3/14/14

Sect. Kerry Pushes for Sanctions to Assert Post-Cold War Takeover of Russian Ukraine

For most of human history power has determined borders. Genghis Khan had no respect for the forest Slavs of Russia and raged his global warming and rainfall advantaged horse riders to within 30 miles of the Baltic Sea. For several centuries Russia fought back against the evil empire and of course the Stroganov mercenary Yermak rode past the Urals under Ivan the Terrible to retake those lands eventually. Yet Russia and Russian Ukraine would be attacked repeatedly from the west as well. No matter, Napoleon and Hitler invaded Moscow and under several forces the Ukraine was captured for a time. If there is a lesson to be learned from the history of hostile takeover of Russian land such as the Ukraine it is that war is the ultimate ratio for determining borders. The Obama administration has the most powerful military on Earth so it feels right to declare its will as existential law.
Consider Britain's history of invasion and the British Empire's use of force and military skill to create a global empire; violence or the threat of violence determined political and economic power. Not that any of that is good of  course. When the Aztecs purged Mexico of rivals and sacrificed their hearts it was a painful experience for the losers of history. When Attorney General Holder cites Missoula Montana as a place where the county prosecutor is to easy on rape he probably is unaware that Missoula mean place of skulls and was a place where Crow and Blackfoot met in conflict and where Lewis and Clarke encountered troubles on the West Fork of the Clark River. Even with a majority of female prosecutors it may be difficult to reduce crimes from people wandering through Missoula-geomancy maybe, yet the administration can probably apply some logic to the land grab of the eastern Ukraine from Russia when it was weakened by transition to a new government  at the end of the Soviet Union that won't sound like naked aggression to U.S. voters.
 For most of America's history it had no significant external enemy able  to make a land invasion. When the British, French and Spanish learned holding America without American cooperation wasn't practical they at least stopped the effort to take lands that would be the U.S.A. Even Russia recognizing the expanding American power and win in the U.S. civil war over the British supported Confederacy sold Alaska to America in 1867. The post cold war chaos resulting in the taking of land from the traditional Russia was done without even a token payment.  Sect. Seward at least paid something to the Tsar.
Since the end of the cold war U.S. political leadership has failed to transition to a post cold war economic relationship with Russia that was just friendly. Russians had a monumental challenge of changing from a Stalinist structure to one with free enterprise. That was a challenge America has never had. U.S. leadership can't even create full employment or eliminate its own public debt. Instead it seems to go from one cheap Wall Street and public policy scheme to another for short term economic policy.
 Keeping the spirit of the cold war era going was too easy and beside the U.S.A. has all that military and economic power to intimidate with. American leadership ought to have been more understanding with Russia and not gone to the cold, hard viscous capitalist mode of taking maximum advantage of the weaken Russian Federation, for there is a traditional Russia seemingly, and that included the Eastern Ukraine and Crimea. The economy doesn't need the instability created by the Obama policy of belligerence right now. While the millionaires and billionaires of Boston are contemplating their global profits and prospects millions of Americans are experiencing seriously degraded lives financially with diminished life prospects. yet with the broadcast media owned by the rich the Ukraine must look like an easy whale for the harvest.
.


One Fiction Scenario for MH 370 Air Piracy Op

If something like the following scenario didn't happen, it could happen. Unless something as strange as the disappearance of MH370 had happened the idea wouldn't have occurred to me...

It had been getting harder to make a dishonest living in the Strait of Malacca pirating ships. The pirate looked up to the sky one day contemplating new vistas for profit taking. In the deep blue sky a large passenger jet slipped silently. In the pirate's mind a plan to form.

The pirate recruited a corrupt former airline pilot and discovered a conduit into Malaysian Air passenger information. With a competent make up artist to transform the pilot's face to that of a legitimate passenger with a real passport it was only necessary to take a ceramic gun aboard to commandeer the aircraft. Failing a 3D gun printing acquisition back up methods of poison gas or curare-tipped darts might work to incapacitate the aircraft crew. A little compressed air device carefully camouflaged with a few darts wouldn't attract notice from airport security screeners.

The disguise pilot boarded the aircraft while the actual individual who's identity had been taken retired to a remote spot to await life insurance payment sharing. Some time after MH 370 was in flight the pirate pilot contrived an opportunity to enter the cockpit and take out the crew, disable communications, transponder, change course and drop to low altitude.

In a few hours MH 370 reached a remote airport or highway surface for refueling. If sold for parts including the pirate considered the passenger swag besides. His thought took a darker turn yet he had evolved beyond good and evil to personal egoist pragmatism. First-worlders would pay a fortune for transplanted organs in India. The value of 200 hearts, 400 lungs etc. wasn't lost on the pilot. He made an arrangement with a pair of corrupt medical cutters for an ad hoc chop shop in India.

He had three options for the Boeing 777. One, repaint and sell the plane to an obscure fleet. Two, cut it up at a specialty firm in a few hours and sell it for parts. Three, move it to a staging area controlled by Sheik Kali Martinet for readiness as an explosive package delivery platform.


3/13/14

MH 370 and the Paine Stewart's Crash Scenario-Another Possibility

The continuing mystery of Malaysian Air MH 370's disappearance leads to new searches areas and theories. It didn't travel through the Bermuda Triangle though so anything involving Atlantis can be ruled out. It could have evolved a scenario like the golfer Paine Stewart's jet that flew for hours on automatic pilot after everyone aboard was dead. Is that a possibility for flight MH370? Could it have crashed somewhere on the mainland after losing cabin pressure?

http://www.cnn.com/US/9911/23/stewart.crash.03/

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304185104579437573396580350?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702304185104579437573396580350.html

3/11/14

Fukushima Radioactive Water Catalyst for Border Water-Processing Canal Project?

The broke Fukushima power plants reportedly require 100,000 gallons of water daily that becomes contaminated and radioactive. The water is hot and stored in tanks and may be so for years. If storage is a problem what about loading it on a supertanker and shipping it for water treatment somewhere like the American Southwest for evaporation in a Mexican border canal specially designed for collecting salty water residue and making fresh water from evaporation? The Japanese might be interested in making a financial contribution to the project and the U.S. southwest has droughts that may increase and could use fresh water made from salt water with or without radioactive waste in it?

Large public works projects used to be the American thing. I lived in the Columbia Basin long ago and learned of the Grand Coulee dam project and it's value for farm irrigation. The Southwest could use a new water-making technology to supply farms too, especially if global warming changes the weather patterns and dries up the southwest. If a future nuclear accident occurs it may be necessary to process water one more time. It can be useful to be prepared for radioactive waste water treatment

Evaporation and condensation in covered canals with fresh water separated from the salt and radiation (if that is technically possible) could process the Fukushima water and augment that with water pumped up from San Diego to New Mexico in a pipe using solar power. What to do about radioactive waste if it can be seperated and collected in salt sludge?

Maybe salt sludge can be recrystalized under mechanical pressure and formed into a shape useful for packing deep in an excavated salt dome-just a thought.

Was Flight 370 Taken By Air Pirates?

The missing Malaysian airliner flight MH370 reportedly took a turn west and flew off course several hundred miles over an area known for maritime piracy. That leads one to wonder if pirates have upgraded to aircraft?

 http://news.msn.com/world/malaysian-military-missing-jet-changed-course?ocid=ansnews11

A Boeing 777 with extended range can fly almost 8000 miles. If pirates landed the plane and refueled it could be about anywhere. With a paint job Al Qaeda of Pakistan could have innovated a new method of procuring a weapon of mass destruction packed with explosives.

Some have speculated the pilot might have suicided, yet there is no evidence of wreckage so far. Perhaps there is a market for stolen aircraft?

The Correct Dialectical Evolution of Society With the Spirit of the Christian Church in History


G.W.F. Hegel wrote of a thesis in his Phenomenology of Mind of the evolution of spirit as God realizing himself through history and of course the Universe. That may have been an informative paradigm for the Christian scientist Charles Darwin as well as the political philosopher Karl Marx Each adapted Hegel's paradigm to his own thesis in interpreting substantive history. One may choose to adapt and employ Hegel's paradigm in a different way though to describe an omnipotent God pre-existing history and all things that are contingent ideas for God. God is letting man evolve through history.

The Medieval era of the history of the Christian Church was an exciting period of a little less than a millennium in which human society of the west grew with the spiritual leavening of the spirit of God bringing the nations together from a more primeval time as pagans of the forests. In the preceding pagan era tribal associations commonly with warrior as the basic male occupation jostled for turf. Protracted war of Germanic tribes against Celts. Slavs to the east met with Turkic and Mongolian tribes as a precursor to later great conflicts of the invasions of Mongols and Turks from east to west. Several hundred years after the fall of the western Roman Empire Vikings would row and sail around Europe and journey on its rivers to attack various peoples for profit. Christianity would become the spiritual tie that drew and bound the leaders and many of the people of the pagan world together.

The Middle Ages became an age of discovery for mankind of his intellectual, social and physical potential for being better in the image of God. God is pure reason, logic and love surpassing all human understanding. Bootstrapping any given Universe from the inclination of His thought He donated the impetus and order of assembly of existence for the development of human society during the middle ages. God's modge panc (mind plans) comprising teleology is marvelous to consider so far as one might make inferences of it.

With the presence of the Christian Church and with its monks, priests and Bishops nations were given spiritual reasons to interact at the highest level of state. War and hostage taking were basic elements of statecraft before the infusion of the Church into the social order, yet of course with human beings the agents of socialization that God employed the problems of sin in the state, people and Christians continued. Development of the nations from the pagan foundations of tribal turf instead of legal boundaries emerged. If Kings sometimes donated land to the Church they sometimes appointed Bishops as well (ref. Merovingian Kings).

As the Christian Church developed an ecclesiastical structure and evolved its method the nations too founded agencies and ideas, doctrines and procedures of increasing sophistication. The problem in modern third world nation start-ups of the lack of non-governmental agencies to fill the void as catalysts for social cohesion and public development were mitigated significantly during the middle ages by the progressive advance of structure in and out of the church coinciding with state advance. It is a marvelous subject to consider. Problems with the succession of kings and right to rule internationally were paralleled in the Avignon captivity and subsequent simultaneous existence of three popes. While the controversy on the right of investiture continued the issue of the right of any pope or patriarch to act as monarch over all Christians, and even the politics of the nations arose. While arguments over doctrine rising to the level of heresy occurred political theories about the political rights of man to be free from tyranny stirred. The assertions of the right of the laity to select their own leader of the church made at the Council of Constance supported the paradigm of traits toward political independence from imperialism. One could find the development of nationalism too in reactions against various formations of political and/or ecclesiastical imperialism.

With Phillip Shaff's list of contents of his study of Christian Church History published in the late 19th century (following) it is easy to comprehend the rise of complexity and structure that implicitly occurred socially around the Christian world and beyond. Even the Muslim world was influenced by Christian ethics. It is challenging to imagine Muhammad arising in the absence of the appearance of Jesus Christ the Savior or even the course of mass social paganism through the same period without a spiritual foundation. Francis of Assisi in personifying the work of the Lord is a far cry different than the ethics of tossing deformed babies on the public garbage heap or those stoking up chemical or biological engines of holocaust. Humanity do not all follow the spiritual ethics of the Lord and some do not know what they are.

History of the Christian Church, Volume IV: The
Middle Ages. A.D. 1049-1294 Phillip Shaff

Content Items

The Middle Age. Limits and General Character
The Nations of Medieval Christianity. The Kelt, the Teuton, and the Slav
Genius of Mediaeval Christianity
Periods of the Middle Age
Conversion Of The Northern And Western Barbarians
Character of Mediaeval Missions
Literature
The Britons
The Anglo-Saxons
The Mission of Gregory and Augustin. Conversion of Kent, a.d. 595-604 29
Antagonism of the Saxon and British Clergy
Conversion of the Other Kingdoms of the Heptarchy
Conformity to Row Established. Wilfrid, Theodore, Bede
The Conversion of Ireland. St. Patrick and St. Bridget
The Irish Church after St. Patrick
Subjection of Ireland to English and Roman Rule
The Conversion of Scotland. St. Ninian and St. Kentigern
St. Columba and the Monastery of Iona
The Culdees
Extinction of the Keltic Church, and Triumph of Rome under King David I
Arian Christianity among the Goths and other German Tribes
Conversion of Clovis and the Franks
Columbanus and the Irish Missionaries on the Continent
German Missionaries before Boniface
Boniface, the Apostle of Germany
The Pupils of Boniface. Willibald, Gregory of Utrecht, Sturm of Fulda
The Conversion of the Saxons. Charlemagne and Alcuin. The Heliand, and the
Gospel-Harmony
Scandinavian Heathenism
The Christianization of Denmark. St. Ansgar
The Christianization of Sweden
The Christianization of Norway and Iceland
General Survey
Christian Missions among the Wends
Cyrillus and Methodius, the Apostles of the Slavs. Christianization of Moravia,
Bohemia and Poland
The Conversion of the Bulgarians
The Conversion of the Magyars
The Christianization of Russia
Mohammedanism In Its Relation To Christianity
Literature
Statistics and Chronological Table
Position of Mohammedanism in Church History
The Home, and the Antecedents of Islâm
Life and Character of Mohammed
The Conquests of Islâm
The Koran, and the Bible
The Mohammedan Religion
Mohammedan Worship
Christian Polemics against Mohammedanism. Note on Mormonism
The Papal Hierarchy And The Holy Roman Empire
General Literature on the Papacy
Chronological Table of the Popes, Anti-Popes, and Roman Emperors from
Gregory I. to Leo XIII
Gregory the Great. a.d. 590-604
Gregory and the Universal Episcopate
The Writings of Gregory
The Papacy from Gregory I to Gregory II a.d. 604-715
From Gregory II to Zacharias. a.d. 715-741
Alliance of the Papacy with the New Monarchy of the Franks. Pepin and the
Patrimony of St. Peter. A.d. 741-755
Charles the Great. a.d. 768-814
Founding of the Holy Roman Empire, a.d. 800. Charlemagne and Leo II
Survey of the History of the Holy Roman Empire
The Papacy and the Empire from the Death of Charlemagne to Nicolas I a.d.
814-858). Note on the Myth of the Papess Joan 2
The Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals
Nicolas I., April, 858-Nov. 13, 867
Hadrian II. and John VIII a.d. 867 to 882
The Degradation of the Papacy in the Tenth Century
The Interference of Otho the Great
The Second Degradation of the Papacy from Otho I to Henry III. a.d. 97-1046
Henry III and the Synod of Sutri. Deposition of three rival Popes. a.d. 1046
The Conflict Of The Eastern And Western Churches And Their Separation
Sources and Literature
The Consensus and Dissensus between the Greek and Latin Churches
The Causes of Separation
The Patriarch and the Pope. Photius and Nicolas
Progress and Completion of the Schism. Cerularius 2
Fruitless Attempts at Reunion
Morals And Religion
Literature
General Character of Mediaeval Morals
Clerical Morals
Domestic Life
Slavery
Feuds and Private Wars. The Truce of God
The Ordeal
The Torture
Christian Charity
Monasticism
Use of Convents in the Middle Ages
St. Benedict. St. Nilus. St. Romuald
The Convent of Cluny
Church Discipline
The Penitential Books
Ecclesiastical Punishments. Excommunication, Anathema, Interdict
Penance and Indulgence
Church And State
Legislation
The Roman Law
The Capitularies of Charlemagne
English Legislation
Worship And Ceremonies
The Mass
The Sermon
Church Poetry. Greek Hymns and Hymnists
Latin Hymnody. Literature
Latin Hymns and Hymnists
The Seven Sacraments
The Organ and the Bell
The Worship of Saints
The Worship of Images. Literature. Different Theories
The Iconoclastic War, and the Synod of 754
The Restoration of Image-Worship by the Seventh Oecumenical Council, 787
Iconoclastic Reaction, and Final Triumph of Image-Worship, a.d. 842
The Caroline Books and the Frankish Church on Image-Worship
Evangelical Reformers. Agobardus of Lyons, and Claudius of Turin
Doctrinal Controversies
General Survey
The Controversy on the Procession of the Holy Spirit
The Arguments for and against the Filioque
The Monotheletic Controversy
The Doctrine of Two Wills in Christ
History of Monotheletism and Dyotheletism
The Sixth Oecumenical Council. a.d. 680 7
The Heresy of Honorius
Concilium Quinisextum. a.d. 692
Reaction of Monotheletism. The Maronites
The Adoptionist Controversy. Literature
History of Adoptionism 1
Doctrine of Adoptionism 5
The Predestinarian Controversy
Gottschalk and Babanus Maurus
Gottschalk and Hincmar
The Contending Theories on Predestination, and the Victory of
Semi-Augustinianism
The Doctrine of Scotus Erigena
The Eucharistic Controversies. Literature
The Two Theories of the Lord's Supper
The Theory of Paschasius Radbertus
The Theory of Ratramnus
The Berengar Controversy
Berengar's Theory of the Lord's Supper 8
Lanfranc and the Triumph of Transubstantiation 11
Heretical Sects
The Paulicians
The Euchites and other Sects in the East
The New Manichaeans in the West 524
The State Of Learning
Literature
Literary Character of the Early Middle Ages
Learning in the Eastern Church
Christian Platonism and the Pseudo-Dionysian Writings
Prevailing Ignorance in the Western Church
Educational Efforts of the Church
Patronage of Letters by Charles the Great, and Charles the Bald
Alfred the Great, and Education in England
Biographical Sketches Of Ecclesiastical Writers
Chronological List of the Principal Ecclesiastical Writers from the Sixth to the
Twelfth Century
St. Maximus Confessor
John of Damascus
Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople
Simeon Metaphrastes
Oecumenius
Theophylact Michael Psellus
Euthymius Zigabenus
Eustathius of Thessalonica
Nicetas Acominatos
Cassiodorus
St. Gregory of Tours
St. Isidore of Seville
The Venerable Bede (Baeda)
Paul the Deacon
St. Paulinus of Aquileia
Alcuin
St. Liudger
Theodulph of Orleans
St. Eigil
Amalarius
Einhard
viiSmaragdus
Jonas of Orleans
Rabanus Maurus
Haymo
Walahfrid Strabo
Florus Magister, of Lyons 3
Servatus Lupus
Druthmar
St. Paschasius Radbertus
Patramnus
Hincmar of Rheims
Johannes Scotus Erigena
Anastasius
Ratherius of Verona
Gerbert (Sylvester II.)
Fulbert of Chartres
Rodulfus Glaber. Adam of Bremen
St. Peter Damiani

History of the Christian Church, Volume V: The
Middle Ages. A.D. 1294-1517 Philip Schaff

Content items

The Hildebrandian Popes. A.D. 1049-1073. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Sources and Literature on Chapters I. and II. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Hildebrand and his Training. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Hildebrand and Leo IX. 1049-1054. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Victor II. and Stephen IX. (X.). 1055-1058. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Nicolas II. and the Cardinals. 1059-1061. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The War against Clerical Marriage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Alexander II. and the Schism of Cadalus. 1061-1073. . . . . . . . . . Gregory Vii, 1073-1085. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Hildebrand elected Pope. His Views on the Situation. . . . . . . . . . . .
The Gregorian Theocracy. .
Gregory VII. as a Moral Reformer. Simony and Clerical Marriage. . . .
The Enforcement of Sacerdotal Celibacy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The War over Investiture. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Gregory VII. and Henry IV. . . . .
Canossa. 1077. . . . . . .
Renewal of the Conflict. Two Kings and Two Popes. .
Death of Gregory VII. . . .
The Papacy From The Death Of Gregory Vii. To The Concordat Of Worms.
A.D 1085-1122. . .
Victor III. and Urban II. 1086-1099. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Pascal II. and Henry V. 1099-1118. . . . . . . . .
The Concordat of Worms. 1122. . . . . . . . .
The Conflict of the Hierarchy in England. William the Conqueror and
Lanfranc. . . . . . . . . . .
William Rufus and Anselm. . . . . . .
Anselm and Henry I. . . . .
The Papacy From The Concordat Of Worms To Innocent Iii. A.D.
1122-1198. . . . . . .
Innocent II., 1130-1143, and Eugene III., 1145-1153. . .
Arnold of Brescia. . . . . . . . . .
The Popes and the Hohenstaufen. . . . . .
Adrian IV. and Frederick Barbarossa. . . .
Alexander III. in Conflict with Barbarossa. . . . .
The Peace of Venice. 1177. . . . . .
Thomas Becket and Henry II of England. . .
The Archbishop and the King. . . .
The Martyrdom of Thomas Becket. Dec. 29, 1170. . . .
The Effects of Becket's Murder. . . . .
Innocent Iii. And His Age. A.D. 1198-1216. . . . . .
Literature. . .
Innocent's Training and Election. . . .
Innocent's Theory of the Papacy. . . . . .
Innocent and the German Empire. . . .
Innocent and King John of England. . . . .
Innocent and Magna Charta. . . . .
The Fourth Lateran Council, 1215. . . .
The Papacy From The Death Of Innocent Iii. To Boniface Viii.
1216-1294. . . . . . .
The Papal Conflict with Frederick II Begun. . . . . .
Gregory IX. and Frederick II. 1227-1241. . . . .
The First Council of Lyons and the Close of Frederick's Career.
1241-1250. . .
The Last of the Hohenstaufen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Empire and Papacy at Peace. 1271-1294. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Crusades. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Literature on the Crusades as a Whole. . .
Character and Causes of the Crusades. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Call to the Crusades. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The First Crusade and the Capture of Jerusalem. . . . . . . . . . . .
The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem 1099-1187. . .
The Fall of Edessa and the Second Crusade. . . . . . . .
The Third Crusade. 1189-1192. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Children's Crusades. . .. . . .
The Fourth Crusade and the Capture of Constantinople. 1200-1204. . .
Frederick II. and the Fifth Crusade . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
St. Louis and the Last Crusades 1248, 1270.
The Last Stronghold of the Crusaders in Palestine. .
Effects of the Crusades. . . . . . . .
The Military Orders. . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Monastic Orders. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Revival of Monasticism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Monasticism and the Papacy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Monks of Cluny. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Cistercians. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
St. Bernard of Clairvaux. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Augustinians, Carthusians, Carmelites, and other Orders.
Monastic Prophets. .. . . . . . . . . . .
The Mendicant Orders. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Franciscan Literature. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
St. Francis d'Assisi. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Franciscans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
St. Dominic and the Dominicans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Missions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Literature and General Survey. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Missions in Northeastern Germany. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Missions among the Mohammedans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Missions among the Mongols. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Jews. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Heresy And Its Suppression. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Literature for the Entire Chapter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Mediaeval Dissenters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Cathari. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Peter de Bruys and Other Independent Leaders. . . . . . . . . .
The Amaurians and Other Isolated Sects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Beguines and Beghards. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Waldenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Crusades against the Albigenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Inquisition. Its Origin and Purpose. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Inquisition. Its Mode of Procedure and Penalties
. . . . . . .
Universities And Cathedrals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Schools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Books and Libraries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Universities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The University of Bologna. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The University of Paris. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Oxford and Cambridge. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Cathedrals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Scholastic And Mystic Theology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Literature and General Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Sources and Development of Scholasticism.
Realism and Nominalism. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Anselm of Canterbury. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Peter Abaelard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Abaelard's Teachings and Theology. . . . . .
Younger Contemporaries of Abaelard. . . . .
Peter the Lombard and the Summists. . . . .
Mysticism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
St. Bernard as a Mystic. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Hugo and Richard of St. Victor. . . . . . . . . .
Scholasticism At Its Height. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Alexander of Hales. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Albertus Magnus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Thomas Aquinas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Bonaventura. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Duns Scotus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Roger Bacon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Sacramental System. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Literature on the Sacraments. . . . . . . . . . .
The Seven Sacraments. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Baptism and Confirmation. . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Eucharist. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Eucharistic Practice and Superstition. . . . .
Penance and Indulgences. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Penance and Indulgences. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Extreme Unction, Ordination, and Marriage.
Sin and Grace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Future State. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Pope And Clergy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Canon Law. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Papal Supremacy in Church and State.
The Pope and the Curia. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Bishops. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Lower Clergy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Councils. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Church and Clergy in England. . . . . . . . . .
Two English Bishops. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Popular Worship And Superstition. . . . . . . .
The Worship of Mary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Worship of Relics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Sermon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Hymns and Sacred Poetry. . . . . . . . .
The Religious Drama. . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Flagellants. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Demonology and the Dark Arts. . . . . .
The Age passing Judgment upon Itself

History of the Christian Church, Volume VI: The
Middle Ages. A.D. 1049-1294- Phillip Shaff

Content Items

The Decline Of The Papacy And The Avignon Exile. . . . . . . .
Sources and Literature. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Pope Boniface VIII. 1294-1303. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Boniface VIII. and Philip the Fair of France. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Literary Attacks against the Papacy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Transfer of the Papacy to Avignon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Pontificate of John XXII 1316-1334. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Papal Office Assailed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Financial Policy of the Avignon Popes. . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Later Avignon Popes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Re-establishment of the Papacy in Rome. 1377. . . . . .
The Papal Schism And The Reformatory Councils. 1378-1449
Sources and Literature. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Schism Begun. 1378. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Further Progress of the Schism. 1378-1409. . . . . . . . . . . .
The Council of Pisa. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Council of Constance. 1414-1418. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The council of Basel. 1431-1449. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Council of Ferrara-Florence. 1438-1445. . . . . . . . . . . .
Leaders Of Catholic Thought. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Literature. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Ockam and the Decay of Scholasticism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Catherine of Siena, the Saint. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Peter d'Ailly, Ecclesiastical Statesman. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
John Gerson, Theologian and Church Leader. . . . . . . . . . .
Nicolas of Clamanges, the Moralist. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Nicolas of Cusa, Scholar and Churchman. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Popular Preachers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The German Mystics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sources and Literature. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The New Mysticism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Meister Eckart. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
John Tauler of Strassburg. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Henry Suso. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Friends of God. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
John of Ruysbroeck. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Gerrit de Groote and the Brothers of the Common Life. . . . . .
The Imitation of Christ. Thomas à Kempis. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The German Theology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
English Mystics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Reformers Before The Reformation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Sources and Literature. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Church in England in the Fourteenth Century. . . . . . . . .
John Wyclif. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Wyclif's Teachings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Wyclif and the Scriptures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Lollards. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
John Huss of Bohemia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Huss at Constance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Jerome of Prag. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Hussites. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Last Popes Of The Middle Ages. 1447-152. . . . . . . . . . . .
Literature and General Survey. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Nicolas V. 1447-1455. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Aeneas Sylvius de' Piccolomini, Pius I. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Paul II. 1464-1471. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Sixtus IV. 1471-1484. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Innocent VIII. 1484-1492. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Pope Alexander VI--Borgia. 1492-1503. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Julius II., the Warrior-Pope. 1503-1513. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Leo X. 1513-1521. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Heresy And Witchcraft. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Literature. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Heretical and Unchurchly Movements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Witchcraft and its Punishment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Spanish Inquisition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Renaissance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Literature of the Renaissance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Intellectual Awakening. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Dante, Petrarca, Boccaccio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Progress and Patrons of Classical Studies in the 15th Century.
Greek Teachers and Italian Humanists.
The Artists. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Revival of Paganism. . . . . . . . . .
Humanism in Germany. . . . . . . . . . . .
Reuchlin and Erasmus. . . . . . . . . . . .
Humanism in France. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Humanism in England. . . . . . . . . . . .
The Pulpit And Popular Piety. . . . . . . . .
Literature. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Clergy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Preaching. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Doctrinal Reformers. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Girolamo Savonarola. . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Study and Circulation of the Bible. .
Popular Piety. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Works of Charity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Sale of Indulgences. . . . . . . . .

3/9/14

Christian Founders of the Reformation/Renaissance and the Crimean Conundrum


 Christianity was important in founding the modern humanist movement. The discovery of the complete texts of Aristotle introduced in the west through Spain thought also continuing from Byzantine-Greek sources stimulated the Aristotelian method of logic. That was applied to Christian thought in the scholastic movement of the 12th century. Thomas Aquinas wrote the Summa Theologica with an Aristotelian method of proofs and arguments against culminating in a syllogistic conclusion or summae. A reaction against that approach by Petrarch and others whom preferred a neo-Platonic and Augustinian approach as being more relevant and central to human concern on Earth in their relationship to God.

The politics of late dark ages Europe in relation to the church and the relation of the church to the pope is fascinating reading. Going through ‘A History of the Christian Church’ by Williston Walker, Richard A. Norris, David W. Lotz and Robert T. Handy that was put together over a time period of about a century I learned many new insights regarding the complexity of the movements of people and nations between the 11th and 15th centuries.

Of course there was a papal tax on subjects in far-flung states of Europe as well as a schism between the eastern and western branches of the church during part of the era. Two Patriarchs of the five patriarchs of the Nicene period still existed as powerful individuals. It was not to be a reunified church again until the Turks were about to take Constantinople when the East sought military help that never arrived, yet that is another story.

In the west the papacy for various reasons became divided into three. That is three post existed simultaneously and all were fired or resigned under pressure of a general council of Bishops from all over early in the 1430s. The bishops organized themselves into nations of five groups eventually to make voting simpler thought they were from more countries than that. Not only was the church in need of reform, it required one leader subject to the general council instead of a monarch levying taxes. For much of European history during the dark ages a co-evolution of political and national formation occurred along a trialectical helix with the church. Germany or the Holy Roman Empire didn’t fare to well during this period ass the new pope appointed by the council of Constance became too powerful again-the plague had hit Europe. Other matters concerned the locals. Germans had to pay high taxes to the pope.

If the reformation was in part a tax revolt during an era when the Roman pontiff tended toward corruption as on prince among five Italian principalities contesting for land and power in a time when the prestige and power of the papacy declined (the Borgia popes were siring children and Pope Julius II was leading his army in battle), the pre-formation & renaissance was developing while vernacular transformation of everything including the Bible was proceeding.

Walker or Lotz wrote in the text mentioned above that the source of studia humanitatis was Petrarch. Interestingly Marsilio Ficino appointed by Cosimo de ‘Medici to lead the new Platonic Academy developed a ‘Platonic theology’ combining Christianity and neo-Platonism. I discovered that sympathetic concurrence for myself after reading the Enneads of Plotinus. Augustine was also a reader of neo-Platonism before becoming fully Christian.

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, author of an ‘Oration on the Dignity of Man’ was also a member of the Platonic academy. Evidently many of the founders of the humanist renaissance were actually defending Christianity or renormalizing nit in relation to the Aristotelian school of scholasticism. Of course in recent decades many American scholars have taken the opposite viewpoint arguing that Aristotelianism and scholasticism- even Christianity were in opposition to an entirely secular renaissance providing a stimulus to science. Maybe Roger Bacon was considered a necromancer in his time for being a little eccentric in his experiments yet that was just the average upper-crust Brit for ya. Science developed contemporarily with the rest of the liberal arts or studia humanitatis though one might find some differences in the school curriculum of the first Universities of Europe in Paris and Oxford etc. that did have some Aristotelian subjects. That over time would split off from the applied secular sort of learning. Scientists have argued about the abstract reasoning of Aristotle’s method versus the applied hands-on approach of experimenters. One might point that out to the string and brane theorists who seem to have purely theoretical, almost Aristotelian math-based approaches to creating new scientific knowledge

Poor historical method applied to contemporary politics can lead to judgments based on faulty logic. The Obama administration believes that the west can judge the Ukrainian situation impartially. That would be like expecting the KKK to fairly judge a civil dispute over land ownership between a negroe and a cracker in the late 19th century. One knows that the desire to take the valuables would prevail in favor of the west (if the negroe were Russians owning the Ukraine; he Obama administration, France, Italy and the Netherlands the western Crackers). The paradoxes of history are fascinating to observe.

The United States’s Obama administration is well known for being a leftist vanguard for an atheist homosexual movement in the greater globalist expansion post-cold war. The paradox in the Obama administration efforts to consolidate every last bit of formerly Russian Ukrainian land after the cold war for the benefit of the west is that Globalism is taking the west through British leadership in the Master-Blaster Thunder dome relationship of post-imperial elitism, and the movement is a kind of reverse chirility image to that of Trotsky’s international communist imperial tendency that were repressed by Stalin and that re-emerged with Nikita Khrushchev. That is one atheist, leftist administration pursuing globalism follows another. What can the Russians think of that?

It was the Christian moral guidance of the Reagan administration that had the charisma and desire to rid the world of nuclear weapons that coincided with the rise of Andropov’s protégé Mikhail Gorbachev to power in the final years of the Soviet Union that was an element of Christian grace enabling a peaceful transition to a post-Soviet Russia. Western leftist would of course attribute that entirely to President Gorbachev and deny that President Reagan’s appeal to President Gorbachev to ‘tear down this wall’ or conventional weapons build up had anything to do with it. The transition should have been one of subsequent non-exploitation of Russia. Traditional Russian lands such as the eastern Ukraine ought to have remained with Russia. Lands liberated from the Nazis yet not Russian should go independent. That was fairly simply and a premise that George Keenan would have agreed with.

The atheist, globalist movement toward a dehumanized, despiritualized west and a Ukraine given over to Chinese corporate farming (they signed a ten billion dollar farming deal) is a paradox. Russia would be flanked by the Chinese infrastructure and perhaps have the Crimea become another Panama Canal Zone run by the Chinese. The Chinese Communist party did not throw in the towel and trust the kindness of foes, the Soviet Union did and Russia is being made to suffer for that evident mistake in regard to the Eastern Ukraine and the Crimea.

 One of the Russian’s major areas of food production is being usurped lost and its food and physical security threatened by globalists of insatiable greed seeking to devour. Ant that is done in the name of atheist, scientific elitism wherein human beings have no God-given inalienable rights. Instead humanity are managed as bits of flesh- phenomenalities under the supervision of concentrated wealth and Mengeles of advanced scientific inclination toward ethics of personal egoist utilitarianism. Science is not endangered, humanity is. Science will be around learning and inventing things forever unless its technological progeny extirpate all human life on Earth, the ecosphere or both.

Pragmatism , Utilitarianism and Taking a Poisoned Pawn En Passant

  The war in Ukraine, from the Biden-Blinken perspective, is necessary for two or three reasons of a dubious moral character. One is that fu...