The Vast Challenges Facing the Historic Mind (and a suggestion on how to deal with them)

By Cara Tignanelli on September 2, 2010 11:14 PM | No Comments

It cannot be denied that the quest for historical truth is one fraught with challenges.  This being said, many of the best things in life are fraught with challenges.  After all it is the things that we have to struggle and strive for that we appreciate the most.  If nothing else the challenge should drive us to forward in our search to discover the hidden truths of history.

            One of the biggest difficulties that faces a historian comes from within as Becker points out in his article.  Everyone has a world view, everyone has had experiences that have shaped their opinions and beliefs.  It is the difficult task of the historian to recognize what his beliefs and biases are and to do everything in his power to keep his personal opinions from tainting his research.  

            In the world of science and mathematics, truth is something tangible, testable; therefore it is easy to counter a bias.  The world of history is something completely different.  We cannot go into a lab and recreate what happened at the coronation of Edward the Confessor, we will never know who actually fired the "shot heard around the world" so how can we look at the pieces that have been left to us and learn the story of the past.  This is not easily done, however it is paramount that every historian put in a great effort to resist the temptation and tendency to allow their own life experiences color and inform the research that they have gathered from the past. 

            Another issue facing the historian centers around the past it's self and the evidence left behind.  It is not only the historian that struggles with putting their own bias into the things they right.  For example, when you or I think of a massacre we probably think of something more devastating than five deaths as was the case of Boston Massacre.  This is one of many examples where even the original document is tainted either by personal opinion, political loyalty, or cultural context. 

            At the center of both of these and so many other problems facing the historian revolve around one over arching problem.  History is determined by people.  The "truths" of history, the actual events took place because of what people did, thought, or what they said.  These events were then recorded by people, either in personal diaries, on walls of war monuments, in record books, or in news papers.  These documents were then (in most cases) lost to the sands of time and thoughtless progression forward.  They were rediscovered, they were cleaned, they were repaired, they were translated, they were interpreted they were rewritten and republished.  All of these things happened by the hands of human beings.  This adds difficulty to the job of this historian on two levels, one of them is a credit to the human race, the other is quite the opposite, both are a determent to the search for historical truth. 

            I will give the bad news first.  Humans are sinful, we are imperfect, there is no getting around it there is no changing it.  Therefore we can do nothing perfectly, we can not keep a perfect record.  When we witness an event we cannot take it all in, we can not remember it perfectly, hence our imperfect records.  Because of this flaw humans may deliberately effect a document to in the name of personal gain. 

            There is another element to human nature that complicates the task of a historian.  Humans are creative.  We have imaginative minds that we use to create wonderful things.  However, we some times let our imaginations run away with us.  We glorify situations that we were involved in, we make things up.  In the early days of recorded history, the accounts of actual events were altered in order to prove a moral point. 

            These are the sorts of things that a historian has to wrestle with.  How to counter the tendency to impart his own bias onto a document that he is researching while trying to be aware of any bias that might be in the document it's self.  And these are difficulties after the historian has found enough information on a subject to even justify the time and effort that its takes to decipher that data. 

            These challenges my seem daunting, it may look like an impossible task, how can anyone take a mismatched collection of random bits of paper and various other things and form some kind of logical, accurate concussions about things that happened hundreds or thousands of years ago.  I say it is a daunting task, it does look impossible, but so did climbing Everest.  We may never know exactly what happened the day the library of Alexandra was burned down, but if the people who study history make a conscious and concentrated effort to analyze the data that we have, to find bias, to research where the information comes from, to look at who wrote it, and what their bias and opinions might have been and how the document would have been effected by it.  If historians study not only the documents before them but also them selves, then we may be able to climb that mountain and find the truths of our past, but we will never come any where near the summit if we don't climb over the hurtle in the trail and press forward in the endless pursuit of truth.  

Every man's Life a Plan of God

By Cara Tignanelli on May 1, 2010 12:07 AM | No Comments
Horace Bushnell was a pastor at North Congregational church in Hartford, Connecticut.  Bushnell was active in the movement to stat sunday schools believing that Children should grow in the knowledge and love of God.  He was characterized by seeing God's hand in everything, his life, nature and all of history.  

He suggests that everyone has a specific purpose and that God has planed every event throughout history.  His theory is that God has planed a purpose and end to every persons life and that every man has the privilege and duty to become all that God has planed for him.  I agree with this to an extent but not entirely.  I believe that God has more influence in this world than some do but I do not believe that God controls our lives.  I do however see his influence throughout history.  

I think this essay was helpful and encouraging.  I think it is a great comfort to think that God is still very active and present in our world.  I do not like to think of God as only being active in the Church and leaving the rest more or less alone.  That idea seems to disregard all of the old testament that shows a very active God.  Many people will argue that we live in the time of of the new testament and the new covenant and that the Old Testament is not as relevant to us today.  The way I look at it, if the Old Testament was not meant to be so applicable to us, why do we have it?  Therefore I agree with Horace's assessment of a very active God and I find that perspective very comforting.    

The Brothers Karamazov

By Cara Tignanelli on April 23, 2010 9:15 PM | 1 Comment
The Brothers Karamazov is the last and the greatest work of Feodor Dostoevsky.  It was written in 1880 and gave protestant and catholic of the twentieth century a window into the eastern orthodox church tradition.  This book portrays, as the tittle suggests, two brothers and the great contrasts between them.  One, Alexey, is a monk, the other, Ivan,  believes that if "God is dead, everything is permitted." This section brings out the conflict between the two brothers and their view of freedom.  

Ivan believes that he has freedom to do what ever he want to do because he believes that "God is dead" but Alexey disagrees.  Alexey begins by describing the kind of freedom that the modern world wants to achieve.  It is the freedom to do what every you want, the freedom to for fill you desires.  This however is not freedom Alexey argues, it is slavery.  The freedom to act in any way in order to for fill a desire is to become a slave to your desires.  This means that you can never achieve anything outside of the gratification of a momentary desire.  He contrasts this worldly freedom with the type of freedom that he has experienced living a monastic life.  Alexey argues that the only real freedom can come form setting aside one's earthly desires.  By doing this, setting aside ones own will and desires and turning to God one can set his soul free.  He can then achieve more than self gratification.  He will not then be a slave to himself or his desires.  

This concept relates to Luther's idea of two kinds of righteousness.  Luther talked about alien and proper righteousness, the first if the righteousness of Christ.  He is righteous because He was with out sin.  That righteousness is alien to us because it does not come from us or what we do.  It is the righteousness of  Christ that is projected upon us.  The second kind of righteousness is called proper.  Proper righteousness comes from us, through our actions that we are able to preform because we have the alien righteousness of Christ which helps us to do good works.  This relates to the two kinds of freedoms, earthly and spiritual.  Just like a person can not have proper righteousness with out alien righteousness, one can not have earthly freedom without first having spiritual freedom.  Spiritual freedom, according to Alexey, comes from a monastic life, it frees you from you desires, it frees you from you self so that you can act with true freedom.  If you are a slave to your own desires you really have no freedom at all.  


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Declaration for the Poor in England

By Cara Tignanelli on April 16, 2010 10:34 PM | No Comments
Gerrard Winstanly was a London tradesman during the early 17th century.  That is, he was a tradesman until he went bankrupt during the British Civil war.  Some time after this he became a Baptist lay preacher.  When he discovered that that wasn't really paying the bills he, and a dozen or so fellow believers, set out to proved for them selves another way.  They went to an area of public land and began growing their own crops there, this is when the trouble really started.  you see this land was indeed for common use, but only in name.  It was used for grazing animals and usually only the animals of the local lord.  the idea that the peasants could use it to better their social standing was radical and offensive.  this is the claimant when the "Declaration for the poor oppressed people of England" was written by Winstanly to defend the rights of the peasants to use public land not just in that community but in others that had sprung up around England during this time.  

 Winstanly begins this declaration by immediately invoking an higher power and the purpose for the created earth.  He argues that the earth was not created so that some men my rule over it and hold all others in submission.  Rather the earth was created for the use and benefit of all who live upon it.  He then defends their rights by his claim that they are prompted to dig and work that earth by the common law of love to provide for their brothers and sisters and that law of love surpasses that law of men.  He then accuses the lords saying that they only came into power because they lied, cheated, stole and killed to get there and therefore they don't deserve to have it.  he then argues that it is for the betterment of all humanity that they work together with out the extreme social classes that were in place at this time. 

Winstanly and Claiborn would have agreed on many points.  Shane also believed that it was not only to the betterment of the poor but also of the rich to come down the level of the poor and work along side of them.  he too would have agreed that the resources should not be held by the rich but should be distributed to the poor.  

The Poehler Lecture

By Cara Tignanelli on March 26, 2010 7:23 PM | No Comments
     The Poehler Lecture is a standing tradition at CSP.  Once a year there is a distinguished speaker who comes to discus the idea of faith based learning and how that relates to CSP.  THis past tuesday was the 9th annual Poehler Lecture and Loma Meyer was the speaker.  Loma Meyer is an incredible talented woman who has dedicated her life to the idea of integrating faith and learning at the higher education level.  Meyer studied at the universities of Minnisota and Oklahoma State University and achieved doctorates form the University of California, Santa Barbara and the University of Minnesota and she was certified for church work by colloquy.  
     The tittle of Meyer's address was "Change: Integrating Faith and Learning." Dr. Meyer stressed the fact that education has changed significantly in recent years due to economic changes, advancement in technology, and changes in the way we communicate.  she also talked specifically about changes in Concordia.  What started out as an all boys boarding high school has become a four year University for men and women with four colleges there of.  The campus has grown.  It became a lap top University.  The student demographic changed, what used to be 90% of the students going into church work has changed to less than 10%.  The way  people communicate has changed, people are more likely to facebook or twitter than have personal conversations.  The question is how do we continue to integrate faith into learning in regards to all of these questions.  Dr. Meyer's answer simply stated is to continue to focus on faith in the classroom.  Present a Christian world view in all areas of learning, and teach students to think and to continue to learn all throughout their lives not just while in the class room.  
     How then does this relate to honors.  This very closely relates to honors as this is the very question that we in the honors program ask ourselves every day.  How do we integrate faith and learning, how can we focus on every subject through the lens of Christianity?  I believe the wonderful thing about the honors program is that we get to do this.  we get to look at every subject through the lens of Christianity.  We look at the changes in technology and communication and discuss what impact that might have on the Church and we focus on the cross in everything we do and learn in this program.  
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Dr. Raheb's convocation

By Cara Tignanelli on March 10, 2010 10:34 AM | No Comments
     Last week we were lucky enough to have Dr. Raheb on campus and we were able to go to a convocation he was giving and learn more about his story and experiences as not only a Palestinian Christian but also a Lutheran pastor in Palestine.  Dr. Raheb grew up in Bethlehem, just across the street from where Jesus was born.  How cool is that?  When you think about it that way it is not so surprising to think that this would be a Christian area, and although Christianity is now a minority in this area of the world it was once the majority, or at the very least much more prevalent than it is now.  One of the largest Christian bodies in this area is the Greek Orthodox tradition, it is from this tradition that Dr. Raheb's family came from originally.  You might be thinking, wait, I thought you said he was a Lutheran pastor? I did, your not crazy.  Dr. Raheb's grandfather was an orphan, after his parents died he was accepted into a Syrian Orphanage where he was introduced to the protestant faith.  A few years later he was confirmed by Father Schneller, from then on he favored protestantism and this is why Dr. Raheb became a Lutheran minister rather than going into the Greek Orthodox tradition.  
     Dr. Raheb's lecture was really interesting.  He talked about the Christian tradition in Palestine and how it was affected by the influx of Islam.  He also touched on the idea of Christianity in the public square, exactly what we have been dealing with in honors this semester.  He said that although Christians are in the vast minority in Palestine, only 2% of the population, they run 33% of the health care system as well a vast majority of the nongovernmental agencies that deal with human rights, social services ect.  
      I found these facts very interesting, probably not for the obvious reasons.  It is true that having these services allows the church in this region to reach out to to the people and administer to them but it also provides a safe guard for the church.  In this aria of the world that is so heavily Islamic, where there is very little separation of church and state it would be easy to wipe Christianity out of the region and effectively stop any and all open out reach to the islamic world, that is if the Christian community didn't have such a prevalent and important presence.  The leaders of this aria know that Christians make up 1/3 of the health care system so they can not ban Christianity because if they did, their health care system would crumble.  I think we should consider this in America, perhaps the Church should take charge and start taking over the social programs that we currently allow the government to run.  The Church in Palestine proves that it can be done.  If 2% of the population can run 33% of the health care system than why can't the Christian majority in this county run all of our health care system.  I believe that doing so would not only strengthen those in the church by giving them an extra foot hold in this time when Christianity is being challenged all over the world, and even here where we are given freedom of speech we are  told to be silent about our Christian faith, and it will bring people into the church because it will be the church, and not the governing body, that is providing for their needs.  
      

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Luther's Radical Perspective on Vocation

By Cara Tignanelli on February 26, 2010 7:10 PM | No Comments

            Luther offers a new revolutionary way of thinking about vocation and callings in the sixteenth century.  Before the time of Luther vocation was viewed as something pertaining directly to the church and to church life.  To have a vocation you must go into a monastic community or become a priest or nun in the Catholic Church.  Anything short of that was simply a job and not nearly as important or valuable as those who had a vocation.  Luther turns this idea upside down and proposes that what ever you do it can be your vocation as long as you to it to the praise and glory of God.  He illustrates this idea in his Christmas Service sermon based on the text of Luke 2:15- 20 when the shepherds come to visit Christ.  He also discusses how this should be done in his essay " Trade and Usury."

Martin Luther (1529, Uffizi).

             All it took was two sentences of the first reading for me to be a fan.  When Luther is talking about the shepherds he says, " For these shepherds do not run away into the desert, they do not don monk's garb..." Finally! I found my self breathing a sigh of relief upon reading those words.  We have finally move on form the idea that the only way to be a good Christian is to go off into the desert somewhere and meditate for the rest of your life and accomplish nothing for the kingdom of God save the fact that you now have a supper strong relationship with God, never mind the fact that you have really done nothing to further the kingdom of God or to bring anyone else into it, at least you can rely totally on God.  But I digress.  In this sermon Luther was pointing out that just because you have seen Christ you don't have to stop what you do.  If there were no shepherds left in the world there would be problems.  His point was that what ever you do, keep doing it.  The kingdom of God needs all types and the influence of Christianity in all professions.  This was quite the radical idea, that you could serve God with out being a Church worker.  This had never really been proposed before, or at least not in the memory of the people listening to Luther. This being said, you might have to change the way you do things.  In the second reading 'Trade and Usury' Luther stresses the evils in the trade industry.  The way that people sell things for extremely high profits and take advantage of the poor.  This should not be the case, he emphasizes the idea that those practices are extremely contrary to the Christian faith. 

            I think this relates to the idea of Christianity in the public realm by pointing out that whatever you profession you should live out your profession in the context of Christianity.  If you are a CEO fine, but don't take an extreme salary that cripples your employees, if you are a factory worker work hard and don't be lazy.  I think this translates to the project sties in a similar fashion.  I think it is easy for an organization, even a Christian organization to loose track of their purpose.  It is easy to get caught up in the idea that if your organization is bigger and better than you will be able to help more people and they loose track of just helping people.  I think it is important for these organizations to keep their focus in the right place and remain centered around Christ before everything else.  

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A Treatise of Vocations

By Cara Tignanelli on February 21, 2010 10:19 AM | No Comments

William Perkins lived from 1558 to 1602.  He spent a great deal of his life at Cambridge University where he began as a student before becoming a professor there.  Perkins was one of the leading Puritan theologians and his essay; "A Treatise of the Vocations" was the first classic Puritan discussion of Vocation.  During this time period the big question about Christian Vocation was how to mix your vocation into everyday life in society.  This is written post reformation when Luther declared that what ever you do, that can be your vocation.  People struggled with this concept for a long time and it raised the question if my job is my vocation, what job am I being called to, and how does this fit into my life in my family and community? Perkins attempts to answer these questions and although he uses a method in sync with Aristotle's philosophy, which would have appalled Luther, he still presents a very post reformation idea that your vocation can be common things not just formal ministry work. 

 

Perkins presents a two-fold view of vocation. The first is a general calling.  That is the calling to be a Child of God, to be a good Christian and to do everything you can to better your family, your community and the commonwealth.  The second type of vocation is your personal calling.  He argues that "every person of every degree, state, age, sex, or condition, with out exception, must have some personal and particular calling to walk in."  These callings will be revealed to us by our inward gifts, if one can recognize what gifts they have been given, then they will naturally stumble upon their vocation by using those gifts.  The vocations should be done to the 'final end', which is the motivation for doing the task that is included in the vocation.  For example if the vocation is teaching, teaching is the action and the final end is some one must be taught. 

 

This idea of a duel call something that I have been thinking about a lot lately.  The idea that we are called first to be a child of God and then to let everything else fall into place by discovering our gifts and flowing them to the vocation that God has for us.  While teaching the music class at Creative Options for adults with autism I have learned a lot about my self and what my gifts are and though I don't think my vocation will be teaching music to those with developmental disabilities I have started to recognize what my vocation might be through the teaching of this class. 

 

 

The Life of Antony

By Cara Tignanelli on January 29, 2010 9:58 PM | No Comments
I'm writing about the Life of Antony by Athanasius.  The reading was a narrative about the life of Antony as it were.  Antony was an Egyptian Christian from a wealthy family.  He had little ambition and was perfectly content to stay home and take care of his sister.  One day when Antony went to the house of the Lord he heard the story of the rich man who was bid sell everything you have to fallow me.  Antony really took this story to heart.  He immediately sold everything he had and, after settling his sister in a convent, began living as a hermit.  He worked to support himself and everything that did not need he gave to the poor.  Antony dedicated himself to the Lord and disciplined him self to resist temptation.  The reading told of Antony's great temptation as he was attacked over and over again by the devil and his demons but even under this great temptation he never gave in, he remained in constant prayer and because of this he was able to stay strong.  Even when the devil came to him with physical attack Antony never turned his back on the Lord, he stayed true to his discipline and did not fall into sin.  Antony is a marvelous example of a Christian who was willing to suffer for the faith and stay true in the face of temptation.  

Antony looked fist to a member of his community as a role model.  The text speaks of an old man in the town who also lived as a hermit and Antony took his cue form this man, fallowing in his footsteps.  I think he also looked to the followers of Jesus and to Jesus himself as an example of how to live his life and stay strong in the face of sever temptation.  

In my life one of the biggest role models has been my grandmother.  She has a very strong faith and she almost always puts that faith into action.  Another role model for me is my aunt Annie.  She is a lutheran classroom teacher which is what i want to be.  She has a faith that is very encouraging to me and she always encourages me in my faith.  She has the out look of never worry because God will take care of it what ever it is.  A third role model for me is my mom.  My mom may not be an out spoken Christian, she does not volunteer at every opportunity at our church, she does not teach sunday school but she has such a sincere faith.  Every decision she makes comes form the foundation she has in Christ be it a decision at home, dealing with the way she parents, or the way she runs her company, or the way she votes and I really look up to her for that.  In 10 or 15 years I hope to be a strong role model for the kids in my classroom.  I hope that they can learn form me how to use the talents they have been given and not look at others talents and say, well if I could do what Johnny could do then I would serve God, but that the look at themselves and see what they can do now to serve God, I hope I can help them to see that.  

Now if I can go away from the assignment for a moment I would like to briefly discuss something that stuck out to me in this reading and in other reading form this time period.  We always seam to glorify these early Christians who gave up everything and lived as hermits or led monastic lives but I would like to question them for a moment.  We are called to serve God by serving his people, I would like to ask how are these men who live solitary lives out in the desert serving God.  Maybe it is not for me to ask maybe it is not for me to judge but as this is my blog I will anyway.  Now I will give credit to Antony to some extent, the text points out that what ever money he made that he did not spend on his bread he gave to the poor and I commend him for this but what about later in the story, what about when he locks him self away in a tomb so that he can be entirely alone and be better able to resist temptation, what good was he doing then.  I would argue very little.  I don't understand why we idolize these men in church history simply because they led these wonderfully sinless lives but did nothing.  Were it up to me I would focus on the humble sinner who reached out his fellow sinner and really did something rather than shutting him self away somewhere so that he can live a pure life for them self.    

Project Post seven

By Cara Tignanelli on December 13, 2009 5:06 PM | No Comments
I have throughly enjoyed working on my project this semester.  I admit that i often had a moment of "oh, i have to teach today" on tuesday mornings but all the time i put into planing and prepping my weekly assignments was well worth it.  Last week i put together a project for them to do over christmas brake and i included  a review of everything that we have talked about and learned this year so far.  When i finished that review sheet I was really surprised not only that they had learned so much but that i had been able to teach them so much, that was really rewording to me.  I can't wait to begin the music class again after brake and I am really looking forward to see what they do with their assignment.  The assignment was to listen to Christmas music, i made each of them a CD with 17 Christmas songs all of different genres, and try to pick out different things we have talked about in class this year.  They are looking for interesting rhythms, staccato and legato, dynamics, tempo changes, things like that.  I have really enjoyed my project so far and can't wait to start it up again in January! 
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