Wednesday, March 26, 2025

It is the 26th of March 2025. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

Sometimes, it's fun to cleanse our palette from some of the more serious stuff to hear a story from our collective past about a character who is a little more eccentric and, for today’s character, also electric.

But first a thought about science—all of us moderns know what that is: it comes in textbooks, has experiments, and knows the ‘real facts’ about the world as opposed to philosophies or theologies. In fact, we’re taught that ‘science’ stands on one side with ‘religion’ on the other.

Except this is a wholly modern conception. The word ‘science’ even less than 200 years ago just meant ‘knowing’ and didn’t have a connection to what they called “natural philosophy”, that is what we call ‘science’ today. The realms of knowing were much more fluid, and this is one of the reasons we find so many characters (like Isaac Newton most recently) who dabble in “science and religion” or what they would call a natural philosophy and, say, a “supernatural philosophy”.

One man who blended both of these vocations was the Czech priest Prokop Diviš, who was born on this day in 1698 in Helvíkovice, Bohemia (today the Czech Republic). He was educated by Jesuits and took his doctorate of theology in 1733. He was ordained and served as both a parish priest as well as a prior in an abbey. It was a prior that he experimented with the natural world- his book “Magia Naturalis” would promote the use of electric pulses, often by using magnets for health and music. He is sometimes credited with the first “electric” instrument, the “Denis D’or,” a large cabinet with metal strings and magnets that would be manipulated by the hands and feet to imitate different stringed instruments. Only one was ever made, and many assumed the stories they heard about it were not serious. His interest in electricity (and how we might harness it from the earth) was piqued when he heard about a Russian professor electrocuted when trying to measure electricity in the atmosphere with a metal instrument.

Divis began work on a complex “weather machine” that would collect electricity from the atmosphere and thus eliminate random lightning strikes. It turns out it was a very complex- overly complex- lighting rod (‘invented’ as it was parallel to Ben Franklin’s experiments in North America).

But it seems that this experiment- taking up the early 1750s for Divis did not make him popular amongst the people of the local parish he was called to serve. Following the very publicized completion of his “weather machine,” the countryside experienced a drought, leading the people to see the priest’s electric tower of babel, trying to frustrate God’s nature- formed a mob and destroyed the device. Divis superiors are said to have told him to make less noise with the electricity stuff, and apparently, this meant, to him, to build a tinier version of the device and attach it to his church’s steeple. Prokop Divis would die in 1765; born on this day- the Electric Priest, the European Franklin, was 67 years old.

Hey, I wanted to jump in as we have been getting the videos and comments- you all saying “everything is going to be ok” and you getting the limited edition tote bags. Make sure you sign up for our “Ask me anything” live show- April 10th, I believe- on YouTube, I think- wild stuff. The team at 1517 is doing some really cool stuff- and I really have appreciated hearing from so many of you I will be doing mailbag and countdowns and a bunch of fun stuff for the shows starting April 1st- so we will do 10 days of special stuff go over to 1517.org/chacelebrate for more information and send me your questions at danv@1517.org. 

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and Luke 13- maybe the shortest parables (and just kinda “left there”):

18 Then Jesus asked, “What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to? 19 It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds perched in its branches.”

20 Again he asked, “What shall I compare the kingdom of God to? 21 It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.”

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 26th of March 2025 brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who- as an audio engineer is happy I left out any Czech puns… 1,2,1,2… he Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who… you see “like ‘Check’ that you say into a microphone and ‘Czech’ like the people from old Bohemia… 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.