Spirit Of Freedom Research Articles

The Spirit of Freedom: Eberhard Jüngel's Theology of the Third Article

The Spirit of Freedom: Eberhard Jüngel's Theology of the Third Article

Alessandro Galante Garrone storico civile

Is the portrait of an atypical intellectual. After a long career as a judge, and a spokesman of the Partito d’Azione in the Piedmontese Liberation Committee during the Resistance, Alessandro Galante Garrone became a university professor only at an advanced age. His is the best expression of a political culture - that of the Partito d’Azione - which took shape along with antifascism and remained alive in post-war Italy, transforming itself into an original historiographical approach. All Galante Garrone’s historical works are inspired by a strong civil passion, and devoted to personalities (Buonarroti, Romme, Cavallotti, Salvemini, Calamandrei) or those aspects of Italian and European history (Italian radicals, political exiles) that are notable for their spirit of freedom and independence.

Professional Dantology and the Human Significance of Dante Studies

This review essay examines the work of Justin Steinberg as exemplary of humanities scholarship that, while firmly ensconced in the specialized discipline of Dante Studies, nevertheless has considerable potential for addressing audiences and issues of much wider scope concerning the nature of justice and the epistemology of the law. Intertwined with these themes, Steinberg’s case is used to probe some of the limits imposed by professionalization in the academy on the freedom of spirit on which humanities studies nevertheless depend in order to thrive.

Honesty and Curiosity in Nietzsche’s Free Spirits

Nietzsche defines “freedom of spirit” in terms of truthfulness. I point out that the concept of truthfulness assumes different forms in Nietzsche. I argue that the truthfulness characteristic of the free spirit is not “intellectual honesty,” as if often supposed, but a particular form of the “passion for knowledge” he identifies as “curiosity.” I conclude by showing that Nietzsche’s distinctive analysis of curiosity reveals it to be a life-affirming stance that escapes his notorious critique of truthfulness as an objectionable form of “asceticism,” as well as the traditional charge that it leads to a form of intellectual dissoluteness.

Nietzsche e Voltaire: a propósito da dedicatória de Humano, Demasiado Humano

In this article we intend to demonstrate how Voltaire’s name is associated with the nerve center of the Nietzschean proposal in Human All Too Human: the search for a way of philosophizing characterized by freedom of spirit and, more specifically, the concept of “free spirit”, which features a cross-cutting interest of Nietzsche by the author of the Essays. Nietzsche appropriates Voltaire as a symbol of the Enlightenment, in search of a reinterpretation that makes possible the resumption of the project Alfklarung’s on other levels. Key words: free spirit, Nietzsche, Voltaire, Enlightenment.

Sakharov at KB-11. The path of a genius

21 May 2011 would have marked the 90th birthday of Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov, a towering 20th-century figure in science and human thought, whose ideas, research contributions, and life example exerted enormous influence on the history of the second half of the 20th century and, in particular, on the history of Russia. Whether as a scientist or a private person (including his public activities and exceptional attitude to human personality), he always displayed creativity and a freedom of spirit, thought, and action. Sakharov's life and creative work make him a model scientist and citizen for many and undoubtedly provide a legacy for the development of science and society in the 21st century. In this paper, some of Sakharov's key ideas and achievements relating to his KB-11 period are exemplified, and how they influence present day research and technology, notably as employed for affording national security, is examined.

La Batalla del Bajo Palacé: análisis táctico-operacional

El presente artículo desarrolla la descripción de las acciones previas, el proceso, las consecuencias y la importancia histórica de la “Batalla del Bajo Palacé” por ser el primer campo de combate en donde las tropas criollas del Virreinato de la Nueva Granada, al mando del Coronel Antonio Baraya, demostraron con creces su espíritu libertario frente a los realistas comandados por el Gobernador de Popayán Miguel Tacón y Rosique, motivo por el cual sus efectos son de vital trascendencia para la independencia de Colombia y de su historia, dado que en ella nacen nuestros primeros Héroes caídos en combate por la patria. Se presenta esta batalla en el primer escenario neogranadino en donde son derrotados los españoles, dando fortaleza y seguridad a los patriotas que con “fe en la causa” continuaron con decisión y arrojo la gesta emancipadora.

The Hermeneutics of Chan Buddhism: Reading Koans from The Blue Cliff Record

Despite the fact that Chan, especially koan Chan is highly unconventional and perplexing, there are still some principles with which to interpret and appreciate the practice. Each of the five houses or lineages of Chan has its idiosyncratic hermeneutic rules. The Linji House has Linji si liao jian, si bin zhu and si zhao yong among others while the Yunmen House follows Yumen san ju as one of its house rules. Moreover, there is a general inner logic that seems to apply to understanding Chan encounters across lineages. The opportune moment (Chan Ji) of responding swiftly and skillfully and yet always grounding oneself in the openness and flow of the mind highlights the inner logic of the cognition and behavior of Chan Buddhists. This paper attempts to read koans from The Blue Cliff Record in the light of Chan Buddhist hermeneutics. Some aspects and patterns of Chan encounters may appear as rituals that serve either as a provisional means for common people or as an embodiment of enlightened behaviors. Routinized ritualization of Chan life, however, runs counter to the fundamental spirit of freedom and spontaneity of Chan way of life. Much can and needs to be elucidated about the mystified koan Chan experience before we finally resort to the transpersonal experience of noble silence.

The Spirit of Freedom: Pentecostals, The Bible and Social Justice

This paper briefly considers something of what the Bible has to say about the role of the Holy Spirit in social justice, observing that the Spirit creates, refreshes, renews and restores; that his presence brings, and inevitably results in, freedom; that he holds together and builds both our community and our individual character; that as the source of our wisdom and inspiration, he provides the intellectual and emotional resources we need for the task entrusted to us; and that as the source of our power he anoints us and equips us for that service. These distinctive aspects of the role of the Spirit which relate directly to the area of social justice and the fact that the role of the Spirit in liberation is such a fundamental part of his ministry suggest that Pentecostal theology should have something to say on such issues, and that Pentecostals should feel passionately about social transformation, despite their poor record on such issues in the past.

L’actualité de Sartre sur la scène portugaise

Jean-Paul Sartre, prix Nobel de la littérature en 1964, a été le premier auteur à décliner, de plein gré, la distinction de l’académie suédoise: “Aucun artiste, aucun écrivain, aucun homme ne mérite d'être consacré de son vivant, parce qu'il a le pouvoir et la liberté de tout changer.” Ce sentiment de liberté et d’indépendance absolue de la pensée et de la création a fait de lui, on le sait, l’un des écrivains les plus controverses de son temps et un classique incontournable du XXe siècle. Distingué par une œuvre dont l’esprit de liberté et la recherche de la vérité symbolise la vaste influence sur notre époque, Sartre garde encore toute son actualité. Ses écrits littéraires et philosophiques en langue portugaise chez plusieurs éditeurs au moment de la dictature continuent à être réédités. Ses pièces de théâtre, jouées et traduites au moment de la censure, continuent à attirer l’attention des artistes portugais et brésiliens au début du XXIe siècle. Huis-clos, La putain respectueuse et Les Troyennes constituent un trio édificateur sur la scène portugaise car il s’agit bien pour les artistes portugais d’élever un modèle dramatique sur l’engagement de l’individu dans une méditation sur le tragique et la condition humaine.

The spirit of freedom and beauty of contemplation in Jeong Chu's poems

The spirit of freedom and beauty of contemplation in Jeong Chu's poems

The New Wine of Dominican Spirituality: A Drink Called Happiness. By Paul Murray, OP

Pp. x, 198 , London , Burns & Oates , 2006 , $21.95 . Paul Murray, O.P. attempts to put into words the chief characteristics of Dominican spirituality. Naturally, Dominican spirituality begins with the founder of the order, St. Dominic. Since the thirteenth century the motto of the Dominican order has been encapsulated in the Latin phrase, ‘Contemplatio aliis tradere,’ or ‘to pass on to others what we ourselves have contemplated.’ For Dominic the ‘others’ were the poor, the downtrodden, and the afflicted. When Dominic prayed and contemplated, he interceded with God for those in need, particularly sinners. Like Christ himself, Dominic was a man for others. Murray points out that the Dominican emphasis on grace, that is, of God's saving initiative and of God's ‘mad’ love of the world makes for a joyful, spontaneous type of spirituality. Of course preaching is a hallmark of Dominican spirituality but one should remember that preaching or speaking of God emanates from one's life of prayer. In a sense the life of contemplation consists in a spirit of freedom. Why so? Contemplation produces a certain freedom of mind because it considers eternal rather than temporal things. The most dramatic change Dominic introduced into the framework of religious life was the law of dispensation whereby the traditional monastic observances were adapted to the demands of preaching. Friars who needed time to study, for instance, were dispensed from important community functions. In this connection I would note that the Dominican Constitutions do not bind the friars under pain of sin so that the brethren may wisely and freely embrace them. Other important aspects of Dominican spirituality are the desire to defend the truth and the love of learning. These two aspects are part and parcel of Dominican identity. However, one cannot fix in stone the essentials of Dominican spirituality because the Dominican identity is changed and shaped by the vicissitudes of history and the demands of the hour. The early friars liked Dominic and Jordan of Saxony had cheerful hearts and were men of joy and happiness. This joy was an expansion of the heart or in the phrase of Aquinas latitudinem cordis. This joy breaks forth externally from within. Meister Eckhart, in particular, notes how the gift of expansive joy in humans participates in the joy of God. Only Eckhart could say that ‘the Father laughs at the Son and the Son at the Father, and the laughing brings forth pleasure, and the pleasure brings forth joy, and the joy brings forth love.’ Various images have been employed down through the centuries to characterize the spiritual life: the dark night of the soul, the ascent of the mountain, and the ladder of perfection. The early Dominican friars were drawn to the image of drinking. The image of a group of friends or confreres drinking wine together would have appealed to them. The image of wine comes directly from the Gospel, (think of the miracle at Cana), and has a profound link to the Eucharist. Dominicans should become drunk on the word of God, enjoy the ecstasy of self-forgetfulness, and then share that joy with others in preaching, thus giving others a renewed hope and faith. In sum, I recommend this book to all those concerned with Dominican spirituality. It will appeal to religious and laity alike. Enjoy.

Romany Issue(s): The Images of Romanian Gypsies at Home and Abroad

In a country where the Roma minority was enslaved during the 18th and 19th centuries, where during Ceausescu’s era it did not have the right to exist and where calling someone a ‘tzigan’ is worse than insulting someone’s mother, being a ‘gypsy’ cannot be easy. As a European country belonging to the European Union, Romania has to ensure equal chances for all its citizens, no matter what ethnic group they belong to. Reality is far from the written rules – some Romanians are more equal than others. Discrimination against the Roma minority goes beyond Romanian borders. Italy, France and other EU countries reject the difference of a people that does not have the same notions of social life. Discriminated against, but cherished; for ‘gypsy’ culture (music, rituals, ways of dressing) inspires and attracts people looking for a joy of life and a freedom of spirit it seems to provide. Between the rejection of individuals and the acceptance of their culture, at the crossroad of their history and the place they are allowed to have in History, the way the Roma are perceived today gives a powerful insight into the Romanian mentality. My paper will try to show the duplicity of this image as it is presented in the Romanian medias – newspapers, magazines, TV channels, web sites – there where the ordinary Romanian gives and receives the projection of him/herself as he/she conceives it.

War Memorials Encourage Reflection, Pride

War Memorials Encourage Reflection, Pride

Constellating Chartist Poetry: Gerald Massey, Walter Benjamin, and the Uses Of Messianism

Thinking involves not only the flow of thoughts, but their arrest as well. Where thinking suddenly stops in a configuration pregnant with tensions, it gives that configuration a shock, by which it crystallizes into a monad. A historical materialist approaches a historical subject only where he encounters it as a monad. In this structure he recognizes the sign of a Messianic cessation of happening, or, put differently, a revolutionary chance in the fight for the oppressed past. He takes cognizance of it in order to blast a specific era out of the homogeneous course of history-blasting a specific life out of the era or a specific work out of the lifework. (1) ********** In his "Theses on the Philosophy of History," Walter Benjamin enjoined Marxist critics to "constellate" rather than "tell" history, by bringing a threatened past into a meaningful relation with an equally endangered present (Thesis XVIIIA). This article is both excursus and exemplum of the Benjaminian method in that it seeks to constellate the work of the Chartist poet, Gerald Massey, with that of Benjamin himself. It will demonstrate that Massey's messianic vision of history anticipates many aspects of Benjamin's own messianism. Both, for example, will be shown to turn on the opposition between the "homogeneous, empty time" of capitalist modernity and the charged potentiality of "Jetztzeit" ("the time of the now"; Thesis XIV). In addition, the article will demonstrate that, like Benjamin, Massey conceives of past and present as containing "temporal indices" which refer to redemption, and that his task as a poet is to produce a "constellation," a meaningful temporal alignment (of past and present) which allows those scattered "chips of Messianic time" to be gathered together, thereby endowing the present with sufficient power "to blast open the continuum of history" and usher in a new, just, social order (Thesis XVI). Finally, the article also explores the poetics of social transformation with a particular emphasis on the relation between forms of temporal understanding and political activity. Gerald Massey was born on May 29, 1828 in Tring, Hertfordshire, the son of an illiterate father, William, and a semi-literate mother, Mary. Both his working life and poetic career began relatively early. Aged eight, he was sent to work in a local silk mill and some ten years later he published (by subscription) the improbably titled Poems and Chansons by a Tring Peasant Boy. (2) Massey's involvement with the Chartist movement began in 1848 when he joined the Uxbridge Young Men's Improvement Society. There he met John Bedford Leno with whom, in 1849, he founded the Uxbridge Spirit of Freedom, a short-lived radical periodical which nonetheless garnered praise from the leading Chartist newspaper, the Northern Star (Shaw, pp. 26-29). Indeed, between 1849 and 1851, Massey became the most published Chartist poet in the Northern Star's Poetry Columns. In addition, throughout 1850 his poetry was frequently printed and reprinted in The Red Republican and The Friend of the People (both edited by G. J. Harney) and Cooper's Journal (edited by Thomas Cooper), making Massey the most important Chartist poet in the immediate aftermath of the continental revolutions of 1848. By 1850, as a result of his friendship with Harney, Massey had become a serving member of the committee of the Society of Fraternal Democrats (an organization of English and emigre, mainly German and Polish, socialists) and secretary to the committee of the Red Republican (which published the first English translation of Marx and Engels' Communist Manifesto). At the same time Massey was involved in the Christian Socialist movement where he found paid employment as secretary of the Working Tailors Association (WTA; Shaw, pp. 31-39). However, Massey's Christian Socialist employers, unhappy at his involvement with the "Red Republicans," told him to choose between the WTA and the Red Republican. …

Dance Culture and Statuary Politics: Chiang Kai-Shek and the Myth of Primitivism

Dance is often assumed to have universal values and to manifest a spirit of freedom, especially individual freedom. It is also the case that such freedom is perceived to be deeply rooted in the condition of humanity. In this article Gregory Sporton shows how these assumptions can mislead us about the basis on which dance operates. By citing the body as the original manifestation of expression, and linking dance practice to primitive experience, a sentimental picture of ourselves as dancers emerges. Taking dance practice in Taiwan as an example, the author shows how this ‘naturalist argument’ can be exploited by a political culture and in doing so divert questions of identity. For the visiting observer, dance appears to evidence political culture and social aspiration, identities that are fixed in the present rather than the archaic past. Gregory Sporton has had a substantial performing career in ballet, contemporary dance, opera, and performance art. He is Head of the School for Performance and Moving Image at the University of Central England.

Perspectivism, Criticism and Freedom of Spirit

The paper examines the view that Nietzsche's perspectivism about practical judgments, understood as a form of internalism about practical reasons, implies that any legitimate criticism of judgments emanating from a foreign perspective must be in terms that are internal to this perspective. Insofar as it is thought to be motivated by certain general theoretical strictures of perspectivism, this view is incoherent. The paper argues that, on the contrary Nietzsche's recourse to a strategy of internal criticism is motivated by his own particular commitment to preserving the freedom of spirit of his interlocutors. The paper concludes with a discussion of how freedom of spirit is preserved by internal criticism, and how the nature of freedom of spirit affects the particular form such criticism will assume.

The Origins and Foundations of the First Amendment and the Alien and Sedition Acts

The Origins and Foundations ofthe First Amendment and the Alien and Sedition Acts Murray Dry We seem to accordmore importance to the FirstAmendment freedoms, and the Bill ofRights in general, today than the American Founders did. Where they focused on the structure and powers ofgovernment, we focus on individual rights against government. I overstate the differ­ ence in orderto make this point: the best way to study the FirstAmendment freedoms ofreligion and speech is to examine their relationship to the purpose of government as a whole. This article has three main parts. In part one, I consider the significance of what could be called our country’s dual founding: by Puritan settlers in the early seventeenth century and then by rights-based constitution-makers in the latter part of the eighteenth century. In part two, I look to the state constitutions for instruction about the meaning of religious freedom and free­ dom ofspeech. In part three, I examine the FirstAmendment, from the federal Constitution and the Bill of Rights to Madison’s response to the Alien and Sedition Acts. I. Origins and Foundations of Our First Amendment Freedoms In his introduction to volume one of De­ mocracy in America, published in 1835, Alexis de Tocqueville emphasized democratic revolution as the characteristic ofhis age. “This whole book has been writtenunderthe impulse of a kind of religious dread inspired by con­ templation of this irresistible revolution....”1 Tocqueville calls for a “new political science...for a world itselfquite new.” More­ over, he viewsAmericaas the country to study, since “I saw in America...the shape ofdemoc­ racy itself...its inclinations, character, preju­ dices, and passions....”2 Convinced that freedom cannot survive without good mores, and that good mores re­ quire religion, Tocqueville is most impressed with the way religion supports freedom in America. In France, on the otherhand, “[m]en ofreligion fight against freedom, and lovers of liberty attackreligions...honest and enlightened citizens are the enemies of all progress, while men without patriotism or morals make them­ selves the apostles of civilization and enlight­ enment!”3 130 JOURNAL OF SUPREME COURT HISTORY Tocqueville’s concern for the opposition between religion and freedom in France may account for his discussion of the Puritans in chapter two, which is titled “Concerning Their Point of Departure and Its Importance for the Future of the Anglo Americans.” Remarking on the importance of origins for understand­ ing human beings, and then analogizing nations to human beings, Tocqueville calls this chap­ ter, on the Puritans, “the germ of all that is to follow and the key to almost the whole work.”4 The Puritans came from England with a common language, the germ ofdemocracy, and a high level ofeducation. The education comes from their religion: “[I]nAmerica it is religion which leads to enlightenment and the obser­ vance of divine laws which leads men to lib­ erty.”5 Thus, the Puritans present Tocqueville with “a marvelous combination,... the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom.” Religion regards civil liberty as a noble exercise of men’s faculties, the world of politics being a sphere intended by the Creator for the free play of intelli­ gence. Religion, being free and pow­ erful within its own sphere and content with the position reserved for it, real­ izes that its sway is all the better estab­ lished because it relies only on its own powers and rules men’s hearts without external support.6 Tocqueville’s discussion of Puritan com­ pacts and their criminal codes complicates the relationship between liberty and religion how­ ever. Here is a part of the Mayflower Com­ pact, which he quotes: We whose names are underwritten ...having undertaken for the glory of God, and advancement ofthe Christian faith, and the honor of our king and country... do enact, constitute, and frame suchjust and equal laws ...as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good ofthe colony....7 After quoting a part ofConnecticut’s crimi­ nal code—“If any man after legal conviction shall have or worship any other God but the Lord God, he shall be put to death—,” Tocqueville adds: Blasphemy, sorcery, adultery, and rape are punish[able] by death; a son...

Celtic Christianity: Making Myths and Chasing Dreams by Ian Bradley

96BOOK REVIEWS As often as not the solution is found in the annihilation of the clergy and/or the Jews. The book is as up-to-date as Pat Robertson, Waco, Texas, and the thirtynine suicides at Rancho Santa Fe near San Diego in 1997. As for useful practical information it has been discovered (p. 205) that if one adds the nine-digit zip codes that the U.S. Post Office used to the nine-digit numbers of the Social Security Administration, the total is eighteen, which when divided by three is six, i.e. 666, the number of the beast of the Apocalypse. All in all the book is a gem for readers and a gold mine for theft by students writing papers and preachers preparing sermons. John R. McCarthy Cleveland, Ohio Celtic Christianity:Making Myths and Chasing Dreams. By Ian Bradley. (New York: St. Martin's Press. 1999. Pp. x,246. $45.00.) Celtic Christianity, regardless of how one defines it, plays an important role in the spiritual life and thinking of many English-speaking people. The main question is: does it have some objective reality, even when mixed with various accretions and imaginings, or is it entirely a figment? (Celtic should always be understood here as if in inverted commas.) Ian Bradley, whose previous writings promoted Celtic Christianity for its spiritual benefits, now takes a long, cool look at its history and its validity. There is immense erudition in the book. It covers six periods from the seventh century to the present day, pointing out how in each the supposed golden age of a Celtic Church has been exalted above its prosaic reality. There are just short of 600 footnotes. In post-Reformation times, many writers have taken a denominational stance, the commonest being to assert the Celtic Church's independence and to contrast its freedom of spirit with the authoritarian and legalistic Church of Rome. On the whole, however, Catholics and Protestants have not reacted very differently. Differences, though by no means clear-cut, are now rather between scholars, or the more hard-headed, and the devotees. Surprisingly , devotees abound in England more than in the Celtic fringe: Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. One's background, as Bradley shows, is relevant. My own ancestry is at least three-quarters Celtic and since my teenage years I have lived in the Scottish Highlands, in a spot hallowed by a seventh-century abbot of lona. For over fifty years I have spoken and read Gaelic and been familiar with Carmina Gadelica, a magnificent collection of Gaelic folk prayers. I consider the traditional prayers, even in translation, to be remarkable for their vivid language, their imagery , their awareness of God in the natutal world, their integration of the ageold tasks of peasants and fisherfolk. This Celtic spirituality, however, is not a separate entity but merely a very attractive expression of Christianity integrated BOOK REVIEWS97 into a simple society. Its charm for the harassed city-dweller and the devout Christian disenchanted with church administration is obvious. Dr. Bradley does not differentiate enough between a reasonable re-creation of the past and a total figment. Man does not live by facts alone; there are always elements of creation and imagination. It was natural to choose hallowed sites when founding monasteries, natural to promote some saints at the expense of other saints or of historical fact, natural to adapt ancient prayers and devotions to suit modern tastes and needs. Precisely the same happened in secular affairs. No doubt the prayers in Carmina Gadelica were adapted or edited, but so too were the Gaelic folk-songs. That does not make them spurious. Scottish Catholics have their local saints and holy places dating from ancient times but have hardly been touched by any Celtic revival, though St. Columba's centenary in 1997 stirred great interest. Others, however, including New Age people and some charismatics in England, have taken up Celtic spirituality. This book provides an excellent scholarly introduction to modern Celtic revivals and the present-day cult of Celtic Christianity. Mark Dilworth, O.S.B. Edinburgh, Scotland Sisters in Arms: Catholic Nuns through Two Millennia. ByJo Ann Kay McNamara . (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. 1996...

Apocalypses: Prophecies, Cults, and Millennial Beliefs through the Ages by Eugen Weber

BOOK REVIEWS General and Miscellaneous Apocalypses: Prophecies, Cults, and Millennial Beliefs through the Ages. By Eugen Weber. (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. 1999. Pp. vii, 294. $24.95.) Eugen Weber first came to the attention of this reviewer in the pages of Action Française (1962), and he has been his prophet (see p. 87) ever since. In this case the author denies research in original sources to prove a point but rather proclaims his effort as a journey through the morass of materials that have accumulated under the name in the title. As interesting as the material is in itself, the author adds his special touch to make it all the more appetizing. Léon Bloy becomes "the bizarre Christian writer who expected a Second Coming any day after the 1870's." As might be expected in such a book, Nostradamus has the most entries, if the (excellent) index is to be believed. There is no entry for "pyramid," except in a note on Nostradamus in which it is stated, "Numerological interpretations of the great pyramid suggest the end of the world in 2001." The journey is not altogether haphazard. After some numerology about hundreds and thousands there are mini-courses in Scripture Studies, Patrology Medieval Studies, and Renaissance-Reformation. The reform of the calendar by Pope Gregory XIII brings the delightful remark of Voltaire that Protestant mobs preferred their calendars to disagree with the sun than to agree with the Pope. At about mid-book the author's area of specialty takes over with a plethora of French, and especially English, manifestations of MiUenarian, apocalyptic, and Utopian urges. As often as not, it was the oppressed who followed these movements because they saw in them the only hope for relief from their burdens. Weber puts it all in one paragraph on page 150: Medieval history, modern history,Jewish history, and Christian history are full of expectant , credulous, turbulent hewers of wood and drawers of water; husbandmen, tillers, shepherds, cowherds, swineherds, peddlers, 'weavers,pastoureaux, tafurs, flagellants , free spirits, beghards.bégM^s. Hussites,Taboritesjohannites,vessels of the Holy Spirit, incarnations of Elias, Enoch, the Messiah, and God himself,jostling toward apocalyptic emancipation. 95 96BOOK REVIEWS As often as not the solution is found in the annihilation of the clergy and/or the Jews. The book is as up-to-date as Pat Robertson, Waco, Texas, and the thirtynine suicides at Rancho Santa Fe near San Diego in 1997. As for useful practical information it has been discovered (p. 205) that if one adds the nine-digit zip codes that the U.S. Post Office used to the nine-digit numbers of the Social Security Administration, the total is eighteen, which when divided by three is six, i.e. 666, the number of the beast of the Apocalypse. All in all the book is a gem for readers and a gold mine for theft by students writing papers and preachers preparing sermons. John R. McCarthy Cleveland, Ohio Celtic Christianity:Making Myths and Chasing Dreams. By Ian Bradley. (New York: St. Martin's Press. 1999. Pp. x,246. $45.00.) Celtic Christianity, regardless of how one defines it, plays an important role in the spiritual life and thinking of many English-speaking people. The main question is: does it have some objective reality, even when mixed with various accretions and imaginings, or is it entirely a figment? (Celtic should always be understood here as if in inverted commas.) Ian Bradley, whose previous writings promoted Celtic Christianity for its spiritual benefits, now takes a long, cool look at its history and its validity. There is immense erudition in the book. It covers six periods from the seventh century to the present day, pointing out how in each the supposed golden age of a Celtic Church has been exalted above its prosaic reality. There are just short of 600 footnotes. In post-Reformation times, many writers have taken a denominational stance, the commonest being to assert the Celtic Church's independence and to contrast its freedom of spirit with the authoritarian and legalistic Church of Rome. On the whole, however, Catholics and Protestants have not reacted very differently. Differences, though by no means...