The Manifest Propensity of Jesus?

“Manifest Propensity” Explained

“Manifest Destiny”

This painting (circa 1872) by John Gast called American Progress, is an allegorical representation of the modernization of the new west. Here Columbia, a personification of the United States, leads civilization westward with American settlers, stringing telegraph wire as she sweeps west; she holds a school book. The different stages of economic activity of the pioneers are highlighted and, especially, the changing forms of transportation.

The purpose of this post is to explain why this blog is called “Manifest Propensity.” I have said a few things in this regard, but have never offered a full explanation. The name comes from two sources. The first source you may have guessed due to the verbal similarity.

Bob Dylan’s “Political World” – On infidels, the politics of force, and General Clausewitz

General Carl von Clausewitz 1780-1831

Bob Dylan, in the songs “Political World”  and “Sweetheart Like You,” and in an excerpt from “Chronicles Volume 1,” presents a fairly negative view of our political world. But I find his negative assessment to be difficult to argue with.

Is America now a nation of “the blind leading the blind”?

The Blind Leading the Blind, illustration for ‘The Life of Christ’, c.1886-94 by Tissot, James Jacques Joseph (1836-1902); watercolour and gouache on paperboard; Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, USA.

Is America a now nation of “the blind leading the blind?” This post will present some evidences from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Jacques Ellul, and Donald Bloesch, that seem to demonstrate that our “guided democracy” amounts to “the bind leading the blind.”