Month: July 2020

Twenty First Century Platonism: Tweets

mmcdonald72014 Leave a comment
 The penalty of injustice cannot be avoided- one becomes unjust. What we do to others is done to us. “Vengeance is mine,” says you know Who. Hence, he treads the wine press alone.
Mankind is not a politeuma.
Nor is a single man
Its like: family, tribe, village, polis, state, nation. One might stick in some colonies and township, and notice many intermediate political bodies. But the “world” is not a politeuma.
The delusion, though, carried over from the images, characterizes bioth tghe left and right forms of Twentieth century totalitarianism.
The “world state” is of course an impiety and a delusion. No more is mankind governed by a man…the redeemed are a part of the Bride of the Lord. The angels may be too. The righteous deeds of the saints are the linen of her garment.
We’re about to beat up Dante on monarchy, and start over, like from the three mentions of the crown in Proverbs and wise rule.
The sacraments are also images of mysteries- at least that and the Chrism. Jesus did Baptism and transfiguration. The Straussians think of it as if a thing made by man. But given the popularity of Dante, that is not surprising!
The first miracle is performed at a wedding.
So, what if everyone had gotten all worked up protesting the “Wall,” only to find it a non-issue. Trump literally does not care what his policies are, and if we ignore him, he may soon forget. On his level, seriously, he may not be able to do much harm- without our help.
He literally has no domestic powers not given by Congress. Nor any domestic funds. He does not get this. We can impeach him again, have the Court void the 2016 election, or invoke the 25th A, the latter not because he is ignorant nor a plant nor ethically unfit, but incapacitated
 
The Trumpsters simply will not admit that 90% of the Corvid deaths were preventable with the leadership of any nation other than those where Putin turned the election. No amount of “proof,” including war with Iran nor burying our grandchildren will give pause:
The penalty of injustice cannot be avoided- one becomes unjust. What we do to others is done to us. “Vengeance is mine,” says you know Who. Hence, he treads the wine press alone.
The Trumpsters simply will not admit that 90% of the Corvid deaths were preventable with the leadership of any nation other than those where Putin turned the election. No amount of “proof,” including war with Iran nor burying our grandchildren will give pause:
Watching emergency school board mtg re:opening. A veteran just stood up & said “The ghosts of the people I’ve killed to keep you all safe haunt me every night. Are you prepared to be haunted by the ghosts of the children & faculty for whom you are responsible?”
Or just go around them. As the Governors do in responding to Corona.
No one even raises the obvious question of KGB Putin and his relation to the left- Marxism- and right- white guy forms of Twentieth Century Totalitarianism. Has he raised the right in these elections to later raise the left? Brazil/ Venezuela?
If Putin were enacting a thirty year plan to destroy America, he could hardly do better, nor would we be able to discern it. Kaspersky controlled 400 million computer security accounts from Moscow in 2016, and we do not YET see the significance.
 The Don of course visited Russia as early as 1989, and they began grooming him, just in case.

Leo Strauss lectures on Plato’s Meno 1 – [1966] youtu.be/LpZKKmVZ1DY via

@YouTube
Leo Strauss lectures on Plato’s Meno 1 – [1966]
University of Chicago Spring 1966
youtube.com
There is a hierarchy of ends of the soul, and a consequent order of the soul. Ethics is about priorities. Is there a natural order of “values” characteristic of the “healthy or well ordered soul? We seek to know this. “The sage leaves that, and chooses this.” -Lao Tzu
Nazism will also speak of or a hierarchy, following Nietzsche. The new fascists seek to use both this conservatism and Leo Strauss, as at the University of Toronto, etc. The hierarchy in Nietzsche is up-side-down, based upon, as we say, upon a diabolic inversion of the soul.

Gen Michael Hayden
@GenMhayden

 

Paul Rosenzweig
@Rosenzweig
If they voted to acquit Trump they have no merit. The conservative view will only be revived if authoritarian accommodationists are repudiated. Vote all of them out.
For the first time tonight there is officially a Wall of Veterans in Portland.
“All political action point toward the knowledge of the good.”

Constitution Day 2012 youtu.be/DyBuF_91a8U via

@YouTube
Constitution Day 2012
On September 16, 2012, Dr. Leo Paul de Alvarez gave this address at the University of Dallas’ annual Constitution Day dinner, hosted by the Politics Departme…
youtube.com

The Principle of American Politics and the Bible

mmcdonald72014 Leave a comment
Reflecting back on the Revolution, Ben Franklin is cited as having written:
…”God grant that not only the love of liberty, but a thorough knowledge of the rights of man, may pervade all the nations of the earth, so that a philosopher may set his foot anywhere on its surface and say, “This is my country.”
                                                             Commager & Morris, The Spirit of ’76
   We are working on how the Bible and American politics DO fit together, in the fundamentals of political theory. Madison’s Letter on Remonstrance: What is a duty to God is a right in relation to other men. Liberty is primary because of the Imago Dei– the “image of God” in man that is the the basis of all law- that  especially in the modern state. Or,as they say, rights take precedence over duties.” The colony, state or nation does not know the good, and cannot provide it. But neither is that its purpose. Rather, the purpose of government is “to secure these ” rights.
Of religion, Madison writes:
It [religion] is unalienable also, because what is here a right towards men, is a duty towards the Creator. It is the duty of every man to render to the Creator such homage and such only as he believes to be acceptable to him. This duty is precedent, both in order of time and in degree of obligation, to the claims of Civil Society.
So, the principle in Madison’s Remonstrance is the same as that of the second sentence of the Declaration: They are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life…etc. See? murder is wrong. But here, in political as distinct from Biblical terms, it is a violation of the right to life of the one murdered.
   It is because of the Imago Dei- the basis of all law- that Liberty is primary, for the polis as well, but certainly for the modern state. Otherwise, things made by man, or artificial, would be allowed to rule over the divine in man. The image of God in man is the reason that murder is wrong (Genesis 9:6) and the basis of ethics regarding love as well (Genesis 1:26). It is the nature of man and the basis of the law- all law, including our Declaration. What is astonishing is how Jefferson and the Committee have fit together these “sacred and undeniable,” or in Franklin’s words, “self evident” truths with the simple absence of the essence of man or spark of the divine from the political realm. Where the world of medieval chivalry is Christian by analogy, the American way, suited too to the multiplicity of European sects, is to leave their roofs open, or allowing a place where the divine, too, might enter.

   The purpose of human government is not to make men good as a final cause but as an efficient cause, for example preventing thefts (or securing the rights of property) so that businesses and estates can get started and prosper. Because even for a single small city, we are not going to have a single, identifiable “philosopher King,” this liberty is better than almost any attempt a character formation, and surely better than any we are likely to otherwise find.
   In a definition of Liberty which we think excels Jefferson, the Frenchman Montesquieu writes that political liberty is where we are forbid to do nothing truly good, nor compelled to do injustice (Spirit of the Laws, XI).
   Because government does not know the good, and the American principle allow for that truth, the American principle fits well too with the Socratic knowledge of ignorance, and, if philosophy is the best life, allows the natural right to the pursuit of happiness according to the nature of man, called reason and “Nous. or intellect, the life of the rational element. Nous is the imago Dei in man. It has a nature, and what is like it, we call “noble” or “beautiful.”
   One wonders what the enemies of liberty, as Vladimir Putin or Karl Marx would answer such an argument for liberty. They seem still to be imagining the founders as did the students from Charles Beard, rich self interested “White” guys. The founders simply do not speak of “capitalism,” nor institute a “Capitalist system. It’s how liberty looks to tyrants.

The James Madison Essay:

To the Honorable the General Assembly of the
Commonwealth of Virginia
A Memorial and Remonstrance

We the subscribers, citizens of the said Commonwealth, having taken into serious consideration, a Bill printed by order of the last Session of General Assembly, entitled “A Bill establishing a provision for Teachers of the Christian Religion,”1 and conceiving that the same if finally armed with the sanctions of a law, will be a dangerous abuse of power, are bound as faithful members of a free State to remonstrate against it, and to declare the reasons by which we are determined. We remonstrate against the said Bill,

1.   Because we hold it for a fundamental and undeniable truth, “that Religion or the duty which we owe to our Creator and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence.”2 The Religion then of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man; and it is the right of every man to exercise it as these may dictate. This right is in its nature an unalienable right. It is unalienable, because the opinions of men, depending only on the evidence contemplated by their own minds cannot follow the dictates of other men: It is unalienable also, because what is here a right towards men, is a duty towards the Creator. It is the duty of every man to render to the Creator such homage and such only as he believes to be acceptable to him. This duty is precedent, both in order of time and in degree of obligation, to the claims of Civil Society. Before any man can be considered as a member of Civil Society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governour of the Universe: And if a member of Civil Society, who enters into any subordinate Association, must always do it with a reservation of his duty to the General Authority; much more must every man who becomes a member of any particular Civil Society, do it with a saving of his allegiance to the Universal Sovereign. We maintain therefore that in matters of Religion, no mans right is abridged by the institution of Civil Society and that Religion is wholly exempt from its cognizance. True it is, that no other rule exists, by which any question which may divide a Society, can be ultimately determined, but the will of the majority; but it is also true that the majority may trespass on the rights of the minority.3

2.   Because if Religion be exempt from the authority of the Society at large, still less can it be subject to that of the Legislative Body. The latter are but the creatures and vicegerents of the former. Their jurisdiction is both derivative and limited: it is limited with regard to the co-ordinate departments, more necessarily is it limited with regard to the constituents. The preservation of a free Government requires not merely, that the metes and bounds which separate each department of power be invariably maintained; but more especially that neither of them be suffered to overleap the great Barrier which defends the rights of the people.4 The Rulers who are guilty of such an encroachment, exceed the commission from which they derive their authority, and are Tyrants. The People who submit to it are governed by laws made neither by themselves nor by an authority derived from them, and are slaves.

3.   Because it is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties. We hold this prudent jealousy to be the first duty of Citizens, and one of the noblest characteristics of the late Revolution. The free men of America did not wait till usurped power had strengthened itself by exercise, and entangled the question in precedents. They saw all the consequences in the principle, and they avoided the consequences by denying the principle.5 We revere this lesson too much soon to forget it. Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other Religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other Sects? that the same authority which can force a citizen to contribute three pence only of his property for the support of any one establishment, may force him to conform to any other establishment in all cases whatsoever?

4.   Because the Bill violates that equality which ought to be the basis of every law, and which is more indispensible, in proportion as the validity or expediency of any law is more liable to be impeached. If “all men are by nature equally free and independent,”6 all men are to be considered as entering into Society on equal conditions; as relinquishing no more, and therefore retaining no less, one than another, of their natural rights. Above all are they to be considered as retaining an “equal title to the free exercise of Religion according to the dictates of Conscience.”7 Whilst we assert for ourselves a freedom to embrace, to profess and to observe the Religion which we believe to be of divine origin, we cannot deny an equal freedom to those whose minds have not yet yielded to the evidence which has convinced us. If this freedom be abused, it is an offence against God, not against man: To God, therefore, not to man, must an account of it be rendered. As the Bill violates equality by subjecting some to peculiar burdens, so it violates the same principle, by granting to others peculiar exemptions. Are the Quakers and Menonists the only sects who think a compulsive support of their Religions unnecessary and unwarrantable? Can their piety alone be entrusted with the care of public worship? Ought their Religions to be endowed above all others with extraordinary privileges by which proselytes may be enticed from all others? We think too favorably of the justice and good sense of these denominations to believe that they either covet pre-eminences over their fellow citizens or that they will be seduced by them from the common opposition to the measure.

5.   Because the Bill implies either that the Civil Magistrate is a competent Judge of Religious Truth; or that he may employ Religion as an engine of Civil policy.8 The first is an arrogant pretension falsified by the contradictory opinions of Rulers in all ages, and throughout the world: the second an unhallowed perversion of the means of salvation.

6.   Because the establishment proposed by the Bill is not requisite for the support of the Christian Religion. To say that it is, is a contradiction to the Christian Religion itself, for every page of it disavows a dependence on the powers of this world: it is a contradiction to fact; for it is known that this Religion both existed and flourished, not only without the support of human laws, but in spite of every opposition from them, and not only during the period of miraculous aid, but long after it had been left to its own evidence and the ordinary care of Providence. Nay, it is a contradiction in terms; for a Religion not invented by human policy, must have pre-existed and been supported, before it was established by human policy. It is moreover to weaken in those who profess this Religion a pious confidence in its innate excellence and the patronage of its Author; and to foster in those who still reject it, a suspicion that its friends are too conscious of its fallacies to trust it to its own merits.

7.   Because experience witnesseth that ecclesiastical establishments, instead of maintaining the purity and efficacy of Religion, have had a contrary operation. During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity, in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution. Enquire of the Teachers of Christianity for the ages in which it appeared in its greatest lustre; those of every sect, point to the ages prior to its incorporation with Civil policy. Propose a restoration of this primitive State in which its Teachers depended on the voluntary rewards of their flocks, many of them predict its downfall. On which Side ought their testimony to have greatest weight, when for or when against their interest?

8.   Because the establishment in question is not necessary for the support of Civil Government. If it be urged as necessary for the support of Civil Government only as it is a means of supporting Religion, and it be not necessary for the latter purpose, it cannot be necessary for the former. If Religion be not within the cognizance of Civil Government how can its legal establishment be necessary to Civil Government? What influence in fact have ecclesiastical establishments had on Civil Society? In some instances they have been seen to erect a spiritual tyranny on the ruins of the Civil authority; in many instances they have been seen upholding the thrones of political tyranny: in no instance have they been seen the guardians of the liberties of the people. Rulers who wished to subvert the public liberty, may have found an established Clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just Government instituted to secure & perpetuate it needs them not. Such a Government will be best supported by protecting every Citizen in the enjoyment of his Religion with the same equal hand which protects his person and his property; by neither invading the equal rights of any Sect, nor suffering any Sect to invade those of another.

9.   Because the proposed establishment is a departure from that generous policy, which, offering an Asylum to the persecuted and oppressed of every Nation and Religion, promised a lustre to our country, and an accession to the number of its citizens. What a melancholy mark is the Bill of sudden degeneracy? Instead of holding forth an Asylum to the persecuted, it is itself a signal of persecution. It degrades from the equal rank of Citizens all those whose opinions in Religion do not bend to those of the Legislative authority. Distant as it may be in its present form from the Inquisition, it differs from it only in degree. The one is the first step, the other the last in the career of intolerance. The magnanimous sufferer under this cruel scourge in foreign Regions, must view the Bill as a Beacon on our Coast, warning him to seek some other haven, where liberty and philanthrophy in their due extent, may offer a more certain repose from his Troubles.

10.   Because it will have a like tendency to banish our Citizens. The allurements presented by other situations are every day thinning their number. To superadd a fresh motive to emigration by revoking the liberty which they now enjoy, would be the same species of folly which has dishonoured and depopulated flourishing kingdoms.

11.   Because it will destroy that moderation and harmony which the forbearance of our laws to intermeddle with Religion has produced among its several sects. Torrents of blood have been spilt in the old world, by vain attempts of the secular arm, to extinguish Religious discord, by proscribing all difference in Religious opinion. Time has at length revealed the true remedy. Every relaxation of narrow and rigorous policy, wherever it has been tried, has been found to assuage the disease. The American Theatre has exhibited proofs that equal and compleat liberty, if it does not wholly eradicate it, sufficiently destroys its malignant influence on the health and prosperity of the State.9 If with the salutary effects of this system under our own eyes, we begin to contract the bounds of Religious freedom, we know no name that will too severely reproach our folly. At least let warning be taken at the first fruits of the threatened innovation. The very appearance of the Bill has transformed “that Christian forbearance, love and charity,”10 which of late mutually prevailed, into animosities and jealousies, which may not soon be appeased. What mischiefs may not be dreaded, should this enemy to the public quiet be armed with the force of a law?

12.   Because the policy of the Bill is adverse to the diffusion of the light of Christianity. The first wish of those who enjoy this precious gift ought to be that it may be imparted to the whole race of mankind. Compare the number of those who have as yet received it with the number still remaining under the dominion of false Religions; and how small is the former! Does the policy of the Bill tend to lessen the disproportion? No; it at once discourages those who are strangers to the light of revelation11 from coming into the Region of it; and countenances by example the nations who continue in darkness, in shutting out those who might convey it to them. Instead of Levelling as far as possible, every obstacle to the victorious progress of Truth, the Bill with an ignoble and unchristian timidity would circumscribe it with a wall of defence against the encroachments of error.

13.   Because attempts to enforce by legal sanctions, acts obnoxious to so great a proportion of Citizens, tend to enervate the laws in general, and to slacken the bands of Society. If it be difficult to execute any law which is not generally deemed necessary or salutary, what must be the case, where it is deemed invalid and dangerous? And what may be the effect of so striking an example of impotency in the Government, on its general authority?

14.   Because a measure of such singular magnitude and delicacy ought not to be imposed, without the clearest evidence that it is called for by a majority of citizens, and no satisfactory method is yet proposed by which the voice of the majority in this case may be determined, or its influence secured. “The people of the respective counties are indeed requested to signify their opinion respecting the adoption of the Bill to the next Session of Assembly.”12 But the representation must be made equal, before the voice either of the Representatives or of the Counties will be that of the people. Our hope is that neither of the former will, after due consideration, espouse the dangerous principle of the Bill. Should the event disappoint us, it will still leave us in full confidence, that a fair appeal to the latter will reverse the sentence against our liberties.

15.   Because finally, “the equal right of every citizen to the free exercise of his Religion according to the dictates of conscience” is held by the same tenure with all our other rights. If we recur to its origin, it is equally the gift of nature; if we weigh its importance, it cannot be less dear to us; if we consult the “Declaration of those rights which pertain to the good people of Virginia, as the basis and foundation of Government,”13 it is enumerated with equal solemnity, or rather studied emphasis. Either then, we must say, that the Will of the Legislature is the only measure of their authority; and that in the plenitude of this authority, they may sweep away all our fundamental rights; or, that they are bound to leave this particular right untouched and sacred: Either we must say, that they may controul the freedom of the press, may abolish the Trial by Jury, may swallow up the Executive and Judiciary Powers of the State; nay that they may despoil us of14 our very right of suffrage, and erect themselves into an independent and hereditary Assembly or, we must say, that they have no authority to enact into law the Bill under consideration. We the Subscribers say, that the General Assembly of this Commonwealth have no such authority: And that no effort may be omitted on our part against so dangerous an usurpation, we oppose to it, this remonstrance; earnestly praying, as we are in duty bound, that the Supreme Lawgiver of the Universe, by illuminating those to whom it is addressed, may on the one hand, turn their Councils from every act which would affront his holy prerogative, or violate the trust committed to them: and on the other, guide them into every measure which may be worthy of his [blessing, may re]dound15 to their own praise, and may establish more firmly the liberties, the prosperity and the happiness of the Commonwealth.

St. Lucius: The First Christian King Anywhere, 156 AD, Excepting Abgar

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   In a Sixth Century book called Liber Pontificus, or Lives of the Popes, and repeated in Bede’s History of the Church in England, St. Lucius was the first Christian king of Britain, and, we note the first King anywhere to convert, making this the first example of the Christian King or the question of Christianity and kingship. The Armenian claim of Tiridates III is later. The Emperor Constantine did not convert Rome until the Fourth Century, about a century and a half after Lucius. St Abgar is the exception, as he converted while Jesus was alive, received a letter and the shroud of Edessa.

 

 Holinshed, out of Hector Boetius, writes:
 
Coell, the son of this Marius, had issue Lucius, counted the first christian king of this nation. He converted the three archflamens of this land into bishopriks, and ordered bishops onto each of them…
 
   The Coilus line is continued not directly from Lucius, but through a cousin or uncle, to the founders of Colechester, old King Cole and the father of St. Helen, born in Colechester.

 

According to Wikipedia:

   The story became widespread after it was repeated in the 8th century by Bede, who added the detail that after Eleutherius granted Lucius’ request, the Britons followed their king in conversion and maintained the Christian faith until the Diocletianic Persecution of 303.

The English monk Bede included the Lucius story in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, completed in 731. He may have heard it from a contemporary who had been to Rome, such as Nothhelm.[1] Bede adds the detail that Lucius’ new faith was thereafter adopted by his people, who maintained it until the Diocletianic Persecution. Following Bede, versions of the Lucius story appeared in the 9th-century Historia Brittonum, and in 12th-century works such as Geoffrey of Monmouth‘s Historia Regum Britanniae, William of Malmesbury‘s Gesta Pontificum Anglorum, and the Book of Llandaff.[1][6] The most influential of these accounts was Geoffrey’s, which emphasizes Lucius’ virtues and gives a detailed, if fanciful, account of the spread of Christianity during his reign.[7] In his version, Lucius is the son of the benevolent King Coilus and ruled in the manner of his father.[8] Hearing of the miracles and good works performed by Christian disciples, he writes to Pope Eleutherius asking for assistance in his conversion. Eleutherius sends two missionaries, Fuganus and Duvianus, who baptise the king and establish a successful Christian order throughout Britain. They convert the commoners and flamens, turn pagan temples into churches, and establish dioceses and archdioceses where the flamens had previously held power.[8] The pope is pleased with their accomplishments, and Fuganus and Duvianus recruit another wave of missionaries to aid the cause.[9] Lucius responds by granting land and privileges to the Church. He dies without heir in AD 156, thereby weakening Roman influence in Britain.[10]

Later traditions are mostly based on one of these accounts, probably including a medieval inscription at the church of St Peter-upon-Cornhill in Cornhill, London in the City of London. There, he is credited with having founded the church in AD 179.

Bede, in the fourth chapter of the first book of his History, writes:

In the year of our Lord’s incarnation 156, Marcus Antonius Verus, fourteenth from Augustus, became emperor jointly with his brother Aurelius Commodus. During their reign, and while the Holy Eleutherus ruled the Roman Church, Lucius, a British King, sent him a letter, asking to be made a Christian by his direction The pious request was quickly granted, and the Britons received the faith and held it peacefully in all its purity and fullness until the time of the Emperor Diocletian.

And from the Liber Pontificus, the oldest listing of the Bishops of Rome:

XIV . ELEUTHERIUS

Eleuther, by nationality a Greek, son of Habundius, from the town of Nicopolis, occupied the see 5 years, 3 months and 2 days.  He was bishop in the time of Antoninus and Commodus until the year when Paternus and Bradu a were consuls (AD 185). He received a letter from Lucius, king of Britain, asking him to appoint a way by which Lucius might become a Christian. He also decreed He also confirmed again the decree that no kind of food in common use should be rejected especially by the Christian faithful, inasmuch as God created it; provided, however, it were rational food and fit for human kind He held 3 ordinations in the month of December, 2 priests, 8 deacons, 5 bishops in divers places. He also was buried near the body of the blessed Peter in the Batican, May 24. And the bishopric was empty 15 days.

As to the meaning of the Greek name of Pope Eleutherius, Google answers:

The Greek word “ἐλευθερία” (capitalized Ἐλευθερία; Attic Greek pronunciation: [eleu̯tʰeˈria]), transliterated as eleutheria, is an Ancient Greek term for, and personification of, liberty. … In Ancient Greece, Eleutheria was also an epithet for the goddess Artemis, and as such she was worshipped in Myra of Lycia.

Nennius, about 809, [22] writes:

Lucius, the British king, received baptism, with all the underkings of the British nation, 167 years after the coming of Christ, after a legation had been sent by the roman emperors and by Eucharistus, the Roman Pope.

   According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, Lucius died without an heir, and the rule of Britain was quickly usurped before Severus restored the rule of Rome in the early 200’s. Oddly, Geoffrey refers to Gildas , though Gildas seems to leave out the story of Lucius. If Britain was converted in 156, and Bishoprics established by 176, we would have about one century, three or four generations, to connect the Cole line of Lucius to the Colchester father of St. Helen. There is no other account of how the mother of Constantine became Christian, and no reason to doubt this one.

All About Armenia: RIA News Agency (Russia)

Saint Abgar, The First Christian King

The Kingdom of Osroene was established in 137 BC and was destroyed by the troops of Caracalla in 216. Abgar V is most known for his apocryphal correspondence with Jesus Christ.

According to Marcus Tacitus, he actively participated in the struggle for the throne of Parthia around 50. He supported King Gotarzes in his campaign against the Roman henchman Meherdat.

Procopius of Caesarea also wrote about Abgar’s long stay at the court of Emperor Augustus in Rome and told the story of his efforts to return to his homeland.

Traditionally, Abgar is considered the first Christian ruler in history. Thus, the appearance of Christianity in the Mesopotamian region was probably closely related to the activity of the apostles.

Several ancient Christian apocryphal traditions are associated with Abgar’s name, the most famous of which is the correspondence between Abgar and Jesus. There are no original letters preserved.

According to Armenian historian Movses Khorenatsi, Abgar was the son of Arsham, who was the son of Artashes, the brother of Tigranes II the Great.

In the fourth century (about 303), Eusebius of Caesarea stated that he had found a Syrian document in the archives of Edessa evidencing Abgar’s correspondence with Jesus.

This story with various additions appeared in the Syrian manuscript “Doctrina Addaei” or “The Teaching of the Apostle Addaei” (published by George Phillips in London in 1876) as well as various Greek revisions.

According to 4th-5th-century monuments, this story is closely connected to the legend about Jesus sending his miraculous image to Edessa. Many copies (the so-called Abgar images) were made on the base of that image.

According to the legend, sick Abgar sent his archivist Hannan (Anania) to Jesus with a letter asking him to arrive in Edessa and heal him. Hannan was an artist, so Abgar entrusted him with portraying Jesus if he wasn’t able to visit him.

Hannan found Jesus surrounded by a huge crowd. The archivist found a rock to see Jesus clearly from and tried to portray him. Seeing that Hannan wants to make his portrait, Jesus demanded water, washed, and wiped his face with a piece of cloth to imprint his image on it.

Jesus passed the cloth with a letter to Hannan to be sent to Abgar. In this letter, Jesus refused to go to Edessa himself, saying that he was on a sacred mission. He promised to send one of his disciples to Abgar after he is done.

Abgar was miraculously healed by the portrait, but his face remained disfigured. After Pentecost, the Apostle Thaddeus arrived in Edessa, completely healed Abgar, and converted him to Christianity.

Abgar attached the image to a frame and put it into a niche over the city gates, replacing the idol put there previously.

The holy image became known through its great miracles, and many Christians from far countries began to travel to Edessa to worship this shrine.

Subsequently, Abgar wrote several letters to his cousin, the Armenian King Sanatruk, as well as other kings, telling about his healing and urging them to convert Christianity. He died three years after his conversion and baptism.

The name of Abgar became a part of Christian tradition. Nowadays, the Armenian Church commemorates him on the Feast of the Image of Edessa (August 16) and on the day of the Holy Apostle Thaddeus (August 21).

On August 24, 2009, a banknote with a nominal value of 100,000 drams was issued in Armenia. On the front side of the banknote is Abgar’s image by Mkrtum Hovnatanyan. In the background of the front side of the banknote is a fragment of the map giving an idea of the location of Edessa, which was closely related to historical Armenia.

On the backside of the banknote is an element of an ancient canvas now stored in the Vatican, which tells how King Abgar V addressed Jesus.

Sourse: Ria News

• Image of Saint Abgar.
• Abgar receiving the Image of Edessa from Apostle Thaddeus.
• A fresco from the Armenian chapel of Varag St. Gevorg with the image of Abgar holding the Image of Edessa.

St Lucius of Britain: David J Knight

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The writer of this review is at a website called Laodicea:

Laodicea

Just before Christmas I received a copy of King Lucius of Britain by David J. Knight. This actually came out in 2008 but I omitted to order a copy until recently. Lucius of Britain is a second century ‘King’ of Britain who was converted to Christianity and asked Pope St Eleutherius for missionaries to receive him into the Church. This story first appears in the Liber Pontificalis which dates from the fifth or sixth century. It is also reported in Bede. Obviously, there was no king in the mediaeval sense in the Roman province of Britannia in the second century. But it is not only possible but likely that there were indigenous Romanised aristocrats using such titles in their own circles. There is thus nothing intrinsically implausible about the account. It is of course deeply unpopular with Protestants and Modernists because it implies the recognition of the universal primacy…

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July 4th 2020: 76 candidates for the 17 best NOISY Rock Songs!

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Ok, beginning the 76 candidates for the 17 best of all noisy Rock tunes. The Brits were out last night, heard in skirmishes in the distance. This’ll be # 76 this year:
IRON BUTTERFLY – IN A GADDA DA VIDA – 1968 (ORIGINAL FULL VERSION) CD SO… youtu.be/UIVe-rZBcm4 via @YouTube
Amendments: 11 gets us to ’87, 14 to ’90:
Additions 2022: Cream, “White Room;” Roxy, “Both Ends Burning;” Neil Young, “Cinnamon Girl;” Creedence, “Bayou;” …Iggy, “Louie Louie,”…nah! Patty Smith, “Because the Night;” Talking Heads, “The Great Curve;” Moody Blues, “Question.” Zeppelin, “Good Times, Bad Times.”

Ok, we’ll give the Bowie version #74 David Bowie – See Emily Play youtu.be/yjg5_0ztQI4 via

@YouTube
See Emily Play is a song written by Syd Barret and performed here by David Bowie. It is from the album Pin Ups in 1973. Lyrics: Emily tries but misunderstand…
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#73 White Stripes – Blue Orchid https://youtu.be/QKntY8WkNYQ via @YouTube

We’ll keep Blue Orchid at #73- a great Rock tune, especially if the meaning begins to show through: The White Orchid is the lapel worn at weddings.

#72 Over the Hills and Far Away
# 71 The Byrds Eight Miles High:

Classic Version, #71: The story is that this is about when the American answer to the British invasion landed in London. The Byrds- Eight Miles High (HQ) youtu.be/J74ttSR8lEg via

@YouTube
Our High School WAS literally on Eight Mile, imagine that. I taught there as a sub, and the saying is still true:
The Byrds – Eight Miles High – 9/23/1970 – Fillmore East (Official) https://youtu.be/2ymkBEhdHBE via @YouTube

This is about when the American reverberation of the British invasion landed in London by airplane. Putin beware.

# 70 Amboy Dukes– Journey To The Center Of The Mind https://youtu.be/Beh1ipK3hN0 via @YouTube

#70 in the classic countdown of the philosophic DJ Dr. MMac. Detroit’s own Ted, before he became a….

This is Crazy Ted BEFORE he took up hunting! Dude did not learn that from a journey to the center of mind! Oh well, he never said we’d MAKE it !

Beyond thought and “what” is of course interesting, because the Lord too is said to be beyond being or logos. He calls it the center, too, as of a circle. He warns of the danger of becoming trapped in the products of the imagination: Jung speaks of getting “possessed” by an “archetype-” the sources of the products of the imagination in the knowledge that is within the soul. We integrate the contents, by understanding, or else these disintegrate us. Hence the danger of psychedelic drugs especially for those who do too much, are not friends with themselves, and do not have the patience to sleep off a bad trip. One wonders if Ted did not get possessed, as by an Artemis the huntress archetype! Apologies from Michigan!

#69: The Bob Seger System – White Wall  via 

Now we’re warming up, getting in some Detroit Rock. Were looking for deep poetry, or we’d do more Pop Seger: The Bob Seger System – White Wall youtu.be/1CNDIl0mbd8 via

@YouTube

This whole album is a classic, with most of my favorite Bob on it.

#68: Creed – Beautiful  via  Self indulgence: (Not as famous as it should be). Platonic contemplaters of the beautiful should get it.

We’re doing the 76 candidates for the 17 best Rock songs, to forget the Corvid for a while and for the liberty of the Fourth: Now 244 years, and nearly 300 million people- give or take a few hundred thousand, depending on whether we wear masks and be more cautious.

It seemed to us that very few continued the Classic Rock strain at this level among the “newer” stars, that is, after the Eighties. “Arms Wide Open” is of course another.

#67:

Definitely of the stature of a possible top 17: Creed- Higher https://youtu.be/sHcYaS3m1c4 via @YouTube

#66:

Hensley is in music what a white wizard would be in the human world: Traveler in Time. (2017 Remastered) youtu.be/qh5o7uH88cM via

@YouTube
Provided to YouTube by Sanctuary Records Traveler in Time (2017 Remastered) · Uriah Heep Demons and Wizards ℗ 2017 Sanctuary Records Group Ltd., a BMG Compa…
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 We hold these Truths to be self evident: that all Men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain  unalienable Rights; that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Purs…
mmcdonald77.wordpress.com
Ming Solenya Nethery
@MingGao26
Why think Gaetz was threatening Cohen?
Bob Dylan “…Songs, to me, were more important than just entertainment. They were my preceptor and guide into some altered consciousness of reality, some different republic, some liberated republic. Grail Marcus,…
Grail Marcus, the music historian, would some thirty years later call it “the invisible republic.” Chronicles I, pp. 34-35

#65: Uriah Heep – Wizard  via 

#64: Uriah Heep – Stealin  via 
At # 64, some penance blues:
Uriah Heep – Stealin https://youtu.be/j73OsXo19vI via @YouTube

Ignore Amazon, though, and buy from Barnes and Noble. Bozo puts YOU in HIS shopping Cart! Uugh, what America has become! Like a Rolling Stone: Bob Dylan at the Crossroads by Greil Marcus amazon.com/dp/158648382X/ via

@amazon

#63: When the Levee Breaks Zeppelin

#62: Fantasy will set you free: Steppenwolf – Magic Carpet Ride 1968 HQ  via 

Caption: George III when he/she read Jefferson: (Or was it when he learned his favorite petticoat was not back yet from the cleaners?)

   ‘Least ‘e remembered t’ poof ‘is f’n whig! Dudes were cross-dressin back then! French fashions.

HEY GEORGE!: Reenacting the Boston Massacre  via 
Crispus Attucks | Boston Massacre | Crispus Attucks Boston Massacre  via 

#61: Fortunate Son (Live At Cobo Hall 1986)- Bob Seger (Vinyl Restoration)  via 

That we had to draw the line on Communism expanding does not mean we had to draw it there at that time. But the North Vietnamese have not had good years under the tyranny if it was unavoidable. In Mi Lai, one sees that justice is in the end most for advantage.of arms, eh?
#60 The Bob Seger System – 2 + 2 = ?  via  To be played with Creedence cover:

#59: The Who – Won’t Get Fooled Again (Live at Kilburn 1977)  via 

Mesmerizing Townshend, with lots of new notes!
Bet we get fooled again, though- Big Time!
#58: At # 58, the tragedy of the father:
Jethro Tull – Locomotive Breath (Live)  via 
#57: Deep Purple – Highway Star  via 

Lets have 57 again live. I don’t think we quite heard him: Car. Girl. Head. Liberty. Deep Purple – Highway Star 1972 Video HQ youtu.be/UAKCR7kQMTQ via

@YouTube
Classic Rock Deep Purple – Highway Star 1972 (Single, Album Machine Head) Ritchie Blackmore – Guitar Jon Lord – Keyboards, Organ Ian Paice – Drums Ian Gillan…
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#56: Cream – Strange Brew  via 
A personal favorite:
#55: Humble Pie- 30 Days In The Hole  via 
  “Gimmie my release, Come on…”

Twitter DJ is a strange occupation. It of course does not work in a certain way, but we get some Tweet-ees in Europe, eh? Right, no one likes the 76 candidates for the 17 greatest rock tunes of all time!

#54: Robin Trower – The Fool and Me.  via 

#53: Robin Trower – Bridge Of Sighs – 07 – Lady Love  via 

We’ll give this one #52 1/2 if it doesn’t have a number yet! Bryan Ferry & Roxy Music – Both Ends Burning youtu.be/LFeqtXMKZ4U via

@YouTube
A Roxy Track To Blow Your Socks Off! 1975.. :p
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#52 Lou Reed – Sweet Jane from Rock n Roll Animal  via 

 #51:

Layla (40th Anniversary Version / 2010 Remastered) youtu.be/TngViNw2pOo via

@YouTube
Layla (40th Anniversary Version / 2010 Remastered)
Provided to YouTube by Universal Music Group Layla (40th Anniversary Version / 2010 Remastered) · Derek & The Dominos Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs ℗ 2…
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Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page-Layla  via 

#50: Blind Faith – Presence of the Lord  via 

Oops, that’s a religion hymn, and a bit too mellow. Move up # 52 1/2!

#49: Sunshine Of Your Love  via 

#48: Cream – White Room – Lyrics  via 

#47: Steppenwolf – Born To Be Wild (Easy Rider) (1969)  via 

#46: Cream – Tales of Brave Ulysses  via  Ya, we’ll have to redo the order by next Fourth!

Guest Lyricist- some roadie!

This one was written by some roadie. Prob’ly some St. John’s college reject #46 Cream – Tales of Brave Ulysses https://youtu.be/J2CCfxiQ5QY via @YouTube

 #45: Higher!
The Twitter DJ Here, skipping the youtube adds so YOU don’t have to!
Cinnamon Girl (2009 Remaster) https://youtu.be/jREf47BPe5w via @YouTube

Soon the noise bombs, then the fireworks come out to cover the skirmishes in the edges of town, if there are any Redcoats about…

#45 Who Who Are You

#44 The Who – Magic Bus – Live At Leeds HQ  via 

#43 The Who ~ Shakin’ All Over  via 
#42: Who’s nod a mod? The Who – I Can’t Explain (Live)  via  This is where it began, in a way:

#41: The Who – I Can See For Miles  via 

#40: The Who ~ Summertime Blues  via 

#39: The Who ~ Substitute  via 
#38: Jethro Tull – My God  via 

#37: Time of the Season – The Zombies (Lyrics on the screen)  via 

#36: Stevie Wonder Superstition  via  Written for Jeff Beck, like white guys could recover the ability to dance!
Interlude:  Janis Joplin- Summertime
Summertime, time, time, Child, the living’s easy. Fish are jumping out And the cotton, Lord, Cotton’s high, Lord, so high. Your daddy’s rich And your ma is s…
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#34 Remember the book “Go ask Alice? Jefferson Airplane -White Rabbit- youtu.be/WANNqr-vcx0 via

@YouTube
http://mx.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=3FAD6DF689FC6C23 Jefferson Airplane “White Rabbit” Live on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.
#33: Janis Joplin – Piece Of My Heart https://youtu.be/7uG2gYE5KOs via @YouTube
#32: Jefferson Airplane – Somebody To Love, American Bandstand, 1967  via 
#31: Neil Young – Southern Man  via 
The Declaration of Independence (as read by Max McLean)  via 
The whole Declaration is to be read on the Fourth, as it was in Lincoln’s day and at the Constitutional Convention. + it has a list of examples of tyranny, + ethics of war. The Second Sentence of the Declaration  via 
#30: Jimi Hendrix – Voodoo Child https://youtu.be/ibJ3VMt6yfU via @YouTube
#29: Day Of The Eagle – Robin Trower.  via 
#28: Heart Crazy On You  via  “I was a willow last night in my dreams…”
Interlude: Some Contemporary Tunes:

 Counting Crows – Mr. Jones (Official Video)  via 

One of the great friendship songs, like Stevie’s “Gypsy:”

Counting Crows – Round Here (Official Video)  via 

Profound lyrics, “for a rock band!) Rock is a crecendo of ascending eros.

#26: Dream On – Aerosmith  via 

Hey, this one might get a number some day: 3 Doors Down – kryptonite (lyrics)  via 

#25: Led Zeppelin – The Rover (Physical Graffiti)  via 

#24: Led Zeppelin – Ramble On (Official Audio) youtu.be/EAmIuTI4wRg via

@YouTube
You’re listening to the remastered version of Led Zeppelin’s iconic song “Ramble On” from “Led Zeppelin II”. “Ramble On” is co-written by Jimmy Page and Robe…
For in the darkest depths of Mordor I met a girl so fair But Gollum and the evil Lord Crept up and slipped away with her.
#23: Queen – Killer Queen (Lyrics)  via 
#22: Led Zeppelin – How Many More Times  via 

#21: Aerosmith – Sweet Emotion (Official Music Video)  via 

#20: Led Zeppelin – Rock and Roll HQ youtu.be/4bv_ALKkTjQ via

@YouTube

‘Been a long time since I’v walked in the moonlight Making vows that just can’t work right.:

# 19: Ziggy Stardust (2012 Remaster) youtu.be/7KEn0uOEILs via
@YouTube

Side 2 is THE rock tragedy.

Provided to YouTube by Parlophone UK Ziggy Stardust (2012 Remaster) · David Bowie The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars ℗ 1972, 2012 …
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#18: Jethro Tull – Cross-Eyed Mary  via via 

#17: David Bowie – Panic In Detroit youtu.be/Rf0fmqWS-kI via
@YouTube

Bowie met a 60’s violent revolutionary. His answer is “I wished someone would phone.” Human connectedness in the modern world is the cause of twentieth century totalitarianism in each case. He wished someone would phone.

Artist: David Bowie Song: Panic In Detroit Album: Aladdin Sane Lyrics Ah oooh He looked a lot like Che Guevara, drove a diesel van Kept his gun in quiet secl…
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#16: Four Sticks / Misty Mountain : Mott the Hoople – All the Young Dudes  via 
#15: The Animals – We Gotta Get Out Of This Place (1965) HD/widescreen ♫  via 

#14: The Who : The Real Me  via 

Jimmy the Mod goes to the doctor, then the mother, then the preacher in an attempt to cure his teen age Quadrophrenia. Given that the preacher showed him “to the Golden Gate,” one sees what Plant means about the evangelicals in Stairway. Not that Jimmy needs a robed exorcist! The plea of Jimmy is surely not comprehensible to our science of psychiatry, which is why music is better at the healing of the soul than our over-paid “doctors.” They killed Nick Drake, for Chrissakes!

#13: Alice Cooper – School’s Out [Lyrics] [HD]  via 

The profundity of the song: going with “18,” meant to be a high school graduation anthem, taken from a gangster movie where the Phrase “School’s out” means “now things get real.”

#12: Uriah Heep – Easy Livin’  via 

Love is of course the activity of the image of God in man, and the principle of lyric poetry. Hence a song about falling in love can also be about the breakthrough that is salvation: We thought “Christian” rock bands should ALL play this (but they don’t like wizards?)

#11: Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin IV – Stairway To Heaven  via 
Ok, we’ll list it for the Zeppelin part. The meaning is not what most think. Listen, and tell what it means in a couple sentences:
It is the appearance of the light and Christ offered by the Lady, but it is human convention, and so illusion, “as we wind on down the road
Our shadows taller than our souls.” “But if you listen very hard…”the piper”:
Page does not, but Plant, who wrote this, knows.

#10: Bruce Springsteen – Born To Run  via 

Someday, girl, I don’t know when
We’re gonna get to that place we really wanna go/
And we’ll walk in the sun…but till then.
An everlasting kiss.

#00 is Hendrix doing Dylan’s All along the Watchtower. This is because the exhilaration of Rock is not Bacchic but apocalyptic. I can explain it to ya, but Ja, I cannot understand it for ya. (Of course, I can’t even understand it for myself!). But I have it way down there at # 30!?

#9: Eric Burden and the Animals – House of the Rising Sun  via 

The Animals – House of the Rising Sun (1964) HQ/Widescreen ♫ 56 YEARS AGO! youtu.be/4-43lLKaqBQ via

@YouTubeTrends

Rock blues with Amperage in 1964! Note too it is penance blues.

#8: Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody (Official Video)  via 

“So, you think you can love me and leave me to die?”

Well, that is what tragic love is, and most is tragic. It is because of our guilt, our part as human in the murder of Cain, and an expiation. See the trial? Simon says the same: “Somewhere They Can’t Find Me.”
#7: The White Stripes – ‘Seven Nation Army‘  via 
Bleeding words right before the Lord:
Simon says the same.

 #6 Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here (with lyrics)  via 

‘Nuff said. A walk on part in The Wall” for the lead role in a cage. Like Achilleus’ choice, too.

#5: David Bowie – Moonage Daydream (Live) (Great quality)  via 

#4: Led Zeppelin- Dazed and Confused  via 

The essential White blues. You thought the hipsters were about “free love?” Try following this guy while lied to.

The live version of this song is it, while the studio, in the context of the album, is even better. A lovesong, too.

#3: The Who – Love Reign Over Me  via 

Jimmy has found the unity of the four parts and his “Quadrophrenia.”
Those who try to write Christian rock are not inspired. Those inspired need not “try.”
#2 Jethro Tull – Aqualung  via 
“You poor old sot,
You see its only me.”
And as he dies, the line is: “And the flowers bloom like madness in the Spring.” The Aqualung grabs his rasping last breaths with deep-sea-diver sounds.,..
making sounds like a diving bell, and the flowers bloom as butterflies.

#1: Kashmir – Led Zeppelin  via 

“Oh Father of the four winds, fill my sails…”

#00: The Jimi Hendrix Experience – All Along The Watchtower (Audio)  via 

And the wind, begin to howl.
“…Let us not talk falsely, now.”