June 7, 2023
Pioneering The Parallel Economy For The Glory of God
by Joel Salatin, Plain Values
In animal husbandry and livestock production, probably the most common violation of God’s design is failure to mimic animal movement.
Whether it’s a horse paddock, dog run, or a 1,000 cow herd, keeping animals requires intentional and managed movement. Studying God’s design in nature reveals a remarkably sophisticated animal choreography. In the wild, animals don’t stay in the same place; they move—dramatically.
by ThinkingWest
In our third installment of the Great Books of Christianity, we explore the works hailing from one of the most tumultuous times in Christian history: the Reformation. As new forms of Christianity spread throughout the West, theologians on all sides sharpened their pens and duked it out on parchment. The theological battles that raged forever changed the way the West would worship.
So let’s take a look at the most important Christian works of the Reformation and Enlightenment, covering the years 1500-1800.
by Nic Stoltzfus, Plain Values
I first moved to Pennsylvania in the fall of 2018 to become caretaker of the Nicholas Stoltzfus Homestead in Reading. I was also nearing completion of a coffee-table book I was working on: German Lutherans to Pennsylvania Amish: The Stoltzfus Family Story. I was unsure about how it would go—although my father Elam was born Amish in Lancaster County and grew up there, I was a stranger to this region. I had never spent more than two weeks in Pennsylvania my whole life and didn’t know much about Amish culture and way of life. After all, I was a Floridian who was raised on grits and sunshine, not snow and scrapple.
I made it my mission to learn as much as I could about my Amish and Stoltzfus heritage, and this past year I learned a great deal.
by Ivan Keim, Plain Values
The balance between the blessings and pit-falls of modern-day technology can be hard to find. How do we balance using technology with staying connected to our community?
Answered by: Jerry D Miller, a minister in his local Amish church
We live in a planetary Art War. Want proof? Look at what is paraded in front of children in the name of Art in 2023. I am talking of course about the Drag Queens that have invaded public libraries across the Western Hemisphere. Why is this concept of drag queen “story time” so important to sexual revolutionaries? They seem to want to turn public spaces into the kindergartens of an androgynous cult. And it is a cult, as Russell Kirk would have defined it. Kirk outlined that the central cult practice of any group creates its culture, as worship informs the destiny of culture and civilization. For Apostolic Catholics, the central cult practice is the eucharistic liturgy as given by Saint Mark the Levite. We face the altar as Israelites and receive the story of our salvation in Christ, otherwise known as the Gospel. Yet the West has abandoned this Storytime for another cult promising its own good news of absolute freedom of expression.
by ThinkingWest
Christianity is no stranger to the great books of the West and stands out among the great books as the inspiration for many of the foundational works of philosophy, literature, and science. Thus, there are a subset of great books in the West that aim to study Christianity itself. The Medieval period (~600 AD – 1500 AD) is perhaps the richest time period for Christian writings, as it was during this period that Christianity grew from a fledgling religion only recently tolerated by Roman rule into the most dominating power Europe has ever seen. The Christian rise in Europe is special in many ways, in that (perhaps for the first and only time) a religious power displaced tribes and nations in the hierarchy of power.
Though many might (perhaps mistakenly) call the early part of this period the “Dark Ages”, many illuminating writings emerged for the consumption of Christians or their curious acquaintances. Ranging from neck-deep philosophical treatises on theology to practical guides to prayer, the great books of Christianity of the Medieval period built on the foundations laid by early doctors of the Church. The Medieval writers then strove to dig deeper, look higher, and paint with more colorful strokes the Christian picture that, quite literally, would inspire the art and imagination of later Christian generations. Here are those Medieval works of Christian genius belonging to the “great books of Christianity”.
by Rory Feek, Plain Values
April is my birthday month, which is always interesting for me. Each year, although I physically turn another year older, my mind never seems to age. The voice inside my head seems to stay forever young and stuck in another time, convinced that time stands still. But the face that I see in the mirror tells a different story. The lines around my eyes are like chapters carved in the book of life that I have lived, the life that I am living still.
When my wife Joey passed away in March 2016, and we came back home to the farm after being gone for five months, I had to find a way to keep living and somehow find new life. I had to find a way to take where we’ve been and all we have learned and carry it into where we are going. I had to find a way to go where God has been leading us all along.
by ThinkingWest
Perhaps no other topic has been written about in the West more than Christianity. In the past 2,000 years, tomes on the faith have been written by kings, monks, prophets, and laymen alike. One might conclude that no other faith has inspired, and been inspired by, great literature quite like Christianity. Therefore, in our next series of articles, we aim to highlight the most prolific literature of Christianity. These works were written to lead and inspire the faithful through practical application of teachings or by theological and philosophical exploration of Christianity’s mysteries. In this first installment, we will focus on the years 0-600 A.D. to investigate the earliest Christian works.
Let’s explore the most important works of the early church.
By Shawn and Beth, Plain Values
There’s no time like spring for seeing how bountifully God provides for His creatures, and that’s especially true here in central Appalachia, where young, green grass and blossoming fruit trees are everywhere we look. Our seven dairy cows put gallons of rich, creamy milk in the bucket every day. Their calves race around the pasture or lie in the soft grass and nap in the sun. Chicks in mobile pens scratch and forage, new feathers pushing through their baby down. Pigs are growing fast on skim milk and forage. We’re never more grateful for our small farm lifestyle than now when life is so beautiful and abundant.
by Joel Salatin, Plain Values
Last month I introduced the concept of the carbon economy for soil fertility and the numerous ways God designed soil fertility and development to run on sunbeams converted to biomass. From bison on the prairie to wildebeests on the Serengeti, perennial prairie polycultures pruned by herbivores chased by predators built the deepest and most fertile soils on the planet.
That’s the big picture, but how do we apply it to our gardens and farms? How do we catalyze on-site carbon development and utilization to build the organic matter by cycling biomass into the soil?
by Ivan Keim, Plain Values This Month’s Question: The balance between the blessings and pit-falls of modern-day technology can be hard to find. How do…
by John Heers, First Things Foundation
In this edition of Heavy Things Done Lightly, the plan is to take a walk through history to discover something like antecedents. Where does Darwin’s evolutionary theory come from? Is it a scientific discovery, or is it a philosophical treatise, one many thousands of years in the making?
But first, a look at how clunky the theory of evolution is in this bifurcated world of ours. It’s a good place to start when trying to answer our question.
