Western Roots All Mixed Up

[Ed Hurst]

There's a rather famous blogger who goes by the handle of Bionic Mosquito. His stuff shows up on lots of sites tilted toward political libertarianism. As you might expect, this means he is a stout defender of Western Civilization and all that goes with that. More, he clearly knows exactly how the West came to be and applauds the compromise the Church made to attract the invading Germanic hordes.

In one article, he reviews a book: The Germanization of Early Medieval Christianity: A Sociohistorical Approach to Religious Transformation.

Why is this topic of interest to me?  As you know, I point to the period of the European Middle Ages and the decentralized law and society of the time as perhaps the closest and longest lasting example of something approaching a libertarian society that I have found.  Fundamental characteristics of the society include its Christianity.

In other words, libertarian political theory is so important to him that the perversion of Christian theology is worth it. He's on the verge of the Ruckmanite position that Germanic mythology corrects the gospel. In the process, our Bionic Mosquito mixes things up. He opines that feudalism wasn't inherent in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. It's as if such writers are refusing to recognize that Hebrew society was feudal, and that God's revelation was also feudal.

[IainH]

I believe just about every "ism" and what not, in the west, has been layered over the Christian religion. It was the SOP of the Roman Catholic Church to rename pagan gods as saints. One of the top head, Mars, generally thought of as the Roman god of war, originally he was the guardian of wheat fields. He became St Martin or St Martin of the fields. The shrines were kept but, now as places to pray to St Martin to intercede in granting a good harvest. Yep, they did the same thing with Germanic gods. Syncretism! That's the word I was pickin my sorry memory for. At one time, I read the writings of the Reformers and they excoriated the RC's for syncretism and a whole barnload of others. Curiously left out was the "Volkifying" of their religion, possibly because they were Fritzes themselves? There's mo but, I is tired so Gute nacht, bruder und schwestern.

[jaybreak]

He opines that feudalism wasn't inherent in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. It's as if such writers are refusing to recognize that Hebrew society was feudal, and that God's revelation was also feudal.

Do you think this error is just a matter of language? ANE feudalism isn't explicit in scripture, though it's demonstrated in not so many words throughout. Scholars would be aware of it, but someone like BM may not be.

EDIT: I mean "Biblical scholar" when I said "scholar." BM seems to be an academic but I don't know if Biblical history or the like is his expertise.

[Ed Hurst]

Perhaps it will help if I provide some background. This thing has a history of its own and I saw some of it up-close and personal. I'll oversimplify to avoid having it take too long.

Western academic biblical studies is not all one thing. There is a small core of secular/Jewish academics who have little to do with the politics that dominates everything. They are allied to a much larger group of church-related "liberal" Christians who are almost as academic, but it is expressed in a distinct social and political liberalism. Sometimes their conclusions are quite visibly liberal, too, but the research doesn't demand such answers. These folks are the PhD track in seminaries, gearing up to become researchers and professors. The effect is only partially dampened in seminaries owned by conservative denominations.

There is another group of Divinity (ThD) track that is truly massive in size, dominated by political and social conservatives. This is more of a professional track versus academic; these are guys planning to be pastors and such. Even when exposed to liberal professors, they tend to react with varying degrees of scorn, clinging to a conservative brand of academics. They have their own vast lore of conservative scholarship that they insist is equal in academic rigor (but it isn't). They never quite understood the mindset of the Hebrew people, and seldom studied wider ANE history and literature.

When I was at Oklahoma Baptist University in the mid-1970s, there was a raging fire of debate typically referred to as the Infallibility Controversy (as in, "The Bible is the verbally inspired, infallible Word of God"). It splashed big on our little campus in Shawnee, OK. Okie Southern Baptists are almost uniformly conservative to the point of fundamentalism. Our professors were mostly "neo-orthodox" -- influenced but not quite owned by German higher critical theories of Bible analysis. It was a pretense to strong academic study, but with a predetermined goal of thinly veiled communist revisionism. This controversy didn't end so much as fade away. Too many of the neo-orthodox theories were thoroughly debunked, and those professors retired or died off. The newer generation of professors and students are both more liberal in social outlook, yet more conservative in theology.

But there remains a very heavy residue of conservative/fundie evangelical theology out there still fighting that old battle. You'll find it in the libertarian political movement, which stands firmly on the classical Enlightenment model of morals. Even Catholic libertarians tend to be highly influenced by this conservative outlook that filters their reading in Church History and Bible History. If they have any clues about the Hebrew people, they insist that God was forced to deal with feudalism because that's where His Chosen Nation was at the time. However, it was only so long as it took for God to reveal His divine preference for libertarian politics, doncha know? This belongs to a much wider, only secretly acknowledged, Germanic culture defense. Not the regimented socialism of the Nazis, but the old romanticism of the German Volkism.

To this day, almost nobody in academia takes seriously the notion that God built ANE feudalism as His choice. That's because nobody in academia takes seriously the heart-led approach to understanding the Bible within ANE History.

[IainH]

He opines that feudalism wasn't inherent in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. It's as if such writers are refusing to recognize that Hebrew society was feudal, and that God's revelation was also feudal.

Do you think this error is just a matter of language? ANE feudalism isn't explicit in scripture, though it's demonstrated in not so many words throughout. Scholars would be aware of it, but someone like BM may not be.

EDIT: I mean "Biblical scholar" when I said "scholar." BM seems to be an academic but I don't know if Biblical history or the like is his expertise.

After perusing his blog, I can think of something else that fits the initials BM, the Japanese used to use it as fertilizer until modern chemical fertilizer improved the smell of their farmland.
I used to hold the same political views, even carrying my Cato Institute pocket us constitution everywhere I went back in the nineties. After the Clinton impeachment debacle, I realized that as long as people had their "bread & circuses", they didn't care.

[IainH]

"To this day, almost nobody in academia takes seriously the notion that God built ANE feudalism as His choice." 
           
      Christian academia never will. Inasmuch as they do examine ANE feudalism, it's merely as a historical anomaly, a curiosity when viewed through the lens of God's ultimate system of human enlightenment, Western Rationalism, where all debate is basically built on the foundation of Aristotle's Rhetoric. I used to enjoy watching Apologist vs Atheist debates such as; 

"DEBATOMANIA IV!!!! Dr John Lennox takes on Richard Dawkins! A No Holds Barred Polite Conversation!" 
 
  At some point, during one of these debates it occurred to me "wait a minute, nobody's changing their mind. The little Irish dude has his feet chained to cinder blocks and is hanging by his fingertips before they even start!" There is no possibility of proof within a system that denies mysticism to begin with. Additionally, there is no possibility of debate, frank discussion or even a casual chat on living a heart-led life with a person who cannot envision anything above the human mind and their own self interest. When I find myself in that position, I back off and change the subject, if possible onto something we can agree on. 
     There is available online, translations of cuneiform tablets, which one can read as source material and insight into ANE, everything from the profound to the mundane. There is not a single book out there, that I'm aware of, that attempts to paint a portrait of life in the ANE from the perspective of one who actually lived in it. 
    I did find one helpful book called "A course in Biblical Mysticism" by a guy named Ed Hurst, who according to my sources, is the captain of a tramp steamer currently plying trade in Micronesia*, now this book was above my brain grade but, somewhere on my third consecutive reading, the low wattage bulb in my head got a little brighter as it hit me "whoa...this is like a guide to what I've been trying to do". The best part was knowing I was no longer alone.
    Our ultimate source of truth on ANE feudalism is, Scripture itself. Reading God's word, prayerfully through the heart will open up a whole new world for anyone who checks their mind at the door, allowing the Holy Spirit to guide in all Truth, the person of Jesus Christ the Lord. Amen.




*I cannot vouch as to veracity of this tidbit of information but, the source also said he is restoring a 1962 Zagreb Kommisar, a Hungarian car which according to the Hungarian Peoples Collective for the Manufacture of Automobile Type Vehicles 1962 manual had an amazing fuel economy of 20 hectares on a thimble of kerosene. 
PS. I confess, I confess, I'm the source, I'm ripping off Clive Cussler, oh Lord please why do I write such twaddle. See rule one.



PPS. Rule One. Do not take yourself too seriously.

[Ed Hurst]

Rule One. Do not take yourself too seriously.

If you miss that rule, none of the other rules make any sense at all.

There is some resemblance between what I do and tramp steamer work. The latter is akin to an "irregular route carrier" in the trucking industry, where I once worked (dock dummy, AKA "freight handler"). I'm pretty much on the irregular academic path carrying ideas nobody else wants.

[IainH]

Rule One. Do not take yourself too seriously.

If you miss that rule, none of the other rules make any sense at all.

There is some resemblance between what I do and tramp steamer work. The latter is akin to an "irregular route carrier" in the trucking industry, where I once worked (dock dummy, AKA "freight handler"). I'm pretty much on the irregular academic path carrying ideas nobody else wants.

Hey, you got it! I was just going to say I read & recommend your books, then something came over me and I  wound up with a cute little parabolic description. Instead of quitting while I was ahead, I had to take it waaaay out there with my own personal inside joke about commie cars.

[Ed Hurst]

The joke about the Zagreb was funny enough; I'm actually nursing two socialist cars. Volvo and VW are both from socialist paradises. It's a good thing parts are made all over the world, as Sweden and Germany are being overrun by government-sponsored foreign invasions.

[IainH]

The joke about the Zagreb was funny enough; I'm actually nursing two socialist cars. Volvo and VW are both from socialist paradises. It's a good thing parts are made all over the world, as Sweden and Germany are being overrun by government-sponsored foreign invasions.

There was a guy on the of the block, when we in the UK, a card carrying Commie which, wasn't uncommon in Scotland, a very lefty un"paradise". Anyway, the dude bought a Moskvich, made in the USSR unlike many soviet vehicles, it was complete Russian design. A lot eastern block cars built on designs originating in the west. Renault, Volvo and Opel. From what I remember, it was a good car, very basic but rugged and reliable. It did have the brand name on the front fender in a squared style Cyrillic script which I remember thinking was kinda cool.