Friday, February 17, 2023

It is the 17th of February, 2023. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

February 17th- what a day to be born. Michael Jordan, Jim Brown, the guy who played Verno in Stand By Me, and a guy called Verno in school by his friends because of his similar naïveté (thanks, guys).  

Ok- so today we have a remarkable character you may not know- but I know you know some of the many remarkable people he interacted with in his life in early 20th century England. It was on this, the 17th of February in 1888, that Ronald Knox was born. Get this for a roll call: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie, Prime Minister Harold MacMillan, G.K. Chesterton, and then later both Eugene Peterson and Orson Welles.

Ok- so, Knox was born into an Anglican family- his father was an Anglican priest, and Ron would similarly train for a position in the Church of England. He went to Balliol College, Oxford, and was made college chaplain in 1912. He was involved in a few different circles at the college as both a student and chaplain- one was his work at the Gryphon Club- this was a debating society to which he belonged and gave a paper, “Studies in the Literature of Sherlock Holmes”- it was tongue-in-cheek using some popular higher critical models used on the Bible on the stories of Holmes to suggest that Watson made it all up. Despite being satire, it is credited with the birth of “Sherlockiana”- the academic study and sharing of papers based on the detective's fictional escapades.

He would join the Detection Club at Oxford, where he would get to know the likes of Chesterton, Sayers, and Christie. It was through Chesterton that he would move from his High Anglican or Anglo-Catholic theology to moving into the Roman Catholic Church. Both men attribute each other as the motivation for moving to the church of Rome. Through the Detection Club, he wrote his most famous work- not a work of theology but rather a kind of ten commandments for authors of detective stories. Boy, did I wish some of these were followed today- like, no more than one secret passageway, no undiscovered poisons, the detective cannot have committed the crime, If twin brothers have been duly introduced, no “deus ex machina,” or supernatural act can be involved.

As a tutor, he tutored Harold MacMillan, the future Prime Minister of England. In Knox’s last days, he would convalesce with his friend at 10 Downing Street.

His influence on Eugene Peterson came from his own translation of the Bible- the so-called “Knox Bible” was a modern translation of the Vulgate- an ambitious project that left some cold (how could you disgrace the elegant Latin for street language?) Recently a Catholic wrote an article about buying a used copy of the Knox Bible that used to be Eugene Peterson’s and contained all of his markings.

And the connection to Orson Welles? It was Knox’s fictitious 1926 "Broadcasting the Barricades” that Welles said inspired his own “War of the Worlds.” Knox invented the story of a riot in London- buildings destroyed, people looting, and it was read over the BBC, setting off a panic for a brief time.

One of the unfortunate aspects of his going to the Catholic Church is that his bishop asked him to cease writing detective stories- while this was a loss for lovers of fiction, it did lead to his translation of the Bible and his numerous commentaries.  

One more note: he wrote a book on the history of Enthusiasm in the church- I did a podcast on this very topic with my friends Gretchen and Katie on the Freely Given podcast here at 1517.

Knox would be diagnosed with cancer in 1957- the same year he died. The tutor, scholar, author of detective work, Bible translator, and Anglican and Catholic Priest died on August 24th of that year. Born in 1888, Ronald Knox was 69 years old.

The last word for today comes from the daily lectionary on our way to Ash Wednesday and Lent- this is from Hebrews 11:

24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. 25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. 27 By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible. 28 By faith he kept the Passover and the application of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 17th of February 2023, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man accused of Enthusiasm at his own church once when the organ was turned up a little too loud. He is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man up at church camp with youngsters this long weekend- pray for me and us! I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.