In The Cold War: A New History, Yale history professor John Lewis Gaddis writes with skill that does justice to one of the most remarkable periods of history. His narrative isn’t simply chronological, but a presentation of the history seven times, from seven perspectives or themes. (Which reminds me of the book of Revelation – but I don’t have time to explore that analogy further.) The details of the story that have been revealed since the opening of the records from behind the former Iron Curtain are sometimes chilling and often change or at least challenge our old perceptions.
The highest drama for me, though, remains the rapid unravelling of communism in Europe in and around 1989. I’ve read several accounts of those events, and am always incredulous – though it happened in front of me.
Read this book!
Last year Tabletalk magazine asked me to write a little something on the ninth-century missionaries to the Slavs, Cyril and Methodius. That essay was published this month, and if you are curious you can read it online here. You can read it even if you aren’t curious.
You should note that it may appear that I am posing as a pastor, since they published the essay in their monthly column called the “Pastor’s Perspective,” which they describe thus: “Pastor’s Perspective is an opportunity each month for a different seasoned pastor to apply the themes discussed in Tabletalk more directly to the life of the layperson and equip the saints for service in the local congregation.” I’m no pastor, but I am different and even seasoned (after a fashion), and I didn’t know my words would be applied to this column till after it was published.
Today is a holiday in Slovakia. It’s the Slovak holiday that is most personal to me.
It’s the day we remember the Velvet Revolution. It’s odd to me that many of the Slovaks that I socialize and work with are too young to remember the events. But I will never forget those images on the television in 1989. Those were amazing times! And, in a way, they dramatically changed my life. Without that revolution, I suspect I wouldn’t be sitting here in Slovakia….
According to a feature article I read in the Slovak Spectator, before World War II Bratislava had a thriving coffee culture, on par with Vienna and Budapest. Communism put an end to it, though, because it was not safe for people to talk freely in public about “unapproved” ideas – anyone might be listening. But there are some people who care about the coffee culture, and they are promoting its restoration.
Unfortunately, I missed out on Coffee Day (October 17). If I only knew Slovak, I might not have missed it – and I could keep up with local coffee news on sites like this one.
The city we call Bratislava, now the capital of Slovakia, was once called Presburg and was for a time the capital of Hungary. The 19th-century engraving below depicts Bratislava castle on the hill overlooking the Danube (Dunaj).
