Heaven on Earth: The Lives and Legacies of the World's Greatest Cathedrals

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The first 4-5 chapters in the book are fantastic. The chapter on Marx and Engels is one that I'll definitely re-read in the future since it was such a thorough account of these two. Also the later sections of the book (while it has issues that I outline below) is important to understand if you want to make sense of what China and Russia are up to today. The home should be set up to encourage imitation of adult activities. That is because adults are considered as templates of children on how it is to be human and whatever the child sees, will be copied. They just don’t imitate our “outer” gestures but also our “inner” ones. That is, how we move with purpose and conviction. For parents, this could be an onerous task because we might feel that we are imperfect human beings but the author assures us that: Muravchik does a good job of telling the story of socialism. It is all there: the French Revolutionaries, the Utopian Communes in 19th century America, the Marxists in Germany, the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, the Fascists, the revolutions in China and Cuba, the Scandinavian attempts at Social Democracy, Third World socialism, the Israeli Kibbutzim, and the New Left. In the newest edition, there is an epilogue that comments on its current revival, but my copy is an older one, and doesn't include that.

A child learns through sensory experience, gross and fine motor movements, and imitation. Learning is viewed a lifelong event in which the body, emotions, and the mind all come into play. (See Growth Mindset) From the time of conception, the fetus already starts to learn from his mother’s emotional state and the hormones she releases throughout the pregnancy. I would never have survived with the media in our life! I was far too busy to deal with the whining discontent the media creates in children! Because I relied entirely on my children's innate capacity to create, imagine, be active, and entertain themselves, they did exactly that. They never came begging for my attention, wanting to be entertained. How could I, a dull old grown-up, compare to their free-flying imaginative world?”

All of the socialist societies had to adapt capitalist tendencies in their economies to survive, which were completely against the original tenets of the socialism set forth by its original creators,such as Hess and Marx. Even the kibbutz that scholars and socialists have held up as examples that socialism can work (I remember reading about those in school)are starting to break down. The only small social communes that have been able to be relatively successful are those that revolve around religion, which ironically is something that most socialist leaders oppose. Through my research on child development (I'm a high school teacher, but a first-time mom) I have become extremely interested in Waldorf education. I'd never even heard of it until I started reading books like Simplicity Parenting and You Are Your Child's First Teacher. I guess it's not as nationally popular as the better-known Montessori education. And while Heaven on Earth does not explicitly say it is a Waldorf-inspired book, it is; and it is wonderful! As the primary role models of the child, self-care is a must for parents. "Your children need a role model who knows how to find joyful connection with himself and the world.” When you show your enthusiasm in doing activities that you love, such as playing the guitar or going to the museum, it will spill over. Although it was an excellent outcome, it was not the end of the story. After a hiatus of a couple of decades, new voices emerged, proposing to try it all over again. Innocent of all that had come before, they wanted to revive socialism. Notional knowledge may make a man excellent at praising the glorious and worthy acts and virtues of Christ; but that transforming knowledge that accompanies salvation, will cause a man divinely to imitate the glorious acts and virtues of Christ." (179)

The reason being, the central task of a parent is to guide the path in answering the fundamental question, “Who am I?” And a guides, parents are to set firm boundaries and inner rhythms wherein children have freedom within these containments (what is a gentler term for this?).

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But beyond that, the book is sound, it is orthodox, it is Biblical -- throughout Brooks points the reader to The Book and The One Who inspired it. His aim is to show "that believers may in this life attain unto a well-grounded assurance of their everlasting happiness and blessedness." He then goes on to examine the nature of that assurance, hindrances that keep believers from it, reasons to encourage believers to seek it, and how they can go about it, the difference between true and counterfeit assurance, as well as answering questions about assurance. Examining the doctrine from so many angles, you really feel (and probably do) that you come away from this book having an exhaustive look at the doctrine. Chapter 6 -- which takes more than its fair share of space, almost half of the book -- is an extended detour from the point of the book, but it still serves to support the theme. He begins by saying, "In the previous chapter, you saw the seven choice things which accompany salvation. But for your further and fuller edification, satisfaction, confirmation, and consolation, it will be very necessary that I show you," these seven choice things. Which are: (1.) What knowledge that is, which accompanies salvation.