Though I write with the voice of an angel, and have not love, I am become as a forgotten word in a dying language.
And though I have the gift of enchanting language, and can unravel all mysteries, and absorb all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could change the world by sharing my ideas, and have not love, I am nothing. And though I give a portion of my royalties to feed the poor, and though I put my reputation on the line for the Truth, and have not love, it profits me nothing. Love suffers rejection, and is faithful. Love doesn’t envy the success of others. Love isn’t prideful about accomplishments. Love isn’t puffed up. Love isn’t self-focused, doesn’t seek favor, is not oversensitive to criticism, is not easily threatened. Love rejoices at the success of others. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails: but where there be prophetic writings, they will fail; Where there be inspired messages, they will cease; where there be magnificent stories, they will vanish away. For we understand in part, and we write in part. But when perfection arrives, then my scraps of writing will be washed away. When I was a child, I wrote as a child, I understood as a child, I reasoned as a child; but when I became an adult, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I am known in part, but then I will be known fully. And now I must write faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
My latest greatest read was called Out of the Flames, subtitled "The Remarkable Story of a
Fearless Scholar, a Fatal Heresy, and One of the Rarest Books in the
World." This book is partly a biography of the fascinating life of the
Spaniard Michael Servetus, partly a discussion of the 16th century religious
mindset, and partly the journey of a solitary book.
One of my favorite quotes was, "History is an ocean
that books help us to navigate." Out
of the Flames navigates the 16th Century world of publishing, bestsellers,
heresies, and the intellectual prison that was the life of thousands until men
like Luther, Calvin, and Servetus broke away.
Servetus had an elite education and language proficiency
galore. He read Hebrew, Greek, and vulgate Latin in addition to his native
Spanish. This wasn’t just unusual, it was illegal. Those languages were
strategic in allowing him to study the original Bible in its entirety, as well
as the modern day translations. He found discrepancies between the two, and in
his drive to broadcast his ideas, he made himself a heretic to both Catholics
and Protestants. Servetus wrote and published his interpretation of the Godhead
and other ideas in Christianismi Restitutio
and several other books. His intent was to understand the original meaning
of the Bible.
Even though it is written without religious intent, Out of the Flames brings up countless discussion points for the modern Christian. Servetus
was the epitome of a radical thinker. He was a pioneering medical genius, and
managed to outthink centuries of stagnant medical tradition. In the same way, Servetus’
spiritual ideas also contradicted the collective consensus of established
religion. He was a heretic of heretics. Thankfully, modern Christians don't
kill each other over theological disagreements. However, modern Christians can still be found defending
tradition and consensus rather than study the very Word they claim to follow.
Doing basic internet reading, I've seen a lot of conflicting
details about Servetus' death. Modern Calvinists minimize the awfulness of Calvin’s
actions because killing heretics was the way of the “church” then. In this book
Calvin's role in Servetus’ death is not glossed over, nor is it presented as
controversial. It seems the documentation speaks for itself. Whatever your
opinion, the brutal facts are provoking. No one denies he was burned at the
stake with his book Christianismi
Restitutio chained to him. It's recorded that he died slowly, screaming, in
terrible agony for thirty minutes.
Of course a story like this arrests your attention. I couldn't help being thankful for how ridiculously easy it is to read an honest
translation of the Bible in my native language. Goldstone doesn’t make a connection
with modern non-Trinitarian Christians, though many would find a special interest in this story. He does explain Servetus’ lasting influence
over Unitarian groups. He may not be famous by U.S. standards, but he is well-remembered
in Europe.
The last third of Out of
the Flames is the story of the unlikely survival of the first printing of the book Christianismi
Restitutio. Like the one that was chained to Servetus, most other copies were
burned as heresy. Only three original copies exist today, and those were
preserved haphazardly for hundreds of years. Finally, they all rest safely at
the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek in Vienna, the Bibliothèque National in
Paris, and the library of the University of Edinburgh. And oh the joy. The U. of Edinburgh has images online now! Simply beautiful.
And lastly, here is a first. I've made a YouTube video about Servetus for a school assignment, and I ended up using Out of the Flames as my main source.
I got inspired to run a section of my previous blog entry on Lincoln through a web translator. Twice. Yes - these are MY words double-translated on Babelfish. I see a brilliant future for myself in manual translation work. But for now, this is too hilarious!
Lincoln wrote three autobiographies to request. " After it was twenty-three and he had himself separated of his father, it studied the English grammar--imperfect, by all means, but to speak and to write as well as he now does." Those are the their words, speaking in the third person. One of autobiographies becomes fragments and hardly contains 47 words. The other two are a length small piece more, and add for above to less than 4,000 words--shorter than a basic test; you can read the three works in near ten minutes. Lincoln' the tone of s is effective, humble and minimisado. He doesn' t is discriminated, although his father was tremendous man, and the family was poor of the dirt. If Lincoln' the history of s had happened during the memory-saturated market present of the book, he could easily have produced to bestseller cheesy.
