Category Archives: Biography

The Great Commission, Love, and Science

Posted on May 12, 2015 by theamericanplutarch

“Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation.” I have written a previous post about the Great Commission, as recorded in the Gospel of Mark, which is the basis for Christian missionary activity for the … Continue reading →

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Captain John Smith: Conqueror, Colonizer, Commissioner

Posted on April 22, 2015 by theamericanplutarch

The Sea Mark: Captain John Smith’s Voyage to New England, published by University Press of New England (http://www.upne.com/1611685169.html), juxtaposes three different mentalities and activities: the conqueror, colonizer, and commissioner. Smith the conqueror was a soldier who believed that whoever was … Continue reading →

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The Constitution and Religion

Posted on March 28, 2015 by theamericanplutarch

The framers of the Constitution developed their conceptions of religion and government based on a variety of sources: classical political theory, such as Aristotle; European political theory, such as Machiavelli; English political theory, such as Locke and Hobbes; but also … Continue reading →

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Jean Louis Berlandier

Posted on March 25, 2015 by theamericanplutarch

I am teaching this semester a course on the History of Science, and am using two of my books: Science in the Ancient World, and Frontier Naturalist: Jean Louis Berlandier and the Exploration of Northern Mexico and Texas. The latter … Continue reading →

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Pious Scientists

Posted on March 20, 2015 by theamericanplutarch

Oftentimes, missionaries in America were people of exceptional learning. Almon Bacone, for example, the founder of Bacone College, as a faculty member in the 1880s and 1890s taught an incredible number of subjects: Greek, Latin, rhetoric, English literature, logic, natural … Continue reading →

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Missionaries and Love

Posted on March 17, 2015 by theamericanplutarch

Missionaries and Love: There were many missionaries of many denominations who brought the Gospel to American Indians in the United States and Canada: Anglicans, Catholics, Methodists, Lutherans, Moravians, Presybterians, and Baptists. They shared a similar interpretation of the compelling call … Continue reading →

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Thinking–Fulbright Program

Posted on March 14, 2015 by theamericanplutarch

Thinking… I have done a lot of thinking on, and have become a scholar of, American Indian history. I backed into this field of intellectual endeavor by taking a job at Bacone College, where I began to have many Indian … Continue reading →

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Thinking

Posted on March 13, 2015 by theamericanplutarch

“I think, therefore I am.” This famous sentence comes from Rene Descartes the seventeenth-French philosopher. Descartes, a skeptic doubting all, looking for the basic rudiments of reality, discovered a core of reality in the awareness of his own being. By … Continue reading →

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In Praise of Alexander Posey

Posted on March 11, 2015 by theamericanplutarch

Alexander Posey, the Creek poet, was a student and librarian at Indian University, now Bacone College, in the 1890s. During his brief life (1873-1908), Posey published essays, satire, stories, and wonderful poems about nature, life, and death. He wrote whimsically … Continue reading →

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The Messenger’s Way

Posted on March 9, 2015 by theamericanplutarch

Carved on the northeast corner of the Bacone College chapel is this passage from the Old Testament: Micah, 6:8: He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good: and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly … Continue reading →

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