About This Website:
I will rarely comment on current events here. Instead, this site was originally intended to focus mainly on secularism as a cultural condition, rather than as an ideology; it will also pay some attention to the way that secularism foregrounds questions about meaning and value (when it strays from this purpose directly, I hope it can provide context for related matters at least indirectly). Since I am in the West, specifically an American, this means treating the dual heritage of the Enlightenment and of Christendom, but not myopically or sectarianly. This is not an apologetics website, as I am not interested in selling you anything, dear reader, only clarifying the contours of the historical space we all share. It is to that shared space that I turn my attention. In order to treat secularization, however, one must fittingly approach the significance and scope of de-Christianization, and before one does that, one must first look at the processes of Christianization.
I’ll be posting several papers, some much shorter topical pieces, and summaries of essays & book chapters. Poems have already appeared (though I’m an awful poet — the only two poems I’ve written that might meet the threshold of passable are here and here). On occasion, I may post parallel translations of sections of older texts.
My plan is to post on topics ranging from spiritual practice and poetry to the character and history of secularism — which, as mentioned above, is a backdrop that we all share and make our decisions within (rather than a perspective or set of convictions that one can opt out from).
About Me:
My family’s coat of arms is of a red rampant lion with a gold collar on a silver shield, together with the words PRO DEO ET PRO PATRIA; eventually a crest was added of a pelican feeding her three young with drops of her own blood, and added were the words, I DIE FOR THOSE I LOVE.
I can’t die for you, reader, but I’ll do what I can to leave some bits of food for you.
Links to Books:
I have recently joined the Amazon.com affiliate program, so if you buy books through the links I have provided in recent (and future) posts as of Feb or March 2019 or so, I’ll get a cut of Amazon’s profit, with no added expense to you.
As a descendant of the Stackpole Family, I love the motto. My Three Greats Grandmother was a Stackpole. I feel in essence this makes me one. My Mother, as am I, was very proud of our heritage. I can’t die for you either! I can, however, be proud to call you family! Deb.
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Welcome, family!
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Interesting motto
Jason
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Thank you. I am happy with it, as a heritage; it is both nourishing and challenging. Thank you, also, for the work you do on your site! I keep getting interrupted every time I try to make it to your post on Plotinus and Number. Delicious topic!
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As we draw ‘nearer the light, into the clarities come’ a new light of understanding and the ‘path of the just is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.’
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Looking forward to reading your work.
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Thank you! I have already been enjoying yours.
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Your coat of arms reflects the love of family. Which to me is only second to your Love of God.
Thanks for the visit…
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I always enjoy your work, Michael; my visits aren’t gifts, but pleasures. :-D
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Thank you for following Storyteller. — Ray
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Thank you for making Storyteller!
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very glad to meet you. love the subject matter, if in this format a bit above my head. i’ll be browsing around. thanks -J
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Welcome! I try to keep the content high-quality, so I don’t post with the kind of frequency I’d like. Love your site, BTW. Looking forward to more posts!
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thanks. really appreciated!
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A correction. John Bremer’s first wife did not die.
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Oh? I remember hearing from him that she did. If memory serves me, I’ve heard this by several. Would you care to say more?
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I believe that his first marriage was short, and that he and his first wife were divorced. His long marriage was to his second wife, the mother of his daughter Anne. He and his second wife moved to Australia. She became ill, and ultimately died of Lou Gehrig’s disease. I don’t believe they ever divorced, but they were estranged. He continued to spend extended time with her during her fatal illness. Several years later he married his third wife. I am sorry to learn of John’s passing.
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I have just discovered on a recent weekend that who I thought was his first wife was, in fact, not his first, but second. Will update that post soon.
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Thank you for bringing it to my attention!
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I’ll just leave this here…
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Welcome!
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Gregory,
Given that we sometimes publish on similar subjects, I would like to propose that we do a “diologue”, which I (or both of us) can publish later on our respective blogs. A while back, me and a Catholic blogger did something similar:
https://theologyandjustice.wordpress.com/2015/11/28/me-and-a-catholic-talk-scripture-and-tradition-part-1/
https://theologyandjustice.wordpress.com/2015/12/03/me-and-a-catholic-talk-scripture-and-tradition-part-2/
https://theologyandjustice.wordpress.com/2015/12/09/me-and-a-catholic-talk-scripture-and-tradition-part-3/
If this is something you’d be interested in doing, hit me up, go to my blog, to the contact page, and get in touch :).
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Sounds fun!
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I didn’t find any contact page on your website, but if you want to do something like that :
https://theologyandjustice.wordpress.com/contact/
Is where you can get in touch with me and we’ll work it out :).
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Thank you Gregory
For your support and encouragement
As always Sheldon
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You are loved, Sheldon.
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Thank you for the thoughtful consideration of my grandfather, Walter Ullmann.
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I am honored that you would even comment. I feel haunted by him in a good way, and, going through his writings slowly, feel that he has been unjustly set aside. The peculiar positions he held, and upon which he was attacked, have more merit than his critics are able to give them while being critical; it is also nearly certain that his students and critics would not have found the stature of mind to criticize him without his tutelage.
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Also, if there are any memories you have of him in the domains of relationships, scholarly pursuits, the vocation of teaching, religious counsel, ethical advice, or political exhortation (or warning), I’d be enthused beyond speech.
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Pingback: …and to All a Good Night? | Into the Clarities
I just found your web site. It’s great! You can visit mine at marshallbutcharmstrong.com. My great grandmother was a Stackpole!
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Neat! Thank you, and welcome! I’ll be sure to check out your site. :-) Where was your grandmother from?
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My great grandmother was Ann Elizabeth Stackpole, b 7/24/1885 in Ellenburg, Clinton, NY. Her father was, Paul Stackpole, b, 1836, New Hampshire.
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Very neat — I’ve just sent out some emails to family to see how the relation holds. We’re Bostonians, so NH and NY aren’t all that far. :-)
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I’m on Ancestry.com and have traced the Stackpoles to Ireland back as far as the 1500’s. It’s originally a Welsh name from Stackpole, Pembrokeshire, Wales.
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This I know. What is not clear to me is how it ended up in Ireland from Wales. I don’t know how common the name is in either place.
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The first Stackpole, I am told, is Elidor of Pembrokeshire, who fought with King Richard in the crusades. My understanding is that he was given Stackpole keep –if memory serves that’s from “stag pool”, or “craggy inlet”, which (as I understand) was originally a resuppluing station for the Normans as they were, say, ‘touring’ the British Isles.
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That’s interesting. There has been many migrations for as many reasons I guess. There are Scottish, English, and Irish Armstrongs. I can’t trace my Armstrong’s out of New York. It’s frustrating but I’ve had good luck with other branches of my family.
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That makes sense, Marshall; the welter of possibilities makes nailing things down forensically very difficult in the absence of clear evidence regarding reasons.
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