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Meta
Category Archives: history
Give me liberty or give me alternative history!
For Want of a Nail: If Burgoyne Had Won at Saratoga is one of the best alternative history science fiction novels written in the 20th century. It is literally encyclopedic. A fully realized alternative timeline, the novel takes the form … Continue reading
New Era, New Priests: E.R. Dodds, Rome, Christianity and Intersectionality
Writing in the American Conservative, here’s Gilbert Sewall on the Oxford classicist, E.R. Dodds. Read the whole thing, really, but here is Sewall discussing Dodds’ Pagans and Christians in an Age of Anxiety (1965): In 380, Theodosius I declared Christianity … Continue reading
Posted in history, Religion
Tagged Andrew Sullivan, Christianity, E.R. Dodds, Intersectionality, John Gray, Paganism, Political Religions, religion, Rome, Theodosius I
1 Comment
Liberalism as Faith
Cross-posted on the Corner (and a post, I would hope, that ‘Secular Humanists’ would read): The British philosopher John Gray is not someone to shy away from ‘difficult’ topics. If you are looking for a provocative long read this weekend, … Continue reading
Posted in history, Religion
Tagged Faith, John Stuart Mill, Liberalism, Secular humanism
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Ideologies of Undivided Devotion
From Yuri Slezkine’s magnificent The House of Government’, a Saga of the Russian Revolution, a book centered around the idea that Bolshevism was, at its heart, just another millenarian sect, if a peculiarly malevolent one: “Of the seventeen prisoners, thirteen, amongst … Continue reading
Posted in history, politics, Religion
Tagged Christianity, Communism, Karl Radek, Millennial Cults
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Bolsheviks, Millenarians and the Reformation
Writing in the Hedgehog, from, it seems (but perhaps that’s just me), a hard left perspective, Eugene McCarraher takes a look at the millenarian aspects of Bolshevism, and, more specifically its connection with the Reformation: Shortly after the Bolshevik victory, … Continue reading
Posted in culture, history, Religion
Tagged Christianity, Communism, Millennial Cults, Reformation, Thomas Muntzer
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Bolsheviks and other Millenarians
If I had to choose one book to read about the Bolsheviks this year it would be The House of Government: A Saga of the Russian Revolution by Yuri Slezkine. Writing in the New York Review of Books Benjamin Nathans … Continue reading
Posted in culture, history
Tagged Bertrand Russell, Communism, Millennial Cults, Nikolai Berdyaev, Russia
2 Comments
“Natural Rights” and Other Myths
Writing in the American Conservative, Will Collins reviews Against the Grain, “James C. Scott’s new history of humanity’s transition (devolution may be the more appropriate term) from hunting and gathering to sedentary farming challenges the very foundations of this narrative. After finishing … Continue reading
Posted in culture, history
Tagged natural law, noble savage, Rousseau
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1789 and All That
It’s not hard to draw a line between messianic Judaism and (obviously) Christianity and from that on to later millenarian variants such as Marxism, but this review in the New Statesman by the British philosopher John Gray of Forgetfulness: Making … Continue reading
Posted in history, Religion
Tagged Christianity, Communism, French Revolution, Millennial Cults
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Ubi Terror, Ibi Salus
A week or two back, I discussed a review of The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World by Catherine Nixey, a book out in the UK, but not due for release in the US until next year. … Continue reading
Posted in history
Tagged Augustine, Christianity, Religious Persecution, totalitarianism
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