Divine Hours / Guns, Germs, and Steel

Apologies already on lack of updates. Thanksgiving, no internet, etc. etc.

Couple points to clarify about the last post…
One: I gave fiction a bit of a bad rap but that wasn’t my intent so let the reader know a few things. By fiction let me change that to “literature”. I’m no expert but there seems to be a difference. For example, one of my favorite books of all time is a work of fiction, The Alchemist by Paulo Cohelo, but I would not consider that literature. But I would definitely consider East of Eden by John Steinbeck or The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers to be literature. Great works of literature, in fact, and if the reader knows of other books as moving as these let’s read them!

Two: I didn’t mean to give the impression that I only read religious books. That just happens to be what I most often read. I will read fiction, or literature, or other kinds of writing about other kinds of things (I just don’t like funny books, except A Walk In The Woods by Bill Bryson which I happened to unexpectedly find funny and enjoyable).

And now on to things…

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The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle (sorta)
Nonfiction/Religious/Prayer. Image Books, c. 2000, 661 pages

It’s appropriate I think that I should first of all mention a book that I try to read three times a day, though it’s not really a book in the traditional sense. And it certainly hasn’t been written by Phyllis Tickle, for she is more the organizer and nothing else, save a nice introduction to the daily offices. This book is basically a very organized, easy to use Book of Common Prayer, which are prayers prayed by monks and lay people for hundreds of years and millions of people even today. I have long been interested in participating in the written prayers of the Catholic Church but never really knew where to turn. I went to bookstores and couldn’t figure out how to read the books they had there so gave up until a friend recommended this. And this is not just for Catholics or Anglicans or Episcopalian or whatever denomination, it’s for any believer in Christ. There are no references to anything considered heretical or over the top to noncatholics. It’s simply scripture reading, usually a reading from either the OT or NT, along with various verses of the Psalms. The psalms of course are to be prayed rather than read. Sometimes there would be a hymn to read as well. Always the Lords Prayer, in the evening The Gloria, and then two usually absolutely beautiful prayers of the church passed down for years. There are three times a day to read them: morning, afternoon, evening, and if you are really into it they have the night offices as well which are to be done before going to sleep.

I love this. I love that I am guided in my prayers to get, in a sense, outside of my own self and desires and prayers all to often focused on myself instead of the Lord. I love the idea of feeling a part of a community of believers everyday, all over the world, praying the same prayers each day. I love the structure and rhythm it brings to my life. I love the beautiful prayers of fellow believers. I love how it chooses versus of the Bible that show how beautifully written and expressive scripture is. Above all, I love how it is a reminder each day to bring my attention for at least just a moment to the one who is the maker of the heavens and the earth. Through this discipline I find myself closer to our Lord, which is the purpose and function of all knowledge.

Here are two prayers from this morning’s reading:
The Prayer Appointed for the Week: Stir up you power, O Lord, and with great might come among us; and, because we are sorely hindered by our sins, let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory now and for ever. Amen.

The Concluding Prayer of the Church: Lord God, almighty and everlasting Father, you have brought me in safety to this new day: Preserve me with your mighty power, that I may not fall into sin, nor be overcome by adversity; and in all I do direct me to the fulfilling of your purpose; through Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen.

Please note that if you wish to buy this that there are three books available, one for autumn and wintertime, one for spring, and one for summer. These follow an actual calendar so if you are hoping to join in communion with fellow believers you’ll have to make sure you are on the same day as everyone else!

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Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond
Nonfiction/History/Anthropology. Norton Publishing, c.1999, 480 pages

I saw this book for a couple years and wanted to read it based solely on it’s title, cover, and the fact that it won a Pulitzer Prize. I have read it on and off over the past few months and yet to finish it, though I came across the dvd version of it put together by National Geographic and watched it entirely. (so I recommend watching the documentary at least if you’ve not the want to read the 480 page book)Diamond asks a question that I honestly thought to never ask and wouldn’t be surprised if most others haven’t either but now that he has raised the question I am like “Oh, wow, I never thought to ask that. Fascinating. What’s the answer?” Well, first his question. Why have white people taken over dark skinned people and not the other way around? Seriously, I never put two and two together but it was Europeans (which includes Spanish peoples) that conquered and conquered. Europeans conquered the New World. Europeans took over Africans. Europeans defeated islanders and aboriginal Australians. Basically about nowhere were black people ruling over white people.

Apparently the answer before was one of genetic superiority or something racist of that nature but Diamond absolutely rejects that notion. In his lifelong travels he found that genius and ingenuity was in all people groups, for no one people group had all the smarts and the others stupid. What he concluded, then, was simply, or not so simply, geography. He argues that certain civilizations had more things available to them to produce technologies that others could not, from crops to domesticating animals and other natural resources. So it seems natural that a civilization that can grow more crops, or has access to more food with better life sustaining features like protein, would be less consumed with just finding food to survive. Hunter gather societies spent most of their days looking for food, which meant they had less time for other things. Everyone had to find food so no one could spend all their time trying to be a blacksmith (if such materials were even available to them). I found this fascinating. Just having a pig changed a civilization for farming and food, imagine what chickens and pigs and cows could do! Africans couldn’t use a Zebra for plowing but Europeans could use horses, which gave them an advantage. And on and on Diamond goes on to make his case.

One thing I found enlightening was just why European diseases decimating indigenous people. We know that a majority of Native Americans were killed off not by guns and war, but by the white mans diseases. Well why wasn’t the white man dying off from the diseases it carried? Why did the diseases kill so many natives? Obviously, the natives didn’t have immunity to the diseases as it’s carriers did, but why did Europeans even have immunity? The answer lies in animals.

Apparently the major diseases, small pox, etc., had their origins in animals. And over thousands of years of being exposed to domesticated animals (remember Native Americans didn’t have the domesticated animals like their conquerors did) and all of their germs, whites gradually built up a resistance to it. The humans that didn’t died while the ones that did survived and kept making babies, which made a stronger human population more resistant to the deadly diseases. So basically, because of the available resources (in this case, domesticated animals) whites had a superior advantage and the dark skinned peoples of north and south Americas were nearly helpless against their germs.

Not everyone accepts Diamond's theory and I’m not well versed enough in this stuff to offer any worthy critique but it seems to make sense to me. For the lover of history, anthropology, and even agriculture, I recommend a view or a read of Guns, Germs, and Steel. I will note, though, on the documentary by the second disc I never wanted to hear those three words together again as they drug that phrase to the ground over and over again. Guns, germs, and steel. Guns, germs, and steel. Guns, germs, and stop it already.

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It’s almost December and I thought we’d all read the same book if you are interested. Leave some book titles and a very brief synopsis, I’ll sort, then post a few for us to vote on reading.

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This morning I read something enlightening and will be for some of you as well, in particular those of you that have a desire to commune with God. It’s from a book The Parables: Jewish Tradition and Christian Interpretation by Brad H. Young. (I am not yet endorsing the book, just saying I’m reading it) In it he quotes Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel as saying “The Greeks learned in order to comprehend. The Hebrews learned in order to revere.” Powerful stuff. This too, is why I learn. And with the apostle Paul I want everything I do to be done for the glory of God. So I encourage you, if you are actively seeking the Lord, to read for the same reasons.