Entries Tagged 'Personal' ↓

Friends, I’m just getting ready to leave for Ft. Wayne, Indiana, to attend our daughter’s graduation from the Deaconness program at Concordia Theological Seminary. And I’m not even going to bring my computer.

I’ll be back Saturday for our graduation ceremonies at Patrick Henry College. I’ll be blogging again on Monday. So farewell for now.

I had a speaking gig in Oklahoma City, so I took the opportunity to visit my family. My plane was several hours late on Wednesday, but it was a good thing since if it had come in on time I would have had to drive my rental car through a massive storm that brought flooding to the highway. Then, over the weekend, that tornado hit Picher, which is only a half hour or so from where we were, killing seven people. The tornado missed us in Vinita, as did the bad thunderstorms, but despite our clear skies a huge wind started blowing. It snapped a big maple tree, two feet in diameter, right at the ground, falling right across my sister’s driveway. Although I had forgotten what springtime in Oklahoma could mean, I did have a great visit with my parents, both siblings, and some friends I hadn’t seen since the olden days.

I thought I was pretty up on contemporary culture for someone past the half century, but then I saw on “American Idol” that this guest artist (I can’t even remember her name!) was about to pass Elvis in some major milestone. Elvis! And I didn’t even notice her. When the Idols sang her songs, which the judges talked like were golden oldies, I knew none of them! Not that I missed anything, since they sounded to my ears like the most bombastic dreck. These songs made Elvis seem like Shostakovich.

Anyway, although I am not unlearned about popular music, I am way out of date. Not that an adult should be fixated on angst-ridden music for teenagers, but there can still be music out there that merits attention. I have a student, Nathan Martin, who is my tutor about today’s music. He burns me CD samplers of contemporary music that he thinks might interest me. I admit that some fine musicians are making good music today, though I can’t remember their names either.

Nathan is working with some other Patrick Henry College students on a webzine entitled Patrol. Go there for contemporary music criticism and good writing. I’ve added it to my blogroll. As a sample, I offer this account
of the recent demise of “CCM,” the contemporary Christian Music magazine that just went out of business, giving thoughtful insights about this frustrating genre.

Book Description
Through best-selling books and now blockbuster motion pictures, C. S. Lewis’s masterpiece The Chronicles of Narnia has captured the hearts and imaginations of millions of children and adults. When Lewis wrote this acclaimed series more than half a century ago, many considered it a mere children’s allegory and missed the rich spiritual meaning of the Christian faith that Lewis was clearly communicating.

In The Soul of Prince Caspian, Veith reveals how Lewis takes on the modern mindset that has literally forgotten Christ just as Narnia has forgotten Aslan. As Veith unlocks the story of Prince Caspian, you’ll discover how Lewis’s other writings add depth and clarity to his message. And you’ll see that, while Prince Caspian may be about the fantastic land of Narnia, it’s also about your world.

(You can click the ad, above, if you would like to buy it. Sorry for the commercial. I do like the cover art, though.)

 Our younger daughter and her husband are having a baby! Here is his or her first picture:           
  

My wife’s school held its annual chili cook-off and talent show last Friday.  One of the judges got stuck in traffic, so I was enlisted to be one of the judges for the chili contest.  I had always wanted to do that!  There were nine different chilis.  There was general consensus about the top three (showing the principle of classical aesthetics that beauty is objective), though the various judges differed somewhat in their rankings (showing the principle of classical aesthetics that there are legitimate variations in taste–for example, one of the contenders was a Cincinnatti-style chili, which is sweet and flavored with cinnamon.  It was well-done and good in its way, but I prefer Western-style, with lots of cumin).  Points were rewarded and tabulated, and winners were declared.  (My top choice did come in second–the Cincinnatti-style prevailed–but my choice also won the People’s Choice Award, so I felt vindicated.)  The talent show was quite charming, showcasing some very talented grade-school kids, with vocal performances ranging from “A Mighty Fortress” to Hannah Montana, instrumental numbers to comedy skits.  It was a good night of fellowship and classical education. I have been a movie critic, but the really good gig is to be a food critic.  What I’d like to do, now that I’ve helped judge a chili contest, is to judge a BBQ competition! 

In response to my post yesterday on our two books about the connections between fascism and today’s left, Jonah Goldberg, the author of “Liberal Fascism,” posted this comment:

Dear Professor Veith - Well, I can tell you didn’t write *this* book. There are important differences between Liberal Fascism and Modern Fascism. That said, it would have been very, very, hard for me to write my book without yours.
I found your book to be extremely helpful in helping me to understand many of the themes I deal with in my book. I have touted it to friends many times. And when I post my bibliographical essay next week, you’ll see it mentioned prominently.
Anyway, I’d be delighted to know what you make of my book. All the best,

Jonah Goldberg, Author, Liberal Fascism.

Wasn’t that nice of him? I apologize if I violated the commandment against covetousness in the tone of my post, envying him the certain success of his book. Actually, the vocation of a scholar is to lay the foundation for further writing, so I find deep satisfaction in what he says and I hope it blows the top off the bestseller charts and confounds all the leftists.

I have always been a fan of Jonah Goldberg, being a regular reader of his columns on National Review Online. He is a master of penetrating insight combined with lacerating wit. So this book should be really good.

Again, buy it by clicking this link. I did, and when I get it sometime after its release on January 8, we’ll discuss it.

National Review editor Jonah Goldberg is coming out with a new book entitled Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning: Books: Jonah Goldberg. From the Amazon description:

Liberal Fascism offers a startling new perspective on the theories and practices that define fascist politics. Replacing conveniently manufactured myths with surprising and enlightening research, Jonah Goldberg reminds us that the original fascists were really on the left, and that liberals from Woodrow Wilson to FDR to Hillary Clinton have advocated policies and principles remarkably similar to those of Hitler’s National Socialism and Mussolini’s Fascism.

Contrary to what most people think, the Nazis were ardent socialists (hence the term “National socialism”). They believed in free health care and guaranteed jobs. They confiscated inherited wealth and spent vast sums on public education. They purged the church from public policy, promoted a new form of pagan spirituality, and inserted the authority of the state into every nook and cranny of daily life. The Nazis declared war on smoking, supported abortion, euthanasia, and gun control. They loathed the free market, provided generous pensions for the elderly, and maintained a strict racial quota system in their universities—where campus speech codes were all the rage. The Nazis led the world in organic farming and alternative medicine. Hitler was a strict vegetarian, and Himmler was an animal rights activist.

Do these striking parallels mean that today’s liberals are genocidal maniacs, intent on conquering the world and imposing a new racial order? Not at all. Yet it is hard to deny that modern progressivism and classical fascism shared the same intellectual roots.

Goldberg’s book is already an Amazon bestseller, the #1 book in the “political science” and “conservatism” categories, even thought it won’t be released until January 8.

I’m hoping that he was influenced by my book Modern Fascism and built on some of my research. That book traced those common “intellectual roots” between classical fascism and both modernism and postmodernism, though I suspect I do more with religion, ethics, philosophy, and worldview.

I always thought that book had the potential to be a best-seller, but it was sort of buried in a CPH monograph series and the editors then gave it a horrible title, one that was both blase and misleading about what it was actually about. I think the new CPH would do a better job with it. (Hey, Paul McCain, if you are reading this, how about a new edition with a new title to piggyback on the Goldberg book if it is a big success?)

I’m not complaining, mind you. There is an abundance of work that needs to be done exploring these connections. I’m happy that these facts are finally coming out.

Order Goldberg’s book by clicking this , and I’ll at least get a commission. It would also be a kindness if you would also click here or the CPH box at the right margin of this blog to order mine.

So what do you do for New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day? The one ritual I have is to go over one or more of those month-by-month Year in Review stories, thinking about the year gone by, including thinking about the year gone by in my life. We never, ever go out on New Year’s Eve, but we do stay up until midnight. (When our kids were little, we let them stay up until the ball dropped on Times Square, not explaining that we were in Central Time and New York City was an hour ahead. They thought they were staying up until midnight, but they were only staying up until 11:00 p.m. CT. That was very wicked of us, I admit, to let them be deceived.)

On New Year’s Day, the custom in Oklahoma was to have black eyed peas for good luck. Then we moved to Wisconsin where good luck comes from eating pickled herring. Even though Wisconsin, on the whole, has had better luck than Oklahoma, we continued to have black eyed peas, which were hard to even find up north. I’m not sure what people eat for luck in Virginia. (If anyone knows, please tell me. At least it’s easy to find black eyed peas here.) We also eat junk–dips and such–on New Year’s Eve and throughout the next day, though by then, after the Christmas feast, we are pretty much tired of such fare and eager to get back to normal. That’s about it. Surely some of you have some better ideas, don’t you?

This Christmas tide I offer you blogs from Christmas past. Just as TV goes into re-run mode with all of those Christmas specials that have become family traditions, so I will do with this blog, re-running Christmas posts that left an impression.

I start with two contrarian posts that left many readers indignant. Then I move to a series that makes the case that Christianity was NOT derived from a pagan holiday and that December 25 just might be the true date of Jesus’s birthday. Then I give some other Christmas treats, culminating in some quotes from Luther relating Christmas to the overarching theme of this blog, namely, vocation.

So put “Christ” back in Christmas. And put “Mass” back in Christmas. Also put “Holy” back in holiday. You can do all of these by going to church. (As my youngest daughter the deaconness intern explained to me, the Biblical reckoning considers sunset to be the end of the day, with the new day beginning that night. “And the evening and the morning were the first day.” So Christmas Eve is actually part of Christmas. So Christmas Eve services count for going to church on Christmas day–this would normally be fodder for a separate post, but let’s get to the reruns. . . )

Merry Christmas to all, and God bless us every one!

[HT to Cheryl Banks for making my archives more accessible.]

Thanks again to Cheryl Banks for helping with the design and features of this blog. You can now buy books from EITHER Concordia Publishing House OR Amazon.

We also have a box featuring the writings of my other colleague at the Cranach Institute, Angus Menuge, who has written widely on the philosophy of science, intelligent design, apologetics, C. S. Lewis, and evangelism.

We also have a box for books on our major theme here, the doctrine of vocation. It includes the essential book on the subject by the Swedish theologian Gustav Wingren, “Luther on Vocation.” The other classic book from a Swedish theologian, Einar Billing’s “Our Calling,” was available just a few weeks ago, having come back into print at least briefly, but I see it’s not available now. You can still find it on some used book sites. But the icon is still there, in hopes it will reappear on Amazon. I also list, in addition to my own “God at Work,” a relatively new anthology of writings on the subject going back to the days of the early church. There are other books about vocation, of course, but some of them don’t quite “get it,” in my opinion. In the future, I hope to review some of these, and, if they pass muster, list them in this box with my recommendation.

Also, notice the Amazon.com portal now on this site. If you do your Amazon searching and subsequent buying from the Cranach blog, we will get a commission! We also get a cut every time you click one of the Google ads, which I hope are not too annoying. So that’s a way you can help us pay the rent for this online real estate.

Notice the Cranach blogroll below and to the right. This is a somewhat unique one, since it mostly consists of the blogs that are run by this site’s readers and commentors. If you are intrigued by someone’s comments, see if they have a blog and get more.

I also transferred MOST of the “community blogs” from the old site at WORLD. Again, some of the links were dead and some of the blogs were apparently discontinued, with no posts except from long ago. If you were on that roll and have an updated location, send it by putting up a comment on this post. Also, most of those sites have not updated their links to this new Cranach site! Let’s follow the Golden Rule here, folks, so link unto my site as I have linked unto you.

And I am aware that this roll is not complete. If you are a reader and want your blog included, post a comment with your link here and I’ll probably add you.

But also browse through these blogs. You are likely to find some you really like. Interestingly, they are not always about theology and culture, though many are. Some are about science, education, high-tech, and just life. That is to say, they are have to do with the doctrine of VOCATION.