Ivanhoe is set during the reign of King Richard I. The friction between the Normans and the Saxons has not yet ended. The Saxons feel oppressed, and the Normans feel superior. This conflict between the two ethnic classes divides the characters into two opposing factions, and the novel’s sympathies are aligned with the Saxons.
Sir Walter Scott’s novel, Ivanhoe, stirs the imagination with its villains and heroes, its knights and castles, and its love and hate. Written in the early nineteenth century and set in England at the time of the Third Crusade, Ivanhoe was a literary success. In spite of its classification as a historical novel, its history is inexact. |
On Popes and Cardinal Pecksniffs
Seeing the world through the lens of Charles Dickens is quite conducive to sanity. In almost every circumstance of life, there is an event or character from his books that can serve as a clarifying parallel. The characters he created seem to be caricatures rather than real people, but it is this very exaggeration of faults and virtues which provides a touchstone by which to judge the world in which we live. One such Dickensian character is that of Pecksniff from Martin Chuzzlewitt.
|
The Death Knell of Pluralism
During the week before Christmas, two ISIS attacks made international news: the assignation of the Russian ambassador and the Belgium attack in a Christmas shopping center. Regarding the Belgium attack, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that it would be a tragedy if the attack was carried out by a Syrian refugee. (Well, she can rest easy – it wasn’t a Syrian refugee, but a Tunisian Muslim immigrant.) And in the modern PC mindset, she is right. However, the real tragedy is the modern approach to religious liberty.
|
Impressionism - A Commentery of Modernism in the Church
The nineteenth century was a pivotal point in European history. The continent revolted against the last vestiges of Christendom. This political revolution began in 1789 and ended with the conclusion of World War I in 1917. Between these two dates, new thoughts and principles were violently enforced on the body politic of Europe. Monarchs were overthrown; bloody riots occurred in all of the major European cities; modern philosophy overthrew man’s connection to reality; Liberalism and Modernism infected the Church.