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| William Blake's illustration - Christian meets Evangelist, Pilgrim's Progress. |
My birthday paralleled the retirement of Yale professor Harold Bloom. He retired from teaching four days before he died, at the age of 89. That is the ideal retirement age for me, 89.
Dividing US citizens into two groups, I consider the younger population below 40 years of age and the older population above 40.
Those who are younger should build a foundation of knowledge that will inform them and influence others over the years. Those who are older should direct people toward the path of truth, because there are absolute truths.
There is no substitute for reading. That should always include printed books, but fortunately we can also supplement with all kinds of free or low-cost ebooks.
Areas of Study for the Younger Group
- The Bible as the Word of God - too many commentaries are no better than the broadcast news, full of opinions with no relationship to the data. The Scriptures are the only revelation of God, and they present a unified, harmonious truth, revealed by the Holy Spirit through many humans. As one pope said, the Bible is like the Savior, having a divine and a human nature, but without error.
- Creation - too few know - from observation - the basics of plants, animals, planets, the moon, and the stars. Our generation undoubtedly knows the least about nature, the most about digital games.
- Literature and music - we can know or enjoy all of it, but God moved people to create the best works of all time. But now, people gush over comic book movies and canned cacophony.
- Latin and Greek teachers killed interest in their subject matter, but medicine, science, languages, theology, philosophy, literature, law, math, engineering, music, and theater all originate in the golden age of Athens and spread through Rome. "Rome had the drains, but Greece had the brains."
- American and world history. Required courses keep these two areas alive, though their teachers do their best to mummify them. The genius of the U.S. Constitution comes from the British Catholic/Protestant struggles and its rulers. America became free while Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire was being published - a naughty but fascinating study that informed our Founders, who were trained in Latin and Greek. The U. S. Constitution reflects where Rome and Britain went wrong.
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| If you do not know what this Blake illustration means, you should read Pilgrim's Progress again - or for the first time. |
The Older Group
Opportunities to share and promote the truth are endless.
- Anyone can teach through blogging, writing, lecturing - whether it is done informally or through established structures.
- I thought some should learn New Testament Greek, so I began teaching the subject through videos on Ustream. One pastor began teaching his son NT Greek. The page is - Bethany Lutheran Easy NT Greek.
- There are many outlets through publishing, small organizations that reach several thousand people.
- Conversation can be so much more than trivia, though trivia is fun. It is possible that the oldest members of denominations are the only ones keeping some of the clergy anchored in the Word.
I was going to erase this post after working on it yesterday. But someone I do not know wished me Happy Birthday on FB and said she enjoyed my scholarship - very encouraging.
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| Lenski's publisher - the ALC - thought so little of him that they let the copyright lapse, so many more can enjoy his labors today. We published the pdfs for free. |
