Recent Reading

The Song of Roland | Jesus and The God of Classical Theism | Making Men Moral

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The Song of Roland

* * * *

The 4 stars are for Dorothy Sayers' translation.
I would give the work itself 3, in terms of how much I enjoyed the story. Realism is a silly metric to apply to what was a folk myth by the time the poem was created, and probably not meant to be taken more seriously than we take the film 300 (even though of course it’s based on a historical event, just as that film is). Whatever seeds of truth are here had certainly been watered with lots of fancy. But believability (that is, a quality in a story which helps the reader take it seriously on its own terms, however fantastic those terms are) is a trait that this work needed more of for me to like it better. The action is so stagey (if I can use that term) and the deeds so outsized and repetitive (does every single face-off between Paynim and French really end in someone being thrown a lance-length from his horse?) that I had a hard time being very excited by any of the battle scenes. The 'Iliad', by contrast, at least makes the brutal violence feel varied and realistic.

The original in French may contain some poetic merits that are simply not accessible to me, so the rating I’m giving it here is provisional and should be taken with that caveat.

The poem induces quite a bit of cringing when we see the bald, brazen, and provincial jingoism of fandom for the Crusaders and their conquests of their Muslim enemies, whom we many times find ourselves in sympathy with simply for being the invaded and underdog party. Regardless, it's still fun and high-spirited and hyperbolic, and holds at least a morsel of self-criticism and wisdom where it acknowledges that Roland is proud. It's his pride that, in a sense, ensures his and his men's destruction.

Jesus and The God of Classical Theism

* * * * *

Duby does a stellar job of going over the loci of Christology, engaging with more modern accounts by means of the writings of the Medievals, the Reformed Scholastics, and Puritans like John Owen, William Ames, and Stephen Charnock. He also does some pretty deep exegesis, again aided by Church doctors going back to the Fathers, and is not afraid to differ with his authorities here and there.

The thesis is that not only is Classical Theism not at odds with a biblically sound understanding of Christ and his work, but that it is positively necessary to interpret the Word faithfully. I recommend it to everyone interested in Christian theology. His engagement with texts like Philippians 2:7 at a granular level in the Greek, and bringing to bear the insights of Cyril of Alexandria, Thomas Aquinas, Amandus Polanus, and others, is a really great service to the thinking Church.

He doesn’t persuade me at every point. For instance, his proof-texts to back up the pactum salutis did not win me over. I’m also not as confident as he is in our ability to make well-founded statements about the Trinity ad intra. We can make inferences from Scripture and the ad extra works, but that is all.

Making Men Moral

* * * * *

A marvelous and superbly written book. It's a collection of essays, making up a pretty cohesive whole, toward carving out a more or less classical position on what George calls 'morals legislation'—that is, laws based on moral principles. We live in an age where this is frowned upon and seen as outdated and dangerous to the notion of ‘separation of Church and State’ (itself highly misunderstood and twisted). Instead, we instinctively favor laws based on what we view as mere pragmatism, or utilitarian thinking, such as, ‘This law seems likely to reduce corruption in government’ or ‘This law seems likely to restrict illegal immigration’. We feel it to be a matter of decency and good taste not to go lower, so to speak, and examine the ground-level moral, ethical, or spiritual dimensions of the laws we enact. If we cannot offer a pragmatic rationale for a law and a case for why it will please a majority of citizens, we have a hard time believing it should be enacted.

In reality of course, all laws (and all approaches to law-making) can be traced back to foundational moral and philosophical and even spiritual convictions.

This book showed me that ultimately I am not a classical liberal, but a true conservative. Where I would find myself in sympathy with liberal policy positions, this is the case only for prudential and not principial reasons. For instance, permitting the sale and use of marijuana might be something that I'd agree with only to prevent black markets and gang activity, rather than because I believe in a 'right' to smoke weed, as part of some alleged 'right to bodily autonomy', or in concession to some harm principle.

I highly recommend this book to every Christian.