I read Spence's book a few years ago. It's a fascinating account of a terrifying and somewhat inexplicable period in Chinese history. Spence sums it up this way: "Some intersection of Hong’s own mind and the pulse of the times led him to a literal understanding of elements of this newly encountered religion, so that the Christian texts he read convinced him that he was the younger brother of Jesus, imbued by his father God with a special destiny to rid China of the conquering Manchu demon race, and to lead his chosen people to their own Earthly Paradise."
Maybe because we were having our Civil War about the same time? The missionaries had a hand in this. I'm going to do more reading about it. I ran across an article about the collection at Yale and had to find out the background. Here is a popular book about this which I have not read, but plan to: _Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom_ (2012) by Stephen Platt.
Clever, indeed. Just left a comment at Newsweek about "illogical" Putin. Not illogical at all, and all we had to do was listen. He told us he intended to reunite the Orthodox Church with its origins in Kiev, and punish Poland and Estonia for rejecting Orthodoxy for Catholocism. Putin is a Crusder, not illogical. We need to understand that before trying to stop him.
Yeah, I am not entirely convinced of that at this point - what he needed (and needs) is a governing rational that isn't based on Marxist-Leninism and he seems to have located that in a particular form of orthodoxy. But that embrace appears highly Machiavellian given that he has his forces in Ukraine re-erecting statues to Lenin in occupied cities of Ukraine.
Young thug turns to a career in the KGB and then comes to Jesus is pretty suspect sounding when the man has, reportedly, 200 billion tucked away overseas.
elm
resurrecting the empire of all the russias with him at the head does make sense
Read that book; the guy was clearly a nut, although Mao is correct. He was a precursor to a certain kind of ideological organization dedicated to demanding self-sacrifice.
elm
self-sacrifice of the individual is a recurring theme in a dying empire
I read Spence's book a few years ago. It's a fascinating account of a terrifying and somewhat inexplicable period in Chinese history. Spence sums it up this way: "Some intersection of Hong’s own mind and the pulse of the times led him to a literal understanding of elements of this newly encountered religion, so that the Christian texts he read convinced him that he was the younger brother of Jesus, imbued by his father God with a special destiny to rid China of the conquering Manchu demon race, and to lead his chosen people to their own Earthly Paradise."
Thanks for the review. I ran across it doing some reading about millenarianism.
Astounding that this war is so little known in America. Thanks for highlighting it.
Maybe because we were having our Civil War about the same time? The missionaries had a hand in this. I'm going to do more reading about it. I ran across an article about the collection at Yale and had to find out the background. Here is a popular book about this which I have not read, but plan to: _Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom_ (2012) by Stephen Platt.
i come to kill and conquer you in the name of jesus christ, prince of peace ;)
that never gets old.
Clever, indeed. Just left a comment at Newsweek about "illogical" Putin. Not illogical at all, and all we had to do was listen. He told us he intended to reunite the Orthodox Church with its origins in Kiev, and punish Poland and Estonia for rejecting Orthodoxy for Catholocism. Putin is a Crusder, not illogical. We need to understand that before trying to stop him.
Yes, very wise--if we don't understand orthodoxy it makes no sense. If we do, it falls in place.
Yeah, I am not entirely convinced of that at this point - what he needed (and needs) is a governing rational that isn't based on Marxist-Leninism and he seems to have located that in a particular form of orthodoxy. But that embrace appears highly Machiavellian given that he has his forces in Ukraine re-erecting statues to Lenin in occupied cities of Ukraine.
Young thug turns to a career in the KGB and then comes to Jesus is pretty suspect sounding when the man has, reportedly, 200 billion tucked away overseas.
elm
resurrecting the empire of all the russias with him at the head does make sense
You may be correct. I know what Putin said his intentions were, and I haven't allowed for this not being true.
Read that book; the guy was clearly a nut, although Mao is correct. He was a precursor to a certain kind of ideological organization dedicated to demanding self-sacrifice.
elm
self-sacrifice of the individual is a recurring theme in a dying empire
Ahh, In Our Time, one of my favourite podcasts. Award winning author Melvyn Bragg gets grumpy with 3 academic specialists for an hour.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=787ancKkllA
A gift for you :-)
This is a good overview and pulls it all together TY! I have a lot of that library but it is hard to distill.