Monday, March 31, 2025

It is the 31st of March 2025. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

A very happy Monday to you- the last day of March- the CHA festivities start tomorrow for 10 days of anniversary fun for episode 2000. Ok- a question that has been sitting with me for a few weeks, and it comes from an old student of mine- Joe, somewhere in Northern California. Oh, the stories about Joe- coming to Early Modern England late- being disruptive but then becoming a good student and even marrying an even better student, Amanda. Unfortunately he is a fan of the baseball team in my area that has ruined the sport and revealed the necessity of a salary cap for competitive balance.

Ok- Dodgers bad- but a good question- Joe told me that he read a play called “Sonnez Les Matines”- (a line from Frere Jacques) it’s a mystery that takes place at the University of Paris when John Calvin and Ignatius of Loyola were both students there. There is no evidence they ever met, but they were at school at the time- and J.C. Scharl adds Rabelais to the mix for the murder mystery.

Joe wondered if there were any friendships across the Reformation/Counter-Reformation divide. So, this lead me on a trek to find some unlikely friendships- unfortunately, during the Reformation we don’t find many- and if there were it would be career suicide to let it be known. So, I have a list of the 5 friendships across theological divides with #1 being a famous Protestant/Catholic friendship.

#5- How about John Owen and John Bunyan- Owen, the towering theologian at Oxford, and Bunyan, the self-taught author and tinkerer. Despite their differing levels of education and social status (and some theological differences), they were good friends.

#4 George Whitefield and Ben Franklin. Franklin was not a fan of Orthodox Christianity but respected Whitefield, he tells a story of going to hear him preach and being determined not to put anything in the offering plate- but he was so moved he emptied his pockets when it came by. It’s a fascinating relationship between two big names- and two representatives of major schools of thought in pre-Revolution America- the Christian and the Enlightenment Deist.

#3 Whitefield strikes again. I’ve got Whitefield and the Wesleys. Friends, fellow “revivalists” but from different sides of Reformation theology with Whitefield being a strict Calvinist and the Wesleys emphasizing free will. They could be at each other's throats over theological points while remaining friends- and it was Whitefield who told Charles Wesley that his Christmas song was great, but no one knows what a “welkin” is- as in “Hark How the Welkin Ring”- Whitefield suggested “Hark the Herald Angels” has a better ring to it…

#2 Martin Luther and Philip Melanchthon- the reformer and his right hand man lived on the same street in Wittenberg, separated by a 2 minute walk. Later Lutherans would make a stink about which school of thought they favored, but the truth is they needed each other- the voice and the brain of the early Lutheran Reformation.

And number 1- and this was a friendship spanning the reformation divide- C.S. Lewis and J.R.R Tolkien. Tolkien, the Catholic, and Lewis, the Anglican family, met at the Eagle and Child and were close enough to criticize each other works (I’m on team Lewis here, but I’ll admit most fantasy stuff escapes me). They would have a falling out over Lewis’ decision to marry Joy Davidman- being that she was divorced, this was a big no-no for the Catholic Tolkien, but they reconciled shortly before Lewis’ death. There is a graphic novel called “The Mythmakers” I’ve heard great things about- maybe I’ll check that out and the play Joe referenced as well- Sonnez les Matins- thanks for the question and send me some if you’d like- tomorrow starts our 10 days of CHA fun, some mailbag stuff, some behind the scenes stuff- go to 1517.org/chacelebrate for your tote bag and behind the scenes video and to sin up for the first live CHA ask me anything on April 10th.

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and Revelation 19- the three-fold hallelujah over the fall of Babylon:

After this I heard what sounded like the roar of a great multitude in heaven shouting:

“Hallelujah!
Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,
    for true and just are his judgments.

He has condemned the great prostitute

    who corrupted the earth by her adulteries.

He has avenged on her the blood of his servants.”

And again they shouted:

“Hallelujah!

The smoke from her goes up for ever and ever.”

The twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God, who was seated on the throne. And they cried:

“Amen, Hallelujah!”

Then a voice came from the throne, saying:

“Praise our God,

    all you his servants,

you who fear him,

    both great and small!”

Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting:

“Hallelujah!

    For our Lord God Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and be glad

    and give him glory!

For the wedding of the Lamb has come,

    and his bride has made herself ready.
Fine linen, bright and clean,

    was given her to wear.”

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 31st of March 2025, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who knows the Good News that the Eagle and Child- the Oxford Pub where Lewis and Tolkien met up is back open! He is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who knows the bad news is that the pub was bought by an eccentric American billionaire who also bought one of the Hawaiian islands…  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.