppression of speech and the elimination of one’s job. What happened in Rome is happening here. For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, president of the Comenius Institute, personally seeking Truth wherever it’s found. [First published at MarkEckel.com]

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I have mentioned before Nolli’s map of Rome from 1748. I have found it a pleasurable, even indispensable accompaniment to my reading about the Renaissance in Rome. I have also mentioned the website maintained by the architecture and geography department of the University of Oregon (http://nolli.uoregon.edu and now at http://nolli.stanford.edu/legacy). This site includes background material, […]

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Those of you who may have been following my diary for some time will recall that my interest in the Renaissance began with Barabara Tuchman’s ‘The March of Folly’ and her section on the Renaissance popes whose folly brought on the Reformation. I wanted to know more, and have been helped immeasurably by Will Durant’s […]

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This week on “The Learning Curve,” Gerard and Cara talk with Dr. Kathryn Tempest, a Reader in Classics and Ancient History at the University of Roehampton in London, UK, and author of Cicero: Politics and Persuasion in Ancient Rome and Brutus: The Noble Conspirator. They discuss the historical, civic, and moral lessons political leaders, educators, and schoolchildren today can learn by studying the Roman Republic and the lives of key figures from that era such as Cicero and Brutus.

Dr. Tempest reviews the legacy of Cicero, the distinguished statesman and orator, whose timeless works, influenced by Greek philosophy, have endeared him to extraordinary leaders through the ages, from St. Augustine to Churchill. She contrasts Cicero’s adherence to limited constitutionalism with the worldview of his nemesis, the colossal dictator Julius Caesar. She also delves into the complex relationship between Caesar and the enigmatic Brutus, whom Shakespeare called “the noblest Roman of them all” for his role in Caesar’s assassination on the “Ides of March.” Dr. Tempest traces the influence of these events on Enlightenment thinkers such as Locke and Montesquieu, and concepts such as the mixed constitution and separation of powers that are so fundamental to the American founding. She concludes with a reading from her biography of Brutus.

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I promised a little while ago that I would be writing about my recent travels, and since I’ve already done a piece on London and Paris last summer, I thought some readers might like a Saturday night sojourn to Rome.  This trip did not begin in the most auspicious of ways. While it was a […]

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This is part of an ongoing series.  You can read the first part here. For a long time people have thought the greatest of all rivals to Nationalism is Imperialism. But was it really? Instead of a being a rival Imperialism for most of history was more of a manager and transformer of Nationalism not […]

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Since Trump’s election nationalism has been talked about a lot and mostly condemned. People accuse one another of being nationalists and imply dark motivations to anyone who is believed to be a nationalist. The term is a charged one and for good reason, Nationalism is a powerful cultural force in any nation. When feelings of […]

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The Vatican broke with tradition this year and had a manger scene built entirely out of sand. It is reported that the sand sculpture took 720 tons of sand from a nearby town called Jesolo, a popular beach resort in Venice, for the project. I didn’t know the sinking Venice could spare any sand. The […]

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This Week’s Book Review: The Story of Greece and Rome

 

Modern western civilization sits atop a foundation built by the ancient Greeks and Romans. How much do you know of these civilizations? “The Story of Greece and Rome,” by Tony Spawforth offers a short, one-volume introduction to ancient Greece and Rome.

Spawforth starts at the beginning and carries the story to the present. He opens at the dawn of Greek history, and shows the influence these civilizations continue to have today.

The book starts by examining ancient Minoan and Mycenaean societies. Spawforth shows how they grew from societies into civilizations. This includes examination of how they gained, lost, and regained literacy, as well as the development of political systems and art forms.

“His Holiness Will Receive You in a Few Moments. I Could Have Dropped Dead!”

 

One of the touchstones of my life has always been the story of how my dad met the Pope, in Rome, on June 5, 1944. Truth be told, my mother always pooh-poohed the whole thing a bit (not unusual for Mum to do something like that, especially for an event in which she wasn’t the main focus). And given Dad’s legendary story-telling abilities, we did sometimes wonder how much of it was really true, and whether he’d gilded the lily at any point.

Apparently, not.

I’ve told the following story on Ricochet before, more than half a decade ago. Many of you weren’t here, so perhaps those who were will forgive me if I repeat it. Those of you who liked it then, I hope you still do; those of you for whom it’s new, I hope you enjoy it, too. The accompanying black-and-white images (except for the one of Dad’s letter, which I took from my brother), are from contact prints of photos Dad himself took during the war. Apologies for the poor quality, but the initial prints are tiny (click to enlarge the images).

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The “Calexit” referendum campaign has died in infancy after its leader decided to become a Russian citizen. The terminology is confusing. This proposed 2018 state ballot referendum, which Nigel Farage supported, would divide California along cultural lines into two smaller states. There is a separate campaign for California to leave the U.S. altogether called Yes […]

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Day One of September Group Writing posts. I’m Publius Horatius Cocles and today’s topic is bridge defense. It may not be a problem where you live, but a long time ago in Rome the city was all on one side of the Tiber River. This was part of our defense. When Clusium, a neighboring city, […]

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The Omens of St. Francis of Assisi for Our Times “There will be an uncanonically elected pope who will cause a great Schism, there will be diverse thoughts preached which will cause many, even those in the different orders to doubt, yea, even agree with those heretics which will cause my Order to divide, then […]

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The Dark Ages in the West Concurrent with the conquest of the Visigoths, the West entered the Dark Ages. The great monuments were rubble. The unifying benefit of Roman law no longer existed. The only remaining universal institution was the Church. The Church did not have the legions to protect it. It operated in a […]

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Do you know how, after going to a funeral, life seems that much sweeter? We often step away and resume our daily lives with renewed vigor and a focus on what really matters. In the back of our minds, we are often thinking about our own funerals, and what we will leave behind when we […]

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(Still digesting the History of Rome Podcast…) I was struck by the unusual uniformity of Bad Roman Emperors. I guess I assumed there would be more variety. Perhaps villains in comic books and James Bond thrillers have given me unrealistic expectations on unique depravity, but THORP delivered a vision of the bad emperors wherein they […]

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Thanks to the Daily Shot recommendation, I’ve been listening to the History of Rome Podcast (originally aired 2007 to 2012). I enjoy it a great deal, but I have a question for folks who have listened to it before. Recently I heard the “Hundredth Episode” (which is numerically episode 90). This episode is a special […]

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Image courtesy of member EJHill  In between changing my knuckle bandages after another day of dragging them on the pavement and taking inventory on the canned food in the bunker, I enjoy reading the America and Rome comparisons on Ricochet (here and here to name a couple).  Let’s add one to the pile…….. Preview Open

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I wish the Republican party or conservative movement would lop off the whole IQ bit. Yes I mean the Charles Murray, John Derbyshire, Fred, Steve Sailer, Mencious Moldbug wing that promotes race and politics by IQ testing. Reading the IQ essays of the aforementioned makes me feel I’m back in the 19th century deducing personality traits or aptitude […]

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