The opiate of intellectuals

Mark Tooley at Front Page Magazine reviews Between Faith and Compromise by Momchil Metodiev, a new book about Communist infiltration in the World Council of Churches in the 1970s and ’80s.

But a new book by a Bulgarian author reveals that the KGB and its Bulgarian intelligence affiliate exploited the Bulgarian Orthodox Church for direct influence on the WCC and the Conference of European Churches. In “Between Faith and Compromise,” Bulgarian historian Momchil Metodiev chronicles how the Soviets and their Bulgarian proxies employed the Bulgarian Orthodox and WCC to promote Soviet strategic goals globally.

You kids aren’t old enough to remember this, but back in those days (and back in the ’60s, in my own experience), we brainless Fundamentalists were screaming from the rooftops that the WCC was shot through with Communists. Smarter, more sophisticated churchmen laughed at our ignorance and bigotry.

Of course, we were completely right.

And of course, we will never get credit for it.

A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years



I think I can give a rough outline of church history, and I don’t mean the founding of my own church. The BBC has a six DVD set which promises to fill in many of the details I would miss. It’s called A History of Christianity: the First Three Thousand Years. Hosted by Dairmaid MacCulloch, professor of history of the church and fellow at St. Cross College, Oxford, this historical overview looks well-worth your time, though I can’t tell if MacCulloch will lead viewers down a dark road of doubting the supernatural and God’s testimony in the world or leave the faith examined but uncondemned. After watching only the first disc, I believe he will remain respectful, if nothing else.

Here’s a list of disc titles:

Program 1: The First Christianity

Program 2: Catholicism: The Unpredictable Rise of Rome

Program 3: Orthodoxy: From Empire to Empire

Program 4: Reformation: The Individual Before God

Program 5: Protestantism: The Evangelical Explosion

Program 6: God in Dock

I received the first disc for review. Ambrose Video is distributing the DVDs and has a trailer on their product page.

“The First Christianity” was beautiful filmed, as you’d expect. Professor MacCulloch says he won’t shy away from controversy, but he doesn’t delve deeply into it either. His explanation of the major argument over the divine vs. human nature of Jesus did not attempt to settle it with Scripture. He only presented the proponents with their claims and described how the arguments fell out.

In this part of the series, MacCulloch describes what he calls the eastern road out of Jerusalem. Continue reading A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years

The headless norsemen

I’m low on ideas tonight, so I’ll just pass on the most recent big discovery in Viking studies.
Last summer, a collection of skeletons were excavated at Weymouth, in Dorsetshire in England. They had clearly died violently, and were judged to be victims of a mass execution. The bones were determined to be about a thousand years old
At the time of the news I suggested, on the Viking discussion board I frequent, that the bones were probably those of Vikings. My reason was that we know of only one attempt at genocide in England during the period in question, and that was King Æthelred the Unrede’s massacre of Danes in England, on St. Brice’s Day in 1002. (You’ll know about this if you’ve read West Oversea. You have read it, haven’t you? If not, click on the yellow cover in the carousel to the right. I’ll wait.)
I am so rarely right that I feel I need to preen a little here. According to National Geographic:

Analysis of teeth from ten of the dead—who were mostly in their late teens and early 20s—indicates the raiding party had been gathered from different parts of Scandinavia, including one person thought to have come from north of the Arctic Circle.

I think some Viking enthusiasts are a little embarrassed by this news, as it casts the Norse as victims. This in spite of the fact that many recent books have in fact openly portrayed the Norse as victims (of those nasty Christians).
I, on the other hand, have tried to dispute that victimization meme in my own writing.
But of course anyone can be a victim under certain circumstances. Hell hath no fury like a bunch of villagers who get the upper hand on a raiding party.
And the St. Brice’s Day Massacre is an undisputed historical fact.
More as the story develops.
Or not.

Marriage is War

That’s not how we typically think of it, but it’s as true as the day you were born. Paul Tripp talks about his new book, What Did You Expect?.

Paul Tripp- What makes “What Did You Expect?” different than other marriage books from Crossway on Vimeo.

Exposing Big Education

I guess this is video day here. I have a couple to share. This one is a trailer for a documentary about the enslavement of big education. Blogger Erin O’Connor consulted on this film. I hope I’ll be able to see it.

It’s shocking what liberal and big government types are doing to American children. They are wasting the time and money of millions of us.

Passover greetings

I don’t know what church did this, but apparently it’s in Texas, and this clip is pretty cool.

To our Jewish friends (we have at least one), greetings and best wishes.

Tip: Moe Lane at Red State, by way of Wizbang.

DVD Review: Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King

I finally broke down and joined Netflix a while back, and am taking the opportunity to catch up on some Viking (and Viking-related) films I haven’t seen before. This weekend I watched the European made-for-TV movie, Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King. As I understand it, it was originally broadcast in longer form, as a two-parter, so this American version is missing some material.

I found it a somewhat enjoyable, correspondingly frustrating film. In a nutshell, the production values were excellent, and some of the acting was good. Unfortunately, in a strange dramatic inverted pyramid, the better the actor, the smaller (in general) was their part. Continue reading DVD Review: Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King

The Words of 2000 A.D.

Low angle view of 'No Turn Around' sign in front of cargo containers underneath stormy skies

Merriam-Webster has a list of ten word what define our decade, that is, the decade what just passed us by. I believe these words were looked up the most through the dictionaries services.

1. rogue (uncontrollable)

2. locavore (one who eats local food)

3. integrity (moral wholeness)

4. staycation (at home while out of the office)

5. partisan (I’m too angry to define it)

6. Google (search)

7. insurgent (“to rise up”)

8. bailout (see partisan)

9. Pandemic (broader than an epidemic disease)

10. Carbon footprint (farting)

By slight contrast, here’s their list of words from the 90s.

Fighting for Purity

The Anchoress talks about the scandal, if that’s the right word for it, in the news over abuse in the Roman Catholic church. She states:

Pope Benedict has taken ownership and control over a heavy burden that his predecessor was too ill to manage. As detailed in this piece by John Allen, Benedict’s time-lapsed clarity on this issue has inspired him to do passionate and done profound work, in order to bring the church to repentance for these sins. I’ll never forget one of his earliest speeches as pope, when he vowed to rid the church if “the filth.” He has taken resignations from bishops, presided over substantial and enforced reforms and has personally met and ministered to the victims, who need not only validation, not only justice, but also the healing ministry of a shepherd who loves his flock.

Book Reviews, Creative Culture