{"id":38292,"date":"2024-09-09T11:42:37","date_gmt":"2024-09-09T18:42:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=38292"},"modified":"2024-09-09T11:42:37","modified_gmt":"2024-09-09T18:42:37","slug":"has-anything-changed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/has-anything-changed\/","title":{"rendered":"Has Anything Changed?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do you ever look around the world today and notice all of the various issues with which we must contend?\u00a0 Do you ever wonder if things are different today than compared to the past.; do leaders face the same issues?\u00a0 King Solomon stated that there is nothing new under the sun, does that hold true today?[1]<\/a>.\u00a0 For this week\u2019s reading and blog, I found political writings by Duchess of New Castle, Margaret Cavendish published in 1662 titled Orations of Divers Sorts, Accommodated to Divers Places<\/em>.[2]<\/a>\u00a0 I thought it would be interesting to see a feminine view on various issues of her day.\u00a0 As I highlight some of her thoughts, done through the use of orations, we will discover that seventeenth century England and surrounding countries were dealing with some of the same issues and her thoughts are ideas that people still have in the twenty-first century.<\/p>\n

Cavendish was a woman a head of her time, she was the first woman to \"\"<\/a>be invited to attend a meeting of the Royal Society[3]<\/a>. \u00a0Yet, given the name Mad Madge after her death due to her writings and possibly the way she dressed.[4]<\/a>\u00a0 She was described by Virginia Woolf as \u201c\u2019a giant cucumber\u2019 choking the roses and carnations in an otherwise orderly garden of seventeenth-century literature.\u201d\u00a0[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

Cavendish In her orations takes readers throughout a journey to several different scenarios such as a marketplace in a metropolitan city, a battlefield amid a civil war, funerals and weddings.\u00a0 In her orations, Cavendish writes as if someone who is present in the scene is the one who is speaking, often a person of influence, such as a general, king, preacher, or councillor.\u00a0 Cavendish prefaces her orations by stating \u201cI have endeavored in this book to express perfect orators that speak perfect orations, as to cause their auditors to act or believe according to the orator\u2019s opinion, judgement, design or desire.\u201d[6]<\/a> Often, more than one person speaks in which Cavendish cleverly presents both sides of an issue.\u00a0 This is one of the key takeaways from her writings.\u00a0 A person in a position of power (leadership) needs to not only understand both sides of an issue but needs to be able to clearly articulate both sides of an issue. Through her writings Cavendish shows that she has given much thought to the concerns of European citizens living in the seventeenth century.\u00a0 As you read her writings you quickly discover that not much has changed in the last three hundred years.\u00a0 For example, Cavendish wrote orations giving both sides as to whether a country should go to war with its neighbors. In her Oration for War<\/em> Cavendish writes \u201cfor in peace you become ignorant of the arts of war, and living sluggishly you lose courage of men and become effeminate and having neither skill nor courage, you cannot expect safety.\u201d[7]<\/a>\u00a0 While in discussions with an enlisted friend of mine over the Fourth of July holiday, some of the same ideas were expressed.\u00a0 This person lamented the fact that he seems to be the only one of his equally ranked peers who routinely joins in the daily physical training exercises. He also complained of the overall laziness and carelessness of those under his command.<\/p>\n

Another topic that Cavendish touched upon is the role of the government and the role of the church and their relationship to each other. This was echoed throughout N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird\u2019s book Jesus and the Powers.[8]<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0 <\/em>In one oration Cavendish mentions that the failure to give persons liberty to believe and worship how they want will lead to a civil war.[9]<\/a>\u00a0 In another oration Cavendish states that \u201cif you give liberty in the church, you must give liberty in the state, and so let everyone do what they will, which will be a strange government, or rather I may say no government; for if there be no rules, there can be no laws, and if there be no laws there can be no justice, and if no justice, no safety, and if no safety no propriety, . . .[10]<\/a>\u00a0 This echoes the statements of Wright and Bird when they discuss anarchy compared to an established governmental system[11]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cavendish touched on several other topics that are relevant issues for those living in the twenty-first century, taxation, style of government (democracy versus monarchy), whether or not to have a standing army, etc.\u00a0 Cavendish also spoke on a hot topic that is very relevant today, gender roles.\u00a0 What is the role of women?\u00a0 Are they \u201cwitless and strengthless and unprofitable creatures, did they not bear children?\u201d[12]<\/a>\u00a0 Or should they \u201cimitate men, so will our bodies and minds appear more masculine, and our power will increase by our actions.\u201d[13]<\/a>\u00a0 This is a great debate that apparently leaders have wrestled with for hundreds of years and exists even yet today.\u00a0 We have countries, like Mexico, that have elected women as leaders, yet we have Christian denominations that disaffiliate churches because they choose to have women in the role of pastor.[14]<\/a><\/p>\n

Cavendish\u2019s orations were cleverly written, addressed topics that were relevant in the mid seventeenth century and appear to still be relevant across the world today.\u00a0 Cavendish showed that she could understand and communicate multiple sides to these topics and while many may have thought a female should not be involved in politics and political thought.\u00a0 Cavendish demonstrates her ability to think and clearly articulate her thoughts, very important tasks for any leader.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Ecclesiastes 1:9-10.\u00a0 Solomon wrote \u201cWhat has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. \u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Is there anything of which one can say, \u2018Look! This is something new\u2019? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.\u201d<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Margaret Cavendish.\u00a0 Orrations of Divers Sorts, Accommodated to Divers Places<\/em>.\u00a0 Susan James (ed).\u00a0 Cambridge UK, Cambridge Press 2003.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Michael Robbins, \u201cThe Royally Radical Life of Margaret Cavendish,\u201d The Paris Review, April 15, 2019, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/04\/15\/the-royally-radical-life-of-margaret-cavendish\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Megan Leyland, \u201cWomen in History: Margaret Cavendish,\u201d\u00a0 English Heritage, \u00a0accessed September 6, 2024, https:\/\/www.english-heritage.org.uk\/learn\/histories\/women-in-history\/margaret-cavendish\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Michael Robbins.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Cavendish, P. 118.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[7]<\/a>Cavendish, 130.<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird.\u00a0 Jesus and the Powers\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> Cavendish, 166-167.<\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> Cavendish, p. 167.<\/p>\n

[11]<\/a> Wright and Bird, 48.<\/p>\n

[12]<\/a> Cavendish, 249.<\/p>\n

[13]<\/a> Cavendish, \u00a0249.<\/p>\n

[14]<\/a> \u00a0Green and Peralta, \u201cMexico Elects its First Female President,\u201d NPR, June 3, 2024, https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2024\/06\/03\/nx-s1-4989334\/claudia-sheinbaum-poised-to-become-mexicos-first-female-president<\/a>;Siemaszko, \u201cSouthern Baptists Vote to Expel Two Churches Led by Female Pastors,\u201d\u00a0 NBC News, June 14, 2023,\u00a0 https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/us-news\/southern-baptists-vote-expel-two-churches-led-women-pastors-rcna89282<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do you ever look around the world today and notice all of the various issues with which we must contend?\u00a0 Do you ever wonder if things are different today than compared to the past.; do leaders face the same issues?\u00a0 King Solomon stated that there is nothing new under the sun, does that hold true […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":200,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3265,2967],"class_list":["post-38292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cavendish","tag-dlgp03","cohort-dlgp03"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/200"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38292"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38294,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38292\/revisions\/38294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}