I enjoyed learning what iconoclastic really means. And this quote of yours “History isn’t static. It always demands reinvestigation, reinterpretation, and reinterrogation.” Oh that we had better history lessons for our schools. Thank you Diana for sharing your wisdom with us.
Any image or monument that human beings construct may appeal to some people as true, and to others as false. But none of them are ever REAL. I think this might be one reason why the making of images is forbidden in both Judaism and Islam. Also images and monuments are just one of the many ways we glorify war, which is surely one of the baser instincts of human nature. And, of course, just one of the many ways people can glorify and separate themselves from one another.. Just one more thing (as if we needed one more thing!) to fight over. So far, there is no end to human vanity. And no end to human strife. Stay tuned for 15 minutes, and you can hear what other B. S. (belief system) we will fight with one another about.
My Reformed theology prof was on the team that wrote the Presbyterian Church (USA) Brief Statement of Faith. In a section about the Holy Spirit there's a line about idolatry, and I remember him telling us that he advocated language saying the Holy Spirit gives us courage to "...smash the idolatries of Church and culture." Apparently that rankled the prim and proper Presbyterians, so to this day we merely "unmask" the idols. True to form...
Diana, Thank you for your essay. Reading it brought back memories of visiting family in Franklin, TN. It is a lovely southern historic town... yes, it also has the (obligatory?) monument to the Confederate War Dead... but, in addition to its charm, it has a conscience. In the center of town, in front of the Court House, standing on a low pedestal is a fairly recent statue that aims to tell the more complete story. I think Franklin set a remarkable example for all of us. Next time you're in the Nashville area drive a few miles south to Franklin and visit the downtown area. Here's the link I used to find the images and story. https://williamsonsource.com/hundreds-come-downtown-franklin-usct-statue-unveiling/
This is indirect ro the iconoclasm question. As of today the Louisiana supreme court decided to require the ten commandments to be in every classroom. What does this say to the role of Christian nationalism?
They don't want gays in their congregations, nor trans people of any kind. They don't want women for their pastors. They don't want any questioning of longheld doctrines like "eternal hellfire" or any other claims to 'biblical inerrancy.'
But they want us all to belong to congregations they favor. They want us in their pews every Sunday. And they're willing to pass laws requiring our attendance in front of preachers who will tell us what they want us to hear and believe.
And they want to be sure that no alternatives are available: no opting out, no joining congregations that welcome all comers, no personal interactions with god as we understand that divine dimension to our lives. They above all need to stop people from pulling out of church for whatever reasons they may have.
So get ready for that phone call. They're going to tell you which church of their choice you're required to report to this next Sunday and every Sunday thereafter.
They're ready and can't hardly wait to get started.
A Great Disorder: National Myth and the Battle for America
I would love to hear your thoughts.
He discusses the Myths we have created about the history of our country: the Myth of the Founding, the West, the Lost Cause, the Emancipation, the Great War and the Movement .
He posits the Civil war was a culture war, and we are still fighting a culture war over different versions of our history.
I thought of you and your work as I finished reading it.
Thank you for your thought-provoking essay. I too was a history major, and I remember my Historiography class; learning that written history always reflects the views and biases of the writer. Which sources survive and which don't? Whose voices are silent? There are always choices made about what to include and what to leave out. We only have a small glance at the vast expanse of the past, and sometimes what's written down is wrong. My dad was from Yorkshire, so I always think about how the Tudor version of history carried the day when the story of Richard III was told.
As someone raised in Nashville, Tennessee, I have also wondered about the Confederate statues. I am in my 70s and grew up during the 100th anniversary of the civil war. My public school was all white, and our history teachers were mostly coaches of the sports teams. The public schools were mainly generic unless you attended an elite private school. My peers and I never had a historical perspective on these monuments.
I attended Martin Jr. College(Methodist) in Pulaski, TN, the birthplace of the KKK. Pulaski, also has a statue of Sam Davis in the town square, a young Confederate spy who was hung during the war. There is also a Sam Davis Museum, which looked like a closet in an old section of town. I was curious about only where they are located.
I was visiting a daughter in Metairie, LA, when Mitch Landrieu started removing and talking about the Confederate Statues. It was controversial, and it was mentioned that they belonged in a museum. My thoughts changed when Mitch mentioned that they were put up in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Monuments are supposed to represent something notable, these are not! Some are works of art, and other monuments have little or no meaning to the average southerners. I asked my high school friends their opinions.
In summary, I discovered that many monuments have an unpalatable back story. These monuments probably should be in a museum to emphasize the negative storied past as an example. What scared people was that history was being rewritten, but the monuments were rewriting history itself. As a retired IT professional, people despise change. As Hegel said:
"The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history."
As someone raised in Nashville, Tennessee, I have also wondered about the Confederate statues. I am in my 70s and grew up during the 100th anniversary of the civil war. My public school was all white, and our history teachers were mostly coaches of the sports teams. The public schools were mainly generic unless you attended an elite private school. My peers and I never had a historical perspective on these monuments.
I attended Martin Jr. College(Methodist) in Pulaski, TN, the birthplace of the KKK. Pulaski, also has a statue of Sam Davis in the town square, a young Confederate spy who was hung during the war. There is also a Sam Davis Museum, which looked like a closet in an old section of town. I was curious about only where they are located.
I was visiting a daughter in Metairie, LA, when Mitch Landrieu started removing and talking about the Confederate Statues. It was controversial, and it was mentioned that they belonged in a museum. My thoughts changed when Mitch mentioned that they were put up in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Monuments are supposed to represent something notable, these are not! Some are works of art, and other monuments have little or no meaning to the average southerners. I asked my high school friends their opinions.
In summary, I discovered that many monuments have an unpalatable back story. These monuments probably should be in a museum to emphasize the negative storied past as an example. What scared people was that history was being rewritten, but the monuments were rewriting history itself. As a retired IT professional, people despise change. As Hegel said:
"The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history."
What about when the physical church/literal alter are placed on stolen land? Read Our Trespasses by Greg Jarrell to learn more about urban renewal and ‘the church’.
I would like to know how the theses sent to Albrecht were translated and publicly distributed. Were copies sent to printers? Odd, since they were supposed to be proposals for debate among academics . . . or is that a myth, too?
I would like to see a statue showing union and confederate soldiers locked in realistic hand to hand or bayonet stabbing combat . . . and in close proximity a scene from Appomattox of soldiers permitted to keep their horses while receiving a distribution of rations from union soldiers . . . and freed slaves, some with visible evidence of physical punishment . . . and faintly in the background, hooded riders approaching. Complicated, but it would say a lot about that war and its aftermath of failure.
I appreciate this post. Thank you.
I enjoyed learning what iconoclastic really means. And this quote of yours “History isn’t static. It always demands reinvestigation, reinterpretation, and reinterrogation.” Oh that we had better history lessons for our schools. Thank you Diana for sharing your wisdom with us.
Any image or monument that human beings construct may appeal to some people as true, and to others as false. But none of them are ever REAL. I think this might be one reason why the making of images is forbidden in both Judaism and Islam. Also images and monuments are just one of the many ways we glorify war, which is surely one of the baser instincts of human nature. And, of course, just one of the many ways people can glorify and separate themselves from one another.. Just one more thing (as if we needed one more thing!) to fight over. So far, there is no end to human vanity. And no end to human strife. Stay tuned for 15 minutes, and you can hear what other B. S. (belief system) we will fight with one another about.
My Reformed theology prof was on the team that wrote the Presbyterian Church (USA) Brief Statement of Faith. In a section about the Holy Spirit there's a line about idolatry, and I remember him telling us that he advocated language saying the Holy Spirit gives us courage to "...smash the idolatries of Church and culture." Apparently that rankled the prim and proper Presbyterians, so to this day we merely "unmask" the idols. True to form...
Diana, Thank you for your essay. Reading it brought back memories of visiting family in Franklin, TN. It is a lovely southern historic town... yes, it also has the (obligatory?) monument to the Confederate War Dead... but, in addition to its charm, it has a conscience. In the center of town, in front of the Court House, standing on a low pedestal is a fairly recent statue that aims to tell the more complete story. I think Franklin set a remarkable example for all of us. Next time you're in the Nashville area drive a few miles south to Franklin and visit the downtown area. Here's the link I used to find the images and story. https://williamsonsource.com/hundreds-come-downtown-franklin-usct-statue-unveiling/
This is indirect ro the iconoclasm question. As of today the Louisiana supreme court decided to require the ten commandments to be in every classroom. What does this say to the role of Christian nationalism?
They don't want gays in their congregations, nor trans people of any kind. They don't want women for their pastors. They don't want any questioning of longheld doctrines like "eternal hellfire" or any other claims to 'biblical inerrancy.'
But they want us all to belong to congregations they favor. They want us in their pews every Sunday. And they're willing to pass laws requiring our attendance in front of preachers who will tell us what they want us to hear and believe.
And they want to be sure that no alternatives are available: no opting out, no joining congregations that welcome all comers, no personal interactions with god as we understand that divine dimension to our lives. They above all need to stop people from pulling out of church for whatever reasons they may have.
So get ready for that phone call. They're going to tell you which church of their choice you're required to report to this next Sunday and every Sunday thereafter.
They're ready and can't hardly wait to get started.
Thank you Diana
I just recently read Richard Slotkin’s work:
A Great Disorder: National Myth and the Battle for America
I would love to hear your thoughts.
He discusses the Myths we have created about the history of our country: the Myth of the Founding, the West, the Lost Cause, the Emancipation, the Great War and the Movement .
He posits the Civil war was a culture war, and we are still fighting a culture war over different versions of our history.
I thought of you and your work as I finished reading it.
Thank you for your thought-provoking essay. I too was a history major, and I remember my Historiography class; learning that written history always reflects the views and biases of the writer. Which sources survive and which don't? Whose voices are silent? There are always choices made about what to include and what to leave out. We only have a small glance at the vast expanse of the past, and sometimes what's written down is wrong. My dad was from Yorkshire, so I always think about how the Tudor version of history carried the day when the story of Richard III was told.
Empty altars.
A quotable quote.
As someone raised in Nashville, Tennessee, I have also wondered about the Confederate statues. I am in my 70s and grew up during the 100th anniversary of the civil war. My public school was all white, and our history teachers were mostly coaches of the sports teams. The public schools were mainly generic unless you attended an elite private school. My peers and I never had a historical perspective on these monuments.
I attended Martin Jr. College(Methodist) in Pulaski, TN, the birthplace of the KKK. Pulaski, also has a statue of Sam Davis in the town square, a young Confederate spy who was hung during the war. There is also a Sam Davis Museum, which looked like a closet in an old section of town. I was curious about only where they are located.
I was visiting a daughter in Metairie, LA, when Mitch Landrieu started removing and talking about the Confederate Statues. It was controversial, and it was mentioned that they belonged in a museum. My thoughts changed when Mitch mentioned that they were put up in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Monuments are supposed to represent something notable, these are not! Some are works of art, and other monuments have little or no meaning to the average southerners. I asked my high school friends their opinions.
In summary, I discovered that many monuments have an unpalatable back story. These monuments probably should be in a museum to emphasize the negative storied past as an example. What scared people was that history was being rewritten, but the monuments were rewriting history itself. As a retired IT professional, people despise change. As Hegel said:
"The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history."
Let's learn from this.
As someone raised in Nashville, Tennessee, I have also wondered about the Confederate statues. I am in my 70s and grew up during the 100th anniversary of the civil war. My public school was all white, and our history teachers were mostly coaches of the sports teams. The public schools were mainly generic unless you attended an elite private school. My peers and I never had a historical perspective on these monuments.
I attended Martin Jr. College(Methodist) in Pulaski, TN, the birthplace of the KKK. Pulaski, also has a statue of Sam Davis in the town square, a young Confederate spy who was hung during the war. There is also a Sam Davis Museum, which looked like a closet in an old section of town. I was curious about only where they are located.
I was visiting a daughter in Metairie, LA, when Mitch Landrieu started removing and talking about the Confederate Statues. It was controversial, and it was mentioned that they belonged in a museum. My thoughts changed when Mitch mentioned that they were put up in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Monuments are supposed to represent something notable, these are not! Some are works of art, and other monuments have little or no meaning to the average southerners. I asked my high school friends their opinions.
In summary, I discovered that many monuments have an unpalatable back story. These monuments probably should be in a museum to emphasize the negative storied past as an example. What scared people was that history was being rewritten, but the monuments were rewriting history itself. As a retired IT professional, people despise change. As Hegel said:
"The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history."
Let's learn from this.
Diana: I forwarded this email to Ty Seidue who work a book about " Robert E Lee and Me: A southerner's reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause."
Excellent email today as always.
Sharye Skinner
What about when the physical church/literal alter are placed on stolen land? Read Our Trespasses by Greg Jarrell to learn more about urban renewal and ‘the church’.
I would like to know how the theses sent to Albrecht were translated and publicly distributed. Were copies sent to printers? Odd, since they were supposed to be proposals for debate among academics . . . or is that a myth, too?
I would like to see a statue showing union and confederate soldiers locked in realistic hand to hand or bayonet stabbing combat . . . and in close proximity a scene from Appomattox of soldiers permitted to keep their horses while receiving a distribution of rations from union soldiers . . . and freed slaves, some with visible evidence of physical punishment . . . and faintly in the background, hooded riders approaching. Complicated, but it would say a lot about that war and its aftermath of failure.
Could be a painting for study and comment.