Defending Jane Austen

Unknown artist- Woman Writing a Letter

Some people dismiss Jane Austen as a satirist who only made fun of her society.  Others reject her work as romance novels and complain that she gives a starry-eyed view of men, love, and marriage.  Jane Austen may also be disregarded because she doesn't specifically mention God moving and working in her characters.   At a superficial glance, these things are mostly true; but deeper reflection will find that within the pages of Jane Austen's books are many Godly lessons, illustrated by both positive and negative examples.  She weaves these lessons into the plot of her stories in such a believable manner that you come away  both encouraged and challenged.  This is in stark contrast with popular Christian fiction found in today's bookstores where God is talked about excessively but  the actions and dialogue of the characters reveal an un-Biblical worldview. 

In my personal favorite, Sense and Sensibility, the central concept  is the  response to unpleasant circumstance.  Elinor exemplifies  II Corinthians 10:5b, " ... and bringing into captivity every though to the obedience of Christ",  when she responds by keeping her emotions in check, her thoughts captive, and trusting in God when her circumstance seem to forecast complete unhappiness.  In doing this Elinor also spares her mother and sisters a lot of unnecessary anxiety on her behalf.  

While at first Marianne is the antithesis of her sister (Elinor struggles to overcome, Marianne wallows), the sanctification process is evident in her life. By the end of the story she not only sees the necessity of keeping her emotions in check but also succeeds at it.  Marianne comes to have a deeper appreciation and love for Elinor after watching her struggle to do what she knows is right.

In Mansfield Park, there is the idea of perseverance through trial.  Whether the trial is being pursed by a rake who no one else sees as a rake because he has money, being reminded over and over again of the kindness of your uncle in taking you in, or watching the man you love throw his affections away on a worthless woman, Fanny is loyal to principles no matter what and patient to a fault.  Even when her cousin, who she happens to be in love with, wants her to do something that goes against her conscience, she is adamant in her refusals.  Fanny is also amazing about giving people the benefit of the doubt even when they really don't deserve it. 

Not all of Jane Austen's stories are positive examples.  In Northanger Abby, she uses a young and naive Catherine Morland to expound on the foolishness of reading rubbish.  While Austen specifically points out how the reading of some  romantic novels has the potential to fill  young minds such as  Catherine's with ridiculous notions, like the idea that her future father-in-law murdered his wife, the principle is still there.  Catherine read absent mindedly.  She didn't exercise discernment.  She simply took it all in and her character was corrupted. In the end she had to endure a very embarrassing episode to teach her this lesson.

This doesn't mean that Marx, Darwin, or Hitler should never be read. It means that we shouldn't be saturated in it . Reading these authors is beneficial in order to understand the wrong and be able to combat it, but we should be engaged in whatever we read-discerning good and evil.

Jane Austen is one of the best female writers in the English language.  She had amazing insight into human strengths and weaknesses.  To me her stories present a challenge to become better or shine  a gentle light on my weakness so that it is easy to want to change.  Her characters walk beside the reader with an exalting example of how to glorify God through being patient, loyal, persevering through trials, having a proper response to unpleasant circumstances, the evils of reading trash,  treating people kindly no matter what, the list goes on and on.  It all depends on you and where you are at in your walk.   

So, do you like Jane Austen? Why or why not?  If you do, which one of her stories are your favorite and why?

Behind the Name

On of the best things about history is that you can study a person's whole life.  You can see how the choices they made, both the good and the bad, came to fruition.  Hebrew 12:1, which is one of  the mottoes for this blog, talks about being compassed about with a great cloud of witnesses.  These are the people who have run and finished their race.  They now serve as examples to us, encouraging us to persevere to the end of  our races in a God-honoring, glorious manner.   

I have always been amazed by the wisdom of the past.  Its insights are so clear and its criticisms are so just, that I am constantly astonished how people hundreds of years ago, whose life is nothing like mine, can possible counsel me how to best deal with a problem or inspire me to be all that God expects me to be.  

This is only possible because the Truth of God's Word spans time.  The Truth that these men and women studied and then applied to their lives is constant.  What they wore, where they lived, what they ate is inconsequential when compared to the fact they loved God so much that they allowed His Word and His Truth to form their character and permeate every area of their lives.  This is what makes their lives and examples a timeless model and makes their advice worth having.

So how do we know who are the best models?  First off, we must know the Bible ourselves.  You can't steer clear of  bad thinking if you can't recognize it.  Then, assuming that the person has a Biblical worldview, we examine their lives and ask ourselves a few questions.  How do they develop their God-given talents?  How do they use their time?  How do they respond to trials?  What do they do when they fail?  

Proverbs 27:27 says, " Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend."  By taking the advice of those who have gone before and learning from their lives I sharpen my character against theirs.  What could make them a more Worthy Friend?

Challenge:

How many of my Worthy Friends in the collage can you name?  Comment and let me know.

Happy-Go-Knitty Thursday!

Last weekend when we were in Michael's I saw this book.  Because I have been looking for a knee-high argyle patterns, it instantly caught my eye.  So I quickly scanned the book and got really excited.  There are argyles, checks, flowers and, hooray, five different patterns for guys socks!  Poor Dad is the only one that I haven't made a pair for so I am starting his right away. Anyway, I went home, found the book on Amazon, and it arrived yesterday afternoon.  I love Amazon!

The project I am most interested in is a pair of lacy knee-high socks.  I am wondering if I can make them thin enough that I could ditch my hose in the winter and wear lacy socks instead!  I know it would be A LOT more comfortable.   

It's going to be a happy-go-knitty Thursday.  I can feel it. Now all that needs to happen is it has to rain in sheets all afternoon.  Rain, yarn, needles, and a good murder mystery on tape! What more could a girl ask for? 

Universal Truth

Venerable Bede Translating the Gospel of John, by JD Penrose

I'm starting a new book in my studies, The Ecclesiastical History of the English People by Bede.The following quote from his preface caught my eye.

     " For if history records good things of good men, the thoughtful hearer is encouraged to imitate
     what is good: or if it records evil of wicked men, the devout, religious listener or reader is
     encouraged to avoid all that is sinful and perverse and to follow what he knows to be good and
     pleasing to God. " 

It reminded me greatly of a quote from a book I read last year by Livy, The Early History of Rome.

     "The study of history is the best medicine for a sick mind; for in history you have a record of the
     infinite variety of human experience plainly set out for all to see; and in that record you can find for
     yourself and your country both examples and warnings; fine things to take as models, base things
     rotten through and through, to avoid." 

Isn't it amazing that two men separated by almost seven hundred years, thousands of miles and total different cultures and religions (one Christian and the other a pagan) can express the same thought?!  Isn't it amazing that God's Truth is so universal that even pagans can recognize it? 

Romans 1: 20,  " For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and the Godhead; so that they are with out excuse:".

The Shelter of God's Promises by Sheila Walsh

    In The Shelter of God's Promises Sheila Walsh presents nine foundational promises to help the reader get their eyes off their circumstances and looking into the face of God.  These promises include Provision, Peace, Confidence, Love, Grace, Hope, Strength, More (not materialism, but more of Himself), and Home (an eternal home).

     Walsh begins by reminding us that, "Culture has driven us to think of promises as personal fulfillment, when God's promises are not about us, but about Him and being saved by Him.  God's promises are an expression of His Holiness."  All of the promises rest upon us realizing that our life is about Him and bringing glory to Him.

What I appreciated most about the book is the way she entwines Biblical and modern examples and then continually brings us back to the place where we must learn to rest in Christ.  For example, under the promise of Provision, Walsh uses the example of the Feeding of the 5000.  We all know the story; but she draws our attention to Christ's compassion; not only for the 5000, but also for the disciples.  He puts them into a boat for a brief retreat, to help prepare them for what is to come.  Once the sermon is over, Christ requests that the crowd is fed.  Here, Walsh points out, the challenge for the disciples is not to concentrate on what they do or do not have, but about giving what we have to Christ and looking to Him for the answer.  The truth of the matter is that the disciples did not have the ability to feed all these people, and isn't that true of us also…."Without me you can do nothing" …we forget that and scramble around to meet the demands of the day.  But that is the whole point.  It's about God and what only God can do.

This book was a great encouragement.  I will keep it handy because it will be worth reading again.While my opinions are my own, I want to thank BookSneeze for sending me a copy of this book to review.

Why Women Should Read

    

Over the past few years in trying to understand my role as a single young woman, and God willing a future wife and mother, I have read many popular books that seem to encourage girls to put scholarly ambition aside and focus on a domestic role.  I believe this to be true- although the authors of these books would probably disagree- because of what I read on some blogs. 

     For example, I recently read a post that recommended a reading list for girls.  The list included books on feminity, child-rearing, waiting for a husband, domestic skills and general Biblical instruction.  While these are valuable, nowhere did the author encourage girls to study deep subjects or push past the fluffy literary junk food.  I thought this was very sad, not only because of what wonderful books those girls will miss out on, but also because of the children those girls will rear. 

      James Madison stated

“Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.”

     When we aren’t well educated and when we rely on others to do our thinking for us, we are easy targets to have our freedoms taken from us or to be controlled.  The current state of our government illustrates this perfectly.

     I am sure that I am not the only who can see that our country is in trouble.  Unlike most people, I don’t believe that we can change the country by who we vote for.  The change must come from within.  One aspect of this is education.

     Our country desperately needs a generation of men like our Founding Fathers.  Their method and philosophy of education promoted Biblical thinking and equipped them to fight for the principles they believe in.  They were men of convection and integrity. 

     As a woman, how would you cultivate this type of a man if you are not well educated yourself?  Children learn from the example that is set before them; and as the primary educator in a home school setting, a woman should posses the skills she is trying to instill in her young men.  Therefore boys and girls should receive an equally rigorous book education. 

     So along with your cookbook and vacuum cleaner, pick up something that will make you think… like Shakespeare or Augustine.  Later generations will thank you!

The beauty of old books

This morning I started a new book for my history/literature class. The book is On the Incarnation by Athanasius, who was the bishop of Alexandra in the mid 300's A.D ( Don't feel bad if you don't know who or what this is. I didn't even know Athanasius or his book existed until I learn what I was read for this class!)  The introduction was by C.S.Lewis. He explains why it is better to read old books straight from the source rather then taking some biased professor's ideas about what he thinks the author is really trying to say.  Then he says this:

       " In the days when I still hated Christianity, I learned to recognize, like some all too familiar smell, that almost
          unvarying something which met me, now in Puritan Bunyan, now in Anglican Hooker, now in Thomist Dante.  It was
          there ( honeyed and floral) in Francois de Sales; it was there ( grave and homely) in Spenser and Walton; it was    
          there ( grim but manful) in Pascal and Johnson; there again with the mild, frighting, Paradisial flavor, in Vaughan
          and Boehme and Traherne.  In the urban sobriety of the eighteenth century one was not safe- Law and Butler were
          two lions in the path.  The supposed "Paganism" of the Elizabethans could not keep it out: it lay in wait where a
          man might have supposed himself safest, in the very centre of The Faerie Queen and the Arcadia.  It was, of
          course, varied; and yet- after all- so unmistakeably the same; recognisable, not to be evaded, the odour which is
          death to us until we allow it to become life:"


I must admit that while I haven't heard of half the men that C.S. Lewis refers too, I thought that this was a beautiful, dare I say it, almost poetical way of describing the beauty to be found in old books and why it is sooo important to read them.  So I guess I will go look up the men I don't know  right now and figure out what they wrote and if there is a translation in English! 

Happy Monday!

On This Day in Christian History by Robert Morgan: A Review

     On This Day in Christian History by Robert Morgan is a small devotional meant to be read every day.  A day includes a short story about the life or part of the life of a Christian hero, compassing early Christian maryters to Billy Graham, and a Bible verse that goes along with the theme.  Most of his examples come from Catholic history with a few Pentecostal, women preachers, and main stream Protestants thrown in for good measure.  These stories are supposed to encourage and challenge believers in their walk with God. 

     I was disappointed by this book.  When I saw the title, being a huge history buff, I was very excited. As I got into it, I found that most of the stories were anything but encouraging and most often dishearting.  You are told of the faults of men in detail and then supposed to be encouraged because God used them. The book never shows how God helped these men overcome their faults. God just worked around them. The best example of this is Charles T. Studd who left his wife in England for years, was terribly critical of all people who didn't meet his standard of hard work (meaning 18 hrs days, limited meals, and no vacations), and finally died a broken man. Popes that are good guys in one story are villains in the next.  Pope Gregory VII, also known as Hildebrand, forced the German emperor Henry IV to stand in the snow to receive absolution for disagreeing with the pope's "reforms".  A few entries later, Hildebrand is praised for those very reforms!

     Not all of the stories are bad, however. One of my favorites is the story is how a Sunday school teacher named Edward Kimball converted a teenager named D.L. Moody. Moody converted a man named F.B. Meyer, who converted J. Wilber Chapman, who converted Billy Sunday who converted Billy Graham.  The story shows how one "little" thing, like being a faithful Sunday school teacher, can lead to many people knowing Christ as Savior.

      Although the book is well written, I did not find the content to be an encouraging or challenging start to my day.  This isn't a book that I will be returning to.

While my opinions are my own, I want to thank BookSneeze for sending me a copy of this book to review.

My Utopia

 

George Peabody Library, Baltimore, Maryland, USA  

I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.  ~Anna Quindlen, "Enough Bookshelves," New York Times, 7 August 1991 

I don't have to say anything more....

America's History......Stolen

     I have recently read a book that infuriated me, in a good way.  It is called The Rewriting of America's History by Catherine Millard.  This book exposes how our Christian heritage is being methodically removed from all American monuments and historic sites.  It also reveals why the study of history is so important.

     History illustrates God's love and providence in the lives of His people.  Providence includes the concepts of sovereignty and predestination.  Mainstream Christianity acknowledges God's active role (sovereignty) in the lives of humanity, but we do not live in a way that reflects that belief.  When we forget all that God has done for us and the Godly men and women who helped make our country great, we became prideful and trust only ourselves. 

     This is why the study of history is so important.  Our ignorance of our founding has led to the removal of all traces of God from our history.  Here are some examples of how our Christian heritage is being taken from us and most people do not even know about them!

     When you enter Plimoth Plantation, you go through the Meeting House.  This was the primary place of worship.  Governor Bradford proclaimed

            "All ye Pilgrims with your wives and little ones do gather at the Meeting House, on the hill… there to listen to the pastor, and render thanksgiving to the Almighty             God for all His blessings."

     Unless you understand the Puritan's goal of simplifying the church, you would not be able to recognize the Meeting House's true use because there is no plaque or marker to explain the importance it had in their daily lives.  The pulpit is pushed in a corner where no one can see it.  I doubt this is where it resided when the Puritans used it. 

     For years there has been an unwritten law in Philadelphia: nothing is taller then the statue of William Penn standing atop city hall. Tradition held that he watched over the city he founded.  However, in the late 1980's all this changed.  A developer decided to build a skyscraper.  The city council voted to allow this….over the wishes of the people of Philadelphia and without respect for a prominent Founder.

     The beautiful stained glass windows, which have adorned Christ Church in Philadelphia for more then a hundred years, were removed in the late 1980's and placed in storage.  The stained glass windows commemorated the patriots and their families worshipping God, and the first prayer at the first Continental Congress led by the minister of Christ Church, Reverend Duche.  There is no viable reason to remove these windows except to hide what they represent.

     I was indignant when I began reading, but by the end of the book I realized how weak many history curriculums are, even some of the ones I have used! It also showed me the importance of original writings.  Many historians have a tainted worldview and that must be considered when choosing works to read. This book has increased my interest in American history a hundred fold and I am very interested in reading more about the Puritans. 

Have You Ever?

Last night I was feeling rather sorry for myself.  I haven't been, done, seen,  fill in the blank...  Then I started think about all the things I had done and seen without ever leaving home. The poem came out of that. See if you can guess all the books that I used.  They are listed at the bottom. 


Have You Ever?
by Audrey

Have you ever been under the sea
Or held a box of treasure without a key?
I have.

Have you ever flown,faster then the speed of light,
Just to the second star on the right?
I have .

Have you ever been down a hobbit's hole
Or held a conversation with a rat and a mole?
I have.

Have you ever seen a prize-winning pig
Or helped an orphaned kid?
I have.

Have you ever lived in a little house on the prairie
Or traveled with your sisters named Mary and Carrie?
I have.

Have you ever wandered a yellow brick road
Or used an out-of-date transportation mode?
I have.

If you have, you know what I mean,
Reading is totally keen!   










20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Treasure Island

Peter Pan

The Hobbit
Wind in the Willows

Charlotte's Web
David Copperfield

Little House on the Prairie

The Wizard of Oz
Around the World in Eighty Days