Above: Blessed Roman Lysko
Image in the Public Domain
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BLESSED ROMAN MARIA LYSKO (AUGUST 19, 1914-OCTOBER 14, 1949)
Ukrainian Greek Catholic Priest and Martyr, 1949
Alternative feast day = April 2
Roman Maria Lysko, born a subject of the Russian Empire near Lviv, Ukraine, on August 19, 1914, spent most of his 35 years serving God. Our saint’s father was Father Volodymyr Lysko, a Ukrainian Greek Catholic priest and a member of a branch of the Roman Catholic Church with married priests. Our saint’s mother was Ivanka Cohelsky. Roman followed in his father’s footsteps; he studied theology in Lviv and, on August 28, 1941, became a priest during what the Soviet government called the Great Patriotic War (World War II, to the rest of us). Our saint, active in youth ministry, also had a wife (Neonila Huniovsky) and three children (Oleksander, Zvenyslava, and Chrystyna Lysko). Roman, arrested by agents of the NKVD for his faith on September 8, 1949, and incarcerated in Lviv, sang Psalms in prison. His jailers thought he was out of his mind. Roman, tortured, died of starvation on October 14, 1949.
Pope John Paul II declared our saint a Venerable in 2001 then a Blessed later that year.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
NOVEMBER 30, 2018 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT ANDREW THE APOSTLE, MARTYR
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Almighty God, by whose grace and power your holy martyr Blessed Roman Lysko
triumphed over suffering and was faithful even to death:
Grant us, who now remember him in thanksgiving, to be so faithful in our witness to you in this world,
that we may receive with him the crown of life; through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with yo and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 51:1-12
Psalm 116 or 116:1-8
Revelation 7:13-17
Luke 12:2-12
–Adapted from Holy Women, Holy Men: Celebrating the Saints (2010), 714
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Above: “I Voted” Sticker
Image Source = Dwight Burdette
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Every vote should count. That is a timeless principle.
This is the year of many close elections in the United States. The new Senator-Elect from Arizona owes her election to a razor-thin margin, as the counting of votes has continued. Three races in Florida are in recounts, for the margins of victory from election night are less than half of a percentage point, thereby triggering mandatory recounts. The race for Governor of Georgia is too close to call, with local elections officials finding previously uncounted votes. Meanwhile, Donald Trump, who puts the bully in “bully pulpit” and specializes in spreading rumors while labeling confirmed facts “fake news,” is making charges of corruption in recounts. If there is evidence for such corruption, local law enforcement knows nothing about it.
Every vote should count. That is a timeless principle. I hold to it, even when I have no guarantee that my preferred candidate will win. This is a matter of principle, not convenience. This is a matter of standing up for what my country, the United States of America, says is a major principle. Suffrage is a right about as close to sacred as a civic activity can be. It is a right for which many brave men and women have died, and for which many men and women have yearned.
One benefit of counting every vote is to validate the electoral process. There can be no doubt that Candidate X is the rightful winner if election workers have counted all the votes. What can be wrong with counting all the votes, especially in close elections?
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
NOVEMBER 13, 2018 COMMON ERA
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Above: A Portion of My Home Desk Area, November 5, 2018
Photographer = Kenneth Randolph Taylor
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When I was an undergraduate at Valdosta State University, Valdosta, Georgia, taking upper-level history courses, a research paper was part of every such course. The format was Turabian, of course. In 1993-1996, my time at Valdosta State, I used an electronic typewriter to create my written assignments. Almost always the professors were kind enough to permit endnotes instead of footnotes. Those professors also never took any time to explain the Turabian format. Doing so was not their job, and I never imagined that it was. No, my responsibility vis-à-vis formatting was to consult and follow the style manual, then in the fifth edition. My copy of the style manual was an essential volume in my library.
Many of the students I teach at the Oconee Campus of the University of North Georgia apparently lack the initiative to consult the current Turabian manual (ninth edition) or an online Turabian guide. Many of them seem to think that my job is to tell them everything about the Turabian style, especially with regard to footnotes (easy to do via computer) and bibliographic entries. Many of them ignore my written guidance (more than any of my professors gave, that is, none) and plead ignorance. Yet ignorance, especially the variety born of laziness and apathy, is not a good defense.
Many of my colleagues and I see the same disturbing pattern: pupils, overall, expect proverbial hand-holding through tasks that should be simple for college students yet prove challenging. Furthermore, proverbial hand-holding often does no good anyway, based on results.
As I tell students, the more they put into their education, the more they will get out of it. Regardless of what they did or did not learn at their high schools (some of which report high test scores), they are responsible for showing the necessary initiative. Instead, many of them give up and avoid taking any of my courses again.
I accept my responsibility to my students. They deserve my best efforts to prepare them for the world. One lesson I hope I teach is the importance of showing initiative. Another lesson I strive to teach is working hard through struggles to emerge better off in the end.
I ponder the causes of the problems I recognize in many students. A partial list follows:
- The sense of entitlement commonplace in Millennials;
- The results of helicopter parenting;
- The failures of schools, especially the coddling of students, often for the purpose of raising scores on high-stakes tests;
- The endemic lack of time-management skills;
- Short attention spans; and
- The plethora of distractions, mostly technological.
Responsibility is both collective and individual. Regardless of the negative influences of others on one’s life, one does have much agency. Those other influences may not cease to exist, but one can, at least, consult and follow a mandated style manual in a university course.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
NOVEMBER 5, 2018 COMMON ERA
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Above: Part of The Interpreter’s Bible, Volume VII (1951), 114
Scan by Kenneth Randolph Taylor
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VINCENT TAYLOR (JANUARY 1, 1887-1968)
British Methodist Minister and Biblical Scholar
Vincent Taylor comes to this, my Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days, via The Interpreter’s Bible, for which he wrote the article, “The Life and Ministry of Jesus” (Volume VII, 1951).
Taylor, born in Edenfield, Lancashire, England, was an active scholar for nearly half a century–1920 to 1968. His family moved to Accrington, in 1890; there he finished growing to adulthood. Our saint studied for the Methodist ministry at Richmond College. He was a parish minister from 1910 to 1930 and during World War II. Along the way he earned his doctorate from the University of London (1922), worked as Tutor in New Testament Language and Literature at Wesley College, Leeds (1930f), and served as the Principal of the same college (1936-1953).
Taylor was conservative yet not fundamentalist; he rejected Biblical infallibility.
- He recognized the existence of disagreements within the New Testament. Some books supplemented others, he insisted.
- He, a practitioner of textual, form, source, and historical criticism, rejected Bultmannian skepticism regarding the historicity of the four canonical Gospels. At the same time, Taylor did not reject Bultmannian demythologizing completely.
- Our saint neither defended miracle stories uncritically nor rejected them; he knew the limits of what history could prove and disprove. Taylor, in a Kierkegaardian leap of faith, accepted the Virgin Birth of Jesus, defending it on dogmatic, not historical, grounds.
- Our saint argued that Luke incorporated Q into the Gospel of Luke.
- Taylor also recognized the presence of multiple theories of the atonement in the New Testament. He, not seeking to harmonize them, rejected Penal Substitutionary Atonement, criticized the Classic Theory of the Atonement also, and affirmed the centrality of the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Taylor wrote:
The New Testament is not a fortuitous collection of separate writings, but a medium in which the significance of Christ, as the Word of God and the Saviour of men, emerges clearly into the light of day.
Taylor also had a balanced view of individual and societal sinfulness, and interpreted the Bible in the context of his times. He, taking into account the evils of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, interpreted the “obey the government” passage in Romans 13 in a particular way. St. Paul the Apostle, Taylor argued, obviously had not considered mass-murdering dictators or the possibility of the Holocaust. Therefore, our saint wrote, nobody should permit Romans 13 to stand in the say of resisting tyrants. He, understanding that sin is both individual and collective, also wrote of the necessity of both individual and collective salvation.
Major works by Taylor included The Gospel According to Saint Mark (1952), Doctrine and Evangelism (1953), and The Epistle to the Romans (1955).
Taylor, aged 81 years, died in 1968.
Taylor’s argument regarding Romans 13 rings true with me. I cannot imagine God condemning anyone for refusing to obey Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mao Tse-tung, or Pol Pot–dictators with extremely bloody hands. After all, the commandment to effect social justice is always binding. Nevertheless, I recall reading a chilling argument to the contrary in the October 30, 1974, issue of The Presbyterian Journal, the magazine that had midwifed the birth of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) the previous year. The editor, G. Aiken Taylor, approved of the following statement, submitted by a reader, one J. B. Finneran, “an elect lady from Simpsonville, MD”:
The Bible commands us to obey earthly authority, for God establishes governments….When a Herod or a Hitler comes into power, we must thereby assume this is the Lord’s plan; He will use even such as these to put His total plan into effect for the good of His people here on earth.
–Page 11
I affirm the sovereignty of God, too, but is there no good reason to resist tyrants, according to J. B. Finneran and G. Aiken Taylor? Their argument is law and order on steroids.
Vincent Taylor, being a mortal, was incorrect on some points, of course. He was, however, a man who loved God with his intellect and who got much right.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
OCTOBER 10, 2018 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF JOHANN NITSCHMANN, SR., MORAVIAN MISSIONARY AND BISHOP; DAVID NITSCHMANN, JR., THE SYNDIC, MORAVIAN MISSIONARY AND BISHOP; AND DAVID NITSCHMANN, THE MARTYR, MORAVIAN MISSIONARY AND MARTYR
THE FEAST OF CHRISTIAN LUDWIG BRAU, NORWEGIAN MORAVIAN TEACHER AND POET
THE FEAST OF EDWARD BENSON WHITE, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY
THE FEAST OF LOUIS FITZGERALD BENSON, U.S. PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER AND HYMNODIST
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O God, you have endowed us with memory, reason, and skill.
We thank you for the faithful legacy of [Vincent Taylor and all others]
who have dedicated their lives to you and to the intellectual pursuits.
May we, like them, respect your gift of intelligence fully and to your glory.
In the Name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Deuteronomy 6:4-9
Psalm 103
Philippians 4:8-9
Mark 12:28-34
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
MARCH 6, 2013 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT CHRODEGANG OF METZ, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP
THE FEAST OF EDMUND KING, ANGLICAN BISHOP OF LINCOLN
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Above: My Copy of Isaiah 40-66: A Commentary (1969), October 10, 2018
Photographer = Kenneth Randolph Taylor
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CLAUS WESTERMANN (OCTOBER 7, 1909-JUNE 11, 2000)
German Lutheran Minister and Biblical Scholar
Claus Westermann comes to this, A Great Cloud of Witnesses: An Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days, via the Biblical Studies section of my library, which his volume, Isaiah 40-66 (1969), graces.
Westermann, born in Berlin, Germany, on October 7, 1909, was a son of Diedrich and Katharina Westermann, formerly missionaries to Africa. Our saint’s father had become a professor of African languages in Berlin by 1909.
Westermann became one of the major Old Testament scholars of the twentieth century. He, educated at the Universities of Tübingen and Marburg, served as pastor of a church in Berlin-Dahlem prior to World War II. Our saint, drafted into the German Army in 1940, served in Russia. He resumed advanced studies after the war. Westermann graduated from the University of Zurich with his doctorate in 1949; his dissertation was, “The Praise of God in the Psalms.” Our saint, from 1949 to 1952 the pastor of Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, Berlin, began to teach full-time in 1953. He joined the faculty of the University of Heidelberg in 1958. Our saint retired 20 years later. The student of Gerhard von Rad (1901-1971) wrote more than 70 published works.
Consider Isaiah 40-66 (1969), O reader.
Westermann, who accepted that there were three Isaiahs, acknowledged internal disagreements within chapters, as in Chapter 66. He identified discrepancies within 66:18-24: verses 18, 19, and 21 indicating a mission to the nations, and verses 20 and 22-24 emphasizing the primacy of worship in Jerusalem. The second section amended the first, our saint wrote. The presence of the two traditions, Westermann insisted,
made terribly clear that in the post-exilic period what people had to say about the way in which God was going to act upon Israel and upon the other nations lost all unanimity and took two different roads.
–Page 429
Westermann continued:
In the light of the New Testament our only course is to agree with the first, the one which proclaims the great missionary move out to the nations. This means, then, that we must be critical of vv. 20, 22ff. But over and above this, an Old Testament critic is bound to say that a theology which ordains one place of eternal annihilation for all God’s enemies along with the perpetuation of a worship restricted to one place is alien to the central core of the Old Testament. Here, in the interests of rendering absolute a worship that is tied to a place and in the counterpart which the verses give this, the avowal of God’s action in history and towards the people who are travelling onwards, the avowal of very foundation, is abandoned.
–Page 429
Thus ended that commentary.
Westermann, aged 90 years, died in Heidelberg on the Day of Pentecost, June 11, 2000. His wife, Anna, had predeceased him in 1991.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
OCTOBER 10, 2018 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF JOHANN NITSCHMANN, SR., MORAVIAN MISSIONARY AND BISHOP; DAVID NITSCHMANN, JR., THE SYNDIC, MORAVIAN MISSIONARY AND BISHOP; AND DAVID NITSCHMANN, THE MARTYR, MORAVIAN MISSIONARY AND MARTYR
THE FEAST OF CHRISTIAN LUDWIG BRAU, NORWEGIAN MORAVIAN TEACHER AND POET
THE FEAST OF EDWARD BENSON WHITE, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY
THE FEAST OF LOUIS FITZGERALD BENSON, U.S. PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER AND HYMNODIST
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O God, you have endowed us with memory, reason, and skill.
We thank you for the faithful legacy of [Claus Westermann and all others]
who have dedicated their lives to you and to the intellectual pursuits.
May we, like them, respect your gift of intelligence fully and to your glory.
In the Name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Deuteronomy 6:4-9
Psalm 103
Philippians 4:8-9
Mark 12:28-34
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
MARCH 6, 2013 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT CHRODEGANG OF METZ, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP
THE FEAST OF EDMUND KING, ANGLICAN BISHOP OF LINCOLN
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Above: My Copy of The New Oxford Annotated Bible, Revised Standard Version, October 10, 2018
Photographer = Kenneth Randolph Taylor
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HERBERT GORDON MAY (NOVEMBER 26, 1904-OCTOBER 7, 1977)
U.S. Biblical Scholar and Translator
Herbert G. May comes to this, A Great Cloud of Witnesses: An Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days, via The Interpreter’s Bible, for which he wrote the introduction to and the exegesis of Ezekiel in Volume VI (1956).
May was an influential scholar and translator of the Bible. He, born in Fair Haven, Vermont, on November 26, 1904, graduated from Wesleyan University (1927). After earning his B.D. degree from Chicago Theological Seminary in 1930, he went to work on his Ph.D. (The University of Chicago, 1934). May was Professor of Old Testament Language and Literature at Oberlin College (1934-1970) and Vanderbilt University (1966-1970). In retirement he taught at Yale Divinity School and continued to teach at Oberlin College. Our saint, one of the translators of the Revised Standard Version (New Testament, 1946; Old Testament, 1952; Apocrypha, 1957; RSV II, 1971), chaired the translation committee (1966-1974) and its Old Testament section (1960-1977). He also helped to edit the Oxford Bible Atlas (1962), The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible (1962), and The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha (1973, 1977).
Our saint, aged 72 years, died in Jacksonville, Florida, on October 7, 1977. His wife, Helen (February 8, 1902-November 3, 1977), died shortly thereafter.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
OCTOBER 10, 2018 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF JOHANN NITSCHMANN, SR., MORAVIAN MISSIONARY AND BISHOP; DAVID NITSCHMANN, JR., THE SYNDIC, MORAVIAN MISSIONARY AND BISHOP; AND DAVID NITSCHMANN, THE MARTYR, MORAVIAN MISSIONARY AND MARTYR
THE FEAST OF CHRISTIAN LUDWIG BRAU, NORWEGIAN MORAVIAN TEACHER AND POET
THE FEAST OF EDWARD BENSON WHITE, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY
THE FEAST OF LOUIS FITZGERALD BENSON, U.S. PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER AND HYMNODIST
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O God, you have endowed us with memory, reason, and skill.
We thank you for the faithful legacy of [Herbert G. May and all others]
who have dedicated their lives to you and to the intellectual pursuits.
May we, like them, respect your gift of intelligence fully and to your glory.
In the Name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Deuteronomy 6:4-9
Psalm 103
Philippians 4:8-9
Mark 12:28-34
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
MARCH 6, 2013 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT CHRODEGANG OF METZ, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP
THE FEAST OF EDMUND KING, ANGLICAN BISHOP OF LINCOLN
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Above: A Stamp Depicting the Death of Edith Cavell
Image in the Public Domain
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EDITH LOUISA CAVELL (DECEMBER 4, 1865-OCTOBER 12, 1915)
English Nurse and Martyr, 1915
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I can’t stop while there are lives to be saved.
–Edith Cavell
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Edith Cavell comes to this, my Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days, via The Church of England, where her feast day is October 12.
Cavell, born in Swardeston, Norfolk, England, on December 4, 1865, grew up to become a pioneering nurse and a martyr. Her father was a priest in The Church of England. Our saint grew up in a loving home and shared a pleasant childhood with her siblings. Cavell, a governess in Belgium (1890-1895), returned home and took care of her ailing father. Next she studied nursing in London (1896-1898) and became a nurse. After working in various hospitals, Cavell became the matron of the Berkendael Medical Institute, Brussels, Belgium, in 1907. She revolutionized the nursing profession in Belgium and trained other nurses.
Cavell might have led a longer life had she not returned to Belgium in 1914, after the outbreak of World War I. In the summer of 1914, when the Great War started, our saint was visiting relatives in Norfolk. She knew she had to return to Belgium and work as a nurse, given the need for her abilities there. Our saint, committed to saving lives, regardless of wartime politics, provided medical care to both Allied and Central Powers soldiers. Saving the lives of military personnel of the Central Powers scandalized many on the Allied side. On the other hand, when Cavell helped to smuggle more than 200 Allied soldiers out of German-occupied Belgium, she became a target for German military “justice.” Our saint, arrested for treason on August 3, 1915, and later convicted, died via firing squad on the morning of October 12, 1915. She was 49 years old.
On October 11, 1915, Cavell had told a visiting Anglican priest:
Standing as I do in view of God and eternity, I realize that patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone.
Yet the British Government counted on bitterness and hatred toward the German Empire for executing her. The British Government used her death as part of a military recruitment strategy.
Cavell’s story has become the basis of movies:
- Nurse and Martyr (1915),
- The Martyrdom of Nurse Cavell (1916),
- Nurse Cavell (1916),
- The Woman the Germans Shot (1918),
- Dawn (1928),
- Nurse Edith Cavell (1939), and
- Nurse Cavell (1948).
Cavell’s legacy stands for the propositions that human life is sacred, and that a state of war does not alter, minimize, or negate this reality. Nationalism and patriotism have their places, but when they dehumanize the “other,” they become morally destructive.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
OCTOBER 10, 2018 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF JOHANN NITSCHMANN, SR., MORAVIAN MISSIONARY AND BISHOP; DAVID NITSCHMANN, JR., THE SYNDIC, MORAVIAN MISSIONARY AND BISHOP; AND DAVID NITSCHMANN, THE MARTYR, MORAVIAN MISSIONARY AND MARTYR
THE FEAST OF CHRISTIAN LUDWIG BRAU, NORWEGIAN MORAVIAN TEACHER AND POET
THE FEAST OF EDWARD BENSON WHITE, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY
THE FEAST OF LOUIS FITZGERALD BENSON, U.S. PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER AND HYMNODIST
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Almighty and everlasting God, who kindled the flame of your love in the heart of your holy martyr Edith Cavell:
Grant to us, your humble servants, a like faith and power of love,
that we who rejoice in her triumph may profit by her example;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with
you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Jeremiah 15:15-21
Psalm 124 or 31:1-5
1 Peter 4:12-19
Mark 8:34-38
–Adapted from Holy Women, Holy Men: Celebrating the Saints (2010), 715
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Above: Cecil Frances Alexander
Image in the Public Domain
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CECIL FRANCES HUMPHREYS ALEXANDER (1818/1823-OCTOBER 12, 1895)
Irish Anglican Hymn Writer
Cecil Frances Alexander comes to this, A Great Cloud of Witnesses: An Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days, via hymnody, to which she contributed greatly. She wrote more than 400 hymns and poems (mostly for children), including “There is a Green Hill Far Away,” “Jesus Calls Us,” “All Things Bright and Beautiful,” “Once in Royal David’s City,” and “I Bind Unto Myself Today,” my favorite hymn.
Cecil Frances Humphreys, born in Miltown House, County Tyrone, Ireland, in 1818 or 1823, depending on the source one believes, was daughter of Major John Humphreys, of the Royal Marines. She demonstrated her literary abilities at a young age, and, in 1848, published her first volume of poetry. Two years later our saint married William Alexander (1824-1911), then the Anglican Rector of Termonamongan. He became the Bishop of Derby and Raphoe in 1867 then the Archbishop of Armagh (the primate of The Church of Ireland) in 1896, as a widower.
Our saint was a woman of her Victorian times. She pursued a literary career, for which she won acclaim. Her finest poem, according to reputation, was “The Burial of Moses,” which Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892), said he wished he had written. Our saint’s hymns and other poems, volumes of which she published, graced various Anglican hymnals of her time. She also devoted herself to the tasks of a parson’s wife. Furthermore, she was a philanthropist, caring actively for the poor and for “fallen women,” as well as supporting a school for deaf children in Londonderry financially.
Alexander died in Londonderry on October 12, 1895. Her legacy of hymnody has survived her, fortunately.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
OCTOBER 10, 2018 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF JOHANN NITSCHMANN, SR., MORAVIAN MISSIONARY AND BISHOP; DAVID NITSCHMANN, JR., THE SYNDIC, MORAVIAN MISSIONARY AND BISHOP; AND DAVID NITSCHMANN, THE MARTYR, MORAVIAN MISSIONARY AND MARTYR
THE FEAST OF CHRISTIAN LUDWIG BRAU, NORWEGIAN MORAVIAN TEACHER AND POET
THE FEAST OF EDWARD BENSON WHITE, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY
THE FEAST OF LOUIS FITZGERALD BENSON, U.S. PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER AND HYMNODIST
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Dear God of beauty,
you have granted literary ability and spiritual sensitivity to
Cecil Frances Alexander and others, who have composed hymn texts.
May we, as you guide us,
find worthy hymn texts to be icons,
through which we see you.
In the Name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Sirach/Ecclesiasticus 44:1-3a, 5-15
Psalm 147
Revelation 5:11-14
Luke 2:8-20
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
APRIL 20, 2013 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINTS AMATOR OF AUXERRE AND GERMANUS OF AUXERRE, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOPS; SAINT MAMERTINUS OF AUXERRE, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT; AND SAINT MARCIAN OF AUXERRE, ROMAN CATHOLIC MONK
THE FEAST OF JOHANNES BUGENHAGEN, GERMAN LUTHERAN PASTOR
THE FEAST OF SAINT MARCELLINUS OF EMBRUN, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP
THE FEAST OF OLAVUS AND LAURENTIUS PETRI, RENEWERS OF THE CHURCH
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Above: Alexander Hamilton, First Leader of the Federalist Party
Image in the Public Domain
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I am convinced that the United States of America has been in the Seventh Party System since or shortly before January 20, 1993. As a teacher of U.S. history on the college level, I think about various matters of the past, especially when students’ questions prompt me to do so.
First a brief review of the first six party systems is in order.
The First Party System was the Federalist-Jeffersonian Republican divide, with parties forming during George Washington’s administration. The national Federalist Party did not field a presidential candidate after 1816, but not all Federalists became Jeffersonians, some of whom had begun to sound like Federalists by that point.
The Second Party System grew up around Andrew Jackson in the 1820s. His supporters were Democrats, and his opponents merged into the Whig Party in the 1830s. Before that, however, they were National Republicans and Anti-Masons, the latter of which gave us the presidential nominating convention in 1831.
The Third Party System emerged in the middle 1850s, in the aftermath of the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854). The Whigs came apart, as did the Democrats to a lesser extent, and the Republican Party emerged with a platform which included opposition to the expansion of slavery but not support for immediate abolition of that damnable peculiar institution.
The Fourth Party System began after the 1896 general election, in which Republican William McKinley won a landslide victory. The Republicans controlled the presidency for all but eight years (the Woodrow Wilson Administration, 1913-1921) through the end of the Herbert Hoover Administration (1929-1933).
Franklin Delano Roosevelt inaugurated the Fifth Party System, during which the Democratic Party controlled the presidency for all but eight years (the Dwight Eisenhower Administration, 1953-1961). This system ran its course until the 1968 general election and the election of Richard Nixon, who employed the notorious “Southern Strategy.” Lyndon Baines Johnson was correct; he gave the South to the Republicans when he signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The Sixth Party System began with Nixon and ended with George H. W. Bush. Republicans controlled the presidency for all but four years. Jimmy Carter, the sole Democratic president (1977-1981) during this system, was hardly an FDR-LBJ social programs type.
The Seventh Party System, I am convinced, began with the Clinton Administration or during the campaign of 1992. This fact has become obvious to me only in hindsight. (Historical analysis does require the passage of time.) Here is my case:
- None of the presidential elections (1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, and 2016) has been a landslide, certainly not in the popular vote.
- Regardless of the identity of the President, about half of the population seems to hate his guts.
- A vocal proportion of that livid portion of the population entertains unfounded conspiracy theories. For the record, Vince Foster did commit suicide. Nobody murdered him, so there was no murder for the Clinton Administration to cover up. Also, the George W. Bush Administration was not complicit in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2011; a hospital in Honolulu, Hawaii, was the birthplace of Barack Obama in 1961; and Osama bin Ladin is dead. One can, however, find websites arguing against all these propositions. This means nothing conclusive; once I found the website of the Flat Earth Society.
- Vitriol, unvarnished hatred, and unapologetic indifference to objective reality has become increasingly politically acceptable. The abuses of power (and threats of them) commonplace in third world countries have entered mainstream political discourse in this country.
Also, for the record, Barack Obama is neither a Socialist nor a Communist. There are Socialist and Communist Parties in the United States, and they do not mistake him for one of their sympathizers.
It is long past time to lower the political temperature and retire over-the-top charges which distract from the serious issues of the day. We have a nation, one which has lasted for more than 200 years. Childish antics do not honor the highest ideals upon which our founders created the United States.
How should we, as citizens, respond when the lunatics take over the asylum? How should we respond when the temporary occupant of the Oval Office spews a combination of venom, rumors, and falsehoods casually, thereby degrading his office and the country, yet labels documented journalistic stories “fake news”? How should we respond when many of our fellow Americans, members of a cult of personality, affirm whatever Il Duce with bad hair utters and tweets? How should we respond to the American Il Duce‘s fondness for authoritarian leaders?
Donald Trump is a domestic threat to the United States. Trumpism is a domestic threat to the United States. We should recognize these truths and utilize the constitutional methods available to us to resist both.
I derive some comfort from the realities of demographic changes, which will usher in the Eighth Party System, as soon as more people of certain demographic categories vote in sufficient force consistently.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JULY 4, 2011 COMMON ERA
INDEPENDENCE DAY (U.S.A.)
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Updated on November 7 and 9, 2016
Updated October 9, 2018
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Above: Robert Grosseteste
Image in the Public Domain
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ROBERT GROSSETESTE (CIRCA 1168-OCTOBER 9, 1253)
English Roman Catholic Scholar, Philosopher, and Bishop of Lincoln
This project, A Great Cloud of Witnesses: An Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days, is an exercise in the Great Man (and Woman) School of History. I make no apology for this. Social History and Cultural History have their vital roles to fill in historical analysis, but I remain a devotee of the emphasis on the great people–those who have made their marks on the world.
Grosseteste, born circa 1168, was a Christian intellectual and a bishop. He, educated at Oxford and perhaps at Paris, also, taught at Oxford prior to 1209. Our saint, a priest, held various ecclesiastical position through 1232. He resigned all but one–Prebendary of Lincoln–that year. The former Chancellor of Oxford University (circa 1215-1221) taught at the Franciscan house of studies, Oxford, from 1224 to 1235. Then he became the Bishop of Lincoln.
Grosseteste had a fine mind. He, an Aristotelian with Neoplatonist influences, translated works of Aristotle and some ancient saints, wrote commentaries on the Bible and works of Aristotle. Our saint, whose life ended as the worst outbreak of the Black Death was ending and the Renaissance was about to begin, was an active encourager of the spread of knowledge–philosophy, science, mathematics, and the Bible. He accepted truth, as he recognized it, regardless of its source or manner of transmission.
Grosseteste, author of theological and devotional works, was a pious bishop who took his spiritual responsibilities seriously. He was a man of his time, for he affirmed the supremacy of the Church over the state. This opinion caused some political problems for him. Grosseteste also had political conflicts with various bishops and at least one Pope; our saint was an uncompromising critic and opponent of ecclesiastical corruption.
Grosseteste died in Buckdon, Buckinghamshire, England, on October 9, 1253.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
OCTOBER 9, 2018 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT DENIS, BISHOP OF PARIS, AND HIS COMPANIONS, ROMAN CATHOLIC MARTYRS
THE FEAST OF SAINT JOHN LEONARDI, FOUNDER OF THE CLERKS REGULAR OF THE MOTHER OF GOD OF LUCCA; AND SAINT JOSEPH CALASANCTIUS, FOUNDER OF THE CLERKS REGULAR OF RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS
THE FEAST OF ROBERT GROSSETESTE, ENGLISH ROMAN CATHOLIC SCHOLAR, PHILOSOPHER, AND BISHOP OF LINCOLN
THE FEAST OF WILFRED THOMASON GRENFELL, MEDICAL MISSIONARY TO NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR
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O God, you have endowed us with memory, reason, and skill.
We thank you for the faithful legacy of [Robert Grosseteste and all others]
who have dedicated their lives to you and to the intellectual pursuits.
May we, like them, respect your gift of intelligence fully and to your glory.
In the Name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Deuteronomy 6:4-9
Psalm 103
Philippians 4:8-9
Mark 12:28-34
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
MARCH 6, 2013 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT CHRODEGANG OF METZ, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP
THE FEAST OF EDMUND KING, ANGLICAN BISHOP OF LINCOLN
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SUNDRY THOUGHTS 
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