My supplemental reading

Classics of Western Thought - Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Reformation:

I read the Canterbury Tales: The Prologue, the prologue of the Pardoner's tale, the Pardoner's tale, and the Reeve's tale. This one wasn't as interesting as others I've read because it was all over the place with a lot of different random characters, and it was also a little difficult to follow.

I also read Everyman: this one was one of my favorites out of the whole book. It told the story of how God gave Death permission to take Everyman. Now, Everyman knew Death was coming after him so he asked Fellowship to come with him, but Fellowship, though seeming trustworthy at first said that he would do no such thing, nor help him save if he wanted to drink, be merry, have women, or kill. Everyman takes leave of him to turn to Kindred. No matter how Everyman begged and pleaded, Kindred wouldn't go with him on his dreaded journey. So Everyman calls out to Goods who lies in his corners, chests, bags, and in packs. But Goods says that his love is not that love, and he will not follow him. Everyman finally turns to Good-deeds, pleading for counsel and salvation, but sadly Good-deeds lies cold in the ground, bound by Everyman's many sins. Desperate, Everyman doesn't know what to do, when he hears Knowledge calling out to be his guide. With Knowledge's help, he is led to Confession where he seeks penance. Through Confession (the priest) he is then lead by Knowledge, Discretion, Strength, Beauty, and Five-Wits to his grave where all leave him but Good-deeds, who reassures Everyman that he will stay with him and vouch for him before God. This was the story of Everyman.

class notes from Wednesday

There must be a checks and balances type of society when the earth is populated with sinful men and women. We must always be responsible to someone who is keeping us in order. We have a nature that wants to be gaining more and more power without thinking of the consequences or of others. As we gain more authority our sin nature takes over and we become tyrannical.

There has and always will be several spheres in the world. The largest and most general ones are family, church and state. We can also add art, music, schools, guilds, and other groups like these. In the ideal Christian culture, God is the leader over all the spheres, with the top three we mentioned being at equal with each other. They have the same amount of authority and different jobs among the society. The state is to administer justice and Godly laws; the church is to make the call of salvation to the ungodly and to train those within God's house; and the family is to train up the children with discipline and to lead them in the right path.

Anarchy can lead to a Mahat system where you have nothing but individualism. You are nothing but a drone doing the same thing day after day.

In a culture running from God, beauty turns to ugliness, truth to lies, and goodness to evil.

You can always tell what a man loves by what he adorns or beautifies. That with which the most time is spent making beautiful is that which controls you.

There is a difference between rights and duties is the fact that rights make it about the self, while duties make it more about others. We are to always be thinking towards how we can benefit and help others rather then ourself.

Truth cannot change even if you attempt to change it or change the meaning. It will always remain the truth even if the majority denies it.

The culture's worldview will set the standard, morals, ethics, and laws. It will be the determiner of justice.

Goodness (sociological), Beauty (art), and Truth (theology) are all wrapped up and connected to each other. You can't have one without the others.

Everything ugly can come to Christ and be beautified.

When you can read a cathedral, you can read medievalism itself. This is a road map, a simplified guide to the whole of the civilization. All the ideas that had come to the Medievals through the gospel were poured into the design of the cathedrals.

Many different areas of life were touched by the influence of the monasteries. Their art, music, architecture, gardens, tools, clothes, and food were all manifestations of their theology. Their churches, monasteries, and guilds showed forth their virtue and chivalry ideals. They centralized the Scripture, philosophy and education while drawing lines for the different spheres and living out conciliarism. There were also practical aspects to their way of thinking. They had creativity and imagination leading to an adorned world with new technology and innovation. They had checks and balances, rights, liberty, justice, mercy, standards and absolutes, rules of law, stability, and reform. This led to a stable and secure culture. They were extremely future minded. They would volunteer to work on a cathedral that wouldn't be finished for another 450 years. Now a days, we don't even bother to do that, and our buildings suffer because of it. We don't get the beauty that was created back then.

Vocabulary:

apt - inclined, disposed, given, prone

embrasure - a splayed enlargement of a door or window toward the inner face of a wall

tympanum - the recessed, usually triangular space enclosed between the horizontal and sloping cornices of a pediment

aperture - an opening, as a hole, slit, crack, gap etc.

oblique - neither perpendicular nor parallel to a given line or surface; slanting; sloping

facade - the front of a building, especially an imposing or decorative one

sylvan - of, pertaining to, or inhabiting the woods

pedestrian - a person who goes or travels on foot

tetramorphic - a tetramorph is a symbolic arrangement of four differing elements. The term is derived from the Greek tetra, meaning four, and morph, shape

congruity - merit bestowed as a divine gift rather than earned

hue - a gradation or variety of a color; tint

consonance - accord or agreement

conciliar - of, pertaining to, or issued by a council

constancy - uniformity or regularity, as in qualities or conditions; invariableness

halcyon - calm, peaceful, tranquil

glazier - a person who fits windows or the like with glass or panes of glass

tracery - ornamental work consisting of ramified ribs, bars, or the like, as in the upper part of a Gothic window, in panels, screens, etc.

mullion - a vertical member, as of stone or woods, between the lights of a window, the panels in wainscoting or the like

gargoyle - a grotesquely carved figure of a human or animal

grotesque - any grotesque object, design, person or thing

narthex - an enclosed passage between the main entrance and the nave of a church

transept - any major transverse part of the body of a church, usually crossing the nave, at right angles, at the entrance to the choir

apse - a semicircular or polygonal termination or recess in a building, usually vaulted.

iconostasis - a partition or screen on which icons are placed, separating the sanctuary from the main part of the church.

triforium - the wall at the side of the nave, choir, or transept, corresponding to the space between the vaulting or ceiling and the roof of an aisle

clerestory - a portion of an interior rising above adjacent rooftops and having windows admitting daylight to the interior

tracery - ornamental work consisting of ramified ribs, bars, or the like, as in the upper part of a Gothic window in panels, screens, etc.

lectern - a reading desk in a church on which the Bible rests and from which the lessons are read during the church service.

pulpit - a platform or raised structure in a church from which the sermon is delivered or the sermon is conducted.

My goal this week

One of my primary problems growing up was learning to submit. I hated submitting to anyone especially guys I knew. As I am growing up more and more, reading more books on how to be a godly woman prepared for marriage, and learning more spiritually, it's becoming easier to become the woman God would want me to be. I am learning my place in my life. It is to be a help-meet, always there to lend a willing helpful hand, but also to be the silent and invisible person. I am to submit willingly to my husband's will and desire no matter how much I oppose it, only if it doesn't directly disobey God's law. I have been actually doing much better then I used to be, but as I went through my daily life today, my eyes were opened to see how much that thinking of mine had impacted my younger sister, Rebecca. She was now nearly as unsubmissive as I had been at her age, in fact, she was developing it much quicker then I had. This was most likely due to me being someone she looked up to and saw it as something I felt strongly about and so incorporated it into her lifestyle. Now, as the youngest, she is openly stubborn and unwilling to submit to anyone older then her. So my goal for this week: show her how happier it makes everyone (including yourself) when you listen and obey God through submission. Help her understand how it is the best role as a young girl preparing for marriage, and display it for her by submitting to the men and boys in my life who are mature enough to be given my respect and obedience. Lord, be with me, I pray.

Great is thy faithfulness, O God my father
There is no shadow of turning with Thee
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not
As Thou hast been, Thou for ever will be

Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To thy great faithfulness, mercy and love

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside

Great is thy faithfulness
Great is thy faithfulness
All I have needed thy hand hath provided
Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me

I really love this beautiful song just because it calls our attention to God's great majesty and omnipotence. He is in complete control of the whole universe...nothing can go wrong. God is in control and He is on the side of His children. "If God be for us, who can be against us?" and "What shall separate us from the love of God?" No one and nothing can possibly come in between us. Nothing is greater, higher, or more powerful then God Himself...the Creator of us all. How is it that the creature is better then the Creator? God is continual and bountiful in all His blessings. I am struck daily by the many instances in my life where it is extraordinarily clear how faithful God is to me. God, my heavenly Father, does not change from who He was before there was time. He continues on as He always have. He was the epitome of faithfulness then, so it would only make sense for Him to remain that. He has always been a Lord who provides that which His people need or want. We can see throughout history the many instances where God's people ask, and are granted their wish. We can also see times when they are not granted their wish because God deemed it better that they were given something different or nothing at all. "But we know that all things work together for the good of them that trust in Him." On this note, we can be sure that whatever happens in our life, it is to benefit us and those we influence around us. Let us never forget the faithfulness of the Faithful One.

notes for my last class

Thou can'st go wither thou wilt: I have dressed thee so well that thou will be understood by those endowed with intelligence: of others thou need'st not be concerned. Therefore, let no one blame me for selecting a cloudy style of writing, or at least, let them reserve their censure until they are capable of sifting the wheat that lies therein from chaff. ~Gabriel Gawaudin

There were many attractions of pilgrimage. It built up your mind and soul. Pilgrims were seen as brave and courageous men and women, however, Christianity was defined as creating solid, set, and rooted communities. We are tied to our callings. When those pilgrims were called away to the Holy Land, they were out of place due to their rootedness. Regardless of this, you must always follow your calling even if it isn't the path you would have chosen. They were tied securely to covenant community in a web of relationships and responsibility to and for one another. With their markets and fairs, they arranged, sold, and set up all their wares in distinct Christian fashions. There was great attention to detail. The friars carried on the rootedness through the communities as they traveled. They believed in penance and holiness; penance is basically repentance. True repentance can be best shown through actions. It's a turning 180 degrees around and cleaning up your mess. You resolve to walk in the grace of God and never go back. We are to spread healing and wholeness to the society that surrounds us. The world is constantly defiled and full of conflict and so it is up to us, the sane Christians, to bring about peace and Christ when the rest of the world goes crazy. Inspiration and Aspiration is the stirring of the Spirit to help us look forward at what God would have us do. We are known as a progressive people; moving towards God's future plan. Also, we are to line progress up with the eschaton of the mind of God. The future is linear and the gospel is the only way forwards. Just as the people did back then, we are called to plan, build, and invest for hundreds of years in the future as we are to be a generationally-minded people. Because of the penance, holiness, healing, wholeness, inspiration, and aspiration that I spoke of, those should instill in us a sense of adventure, curiosity, yearning, dreaming, and a purpose in life. With the troubadours came travelling singers, musicians, dance, art and theater; however, they were seen as the bottom of the rung type people because they had no rootedness or real home.

The troubadours had many different kinds of songs, different genres. There were courtly ballades, mock-popular songs, discordant verse form, lover's apologias, challenges, amorous encounters, laments, satirical poems, songs of debate, and songs of war and heroism. However, the troubadours had a huge impact. They travelers and as such could bring news, along with cultural habits and values. They brought the eagerness and wanderlust for new lands. Different nations began to share the same truths and words. A couple more interesting facts about the troubadours are that they gathered at the castles as entertainment for the people in the community, and they also had musical notation. They didn't rely simply on the oral traditions like had been done for years, but on their actual music.

There were some hazards to being a pilgrim though. Not only were the roads filled with brigands and highwaymen, but there were taxes and little food. It was dangerous to go by yourself on a treacherous road with thieves and robbers.

Traveling and studying give you a real sense of home and rootedness. It makes you appreciate what you have and your groundedness. You should travel as a young person so that you get to see the world for what it is, but also that when you go home you can see how much you really missed your home.

"If you always go to where you've always been and you always do what you've always done you'll always be who you always were."

The troubadours traveled from place to place and sang songs of adventure, love, satire, heroes, and chivalry. This incredibly descriptive and powerful means of communication provided the means by which the people of Christendom could see the wonders of the world though they never left their own village. As they began to imagine the wonders of their civilization, as they began to ponder what it must be like to actually be there and see what the troubadours had seen, it gave them a longing to travel, to set out on pilgrimage. The cathedrals were an obvious destination for pilgrimage in the early days of Christendom. Some of the great cathedrals of the Medieval age are marvels to behold to this day.

Rushdoony notes on Decentralization and Moral Responsibility

The Church and State are not meant to both be power-filled institutions. The people is where the power should be coming from. The Church dumbs down the individual once that person enters the church. They sit there and shouldn't have any opinion on any of the message, but rather they are there to provide money for the church. The modern State also seeks to gain complete control over the people in the name of one class or party when in reality they seek it for themselves. We know we are not to place our trust in men though. Power belongs to God. When any group on earth gains power, they use it to gain dominance over men, but not to distribute mercy, which is God's attribute. Mercy and justice are out-pourings from God's power. They are like a triangle, all connected and vital. Apart from God, there is no mercy, justice, power, or humanity. The tower of Babel was an attempt to escape God, and it became as nothing. The State is becoming the source of law. Law apart from God is cruel and evil, but still limited. When things go wrong, the individual will get in trouble, not the State, because that would decrease the power of the State. There has always been a will to be god...a will for centralization: tyrannical fathers, churchmen, and politicians. God does not associate or identify Himself with any office or institution. The king is to be reminded that he is speaking for God to the people...that does not make him God however. The Holy Spirit will work through the most humblest servant; for he does not need to wait on institutions to have his needs met. We are commanded to do God's will...not an institutions. Faith means sound morality, godly charity, and members one to another. We cannot ignore these things and claim faith. There is a need for moral responsibility when there is a culture strayed from God. The godly people are required to stand strong, so when the culture falls, Christianity is there to build it up again; when there is no hope. When Rome fell, everything did not collapse because Christianity was there to support it. An economic and monetary collapse is inevitable in a falling out of a nation. We must always be prepared for the inevitable fall of a pagan culture. We must have everything ready in advance.

even more rushdoony notes

Rushdoony notes for "Foundations of Social Orders":

The structure of society is built and when we begin to restructure it the Marxists interpret it as revolution. Law is an active morality. Every legal system is the moral code of society. It rests on religion. Law and morality is the manifestations of a religious faith. Religion is based under two god settings: theistic (faith in God) or political religion (the central institution is the ruler). They derive their ethics and morality from their politics. Politics is the true order. Man must guide and control because man is his own god. Predestination is by man. The state is the social organization of a creed or religion. It's the legal structuring of the moral side of the culture. It cannot be amoral. It is the religious structuring of society.

Also, the state cannot be neutral ...if it says it is then it really means that they are in the middle of abandoning one religion for another subtly. The state is no less religious than the church. Those are the two most religious aspects of a culture. In a Christian society they are equally religious. The state is the source of justice and the Church is the keys of the kingdom. The state is either just as religious or more then the church. It cannot be non-religious. The state as a tyrant is either focused on a man or on the state in general. It is always a religious institution of some sort. The state can have two functions. It can lean on the creed whether humanistic or Christian. It will be messianic if it's humanistic. If it's Christian it will be a ministry of justice to establish godly law and order.

Sovereignty - transcendental (beyond the world of God) or imminent (of this world and residing in man or an institution). God's law just be primary...over everything of us. In a Christian society the state has it's one job and that is to put forth justice over all people with Christian law. Each is governed by God and not the state because God is sovereign. When the state takes the sovereignty then it claims that it is most powerful and so it's word and law comes above and over everything. Two sovereigns cannot exist at any same time. They have opposing and neutral claims. The state claims that God does not exist. This is not possible however and so we can tell that the state is most assuredly not the sovereign. Caesar against Christ. This has happened throughout history and will continue to happen as the two religions fight in conflict with each other.

The doctrine of grace is also in conflict. Man's nature is complete evil and he struggles with it. He may handle it in different ways, but every religious system still deals with it. The state believes it can give out grace to all the evil of the world. There is evil found in many institutions as well as people. You just eliminate those things which cause evil among the culture. For Christians, the answer to evil is the grace of God and not of the state. Man's problem is not environment, but sin.

These are the problems that every social order must deal with. Now, they say that it is the environment's fault that people are the way they are now. We have moved from Christian to humanism. When a social order begins to crumble, the worst thing we can do is to make political defense the first line of defense. It's important, but it must not be the primary one.

If the creed you set is biblical, then the social order is again determined and you'll have a Christian social order. It will deny the sovereignty of God, and believe man is sinful so you must have checks and balances. You must have limited power and limited liberty.

new rushdoony notes!

The "Dark" Ages:

The savages were taking over though through the Germanic tribes. They practiced cannibalism. They were meager and limited. Families were torn apart, cities were torn apart, and the lands became waste. The dead laid around unburied. Europe began its descent and ruin.Christians were the source of charity. Wealth began to flow steadily through the hands of the clergy because people knew they would help. They became like a state, building up lands and freeing the serfs. The work of the monks became very vital to their history. Charlemagne made their work possible throughout northern Europe. The Saxons were a very savage people, but Charlemagne managed to baptize and convert them. The crusades began with a call to go out and conquer the Holy Land from the unbelievers. Pope Urban II preached a sermon summoning the faithful all over Europe to go to the Holy Land instead of fighting each other. The crusades were so very different then that though. It became not a conquering of the Muslims, but of the Christians. It was a time when the Church was not in control. It became an era ruled by the youths. The Church sought to rule all institutions as Rome gained more and more power in the surrounding areas. The Church has the spiritual and temporal sword to wield. They believed that the Pope must rule the governments of Europe as well as all the churches. The kingdom of God and the Church are identical according to them. Wherever God rules in the hearts of man, there is the kingdom of God. The church is an aspect of the kingdom of God. They believed also that God and the emperor were as one. The university was a law of itself. The beginnings of the doctrine of academic freedom develop. There was a revival of Aristotle's philosophy as well. Man is a rational political animal and was defined in terms of the state. Reason was how you understood anything. Revelation was only used to try to understand those things connected in another world. Creation was not understood in terms of the Bible. You use science and reason and so become an evolutionist.

It wasn't at all uncommon for an older rich man to marry a young girl so to prepare her to take care of his estate so when he dies that she might marry again well and be able to care for his estate and her new husband's life. He would prepare her for a life full of godliness and wisdom and all things that befit a wife.