\u201cSudsy\u201d was his nick name, used only by the students and only behind his back!\u00a0 He was an average looking guy except he always was a bit disheveled.\u00a0 His nickname came from gossip, though quite broadly substantiated, that he drank a bit to much beer, or \u201csuds\u201d as it was called back in the day (mid sixties in the Midwest US).\u00a0 By the time I took his history class my perspective of him was already set.\u00a0 I planned on not taking him seriously and knew that my time in his classroom was going to be a tough journey.\u00a0 It was.\u00a0 To the best of my recollection, I managed to pass his course with an average score.\u00a0 Even giving him the benefit of the doubt, he was extremely boring.\u00a0 My view of studying history was tarnished as well.\u00a0 By the time I got to college I dreaded to take the required history courses.<\/p>\n
I finished all of my liberal arts courses except for history at a liberal arts college and then transferred to a bible college.\u00a0 The only courses I needed for my bachelor\u2019s degree were the required bible and theology courses and I had to fulfill the history requirement, crap!\u00a0 On top of my dreaded perspective of studying history, the professor of history at the bible college was a Princeton graduate and a Rhoades Scholar!\u00a0 Double\u00a0 and triple crap!\u00a0 I actually waited until my senior year before taking the one history course I needed: ancient history.<\/p>\n
Just before the beginning of classes I asked around about the history professor.\u00a0 Everyone liked him, saying he was tough but interesting.\u00a0 I found it hard to believe and decided to make my own assessment after the first day of class.\u00a0 Dr. Patterson turned me around!\u00a0 He was tough but he was interesting!\u00a0 He was more of an artist than a scientist, painting word pictures of the past that seemed to become alive as he took his linguistic brush and painted the details of the story ancient civilization.\u00a0 That semester was my final semester, no more opportunity to take other courses he taught, crap!<\/p>\n
Reading this week\u2019s book, A Brief Guide to Ideas<\/span>, brought my history class experience to mind because it is a seminal type of book.\u00a0 It reviews the big ideas of life by giving a snapshot of how they began.\u00a0 For example, the traces the background of philosophy, existentialism, politics, Christology, relativism and new age thinking to those who championed the subjects or originated serious and foundational thinking in those disciplines.\u00a0 Their writing is not as \u201cartistic\u201d as Dr. Patterson\u2019s lectures were, but they are easy to read and the book is structured thematically with concise and brief chapters.<\/p>\n A few of the chapters caught my attention.\u00a0 The section on how societies should be organized (politics) was interesting.[1]<\/a>\u00a0 I have always been the champion of capitalism until very recently.\u00a0 I still like the idea of being responsible and accountable for oneself but the brutal realities of a \u201cde-Christianized\u201d capitalism are difficult to swallow.\u00a0 Those who are challenged beyond their control; those who truly need the grace of others face the rigors of a capitalistic society as if it were a wall of barbed wire.\u00a0 I was particularly interested to read the author\u2019s recap of Karl Marx and their take on his \u201cinsights into the \u2018consumer society\u2019, showing how capitalism often controls us when we should be controlling it.\u201d[2]<\/a>\u00a0 I do not like where Marx is going, but I do think he rightly identifies the negative and controlling aspects of consumerism in a capitalistic society.<\/p>\n Another section that was interesting to me was the section on relativism versus certainty and particularly the chapter on fundamentalism.\u00a0 I was saved in a Baptist church in the mid seventies and that church and denomination were inclined to represent a \u201cfundamentalist\u201d attitude.\u00a0 The writers describe that attitude as \u201cthe hurry to re-establish order out of the postmodern chaos\u201d where \u201cOne particular and specific fragment within a tradition is made the primary focus \u2026 then expanded into al all encompassing ideology and world-view through which life may be ordered afresh.\u201d[3]<\/a><\/p>\n My concern is that fundamentalism is being refreshed inadvertently in order to sell the news and many are being ill motivated.\u00a0 I have a good friend who is a medical doctor.\u00a0 He is a believer and the fundamentalist\/nationalist\/conservatism of some opinion\/journalist media types have caused him to mix up his political and theological ideas so that they have become one.\u00a0 This section was a good review of how fundamentalism as a dynamic can be ill fated.<\/p>\n This book is a handy reference tool to keep on the shelf.<\/p>\n