Cytaty

When I say that conservative evangelical Christians and fundamentalists are children of the Enlightenment, I mean that more than almost anyone else, thinkers among these groups are committed to „objective truth”–which was precisely the commitment that led to the demise of Christianity in the modern world in the first place, especially in Europe. And so this evangelical commitment is ironic. Or it’s a case of trying to fight the fire with fire. But the reality is that modern Christian apologists stress the importance of objectivity and champion it more than anyone–much more than most other educated people in our world. University intellectuals almost never speak of „objectivity” any more, unless they happen to live on the margins of intellectual life.

Bart D. Ehrman, How Jesus Become God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee, HarperOne, 2014

When I deliver talks like this, I regularly and consistently get two questions from members of the audience. The first is, „If this is the view widely held among scholars, why have I never heard it before?” I’m afraid that this question has an easy but troubling answer. In most instances the view of Jesus that I have is similar to that taught–with variations here or there, of course–to ministerial candidates in the mainline denominational seminaries (Presbyterian, Lutheran, Methodist, Episcopalian, and so on). So why have their parishioners never head it before? Because their pastors haven’t told them. And why haven’t their pastors told them? I don’t know for sure, but from my conversations with former seminarians, I think that many pastors don’t want to make waves; or they don’t think their congregations are „ready” to hear what scholars are saying; or they don’t think that their congregations want to hear it. So they don’t tell them.

Bart D. Ehrman, How Jesus Become God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee, HarperOne, 2014

W rezultacie wspomnianego kompromisu do władz republiki zaproszeni zostali między innymi słowaccy separatyści, a wśród nich Karol Sidor, ideolog klerykalnego słowackiego nacjonalizmu. To właśnie on mówił w rozmowie z korespondentem Polskiej Agencji Telegraficznej w styczniu 1939 roku o głębokich politycznych i mentalnych zmianach, jakie zaszły w elitach czechosłowackich. Deklarował trwałe „oderwanie się ludzi, stojących u steru rządu drugiej republiki, od nieżyciowych teorii poprzedniego «mesjanizmu» i ideałów demokracji”.

Michał Przeperski, Nieznośny ciężar braterstwa. Konflikty polsko-czeskie w XX wieku, Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2016

Dwór francuski zbagatelizował porażkę [pod Tuttlingen] tak skutecznie, że bitwa ta jest rzadko wspominana w historii wojny trzydziestoletniej.

Peter H. Wilson, Wojna Trzydziestoletnia, 1618-1648. Tragedia Europy, tłum. Maciej Kapałczyński, Napoleon V, 2017

Zdziwienie, z jakim przywitano te porządki, odnotował kronikarz z Suchej Górnej: „Obywatele dowiedzieli się, że aby wyjechać za granicę na przykład do Polski, trzeba wystarać się o paszport w komisariacie policyjnym w Mor.[awskiej] Ostrawie, a o tak zwane viso polskie [tj. wizę do Polski] w konsulacie polskim w Nowym Boguminie, gdzie urzęduje konsul Vetulani. Obywatele dotychczas wiedzieli o paszportach na bydło, ale dla ludzi? Tego w dawnej Austrii nie znano. Wystarczył dowód osobisty, metryka czy książka robotnicza, aby przejechać całą Europę z wyjątkiem Rosji, w której paszporty obowiązywały. A teraz, aby pojechać do Cieszyna na polską stronę, trzeba się zaopatrzyć w ten dokument, wymysł powojennych czasów”.

Michał Przeperski, Nieznośny ciężar braterstwa. Konflikty polsko-czeskie w XX wieku, Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2016

The Ragusan chronicles and later Ragusan documents, supported by English sources, record that the Anglo-Norman king Richard the Lionheart came to Dubrovnik in the autumn of 1192. The vessel on which he was returning from the Holy Land was, apparently, caught in a severe storm. Praying for deliverance, he vowed to erect a church wherever he and his shipmates eventually found shelter. In fact, they came ashore of Lokrum. Learning that such a distinguished visitor had arrived on their territory, the leading men of Dubrovnik crossed to greet the king and urged him to come to their town, which he gladly consented to do. Richard then decided that instead of fulfilling his vow by build a church on Lokrum he would do so in Dubrovnik itself and accordingly gave the (impossibly large) sum of 100,000 ducats to build the town’s new Cathedral. The role of Lokrum in the king’s escape from drowning was, however, commemorated by the abbot of that island’s monastery celebrating high mass each year on the Feast of Candlemas (2 February) wearing an episcopal mitre and carrying a crozier.

The archbishop of the day was a Ragusan called Bernardo, who struck up what turned out to be a useful friendship with the king. Several years after Richard’s departure, Bernardo had to flee from the wrath of the citizens, possibly incurred because of his failure to prevent the loss of most of Dubrovnik’s suffragan sees to the newly elevated archbishopric of Bar. Bernardo found a warm welcome in England and was made Bishop of Carlisle in the reign of King Richard’s successor, John.

Robin Harris, Dubrovnik: A History, Sagi Books, 2006

Philip de Diversis thought that the climate of Dubrovnik was extremely healthy. Especially beneficial was the strong, bracing northeast wind, the bura, which helped ensure the plagues were less frequent and less severe than elsewhere.

Robin Harris, Dubrovnik: A History, Sagi Books, 2006

In the summer of 1950, when Leonard left once again for summer camp — Camp Sunshine in Sainte-Marguerite — he took the guitar with him. Here he would begin playing folk songs, and discover for the first time the instrument’s possibilities whet it came to his social life.

-You were still going to summer cam at age fifteen?

‚I was a counsellor. It was a Jewish Community Camp for kids that really couldn’t afford the expensive summer camps and the director they had hired, an American, accidentally happened to be a socialist. He was on the side of the North Koreans in the Korean War which had just broken out. The socialists at that time were the only people who were playing guitar and singing folk songs; they felt that they had an ideological obligation to learn the songs and repeat them. So a copy of The People’s Songbook appeared. Do you know it? A great songbook, with all the chords and tablature, and I went through that book many, many times during that summer […]’.

Sylvie Simmons, I’m Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen, Vintage Digital, 2012

Bliższe przyjrzenie się sprawie pokazuje bowiem, że w rzeczywistości żołnierze czescy na froncie byli ponadprzeciętnie karni i lojalni wobec monarchii. A mimo to własnie przypadki ich zdrady najczęściej pojawiały się w przekazie propagandowym państw centralnych. W pewnym sensie Czesi zostali wykreowani na kozła ofiarnego wojennych niepowodzeń państw centralnych.

Michał Przeperski, Nieznośny ciężar braterstwa. Konflikty polsko-czeskie w XX wieku, Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2016

Leonard’s was a comfortable, secure life during an uncomfortable, insecure time. Days before Leonard’s fifth birthday, Germany invaded Poland and World War II began. Closer to home, in 1942 there was an anti-Semitic rally on St Lawrence Boulevard — The Main, as locals called it — which was the traditional dividing line between English and French Montreal. It was led by Montreal’s French Nationalist movement, which included supporters of the Vichy regime in France. One particularly risible claim of the organisation was that the Jews had taken over the clothing business in order to force modest young French Canadian girls to wear ‚improper gowns in New York styles’. During the rally, windows of several Jewish-owned shops and deils on The Main were broken and racist slurs painted on walls.

Sylvie Simmons, I’m Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen, Vintage Digital, 2012