It is the birthday of the philosopher Søren Kierkegaard (above), who was born today in 1813 to the wealthy family of a Copenhagen wool merchant. Young Søren went on to write brilliantly and prolifically about Christianity, ethics, God and existence, frequently attacking organized religion and superficial faith.
‘Who am I? How did I get into the world? Why was I not asked about it, why was I not informed of the rules and regulations but just thrust into the ranks as if I had been bought from a peddling shanghaier of human beings? How did I get involved in this big enterprise called actuality? Why should I be involved? Isn’t it a matter of choice? And if I am compelled to be involved, where is the manager — I have something to say about this. Is there no manager? To whom shall I make my complaint?’ Søren Kierkegaard, ‘Fear and Trembling’
Today in 1925, a high school teacher, John Scopes, was arrested in Dayton, Tennessee, for teaching his students the theory of evolution – something that had been made a criminal offence in Tennessee a few weeks earlier. The trial turned into a media circus, and sharpened the divide between fundamentalist Christians who believed in Adam and Eve, and progressives who stood for freedom of speech and science. It took a further 40 years before Tennessee’s Butler Act, which had caused the problem, was repealed.
It is also the birthday of Karl Marx, who was born in Trier, Germany, today in 1818. He was the grandchild of rabbis on both sides of his family, but his father, a well off, vineyard-owning lawyer, had his children, Karl included, baptised into the Lutheran Church when they were young.
Today in 1961, Queen Elizabeth II of England visited Pope John XXIII at the Vatican. The date was specially chosen, as it was the feast day of Pope St Pius V, who had foolishly excommunicated Queen Elizabeth I in 1570, and told her English subjects they no longer owed alleigance to her.
Frederick the Wise of Saxony died today in 1525. His protection of Martin Luther in the early years of Luther’s protest against the Pope were crucial to the success of the Reformation. In spite of that, Frederick was a devout Catholic who personally owned 20,000 relics with the combined power to knock 1,902,202 years and nine months off your cooking time in purgatory.
The Second Council of Constantinople, called by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I, opened for business today in the year 553. Its main work was to deal with the Eastern Church’s hugely complicated differences of opinion about Christology. One eye-catching headline of the council was that Mary should properly be called the Mother of God (in Greek, Theotokos), rather than the Mother of Christ.
Image: Royal Danish Library