“I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary but slinks out of the race, where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat.”
–John Milton, Areopagitica
The idea for this blog occurred to me as I sat in the library for the first of many days spent studying for the comprehensive exams that marked the half-way point through my doctoral program. First of all I wanted a place to write about the process, a place to organize thoughts and information from the books that I read everyday. That didn’t really happen. But this, at any rate, seemed too small a goal for something as egotistical as a blog. So…
My interests have always run in two grooves. My desire to know man, and myself, has gotten me where I am today–studying for a doctorate in history. My desire to know God has in turn made me what I am today–a Christian, and an admirer of orthodoxy in several forms.
Clio, the muse of heroic poets and history, represents the knowledge of man. History is only one in a whole array of disciplines that study man in his various capacities, but it is one of a special group that operate under the assumption that man is best explained and understood through narrative. Historians don’t always agreee about this, but for myself the narrative form of history is the source of its ability to explain us to ourselves. Blogs are really products of this same impulse: people want to tell the “story” of something, mostly themselves.
John Calvin, as many will have already pointed out to themselves, is not a muse. He is not mythical, and was not particularly attached to the narrative style. To me, he represents a clear example of man’s search to know God, and to know him deeply. He is only one of many I could have chosen, but “Clio and Augustine” doesn’t alliterate as nicely.
The knowledge of man and the knowledge of God together occupy most of the endeavors that men make in the name of knowing. The material on this site could thus be as narrow as the subjects of history and theology, or it could be…just about anything. Life is too rich and ridiculous not to write about it, so read on.
