Lord Acton's Correspondence with Robert E. Lee

It is intriguing that Lord Acton took it upon himself to correspond with General Robert E. Lee about the South's efforts to resist the Union army.  Lord Acton is known in most circles as a thoughtful defender of liberty and of what is often called "classical liberalism"--in short, the notions of limited government and the centrality of economic and personal liberty. Acton was a Catholic thinker and historian from England.  Acton saw in Lee's (and the South's) resistance to the Union army a proper battle for constitutional liberty.  In a letter dated November 4, 1866 (after the end of the war, of course) to Lee, Acton writes the following:

I saw in State Rights the only availing check upon the absolutism of the sovereign will, and secession filled me with hope, not as the destruction but as the redemption of Democracy. The institutions of your Republic have not exercised on the old world the salutary and liberating influence which ought to have belonged to them, by reason of those defects and abuses of principle which the Confederate Constitution was expressly and wisely calculated to remedy. I believed that the example of that great Reform would have blessed all the races of mankind by establishing true freedom purged of the native dangers and disorders of Republics. Therefore I deemed that you were fighting the battles of our liberty, our progress, and our civilization; and I mourn for the stake which was lost at Richmond more deeply than I rejoice over that which was saved at Waterloo.

For the rest of the letter, click here.  It is these kinds of documents that often lead people to re-think the "received" version of history that we often have heard over the years.  Lord's Acton's are wise words for our day.

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Published: 18 January 2012 18 January 2012

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David Lyle Jeffrey on Christianity and Literature

I am always thankful when David Lyle Jeffrey publishes another book.  His latest is Christianity and Literature: Philosophical Foundations and Critical Practice, co-written with Gregory Maillett.  The book has published in IVP's "Christian Worldview Integration Series," edited by J.P. Moreland and Francis J. Beckwith.  I was helped immensely as a doctoral student when I stumbled upon Jeffrey's People of the Book: Christian Identity and Literary Culture.  If you are wrestling with the question of the nature of language and the nature of literature, I can hardly think of a better guide than Jeffrey.

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Published: 04 December 2011 04 December 2011

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Ron Paul and the Practice of Medicine

Ron Paul is a man of principal.  Here is how one physician, who has practiced medicine for decades in Texas, decided to operate.  If you go here, you will see his principles for practicing medicine, and how he chose to care for the poor.

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Published: 25 October 2011 25 October 2011

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David Lyle Jeffrey and the Nature of Learning

I think this essay by David Lyle Jeffrey is one of the best things in print on the nature of learning.  It is titled, "The Pearl of Great Wisdom: The Deep and Abiding Biblical Roots of Western Liberal Education."  I use it often when I teach, and have re-read it numerous times.  Jeffrey is arguing that in the western tradition after the first century (particularly in its pre-modern form), learning was often a means to wisdom, and a wisdom centered on the reading and interpretation of Scripture.  Thank you David Jeffrey for this essay.  It can be found here at the web-site of Touchstone Magazine.

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Published: 11 October 2011 11 October 2011

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