Christopher Hill summarizes thus the difference between Protestant and catholic attitudes: ‘Successful medieval businessmen died with feelings of guilt, and left the money to the church to be put to unproductive uses. Successful Protestant businessmen were no longer ashamed of their productive activities whilst alive, and at death left money to help others to imitate them.’ Protestantism, then, generated the psychological preconditions essential to the development of modern capitalism.

A Life of John Calvin, Alister E. McGrath, 224

If you have beauty it has passed me by;
I take but slightest interest in such things,
But rather I possess the keenest eye
For what’s inside – a mind unwavering,
A rich intellect, and greater than mine,
Though I feel no jealousy, but adore
A beautiful wit; amazing design
That warms my heart and cuts it to the core.
Now I clearly see your handsome features,
And fool was I to ignore such brilliance
As becomes glad nature’s finest creatures;
Now will I seek your heart with every sense.
If I ever your great beauty ignored,
Let now my dull senses return restored.

By Paul Vest

I cannot imagine how the founders of cities would have made a homeless multitude come together to form a people, had they not moved them by their skillful speech, or how legislators would have succeeded in restraining mankind in the servitude of the law, had they not had the highest gifts of oratory. The very guiding principles of life, however intrinsically honourable they are, nevertheless possess more power to shape men’s minds when the brilliance of eloquence illumines the beauty of the subject.

Quintilian, The Orator’s Education, book II, ch. 16

It’s rather amusing that I should try to write a review for a rock concert, I who in 4th grade condemned all rock music as evil and who played mostly classical piano and listened to little rock throughout my life until now. But I’m doing it anyways. And in classic style, it’s a month late.
On December 10th, Awkward Silence, Commonplace, and Edward Bugg played a gig together. I missed Awkward Silence. I could review them anyways, but that might not be a very wise move.
Commonplace played before Edward Bugg, and I must say I really enjoyed their performance.
They are alternative rock with a very clear, clean sound…. (Continue Reading)

What are the Sacraments?

They are visible, holy signs and seals instituted by God in order that by their use he may the more fully disclose and seal to us the promise of the gospel, namely, that because of the one sacrifice of Christ accomplished on the cross he graciously grants us the forgiveness of sins and eternal life.

Ah! Quelle regard d’un azûre si intense
Ces yeux hypnotiques qui me tente, me tourmente
Un océan si profond–ah! je m’y perd!
Mais son sourire doré me ramène sur terre.

By Deborah R. Foucachon, 2001

It was a gift of Providence to mankind that the truly good should give us the greater pleasure.

Quintilian, The Orator’s Education, book I

Give me a boy who is encouraged by praise, pleased by success, and who cries when he has lost. He is the one who will be nourished by ambition, hurt by reproof, and excited by honour. In him I shall never have to fear laziness.

Quintilian, The Orator’s Education, book I, ch. 3

Have you ever noticed how close laughter and tears are to one another in little children? They can shift straight from one to the other without any transition. Rather than living on opposite ends of the spectrum, comedy and tragedy are close neighbors. Comedy is just tragedy in perspective.

Ben Merkle, credenda Agenda; weather

Doug Wilson preached a sermon during the Christmas season that I really appreciated! It was about the miracle that surrounds the account of the wise men being led by the Star of Bethlehem, but he ties that into the miracles that surround us everyday.
A few quotes:
“How can you breath? what’s with that?”
“Your world is way too bizarre to be real.”
“You could spend the rest of your life getting PHD’s in what’s going-on on one square inch of your lawn.”

I’d like to post it here for all you students who were gone (or go to Trinity), and for all those who don’t have the privilege of being here in Moscow.

The Star of Bethlehem (9.3 MB)
Used with permission

“Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy.
“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver. “Don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. he’s the King, I tell you.”

The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, ch. 8

“In the home, the husband is a picture of Christ. But if he shows no initiative in loving, teaching, or admonishing, he is a lying picture of Christ. In other words, each husband, every day, is talking about Christ through his behavior. What he says is either a truth or a lie, but he cannot be silent.”

-Doug Wilson, Standing on the Promises, 17

“We are always falling in love, or quarreling, looking for jobs or fearing to lose them, getting ill and recovering, following public affairs. If we let ourselves, we shall always be waiting for some distraction or other to end before we can really get down to our work. The only people who achieve knowledge are those who seek it while the conditions are still unfavorable. Favorable conditions never come.”

-C.S. Lewis

Hill Abbey

Here’s a great summary of Latin Participles: Latin Participles

This is the first Lord’s Day of Advent, the year of our Lord, 2005. This is the beginning of the church year, marking annually, as we do, the beginning of our salvation in the Incarnation of the Lord Jesus in the womb of the Virgin Mary.

We are marking our days, building up to one of the great Christian holidays. This is a potent holiday, one that secularists appear to understand better than we sometimes do. They want to stamp out any vestige of the historic Christian faith in this, and their secularist jihad is not irrational. They know how powerful this story is. This being the case, let us make a point of telling the story right, and very loudly.

In the first place, do not fall for the lie that the spirit of Christmas is an ethereal kind of thing. This is the celebration of the Incarnation, when the eternal Logos of God took on a material body, which He still has. Do not, therefore, join in the general lamentations about “materialism.” This is a celebration of God taking on a material body. It is therefore a holiday that should focus on stuff.

By stuff, I mean ribbons, decorations, fudge, wreaths, cider, presents, feasting, toasts, shopping with joy, putting up a tree, sending cards, learning a Christmas piece on the piano, and more fudge.

Of course, we all know how to sin with stuff—we were living in a pretty earthy state of sin before Christ came. But He did not come to whisk us out of this world in order that we might go celebrate some kind of Gnostic holiday in heaven. We are to honor the Lord Jesus with our stuff. So do not drink too much, do not run up your credit cards, and don’t try to buy friends with presents.

But God’s answer to sin begins with the Incarnation. We do not escape from sin by denying, or trying to deny, His method for saving us. Our salvation lies in receiving, resting, accepting, and imitating. And how do we imitate? One thing we must do is use stuff.

– Doug Wilson, 11/27/05

For the common elucidation of our respective perspectives, let us write these on our computer screens with black ink:

• Exordium – Introduction
• Narratio – Statement of facts
• Partitio – Drawing up battle lines
• Propositio – Thesis statement
• Confirmatio – Positive argumentation
• Refutatio – Negative argumentatio
• Peroratio – Conclusion

-Ryan Handermann

For those of you who are doing their Lordship paper on Baptism, HERE is a great resource.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Wow, the break’s finally here. The guys can’t wait to see how much stuffing they can eat and the girls… are just glad to be home.

What an awesome college! I know, some of you out there aren’t enjoying it quite so much, the workload is heavy, and the teachers don’t apologize either. Oh well. It’s a riot, IMHO. The perfect complementary education for a Classical Christian education, lots of solid teachers who know and love God and know what they’re talking about, and a lot of fun and laughter from all sides.
And yet… without break I think that much of the freshman class here at NSA would shrivel and die, one by one. Breaks were divinely ordained from the very first week, and so it’s great to see that pattern continued here. Work hard, then relax. And eat. Then work hard again. It’s like running laps – you sprint the first two laps, then jog the third, fourth, and fifth, and then start sprinting again for the last three. The bottle of gatorade you carry with you is Bucer’s and parties. And then after the final stretch, break comes. You stumble over to the sideline, catching your breath and regurgitating all the wisdom you inhaled while running around the academic track like a rabbit with a pencil in your ear.
So what’s the wisdom? Work hard… and then have fun. Without the work, you don’t deserve the fun. And without the fun, you die like a little rabbit with a heart attack.

Ah! non! c’est un peu court, jeune homme!
On pouvait dire. . .Oh!…. . .bien des choses en somme. . .
En variant le ton,–par exemple, tenez
Agressif ‘Moi, monsieur, si j’avais un tel nez
Il faudrait sur-le-champ que je me l’amputasse!’
Amical ‘Mais il doit tremper dans votre tasse!
Pour boire, faites-vous fabriquer un hanap!’
Descriptif ‘C’est un roc!. . .c’est un pic!. . .c’est un cap!
Que dis-je, c’est un cap?. . .C’est une peninsule!’
(keep reading…)

-Cyrano de Bergerac

“Attendu qu’un grand nez est proprement l’indice
D’un homme affable, bon, courtois, spirituel,
Liberal, courageux, tel que je suis, et tel
Qu’il vous est interdit a jamais de vous croire…”

–Cyrano De Bergerac