Legacy

The man on your 10-dollar bill was killed by the grandson of Jonathan Edwards.

But most people remember Jonathan Edward for this:

While this sermon does have some wake-you-up lines --

 ...the God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked...

-- some today have given him an unnecessarily bad name for it.

Our professor spent several hours explaining why Jonathan Edwards was not a bad person.  (Although one might wonder why a book has been written about him entitled Marriage to a Difficult Man, which Dr. Arnold made his wife read before they got married.)  Of interest among these three hours was a bit of how his descendants turned out:

• 13 college presidents
• 65 professors
• 100 lawyers
• 66 physicans
• 30 judges
• 80 holders of public office, including
• 3 senators
• 3 mayors of large cities
• vice president of the United States - Aaron Burr

Jonathan Edward made good use of his time.  While traveling on horseback, he would have a thought.  He would take out a pin and put it in his shirt.  He would take out a second pin for the second thought, and so on.  When he got home at the end of the day, he would take out the pins and write down the thoughts, one by one, from memory.

Guess where

Where do you think we took this picture?

Why yes, right here in our local medieval Phoenix.

Some friends visited us and took us geocaching.  That was a first.  There's nothing like inconspicuously rummaging around telephone poles and wire fences for duct-taped peanut butter jars.  Anderson accidentally inspected someone's "doggy bag," thinking it might be a cache.

Anyway, one of the geocache sites was right next to the castle, which is how we found it.  Sadly, just as Anderson was about to make a new friend, the castle driveway was blocked off with no-trespassing signs.

Here is the story (I can't confirm it's a scholarly source):  http://www.dupontcastle.com/castles/copenhav.htm    Dad, if it comes up for sale again, I'll let you know.  I think it would make a great retirement home.  Think how much fun your grand kids would have on the moat and drawbridge.

New twist (Luther, anyone?)

I usually think about blogging at 11:00 p.m. and remind myself to post tomorrow for real this time.  When I do sit down at the computer, I decide my grand visions need more time to develop.  So the postponement continues...

I'm going to try to start blogging more (for the eight of you who check it).  I started this blog three years ago when I went to Oxford.  I probably won't be going to England or Mongolia or getting married or doing anything dramatic for a while.  But interesting things are still happening, all in the name of...

THEOLOGY.

Going to seminary is not something I ever desired to do.  Thanks to Anderson, I am encountering a rich experience that I would not have pursued otherwise.  I plan to start sharing interesting things I'm learning here.  If theology isn't your thing, well -- I understand.  (But secretly I plan to change your mind.)

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ORIGEN (interesting parts in very dark purple font)

An early church father (c. 140-210).  (c. = circa, means "approximately" when used with dates)

Heretic!  That's what the Second Council of Constantinople said slightly after the fact in 543.  Origen said, "Christ is given the second place of honor after God the Father."

Did Origen mean that Jesus was less important than the Father?  The jargon of theology wasn't fully settled when he said that (meaning they didn't have all the terms sorted out).  So we don't know for sure.  But people afterward used him to say that, so eventually he was called a heretic.

Whatever he might have meant, he meant what he said.  He was a person of conviction.  When his Christian father was condemned to be executed, young Origen wanted to run after him and be executed too.  But his mom hid all of his clothes so he couldn't leave the house.

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My source for church history things is one of our professors, whom we will call Dr. Z.  I haven't double-checked him, but his PhD is in church history, and he's a Baptist, so he must be trustworthy.

When I told Anderson about my new blogging plan, he said, I'm so boring you're going to start blogging about men from the 100's?  I tried to tell him that's not what I meant.  Right now he's in the bedroom with the door shut so I can't tell yet if he was kidding or not.

Menno

This is Menno (after Menno Simons) (Anderson named him).

From our apartment's quarterly newsletter.  We aren't one of the chosen (yet).

Thanks again for all who donate cat food to the office.  This is very, very helpful in feeding our feral cat population.  We want to be sure that our residents are aware of the fact that we have certain residents that feed these cats.  Everyone else, please do not leave food or water out.  This way, we can keep track of the population and keep it under control.

Come visit!

First apartment.