The Militant Pacifist's Reading List - UPDATED!!!

I have been keeping a list of readings (not periodicals) for several years now. I read extensively before starting the list, but those readings are only recorded in my memory. Seeing my reading list might explain some of my interests and eccentricities.

2014 (so far)

God's Debris, A Thought Experiment; by Scott Adams - January

2013

Insurgent; by Veronica Roth - December

Divergent; by Veronica Roth - November

A Rumor of War; by Philip Caputo - October

Epic Jesus; The Christ You Never Knew; by Frank Viola - September

The Little Way of Ruthie Leming: A Southern Girl, a Small Town, and the Secret of a Good Life; by Rod Dreher - September

Poem Strip; by Dino Buzzati - August

Economics for Everybody; by R.C. Sproul Jr. - August

The Weight of Glory; by C.S. Lewis - July

The Prodigal God; by Timothy Keller - July

A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories; by Flannery O'Connor - June

Gilead; by Marilynne Robinson - June

The Thanatos Syndrome; by Walker Percy - May

Is Belief in God Good, Bad or Irrelevant?  A Professor and a Punk Rocker Discuss Science, Religion, Naturalism & Christianity; by Preston Jones and Greg Graffin, edited by Preston Jones - May

The God of the Mundane; by Matthew B. Redmond - May

Letter from Birmingham Jail; by Martin Luther King, Jr. - April

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer; by Siddhartha Mukherjee - April

The Anarcho Teachings of Yeshua; by Darryl W. Perry - April

Jesus: A Theography; by Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola - February

2012

Christian Archy; by David Alan Black - December

Introducing Consciousness; by David Papineau and Howard Selina - December

What Does The Bible Say About Economic Justice?; by George N. Monsma, Jr. - December

That Holy Anarchist: Reflections on Christianity & Anarchism; by Mark Van Steenwyk - November

On Truth; by Harry G. Frankfurt - November

Healing the Gospel: A Radical Vision for Grace, Justice, and the Cross; by Derek Flood - September

Create: Stop Making Excuses and Start Making Stuff; by Stephen Altrogge - July

Get Jiro!; by Anthony Bourdain, Joel Rose and Langdon Foss - July

Jesus Was An Anarchist; by Elbert Hubbard - July

Girlfriend in a Coma; by Douglas Coupland - June

Why I Am A Christian; by John Stott - June

The Vatican’s Exorcists: Driving Out the Devil in the 21st Century; by Tracy Wilkinson - June

Resolving Everyday Conflict; by Ken Sande and Kevin Johnson - June

Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy; by Eric Metaxas - May

Knowing God; by J.I. Packer - April

Porn-Again Christian; by Mark Driscoll - March

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades); by Robert Spencer - February

Mere Christianity; by C.S. Lewis - February

Paul on Hell; by Douglas J. Moo - February

The Destruction of the Finally Impenitent; by Clark H. Pinnock - February

A Biblical Defense of “Conditional Immortality”; by D. Barry - February

What's So Amazing About Grace?; by Philip Yancey - January

Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God; by John Piper – January

2011

Telling the Truth: Evangelizing Postmoderns; edited by D.A. Carson - December

Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment; by James Patterson - September

These Guns for Hire; edited by J.A. Konrath - August

The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism; by Timothy Keller - July

Mere Churchianity: Finding Your Way Back to Jesus-Shaped Spirituality; by Michael Spencer – July

Family Driven Faith: Doing What It Takes to Raise Sons and Daughters Who Walk with God; by Voddie Baucham Jr. - July

The Next Story: Life and Faith after the Digital Explosion; by Tim Challies - June

Good News for Anxious Christians: 10 Practical Things You Don't Have to Do; by Phillip Cary - June

From Death-Camp to Existentialism; by Viktor E. Frankl - May

Truth and Authority in Modernity; by Lesslie Newbigin - April

New Heavens, New Earth, The Biblical Picture of Christian Hope; by N.T. Wright – April

Is Christianity Good for the World?; by Christopher Hitchens and Douglas Wilson - March

New Birth or Rebirth?: Jesus Talks with Krishna; by Ravi Zacharias - February

Anna Karenina; by Leo Tolstoy - January

2010

Everything's Eventual; by Stephen King - December

Mockingjay; by Suzanne Collins - November

Catching Fire; by Suzanne Collins - October

The Hunger Games; by Suzanne Collins - October

Minds, Brains and Science; by John Searle - August

The Supremacy of God in Preaching; John Piper - July

The Illumined Heart: the Ancient Christian Path of Transformation; by Frederica Mathewes-Green - June

A Man; by Oriana Fallaci - May

The Problem of Evil: Selected Readings; edited by Michael L. Peterson – May

A Scanner Darkly; by Phillip K. Dick - March

Island; by Aldous Huxley - March

Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist; by John Piper - February

Good Eats: The Early Years; by Alton Brown – February

God, Freedom, and Evil; by Alvin Plantinga - February

Religion Saves: And Nine Other Misconceptions; by Mark Driscoll - February

Alton Brown's Gear For Your Kitchen; by Alton Brown - February

God and Evil: The Problem Solved; by Gordon H. Clark - January

Crime and Punishment; by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - January

2009

Pascal's Wager: The Man Who Played Dice with God; by James A. Conner - December

Essays in the Philosophy of Religion; by H.H. Price - November

Following Jesus: Biblical Reflections on Discipleship; by N.T. Wright - November

Pagan Christianity? :exploring the roots of our church practices; by Frank Viola and George Barna - October

The Gospel in a Pluralist Society; by Lesslie Newbigin - October

Who Was Jesus?; by N.T. Wright - August

Wider Than the Sky: The Phenomenal Gift of Consciousness; by Gerald M. Edelman - July

Disavowing Constantine: Mission, Church and the Social Order in the Theologies of John Howard Yoder and Jurgen Moltmann (A Radical Baptist Perspective on Church, Society and State); by Nigel Goring Wright - July

Wittgenstein’s Poker: The Story of a Ten-Minute Argument Between Two Great Philosophers; by David Edmonds & John Eidinow - July

Metaphysics: Constructing a World View; by William Hasker - June

Jesus and the Nonviolent Revolution; by André Trocmé - June

The Presence of the Kingdom; by Jacques Ellul - May

The Bookends of the Christian Life; by Jerry Bridges and Bob Bevington - April

Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church; by N. T. Wright - April

Monument Rock; by Louis L’Amour - February

Sin Boldly: A Field Guide to Grace; by Cathleen Falsani - January

Christian Anarchy: Jesus' Primacy Over the Powers; by Vernard Eller - January

2008

Peacemaking Amid Political Revolution; by John Howard Yoder - December

The Limits of Obedience to Caesar: the Shape of the Problem; by John Howard Yoder - December

50 Philosophy Ideas You Really Should Know; by Ben Dupre - December

The Subversion of Christianity; by Jacques Ellul – November

History & Christianity; by John Warwick Montgomery - October

The Bears' Famous Invasion of Sicily; by Dino Buzzati - October

The Law of Love and the Law of Violence; by Leo Tolstoy - September

C.S. Lewis's Dangerous Idea: In Defense of the Argument from Reason; by Victor Reppert - September

Philosophy of Mind: Brains, Consciousness, and Thinking Machines; by Patrick Grim - August

I, Pencil; by Leonard E. Read - July

A Love Affair; by Dino Buzzati - June

Larger Than Life; by Dino Buzzati - June

Following Jesus in a Culture of Fear; by Scott Bader-Saye - June

William Blake: Visionary Anarchist; by Peter Marshall - May

Philosophy of Mind and the Christian; by Charles Taliaferro (from: Christian Theism and the Problems of Philosophy) - May

Alongside Night; by J. Neil Schulman - May

My Religion (The Wisdom of Tolstoi); by Leo Tolstoy - May

In Defense of Theology; by Gordon H. Clark - April

The Apostolic Preaching and its Developments; by C. H. Dodd - April

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War; by Max Brooks - April

The Great Divorce; by C.S. Lewis - March

The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God; by Dallas Willard - March

The Bible on the Life Hereafter; by William Hendriksen - January

2007

Survival and Disembodied Existence; by Terence Penelhum - December

The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge; by Jean-François Lyotard - December

How Christians Made Peace With War: Early Christian Understandings of War; by John Driver - December

Artemis Fowl; by Eoin Colfer - November

The Reformers and Their Stepchildren; by Leonard Verduin - November

Nevertheless: The Varieties and Shortcomings of Religious Pacifism; by John Howard Yoder - October

The Facts on Islam; by John Ankerberg and John Weldon - October

A Better Hope: Resources for a Church Confronting Capitalism, Democracy, and Postmodernity; by Stanley Hauerwas - September

Mickelsson’s Ghosts; by John Gardner - September

Signs Amid the Rubble: The Purposes of God in Human History; by Lesslie Newbigin - August

The Rickety Bridge and the Broken Mirror: Two Parables of Paedobaptism and One Parable of the Death of Jesus Christ; by Hal Brunson - July

Pedro Páramo; by Juan Rulfo - June

Bagombo Snuff Box; by Kurt Vonnegut - June

The Tacit Dimension; by Michael Polanyi - May

5000 B.C. and Other Philosophical Fantasies; by Raymond Smullyan - April

The Decapitated Chicken and Other Stories; by Horacio S. Quiroga - March

Christ and the Powers; by Hendrik Berkhof - March

The Powers That Be: Earthly Rulers and Demonic Powers in Romans 13.1-7; by Clinton D. Morrison – February

Jesus Among Other Gods: The Absolute Claims of the Christian Message; by Ravi Zacharias - February

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch; by Alexander Solzhenitsyn - January

The Gift of Death; by Jacques Derrida - January

The Fire that Ignites; by Tony Evans - January

An Ethic for Christians and Other Aliens in a Strange Land; by William Stringfellow – January

2006

Welcome to the Monkey House; by Kurt Vonnegut - December

The Gospel and the Greeks: Did the New Testament Borrow from Pagan Thought?; by Ronald H. Nash - December

The Powers That Be: Theology For A New Millennium; by Walter Wink - December

The Original Revolution: Essays on Christian Pacifism; by John Howard Yoder - November

The Book of Sand; by Jorge Luis Borges - October

Brodie’s Report; by Jorge Luis Borges - October

Christianity: A Total World and Life System; by Abraham Kuyper - October

Who's Afraid of Postmodernism? : Taking Derrida, Lyotard and Foucault to Church; by James K.A. Smith – September

The Purity Principle: God's Safeguards for Life's Dangerous Trails; by Randy Alcorn - September

The Clark – Van Til Controversy; by Herman Hoeksema - August

Poststructuralism: A Very Short Introduction; by Catherine Belsey - August

Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology; ed. James Patrick Kelly & John Kessel - August

Spurgeon v. Hyper-Calvinism: The Battle for Gospel Preaching; by Iain H. Murray - July

Universal History of Infamy; by Jorge Luis Borges - July

The Trinity; by Gordon H. Clark - July

Exodus and Revolution; by Michael Walzer – June

The Aleph and Other Stories, 1933 - 1969; by Jorge Luis Borges - June

War: A Primer for Christians; by Joseph L. Allen - June

Anarchy and Christianity; by Jacques Ellul - June

Words in Genesis; by Isaac Asimov - May

What Would You Do?: A Serious Answer to a Standard Question; by John Howard Yoder, with Joan Baez, Tom Skinner, Leo Tolstoy and Others - May

The Politics of Jesus; by John Howard Yoder - May

A Private and Public Faith; by William Stringfellow - April

The Next Reformation: Why Evangelicals Must Embrace Postmodernity; by Carl Raschke - April

Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation; by Lynne Truss - March

Truth to Tell: The Gospel as Public Truth; by Lesslie Newbigin - March

On Bullshit; by Harry G. Frankfurt - March

Introduction to Metaphysics; by Martin Heidegger - March

Existentialism: the philosophy of despair and the quest for hope; by C. Stephen Evans - March

The Tartar Steppe; by Dino Buzzati - February

Marx for Beginners; by Rius (Eduardo del Rio) - February

Heaven; by Randy Alcorn - February

Dinner With A Perfect Stranger: An Invitation Worth Considering; by David Gregory - January

What Saint Paul Really Said: Was Paul of Tarsus the Real Founder of Christianity?; by N. T. Wright - January

2005

Earth Abides; by George R. Stewart - December

Reasons for Living; by Dmitry Bakin - December

Foolishness to the Greeks: The Gospel and Western Culture; by Lesslie Newbigin - December

A Werewolf Problem in Central Russia and Other Stories; by Victor Pelevin - November

The Johannine Logos; by Gordon H. Clark - November

Calvinism in the Las Vegas Airport: Making Connections in Today's World; by Richard J. Mouw - October

White Noise; by Don DeLillo - October

By What Standard? An Analysis of the Philosophy of Cornelius Van Til; by Rousas John Rushdoony - October

Proper Confidence: Faith, Doubt and Certainty in Christian Discipleship; by Lesslie Newbigin - September

Hypocrisy: Moral Fraud & Other Vices; by James S. Spiegel - September

Catastrophe and Other Stories; by Dino Buzzati - September

A Godward Life; by John Piper - August

The Concept of God: An Exploration of Contemporary Difficulties with the Attributes of God; by Ronald H. Nash - August

The Doctrine of Endless Punishment; by W.G.T. Shedd - August

The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum; by Heinrich Boll - August

To Tame A Land; by Louis L'Amour - August

Concerning the Teacher; by Aurelius Augustine – July

Blow-Up and Other Stories; by Julio Cortazar - July

Introducing Critical Theory; by Stuart Sim and Boren Van Loon - June

Waiting for the Barbarians; by J.M. Coetzee - June

The Present: The Gift that Makes You Happy and Successful at Work and in Life; by Spencer Johnson - May

Bartleby; by Herman Melville - May

Gogol's Wife & Other Stories; by Tommaso Landolfi - May

Words in Commotion and Other Stories; by Tommaso Landolfi – May

Exegetical Fallacies; by D.A. Carson - May

Logical Criticisms of Textual Criticism; by Gordon H. Clark – May

Being Logical - A Guide to Good Thinking; by D.Q. McInerny - May

Ficciones; by Jorge Luis Borges - April

Chronicle of a Death Foretold; by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - April

The Mad Dog: Stories; by Heinrich Boll - March

Restless Nights: Selected Short Stories of Dino Buzzati; by Dino Buzzati - March

Hurtling Toward Oblivion; by Richard A. Swenson - March

Safely Home; by Randy Alcorn – March

Gordon H. Clark: Personal Recollections; edited by John W. Robbins - March

If on a winter's night a traveler; by Italo Calvino - March

A Christian View of Men and Things; by Gordon H. Clark - March

Cornelius Van Til The Man and the Myth; by John W. Robbins - March

Humanist Manifesto I and Humanist Manifesto II; edited by Paul Kurtz – February

Theory and Practice Concerning the Common Saying: This May Be True In Theory But Does Not Apply To Practice [1793]; by Immanuel Kant - February

Reason Within the Bounds of Religion; by Nicholas Wolterstorff - February

Religion Within the Limits of Reason Alone [1793]; by Immanuel Kant - February

On Philosophical Style; by Brand Blanshard - February

Introducing Logic; by Dan Cryan, Sharron Shatil and Bill Mayblin - February

A Canticle for Leibowitz; by Walter M. Miller Jr. - February

A Short History of Existentialism; by Jean Wahl - January

The Treasure Principle; by Randy Alcorn - January

2004

Philosophers Who Believe: The Spiritual Journeys of 11 Leading Thinkers; edited by Kelley James Clark - December

Memoirs of a Lunatic; Leo Tolstoy - November

Confession; by Leo Nikoleyevich Tolstoy - November

A Correspondence; by Emil Brunner and Karl Barth - November

The Death of Ivan Ilyitch; by Leo Tolstoy - November

The Grand Demonstration: A Biblical Study of the So-Called Problem of Evil; by Jay Adams - November

Existentialism and Christian Belief: A Frank Appraisal of a Modern-Day Philosophy; by Milton D. Hunnex - November

The Forged Coupon; by Leo Tolstoy - November

Answer to Job; by C.G. Jung - November

Demian; by Hermann Hesse - October

Clark Speaks from the Grave; by Gordon H. Clark - October

Religion, Reason, and Revelation; by Gordon H. Clark - October

The Martyr of the Catacombs - September

Our Knowledge of God; by John Baillie – September

Don't Waste Your Life; by John Piper - August

The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement; by Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox - August

Logic; by Gordon H. Clark - August

Introduction to Philosophy: A Case Study Approach; by Jack B. Rogers and Forrest Baird - August

Marriage, Divorce, Remarriage; by Conrad Murrell - July

Can Man Live Without God; by Ravi Zacharias - July

Megamystery, The Called Out of God; by Conrad Murrell - June

The New Covenant; by Conrad Murrell - June

Wild at Heart (Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul); by John Eldredge - May

Night; by Elie Wiesel - May

Tommaso and the Blind Photographer; by Gesualdo Bufalino – April

The Grace and Truth Paradox: Responding with Christlike Balance; by Randy Alcorn – April

The Purity Principle: God's Safeguards for Life's Dangerous Trails; by Randy Alcorn - March

Scents of Wood and Silence: Short Stories by Latin American Women Writers; Ed. Kathleen Ross and Yvette E. Miller - March

Night's Lies; by Gesualdo Bufalino - March

The Keeper of Ruins; by Gesualdo Bufalino - March

Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Anarchism But Were Afraid To Ask - March

The Return of Martin Guerre; by Natalie Zemon Davis - February

In Defense of Anarchism; by Robert Paul Wolff - February

Short Stories by Latin American Women - The Magic and the Real; Edited by Celia Correas De Zapata - February

Nausea; by Jean-Paul Sartre - February

Introducing Foucault; by Chris Horrocks and Zoran Jevtic - February

Continental Short Stories: The Modern Tradition; edited by Edward Mitchell and Rainer Schulte - February

Always Ready: Directions for Defending the Faith; by Dr. Greg L. Bahnsen - January

World War II - The Rest of the Story and How it Affects You Today; by Richard J. Maybury - January

2003

World War I - The Rest of the Story and How it Affects You Today; by Richard J. Maybury - December

Just Gaming; by Jean-Francois Lyotard - November

Poetry, Language, Thought; by Martin Heidegger - November

Desire in Language - A Semiotic Approach to Literature and Art; by Julia Kristeva - October

On Cosmopolitanism and Forgiveness; by Jacques Derrida – October

Intellectual Courage; by Jacques Derrida - October

White Mythology; by Jacques Derrida - October

Differance; by Jacques Derrida - October

Derrida and the End of History; by Stuart Sim - October

The Post-Colonial Critic - Interviews, Strategies, Dialogues; by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak - October

A Teachers Introduction to Deconstruction; by Sharon Crowley - September

The Pleasure of the Text; by Roland Barthes - September

The Resistance to Theory; by Paul deMann - September

Critical Practice; by Catherine Belsey - September

Introducing Heidegger; by Jeff Collins and Howard Selina - August

The Great Gatsby; by F. Scott Fitzgerald - August

Chris Chrisman Goes to College...and faces the challenges of relativism, individualism and pluralism; by James W. Sire - July

Introducing Derrida; by Jeff Collins and Bill Mayblin - July

The Tragedy of Doctor Faustus; by Christopher Marlowe - July

The On-Purpose Person - Making Your Life Make Sense; by Kevin W. McCarthy - July

The Word of God and the Mind of Man - The Crisis of Revealed Truth in Contemporary Theology; by Ronald H. Nash - June

The Fall; by Albert Camus - June

Habits of the Mind (Intellectual Life as a Christian Calling); by James W. Sire - May

On the Preparation and Delivery of Sermons; by John A. Broadus - May

The Sabbath Syllogism - Matthew 12:1-8 (Are We Bound by Moral Law to Observe a Sabbath Day?); by Harvey Bluedorn - May

The Logical Defense of the Faith (Christian Apologetics in One Lesson); by Harvey Bluedorn - May

The Strenuous Life; by Theodore Roosevelt – May

Why I Am Not A Pacifist (An Essay) - by C.S. Lewis - April

The Wisdom of Ancient Rome; Compiled by Benoit Desombres – April

The Essence of Human Nature; by Mark P. Cosgrove - April

Sacred Marriage; by Gary Thomas - March

Oedipus the King (Oedipus Rex); by Sophocles - March

Faith & Reason - Searching for a Rational Faith; by Ronald H. Nash - March

He Is There and He Is Not Silent; by Francis A. Schaeffer - February

Selected Essays from "Ideas and Opinions;" by Albert Einstein - February

The God Who Is There; by Francis A. Schaeffer - February

The Hobbit (or There and Back Again); by J.R.R. Tolkien - February

The Lost Dimension in Religion (An Essay); by Paul Tillich - February

Return to Reason; by Kelly James Clark – February

The Consequences of Ideas; by R.C. Sproul – January

The Art of War; by Sun Tzu - January

Moses In The Millennium (An Appraisal of Christian Reconstructionism); by John Zens - January

Escape from Reason; by Francis A. Schaeffer - January

What Does It All Mean? A Very Short Introduction to Philosophy; by Thomas Nagel - January

Why I Believe in God; by Cornelius Van Til - January

The Problems of Philosophy; by Bertrand Russell – January

2002

Notes From Underground; by Fyodor Dostoevsky - December

When A Baby Dies - Answers to Comfort Grieving Parents; by Ronald H. Nash - December

Everyman's Battle; by Stephen Arterburn and Fred Stoeker, with Mike Yorkey - November

A Call to the Ministry (a sermon); by C.H. Spurgeon - November

The Last Battle; by C.S. Lewis - November

Dialogue Between A Priest And A Dying Man; by Marquis de Sade - November

The Brothers Karamazov; by Fyodor Dostoevsky (Translated by Constance Garnett) - November

The Silver Chair; by C.S. Lewis - October

Advice to Christian Philosophers; by Alvin Plantinga - October

The Wall and Other Stories; by Jean-Paul Sartre - October

Existentialism and Human Emotions; by Jean-Paul Sartre - October

The Story of Philosophy; by Will Durant - September

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader; by C.S. Lewis - September

Prince Caspian; by C.S. Lewis - August

The Pressure's Off; by Larry Crabb - July

The Problem of Pain; by C.S. Lewis - July

God and the Philosophers: the Reconciliation of Faith and Reason; edited by Thomas V. Morris - June

The Enemy Within (Straight Talk about the Power and Defeat of Sin); by Kris Lundgaard - June

Fear And Trembling; by Soren Aabye Kierkegaard - May

A Third Testament; by Malcolm Muggeridge - May

Philosophy For Beginners; by Richard Osborne - April

The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare; by G. K. Chesterton – March

In Defense of the New Covenant: A Theological Response to Richard Barcellos' Book "In Defense of the Decalogue: A Critique of New Covenant Theology"; by Mike Adams - March

In Defense of the Decalogue: A Critique of New Covenant Theology; by Richard C. Barcellos - March

Bringing Up Boys; by James C. Dobson Ph.D. - February

2001

Ten Secrets for the Man in the Mirror (Startling Ideas About True Happiness); by Patrick Morley - November

Fidelity; What it means to be a One-woman Man; by Douglas Wilson - November

Rich Dad's Cashflow Quadrant (Rich Dad Poor Dad Part II); by Robert T. Kiyosaki - September

As I Lay Dying; by William Faulkner - September

Ape and Essence; by Aldous Huxley - August

Waiting for Godot; by Samuel Beckett - August

Rich Dad, Poor Dad; by Robert T. Kiyosaki - August

The Horse and His Boy; by C.S. Lewis - August

Written on the Heart - The Case for Natural Law; by J. Budziszewski - July

The Magician's Nephew; by C.S. Lewis - June

Who Moved My Cheese?; by Spencer Johnson M.D. - June

How to Read Slowly - Reading for Comprehension; by James Sire - May

Classical Education & The Home School; by Douglas Wilson, Wesley Callihan, and Douglas Jones - April

The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution; by Roger Williams – April

Biblical Economics in Comics; by Vic Lockman - April

Common Sense; by Thomas Paine - April

The Clipper Ship Strategy for Success in Your Career, Business and Investments; by Richard J. Maybury - March

The Money Mystery; by Richard J. Maybury - March

Evaluating Books - What Would Thomas Jefferson Think About This?; by Richard J. Maybury - March

Ancient Rome - How It Affects You Today; by Richard J. Maybury - March

Are you Liberal, Conservative, or Confused?; by Richard J. Maybury - February

Whatever Happened to Justice; by Richard J. Maybury - February

The E-Myth Revisited; by Michael E. Gerber - February

Uncle Eric talks about Personal, Career and Financial Security; by Richard J. Maybury - February

Homosexuality and the New Testament; What the New Testament Really Teaches; by Harold E. Brunson - February

The Greatest Thing in the World; by Henry Drummond - January

Distinctive Baptist Principles; by Benajah Harvey Carroll (B.H. Carroll) – January

2000

Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?; - by Richard J. Maybury - December

War in Heaven; by Charles Williams - November

Your Child's Profession of Faith; by Dennis Gundersen - November

The Goal, A Process of Ongoing Improvement; by Eliyahu M. Goldratt - November

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; by C.S. Lewis - September

The Genealogy of Morals; by Friedrich Nietzsche - August

Theodicy: Abridgement of the Argument Reduced to Syllogistic Form; by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz - June

The Metamorphosis and Other Stories; by Franz Kafka - June

Genesis in Space and Time; by Francis A. Schaeffer - June

Candide; by Voltaire - June

The Picture of Dorian Gray; by Oscar Wilde - May

Philosophy: The Basics; by Nigel Warburton - April

The Inklings; by Humphrey Carpenter - April

You & the Police!; by Boston T. Party - March

Anthem; by Ayn Rand - March

The Communist Manifesto; by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels - March

Tablets of Stone; by John G. Reisinger - March

The Law; by Fredric Bastiat - February

The Plague; by Albert Camus - February

A Texas Ranger; by N.A. Jennings - January

War Party; by Louis L'amour – January

1999

Telling Yourself the Truth; by William Backus & Marie Chapian - December

The Gunfighter - Man or Myth?; by Joseph G. Rosa - December

The Earps of Tombstone; by Douglas D. Martin - as reported by the Early Editors of the Tombstone Epitaph - November

The Gunfighters; by the editors of Time Life Books - November

True Grit; by Charles Portis - September

The Man in the Mirror; by Patrick Morley - September

The Gunfighters; by Lea F. McCarty - August

Brave New World; by Aldous Huxley - August

Faith Works; by John MacArthur - July

Reforming Marriage; by Douglas Wilson - July

Honey for a Child's Heart; by Gladys Hunt - June

The Island of Dr. Moreau; by H. G. Wells - May

Heart of Darkness; by Joseph Conrad - May

John Ploughman's Talk; by Charles Haddon Spurgeon - April

Lord of the Flies; by William Golding - April

The Pearl; by John Steinbeck - April

The Code of Hammurabi; Trans. by L.W. King - March

The Hot Zone; by Richard Preston - March

The Last Days According to Jesus; by R.C. Sproul - February

The Consolation of Philosophy; by Ancius Boethius - February

Love Must be Tough; by James Dobson - January

Blind Man's Bluff; by Sherry Sontag and Christopher Drew - January

Jah Work (Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals)

Good News For Anxious Christians - Phillip Cary

I really enjoyed the book...now here's an interview with Dr. Cary...

Hurt (Johnny Cash)

Be Aware... U.S. Constitution Suspended in Texas...

Be Aware... U.S. Constitution Suspended in Texas...

Want to Defend Marriage? Get the Government Out of It!

Want to Defend Marriage? Get the Government Out of It!

Dinner with Ivan (Big Head Todd and the Monsters)

Do We Owe Gratitude to American Veterans For Having Fought in Iraq?

Do We Owe Gratitude to American Veterans For Having Fought in Iraq?

Only God Can Ultimately Forgive Sin!

Check out the news story "'I'm a monster, God won't forgive me' -- Troop shame over killing may rival PTSD cases" by clicking the link.

Pray that more men and women who have been abused by a wicked state that's propagandized them into becoming its killers will wake up, repent and follow Jesus...

Alabama Shakes!!!

If you haven't been turned on to some awesome new rock and roll... well, you can thank me later...

Remembering the '80's...

Done with Bonaparte (Knopfler)

Tragedy Leeches Suck Again

Tragedy Leeches Suck Again

Enjoy some good stuff...

Obama's Hypocrisy Problem On Guns

Obama's Hypocrisy Problem On Guns

Prince of Peace God of War

"Bake a cake. Say a prayer. Mow your lawn. Smoke a joint. Do anything except vote..."

Bake a cake. Say a prayer. Mow your lawn. Smoke a joint. Do anything except vote...

Pascal and Scepticism

Pascal and Scepticism

If This is "Christian Patriotism"....

Render unto Caesar?

Click the "image and superscription" to read the essay.

Schleitheim and "the sword"

Historically Anabaptists have not been big on confessions of faith; however, on February 24, 1527, a Conference of Swiss Brethren (“A Brotherly Union of a Number of Children of God”) produced what is sometimes referred to as the "The Schleitheim Confession,” though more properly it is “The Seven Articles of Schleitheim.”

The 6th article responds to those who seek accommodation between the civil and spiritual sword.

The thoughts are worthy of consideration…

“The sword is ordained of God outside the perfection of Christ. It punishes and puts to death the wicked, and guards and protects the good. In the Law the sword was ordained for the punishment of the wicked and for their death, and the same (sword) is (now) ordained to be used by the worldly magistrates. In the perfection of Christ, however, only the ban is used for a warning and for the excommunication of the one who has sinned, without putting the flesh to death - simply the warning and the command to sin no more. Now it will be asked by many who do not recognize (this as) the will of Christ for us, whether a Christian may or should employ the sword against the wicked for the defense and protection of the good, or for the sake of love. Our reply is unanimously as follows: Christ teaches and commands us to learn of Him, for He is meek and lowly in heart and so shall we find rest to our souls. Also Christ says to the heathenish woman who was taken in adultery, not that one should stone her according to the Law of His Father (and yet He says, As the Father has commanded me, thus I do), but in mercy and forgiveness and warning, to sin no more. Such (an attitude) we also ought to take completely according to the rule of the ban. Secondly, it will be asked concerning the sword, whether a Christian shall pass sentence in worldly disputes and strife such as unbelievers have with one another. This is our united answer. Christ did not wish to decide or pass judgment between brother and brother in the case of the inheritance, but refused to do so. Therefore we should do likewise. Thirdly, it will be asked concerning the sword, Shall one be a magistrate if one should be chosen as such? The answer is as follows: They wished to make Christ king, but He fled and did not view it as the arrangement of His Father. Thus shall we do as He did, and follow Him, and so shall we not walk in darkness. For He Himself says, He who wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. Also, He Himself forbids the (employment of) the force of the sword saying, The worldly princes lord it over them, etc., but not so shall it be with you. Further, Paul says, Whom God did foreknow He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, etc. Also Peter says, Christ has suffered (not ruled) and left us an example, that ye should follow His steps. Finally it will be observed that it is not appropriate for a Christian to serve as a magistrate because of these points: The government magistracy is according to the flesh, but the Christian's is according to the Spirit; their houses and dwelling remain in this world, but the Christian's are in heaven; their citizenship is in this world, but the Christian's citizenship is in heaven; the weapons of their conflict and war are carnal and against the flesh only, but the Christian's weapons are spiritual, against the fortification of the devil. The worldlings are armed with steel and iron, but the Christians are armed with the armor of God, with truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation and the Word of God. In brief, as in the mind of God toward us, so shall the mind of the members of the body of Christ be through Him in all things, that there may be no schism in the body through which it would be destroyed. For every kingdom divided against itself will be destroyed. Now since Christ is as it is written of Him, His members must also be the same, that His body may remain complete and united to its own advancement and upbuilding.”

The Educational Enterprise in the Light of the Gospel

The Educational Enterprise in Light of the Gospel - Ivan Illich

Empire of the Rising Scum

Bourne Vivaldi (Bourne Soundtrack/Vivaldi Double Cello Concerto)

Doubting on Your Part Does Not Constitute a Crisis of Faith on Mine

Henri 2 (the existential cat), Paw de Deux

Fight of the Century: Keynes vs. Hayek Round Two

Some "Pascalian" Wisdom

"Why do you kill me"?  He lives on the other side of the water.  "Why do you kill me?  What!  do you not live on the other side of the water?  If you lived on this side, my friend, I should be an assassin, and it would be unjust to slay you in this manner.  But since you live on the other side, I am a hero, and it is just."


(Section V, Justice and the Reason of Effects, 291-293) Pascal's Pensées (Blaise Pascal, 1623-1662)

"Christian" Soldiers?

There was a prophet (John, the baptizer) of whom God (Jesus Christ) said “Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist (Matthew 11:11).” Apparently, the Lord, Jesus Christ had a very high regard for John.

One day some soldiers came to John and asked him, “what shall we do? (Luke 13:14).”

John’s answer is instructive. He answers them, “do violence to no man.”

Since violence is the soldier’s business, what he (John) is really saying to them is “find another job.”

In syllogistic form,

Major Premise:     Christians should not be violent
Minor Premise:     The ultimate job of a soldier is to do violence
Conclusion:             A Christian should not be a soldier.

This was the consensus of the Church fathers, and the practice of Christians until the Constantinian creation of “Christendom” (for more on this, read The Reformers and their Stepchildren, by Leonard Verduin).

“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap (Galatians 6:7).”

Kinda Sad...

Dr. Michael Sudduth was kind to me. 

He responded to my e-mails and recommended some reading materials for me when I had questions (http://philofreligion.homestead.com/PostmortemSurvival.html).

Now the bad news of a "deconversion" has me troubled (see link in the posting title above).

Please pray for Dr. Sudduth...

The Limits of Obedience to Caesar: the Shape of the Problem (John Howard Yoder)

A Little Philosophical Reflection...

Theistic philosopher Bernard Lonergan (1904-1984) wrote in Method in Theology (1972):


To deliberate about x is to ask whether x is worthwhile.  To deliberate about deliberating is to ask whether any deliberating is worthwhile.   Has "worthwhile" any ultimate meaning?  Is moral enterprise consonant with this world? ...Does there or does there not necessarily exist a transcendent, intelligent ground of the universe?  Is that ground or are we the primary instance of moral consciousness?  Are cosmogenesis, biological evolution, and historical process basically cognate to us as moral beings or are they indifferent and so alien to us?  Such is the question of God.  It is not a matter of image or feeling, of concept or judgment.  They pertain to answers.   It is a question.   It rises out of our conscious intentionality, out of the a priori structured drive that promotes us from experiencing to the effort to understand, from understanding to the effort to judge truly, from judging to the effort to choose rightly.  In the measure that we advert to our own questioning and proceed to question it, there arises the question of God ...[H]owever much religious or irreligious answers differ, however much there differ the questions they explicitly raise, still at their root there is the same transcendental tendency of the human spirit that questions, that questions without restriction, that questions the significance of its own questioning, and so comes to the question of God.  The question of God, then, lies within man's horizon.   Man's transcendental subjectivity is mutilated or abolished, unless he is stretching forth towards the intelligible, the unconditioned, and the good of value.  The reach, not of his attainment, but of his intending, is unrestricted.  There lies within his horizon a region for the divine, a shrine for ultimate holiness.   It cannot be ignored.  The atheist may pronounce it empty.  The agnostic may urge that he finds his investigation has been inconclusive.  The contemporary humanist will refuse to allow the question to arise.   But their negations presuppose the spark in our clod, our native orientation to the divine.  (102-103)

Did God Cause Judas To Betray Jesus?

Check out my friend's new posting by clicking on the link in the posting title above....his blog is here (http://isaiah457.blogspot.com/).

The Power of the Gospel (Ben Harper)

Christianity and War

Love and Only Love (Neil Young & Crazy Horse)

A Practical Christian Pacifism

Why? Michael Card

God can save our children

“[Much of the church] fears that if the young person, especially in adolescence, is permitted to become acquainted with the world and its lures, he is sure to be lost. This prediction is, in all its intended realism, a lack of faith and a surrender to determinism. If the Gospel cannot call people out of the world, it is no Gospel. If what we preach to our young people cannot call them out of the world, then we must ask ourselves if what we are preaching is the Gospel. If placing people in a context of choice where it is possible to choose the wrong is unwise, then God himself made the first mistake when he created Adam and the worst mistake when he let people kill his Son. At the bottom of it all, this pessimism means placing oneself fully on the level of the world. It means agreeing with the world that all human development is determined by physical and psychological necessities; agreeing with the world that Christian faith is a matter of behavior patterns and of truths to be passed on; agreeing with the world that there is no miracle of resurrection, no miracle of faith, no Holy Spirit.”


(John Howard Yoder, “Christian Education: Doctrinal Orientation”)

Charlie Sheen is God...?

The Gun in the Room

Click this link to read about it...

Black Night

Whose shoulder?

Yeah...!!!

Click the posting title above...

Cleaning My Gun

A little Schaeffer

“One of the greatest injustices we do our young people is to ask them to be conservative. Christianity is not conservative, but revolutionary … We must teach the young to be revolutionaries, revolutionaries against the status quo.”

- Francis Schaeffer

Sunday Morning...NOT

Thanks to a friend for this link...enjoy...or weep...


"Sunday's Coming" Movie Trailer from North Point Media on Vimeo.

Was it really 35 years ago...

Coming in the clouds...

Should I Stay Or Should I Go

Hope in Discouraging Times

Anthem...

I just enjoyed an essay over at the blog of "The Enchanted Etymologist". You can (and should) check it out by clicking the link in the posting title above.

There's something I really love about the writer...

Too Many Ways To Fall (Arcangels)

Always Believed in You (Arcangels)

Onward Christian Soldiers, Again

Ummm...yeah...

WWJSD - Who would Jesus “smack down”?

Visit the link by clicking the posting title above.

Call me cynical, but I think using violence, pain and intentional conflict as a means of Christian evangelism makes about as much sense as using “Hustler” as a marriage manual.

I guess everybody draws lines somewhere.

One of the big influences in my life has been rock and roll music. I have finally reached the age where I can honestly confess that rock and roll has not done me any good. God help me…I still like it a whole, whole lot…but…I don’t want it in my Church.

I’ve also been a martial artist. Those who know me now may find this humorous, but there was a time when my consuming passion was “the fight” – and like anything else – what we practice at – we get better at. I’m sure there was some value to the bodily exercise (1 Timothy 4:8) but, in retrospect, I sure wasted a lot of passion on “the fight.”

Jesus was a peacemaker. He is called the “Prince of Peace.” He has “made peace by the blood of His cross.”

Am I missing the boat here? Does this make sense at all? Could hosting “beat downs” at a “Christian” Church be a good thing?

“Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you (Ephesians 4:31-32).”

Knife Skills

Well...those of you who know the Militant Pacifist know that one of his passions is "fine cooking."

My Christmas present last year was a very nice Shun Chef's Knife.

Since I'm now the owner of such a nice knife...I'm trying to learn some "knife skills."  Check this out...

Bittersweet (Big Head Todd and the Monsters)

The Exclusive Kingdom of God

Christian "statists" are an enigma to the Militant Pacifist.

In Paul Green's brief essay (linked in the posting title above), he points out just a few of the gross inconsistencies involved in Christian support of states.

Let us pray with specific purpose (as the great Apostle instructed) that the state may "leave us alone" - i.e., NOT for the state's prosperity, NOT for the state's success, NOT for the state's persistence, NOT for the state's glory, NOT for the state's victory in its wars, NOT even for the protection of the state's agents - let us pray that the state powers that be will "leave us alone" so that we may live a life of honesty, godliness and peace.

"I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour (Paul the Apostle to Saint Timothy, 1 Timothy 2:1-3)."

True Love Travels on a Gravel Road

The Hope of Victory

You can read Bob Murphy's excellent essay by clicking the link in the posting title above.

If you don't know what the "prisoner's dilemma" is, you can learn about it here.

Hey Joe...

J.I. Packer on Reading the Bible

Ouch!!!

You can read Packer's musings by clicking on the link in the posting title above.

Entropy Reloaded

I'm commenting over at Spurgeon's Cigar. You can read it by clicking the link on the posting title above.

The jokes on you...if you believe the US Constitution guarantees ANYTHING!

The farce documented in the link in the posting title above should silence some of the crowd who want to crow about their imagined "rights" under the US constitution.

All this poor guy is guilty of is being an idiot. I'll bet that back in the government junior high school that he went to, some government paid teacher told him to take pride in the "rights" he had. The same "teacher" probably told him that his rights were guaranteed and protected by the government's constitution.

The fact that he's now going to be involuntarily "detained" and have two years of his life stolen from him by the institution that markets itself by claiming that it guarantees and protects his "rights" demonstrates the absurdity of even the smallest amount of faith, hope or trust in human governmental schemes.

For some reason, this has raised my Militantly Pacifistic blood pressure - and I'm not even a NY Giants fan.

An H.L. Menken quote is rolling around in my head...

"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats."

Pacifist Poetry

(With apologies to Clement Clarke Moore)

Roses are red, Violets are blue
Please don’t shoot at me, and I won’t shoot at you

You claim you’re a follower of heaven’s own lamb
But your claim’s not convincing with your AK in hand
The flag that’s your glory’s own stripes stand for blood
But not blood that saves - blood was shed for what good?

On Dasher, on Dancer, on Prancer, and Vixen
On Roosevelt, Truman, and Johnson and Nixon
On Clinton and Bush I, Bush II and Barrack
Warmongering psychopaths, hmmm, the whole lot

Endless propaganda, from the cradle to the grave
“You know your country needs you son, freedom you must save”
And so they swallow easy, line, sinker, even hook
And jet away to take what God has said should ne’er be took

And some men fight for honor and some men fight for blood
But most men they just fight for what they’ve been told that they should
But Jesus didn’t fight at all, He bleated like a lamb
Yet untold millions bow to Him, the King, the great I AM

A sword shoots out from His mouth; it’s like a spear of fire
And all who have been pierced by it have shriveled up and died
They’ve died to dreams of freedom, dreams of gold and fortune here
But in their very dying their vision’s become clear

They’ve seen their Savior as He is, the King of kings, the Lord
And when they’ve seen that vision, they’ve heard, “put up your sword”
And they’ve followed His instruction, men of peace they’ve come to be
Men who’re hated by the warmongers who claim to keep them free

So sell your shirt and buy a sword, but two’s aplenty man
And try to keep your conscience clean in this polluted land
And teach your children not to trust the things they hear at school
Cause it’s all propaganda, it’s the arguments of fools

Jesus said “be peaceable,” “lay down your life, and die,”
But no man can hear or see this, if he’s blinded in the eye
A radical commandment makes a radical devotee
But this, this is the lot, of those who’ve come to see

Constitutionalism is Socialism

Interesting....

Is Military Service Honorable?

Fred's answer...

Quagmire Exchange

As usual (well, sadly, he doesn't write regularly anymore), Charley Reese "nails" it.

A Covenant With Death

Totalitarianism In One City: Shreveport's Gun-Grabbing Mayor

The "Bomb Iran" contingent's newfound concern for The Iranian People

For a lawyer, Mr. Greenwald has some really good points. I still find it hard to understand how anyone who is bombing you can be classified "friend."

The Battle of Jericho (Red Ellis and the Crossmen)

A Personal Message

“In the darkest depths of Mordor, I met a girl so fair…”

I can’t believe it’s been 24 years my fair one!

May our God bless us still - as we stumble together towards the New Jerusalem…

I Wish..

"The Yield from Money Held" Reconsidered

Jah Work (Ben Harper)

What is Marxism?

But That Would Be Anarchy

Yea, you've got 5 minutes to watch this...

Why does this bother me so much?

Are video games adequately preparing kids for the post-apocalyptic future?

Liberal versus Libertarian Views on Drug Legalization

Science Is as Science Does

Yeah...click on the link in the posting title above...

Evidence

The Coming Evangelical Collapse

To read an interesting missive from the "Internet Monk," click the link in the posting title above.

Socialism, Capitalism, and the Bible (Dr. Ronald H. Nash)

Bailout Blues

Enhance your understanding!

Click the link in the posting title above...

Stimulus spelled out

Wow!

I was in the process of drafting a post outlining my take on the stimulus package when I discovered that Vox Day has already done it.

Click the link in the posting title above to read a concise "Austrian School" (economic) analysis of the probable effects of the "stimulus."

Pity this young man...

I (the Militant Pacifist) thank God for an earthly father who discouraged me from enlisting in the military in my youthful naiveté.

Would to God that the young man who authored the article linked in the posting title above could have read Laurence Vance's "Letter to a Christian Young Man Regarding Joining the Military" years ago.

The Ubiquity of Depravity

If you’ve never studied Dr. Stanley Milgram’s 1963 experiment in which he confirmed man’s inhumanity to man, you should check it out.

The ubiquity of depravity and the “banality of evil” was recently confirmed by Dr. Jerry Burger of Santa Clara University who replicated (a slightly modified version of) Milgram’s experiment.

Interestingly, the results of Dr. Burger’s experiment confirm Dr. Milgram’s results from forty-five years earlier.

What a reminder that the only hope for humanity is Jesus Christ!

On the Impossibility of Limited Government and the Prospects for a Second American Revolution

The Resurrection Paradigm

I made my second post over at Spurgeon's Cigar.

You can read it by clicking the link in the posting title above.

The Christian and War

Professor Warford applies the plain words of Jesus and explains how "money changes everything"...click on the link in the posting title above.

Please do!

Caesar and God in Context

Some very interesting perspective...click on the link in the posting title above...

Why Does the World Feel Wrong?

Will Groves offers and interesting hypothesis for why the world feels so wrong.  

To read about it, click on the link in the posting title above.

Exponentiality

In chapter 4 of his book, Hurtling Toward Oblivion: A Logical Argument for the End of the Age (click link in the posting title above), Dr. Richard Swenson explains the startling phenomenon called "exponentiality." I highly recommend this little book, but only for the reader who is "not easily troubled."

As the YouTube video below demonstrates, humans must now deal with events with which they have no experience. The pretensions of central bankers, treasury secretaries and the wall street suit and tie crowd are amazing. The amount of lipstick being smeared onto the discredited Keynesian pig is astounding.



I refer the troubled viewer here here.

Bush, Obama and the American State

I think Anthony is pretty much "spot-on" in his analysis. You can read it by clicking the link in the posting title above.

And...if you'd like to watch Dr. Paul attempt to use that ever-so-blunt instrument (logic) on some Keynesians, click here.

Why I Am a Panarchist

Dr. Rozeff explains why he is a "Panarchist." You can read his explanation by clicking on the link in the posting title above.

The Peaceful Transfer of Violent Power

I hope I see you in heaven...

Click on the posting title above to read a letter from Martha Vaughan...

Christian Nonviolence

Politicians and Logic

There's No Pain-Free Cure for Recession

"Dr. Doom" used to be the laughingstock of the financial networks. His accurate recession predictions have now made him a desired "talking head" on the financial networks. Even the Wall Street Journal is now on board. You can read the article by clicking the link in the posting title above.

Take a Little Quiz

Click the link above to take a neat little quiz that contrasts Austrian economic theory (the Militant Pacifist's position) with other schools of economic thought (e.g., Keynesian, Chicago-school, Marxian, Classical, etc.).

It'll make you think!

Juvenile Humor...

Why is this funny?

I'm not sure, maybe it reminds me of playing dodgeball in elementary school. One thing I'm sure of. You should never laugh really hard with food in your mouth.

The Subversion of Christianity (Jacques Ellul)

The Subversion of Christianity; by Jacques Ellul

Ever since reading his Anarchy and Christianity a couple of years ago, I’ve been wanting to read The Subversion of Christianity. I finally did. Ellul is an interesting, persuasive and depthful thinker.

Ellul believes that true Christianity (the Christianity of Jesus) is necessarily subversive of power (I agree with him), but that Christianity has become so subverted that it is no longer subversive. He reviews many of the trends, ideas and movements that have subverted Christianity in his book.

Links to a couple of online reviews are here, and here. Read together, the reviews are very informative, so I’ll not write a complete review, but I will post some quotations that I found interesting. My hope is that by sampling the quotes, you’ll get a feel for Ellul’s writing - and that you may decide to read this (or similar works) yourself. There are things to disagree with in the book (and many things to upset conservatives and fundamentalists) but for the thinker with an interest in Christian Anarchy and the ethics of Jesus, The Subversion of Christianity is definitely a worthwhile read.

On the effects of the fall - “From the beginning of Genesis we learn a stupefying fact whose implications have seldom been grasped. What Adam and Eve acquire when they take the fruit is the knowledge of good and evil, that is, knowledge in the sense of the ability to state, as God does, that this is good and that is bad. There is no good and evil above God that even God is bound to apply. There is no transcendent good and evil as we constantly think when we judge that the Old Testament God is wrong when, for example, he orders Abraham to sacrifice his son. To be like God is to be able to declare that this is good and that is bad. This is what Adam and Eve acquired, and this was the cause of the break, for there is absolutely nothing to guarantee that our declaration will correspond to God’s. Thus to establish morality is necessarily to do wrong (15).”

On Christian freedom – “Perfect freedom, spiritual as well as political or social, freedom because liberation by God from new bondage is the supreme mutation that was not just proclaimed or ideologized but achieved, is accomplished in us by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ; in him fate ceases to exist and we are radically free. All this is contained already in the first act of liberation from Egypt. It is the constant promise of the God of Abraham. It is effected in the incarnation. But it is strictly intolerable in the fullness of its implications. It is psychologically unbearable. It carries frightening social risks and is politically insulting to every form of power. It was not possible. On every social level and in every culture, people have found it impossible to take up this freedom and accept its implications. This is the basic impossibility, the unanimous refusal of all people, which has resulted in the rejection of Christian freedom.
A risk with no cover, a joyful and perilous acrobatic feat with no net! It was not what we wanted. This is the pure and simple reason for the rejection of freedom. But since it is at the same time acquired, a tragic conflict develops between effective freedom (transformed into an ideal or formula or so-called need) and the refusal to accept the risk of it. This is the conflict that gives rise to the incoherences of the Western world with its oscillation between dictatorship and revolution. And it was found in the very reality of God’s revelation itself (43).”

On the origin of “just war” – “The famous story of Charlemagne forcing the Saxons to be converted on pain of death simply presents us with an imitation of what Islam had been doing for two centuries. But if war now has conversions to Christianity as its goal, we can see that very quickly it takes on the aspect of a holy war. It is a war waged against unbelievers and heretics (we know how pitiless was the was the war that Islam waged against heretics in its midst). But the idea of a holy war is a direct product of the Muslim jihad. If the latter is a holy war, then obviously the fight against Muslims to defend or save Christianity has also to be a holy war. The ideal of a holy war is not of Christian origin. Emperors never advanced the idea prior to the appearance of Islam.
For half a century historians have been studying the Crusades to find explanations other than the silly theory that was previously held and conforms to addresses and sermons, that claims their intention was to secure the holy places. It has been shown that the Crusades had economic objectives, or that they were stirred up by the popes for various political motives such as that of securing papal preeminence by exhausting the kingdoms, or reforging the weakening unity of the church, or again that they were a means whereby the kings ruined the barons who were challenging their power, or again that the bankers of Genoa, Florence, and Barcelona instigated them so as to be able to lend money to the Crusaders and make fabulous profits, etc. One fact, however, is a radical one, namely, that the Crusade is an imitation of the jihad. Thus the Crusade includes a guarantee of salvation. The one who dies in a holy war goes straight to Paradise, and the same applies to one who takes part in a Crusade. This is no coincidence; it is an exact equivalent.
The Crusades, which were once admired as an expression of absolute faith, and which are now the subject of accusations against the church and Christianity, are of Muslim, not Christian, origin. We find here a terrible consequence and confirmation of a vice that was eating into Christianity already, namely, that of violence and the desire for power and domination. To fight against a wicked foe with the same means and arms is unavoidably to be identified with this foe. Evil means inevitably corrupt a just cause. The nonviolence of Jesus Christ changes into a war in conflict with that waged by the foe. Like that war, this is now a holy war. Here we have one of the chief perversions of faith in Jesus Christ and of the Christian life.
But we must take this a step further. Once the king is the representative of God on earth and a war is holy, another question necessarily arises. If a war is not holy, what is it? It seems that the Christian emperors of Rome did not ask this question. They had to defend the empire. That was all. Naturally it did not arise in the period of the invasions and the Germanic kingdoms either. War was then a fact, a permanent state. No one tried to justify it. But with the Muslim idea of a holy war the idea is born that a war may be good even if it is not motivated by religious intentions so long as it is waged by a legitimate king. Gradually the view is accepted that political power has to engage in war, and if this power is Christian, then a ruler has to obey certain precepts, orientations, and criteria if he is to act as a Christian ruler and to wage a just war. We thus embark on an endless debate as to the conditions of a just war, from Gratian’s decree to St. Thomas. All this derives from the first impulse toward a holy war, and it was the Muslim example that finally inspired this dreadful denial of which all Christendom becomes guilty (102-104).”

On the Islamic origin of infant baptism - “We have still to examine a very different subversion. It concerns piety, the relation to God. We see in it an influence that we have already mentioned in passing. Every infant is supposedly born a Muslim, for Islam is perfect conformity to nature. Scholars, then, argue that it is through a bad influence of the “cultural” setting that this baby, who is by nature a Muslim, deviates from the truth and becomes a Jew or a Christian or a pagan. Evangelical thinking takes exactly the opposite view. One becomes a Christian only by conversion. Our old being, which is by nature corrupt, is changed by the action of the Holy Spirit, who makes of us new beings. Conversion alone, conscious and recognized, so that there is confession with the lips as well as faith in the heart, produces the Christian. This new birth, the opposite of natural birth, is confirmed by the outward sign of baptism, which seems to imply an express acknowledgement of faith. But progressively this strict view weakens. The church fathers analyze the sacraments, and the tendency toward an opus operatum understanding develops. The sacrament is intrinsically efficacious. Baptism ceases to be a sign of converting grace and becomes in itself an instrument of salvation. Hence, if we desire that infants, who are naturally damned due to the transmission of original sin, should be saved, we must baptize them immediately at birth so as to avoid the risk of their dying first. Salvation, then, comes almost at the moment of birth. At the same time that we reevaluate nature, which is now not radically bad, the conviction gains ground that the soul is “naturally” good and saved, that there is only a hindrance, a flaw, and that original sin is merely an obstacle that baptism overcomes.
Very quickly the formula spreads that the soul is by nature Christian, which is the counterpart of the Muslim view. Now the idea that faith is natural, that one is put in a Christian state by heredity, that being a Christian is indeed a kind of status in society, that it involves at the same time membership in both the church and society (just as excommunication is exclusion from both church and society), is the very opposite of the work of Jesus Christ. We have to insist that Christendom in this sense is superimposed upon the church and that it duplicates exactly what is taught by Islam. Once the theory of “the soul by nature Christian” is accepted, society has to be made up of Christians. There is no alternative. Already with the Christian emperors there was a thrust in this direction. But it was the Muslim example that proved decisive. Each time we find the same refrain. There is a need to outdo Islam, and that means imitating it (104-105).”

On the Christian embrace of “weakness” - “And what about another concept that seems to be essential in the life of Jesus Christ, that of weakness, which is linked with antipolitics? What can be more the opposite of what we are? Is not the spirit of power at the heart of all our actions? I concede that it nay not exist among some so-called primitive peoples in tribes that know no violence and seek no domination, But these are such an exception that we certainly cannot take them as a natural example of what humanity is in general – if there is such a thing as “humanity in general.”
If we look only at historical peoples, what do we see? Wars, conquests, aggrandizement, the crushing of the vanquished, the magnifying of power, the quest for greatness. Let us not say that this applies only to the West! That is all comes from Rome! For what did Egypt do for two thousand years but conquer and dominate and assert its power? And the Assyrians and the Chaldeans? Is the flower of Greek civilization held up against us (apart from Lacedaemon)? But at Athens what were games in the arena but glorifications of competitive force? And who but the Greeks founded colonies, and gradually invaded the eastern Mediterranean, often by devious paths? And what about Alexander?
It might be objected that I am speaking about the spirit of violence and power only with reference to the Mediterranean basin. Let us look further afield. The Aztecs? Were they not inspired by fear? The Eastern world? Where did those terrible successive waves come from, the Huns, Hungarians, Genghis Khan, Tamburlaine, the Turks who periodically overwhelmed Europe? Did they not come from the very same Asia that many people want to depict today as wise and devoid of any spirit of violence? And within this continent frightful wars ravaged India periodically for two thousand years, not to speak of the Manchurian and Mongolian invasions that spilled across China. China itself until the thirteenth century was a colonizing and imperialistic power. I have already spoken already about the Arab and the Moslem world. Let no one say that Europe alone was characterized by the spirit of power.
Within all societies without exception has there not been equally a split between a small number of rich people and a large number of poor people? Does this not include Buddhist society, which is said to be pacifistic and nonviolent? The domination of the rich is everywhere the same. It expresses everywhere the same spirit of violence and repression. Capitalism did not engender it. Everywhere it has been institutionalized, and particularly in Indian society, where the hierarchical caste system consecrates and solidifies this supremacy of the powerful. In the same way, we find slavery almost everywhere. I admit again that in a small “primitive” group there has not been any slavery, although sometimes this was only because they ate prisoners. In any case, a group of this kind is not of great significance for “humanity” at large, seeing that we find various forms of slavery, of the absolute exploitation of some people by others, in all historical societies. One might truly say that the desire to dominate, to crush, to use others, is a general on and admits of hardly any exceptions. One might refer to the Greek glorification of conquering Eros which enslaves and possesses for its own satisfaction. One might quote also the way in which conquerors called themselves the “scourge of God.” Truly the spirit of power lies deep in the human heart.
How truly intolerable, then, is a message, and even more so a life, that centers on weakness. Not sacrifice on behalf of a cause that one wants to bring to success, but in all truth love for nothing, faith for nothing, giving for nothing, service for nothing. Putting others above oneself. In all things seeking the interests of others. When dragged before the courts, not attempting any defense but leaving it to the Holy Spirit. The renunciation of power is infinitely broader and harder than nonviolence (which it includes). For nonviolence allows of a social theory, and in general it has an objective. The same is not true of nonpower (164-166).”

On Christian action - “Revealed truth spiritualizes all conditions and situations. By this fact it makes everything more radical, bringing it before a final court. Everything, and hence all political, social, economic, and philosophical questions, and all the means that we use – everything becomes more radical. At the same time, however, this radicalness demands that we leave what we claim to have, including political instruments and collective means. (Go, sell all that you have…not just real estate and jewels!) We can then begin to be and to act in a new way, to recognize another form of efficacy….Renounce everything in order to be everything. Trust in no human means, for God will provide (we cannot say where, when, or how). Have confidence in his Word and not in a rational program. Enter on a way on which you will gradually find answers but with no guaranteed substance. All this is difficult, much more so than recruiting guerillas, instigating terrorism, or stirring up the masses. And this is why the gospel is so intolerable, intolerable for myself as I speak, as I say all this to myself and others, intolerable for readers, who can only shrug their shoulders.
Grace is intolerable, the Father is unbearable, weakness is discouraging, freedom is unlivable, spiritualization is deceptive. This is our judgment, and humanly speaking it is well founded and inevitable. This is one of the first reasons for the rejection of the proclamation of God in Jesus Christ. And because we do not want to seem to reject it, perversion and subversion take place. All these judgments and actions are based on good sense, reason, experience, and science, that is, on our ordinary means of judgment, on what all people think and believe. But it is precisely here that we fall down. Jesus tells us plainly that if we simply do as the world does, we can expect no thanks, for we are doing nothing out of the ordinary. What we are summoned to do is something out of the ordinary. We are to be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect. No less. All else is perversion (172-173).”

The Reluctant Anarchist

Yes indeed...time to put away childish things...

Great Steaks!

A few nights ago (while the progeny were all away for the evening) I acquired a couple of USDA Prime beef tenderloins (I had to go to a special store to find these) to enjoy with my bride.

It was misty and windy, and I didn’t want to cook outside. I decided to try Alton Brown’s technique (which I had seen on the Food Network).

We both enjoy a good flame-grilled steak, but these turned out as close to perfect as any I’ve ever cooked. Alton’s technique facilitates total control of temperature and doneness. Check out the video clip below…

Of course with great steaks, you really need a really big Zin!

More on the Christian's Relationship with the State

I've been a regular "commenter" over at Spurgeon's Cigar for a while now, but I just made my first posting over there. You can check it out by clicking the link in the posting title above.

The Persecution of Plaxico Burress

What he says...

The Zero Aggression Principle Part II - Put Down the Gun!

If you followed the link in my earlier posting on the Zero Aggression Principle, then you are now ready for part II. Click on the link in the posting title above...go ahead, click it...

Socialism 101

One of Dr. Williams' laudatory skills is his ability to take complex ideas and make them understandable - as the Militant Pacifist's progenitor would say, he can "put the cookies on the lower shelf."

To get a basic and incisive understanding of the perniciousness of socialism, read Dr. Williams' brief essay (linked in the posting title above).

The Zero Aggression Principle

Click the link in the posting title above to enjoy an easy-to-read explanation of the Zero Aggression Principle (ZAP). The ZAP is the heart of Christian Anarchism and/or Christian Libertarianism.

Free Mark Cuban!

Will Obama stop this?

I doubt it!

Why would a black president want slavery?

Safety is of the LORD

I had the privilege yesterday of hearing a sermon from an Iraqi Christian minister.

In response to a question about security in Iraq, the Christian opined (this is not a verbatim quote, just the best that I can recall), “you may think you are safe in the United States, but you may not be. I’ll be safe in Iraq because that’s where God wants me. When you are where God wants you, that’s where you are safe.”

What a timely reminder. “ …safety is of the LORD (Proverbs 21:31).”

Take the pill...

What's all the hype about? Click on the chill pill...

A Non-Voting Manifesto?

Consider this...

Be Careful What You Sign (Larry Norman)

Obeying Men Rather Than God

Wow!

Think about this!!!

Another Letter (e-mail) Sent to My Senators

Dear Senator,

My wife and I both called to urge you to vote against the so called "bailout" bill. According to news media reports, you voted for it.

Since you are a republican, and a professed conservative, this has shocked and dismayed me since it seems to imply that you do not believe in maintaining a "free market" but rather are in favor of government intervention and meddling in the free market - which destroys the freedom of the market. I never expected such from you.

If you or some of your staff have the time, I would appreciate an explanation of what you were thinking when you voted for what conservatives perceive as rank "socialism," and the 5th plank in Karl Marx's steps towards communism.

Regards,

Grand Theft Taxpayer

Mr. Peters gets a great analogy going in his little article. You can read it by clicking the link in the posting title above.

Symphony of Destruction

The slow motion train wreck that has been going on in Washington D.C. this past week has made my stomach sick.  What are the powers doing to "our" country?  The soundtrack is – Symphony of Destruction (Megadeth).

A Manmade Disaster

When discussing the problem of evil, philosophers of religion bifurcate evil into two types: natural evil and moral evil.

Natural evil, as the descriptor signifies, is that type of evil that seems to be, as a part of the natural (fallen) world, amoral. Horrible examples of natural evil abound, things like hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires, cancer, and so on.

Moral evil, as the descriptor signifies, is that type of evil which (as opposed to natural evil) has a distinctively moral (or immoral) tinge. Horrendous examples of moral evil are things like, theft, rape, murder and torture.

The current “credit crisis” is not a natural evil. The current credit crisis is a moral evil perpetrated against all users of the US dollar.

The proposed solution – the so called “bailout” is another moral evil which will further injure the many while benefiting only a few.

Contrary to the pitiful assertions by Comrade Bush that the free market is “not working,” the Militant Pacifist asserts that the exact opposite is true. The free market is working perfectly. I hesitate to brand “ignorance” as a “lie” (I must remain charitable). The invisible hand of the free market is working just fine!

The free market has made a statement. It has said, I have evaluated the mortgage backed securities and derivative products offered for sale by several major investment banks and I have determined their value to be approximately $0. Hence, I, the free market, offer the princely sum of $0 in exchange for this worthless commercial crap paper.

The proposed “bailout” would come and “re-value” these worthless securities at $700B, or whatever the current number happens to be.

Comrades Paulson and Bernanke would purchase these securities, which the free market has said are worthless ($0) for $700B. The purpose of the purchase would be to “remove this toxic paper from the market.”

But look at what would really happen. Something that the free market values at $0 will be purchased (by force – NOT by an arms-length, free market transaction) for $700B.

In other words $0 worth of value will be removed from the economy, and $700B will be “injected” into the economy.

In a few short months, the money supply will be dramatically increased. The resulting inflation should be obvious. The dramatic increase in the number of dollars circulating in the economy makes each dollar worth less than it was before.

The shirt that used to cost $50, now costs $75. The shirt didn’t actually rise in value – the dollar that’s being used to purchase the shirt actually fell in value – the price of the shirt became “inflated.”

For anyone who has read my ramblings, it should be obvious that I’m a strong proponent of the Austrian School (of economic theory) – but the analysis above doesn’t require that you subscribe to Austrian Economics – it just requires some very basic economic reasoning.

Raising taxes to pay for the “bailout” is not feasible. What will happen is that Comrade Paulson will ask Comrade Bernanke to “authorize” the currency to fund the transaction. The resulting “fiat money” will be “legal tender” for all debts, public or private (i.e., the government will require it to be accepted as payment).

The resulting inflation will effectively tax anyone and everyone who uses the US dollar.

The debasement of a people’s currency is a moral evil which harms people indiscriminately.

Those who commit and support such moral evil are worthy of judgment, and unless they repent, they will certainly be judged.