Email thread on spiritual insight from historical works
Simon of Australia writes:
I've actually been getting the message to read Decline and Fall [Gibbon] again. Yes - ALL OF IT. I can make it my project at work because I get a nice long hour to sit in our cafe for lunch, so that's 5 solid hours a day if I commit.
Its those kind of times where you need Decline and Fall, and the Bible obviously.
I respond:
Also, the history of the Roman *Republic* era is relevant to our times. Gibbon doesn't cover that. That Arthur Gilman book I talked about is a quick overview. Oliver Goldsmith wrote a history of Rome that is also free on Amazon Kindle. Mommsen's famous history is on the republic. The late Roman republic era is not all that different from the empire era events Gibbon describes though. Worth having the full picture though.
Spiritually, Puritan types read Gibbon for end time history insights. They were Historicists regarding the book of Revelation, but even if you don't hold to that school the fact that history repeats (or rhymes) makes Gibbon uniquely relevant for this purpose. Meaning, Gibbon shows the spiritual pageant better than other historians. - C.
Simon of Australia responds:
I started in earnest today. It's good to get back to - the quality of it....
I respond:
I didn't want to mention it because it might seem like competition, but I've started Gibbon and am in chapter 14 currently. I paused though to read that Arthur Gilman book on the Roman republic. Years ago I read the first 12 chapters of Gibbon. I just re-read them and now am in chapters new to me. I'm also spot reading de Tocqueville's Democracy in America. It has spiritual realm insight qualities too. Almost like you can see descriptions of types as they are in the spiritual realm. His description of 'Negroes' (old term) and Indians is like that. How they differ. Hard to describe quickly. - C.
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