Johannes Cocceius, a father of biblical theology, would seem to have little in common with Cartesian rationalism. But most of the Cocceians in the latter part of the 17th century were Cartesians. Ernest Bizer (in an article entitled “Reformed Orthodoxy and Cartesianism”) suggests that there was an affinity between the two: “Descartes had claimed the knowledge of the universe for philosophy, but by that very claim had removed revelation from the sphere of reason and had bound knowledge of revelation... Read more

The genealogy is pretty clear: Pietist-leaning Collegiants, with affinities to the Anabaptists of the sixteenth century, influence the theological and political view of Spinoza, leading him to write a treatise where he defends two central Anabaptist/Pietist clams: a) he attacks the tyranny of the letter and b) he argues for a liberal political system in which everyone is free to hold whatever theological opinions he wishes. Spinoza’s Tractatus is one of the earliest treatises on liberal polity, preceding Locke’s Letter... Read more

Another from Hatzfeld: “The Saturday after the [President’s] plan crash was the usual choir rehearsal day at the church in Kibungo. We sang hymns in good feeling with our Tutsi compatriots, our voices still blending in chorus. On Sunday morning we returned at the appointed hour for mass; they did not arrive. They had already fled into the bush in fear of reprisals, driving their goats and cows before them. That disappointed us greater, especially on a Sunday. Anger hustled... Read more

In his harrowing book on the Rwandan killers of 1994, Jean Hatzfeld quotes one young man: “Suddenly Hutus of every kind were patriotic brothers without any partisan discord. We were through playing around with political words. We were no longer in our each-to-his-won mood. We were doing a job to order. We were lining up behind everyone’s enthusiasm. We gathered into teams on the soccer field and went out hunting as kindred spirits.” Read more

According to Emmanuel Kolini and Peter Holmes ( Christ Walks Where Evil Reigned ), the Hutus and Tutsis of Rwanda were originally ethnically indistinguishable. Prior to colonialization, the difference was “vocational,” social and economic. Tutsis were cattle herders, Hutus farmers; Tutsis were Abel, Hutus Cain. When the Belgians took over, they gave each Rwandan an ID card that listed ethnicity as Hutu or Tutsi, “based in part on the measurement of their noses.” What was a social division within a... Read more

Stanley Kurtz of the EPPC has a lengthy essay review of Philip Carl Salzman’s Culture and Conflict in the Middle East (Humanity Press) in the April 14 issue of The Weekly Standard . The book comes with the endorsement of Daniel Pipes, who calls it “one of the handful of most important books I’ve read during nearly four decades of studying the Middle East” – which is high praise indeed. Kurtz calls the book “a major event: the most penetrating,... Read more