Nontheless, I consider myself a warm friend of Catholicism.
Among other things, I am very aware that Catholicism has inspired one of the most magnificent achievements of mankind, if not THE most magnificent achievement, namely the Renassaince.
All the same, I think the role of Gustavus Adolphus in European and World history is underestimated - and there's a lot of things to be said in favor of this standpoint.
Furthermore, I honestly think the ECONOMICAL achievements of Gothenburg, Gustavus Adolphus's City, is underestimated throughout Europe.
If the whole of Europe was like Gothenburg, one of the strongest regions in the area of economical performance of the continent, the EU GDP would be something 200% of its present figures.
It gets cold, windy and chilly here sometimes of year (but the summers are often wonderful) and people often complain about how hard they have to work, but believe me, life here is like it ought to be!
Hm. I wasn't aware that Catholicism had been defeated.
Reminds me of that little ditty: Nietzsche: God is dead. God: Nietzsche is dead.
I dated a girl from Gothenburg once. Even wrote her an entire letter in Swedish (with the help of a tourist's translation guide). She said it was quite a hoot.
The good king has a college in the US named after him...Gustavus Adophus College in St. Peter, MN...a good Lutheran school. My son is a proud alumnus.
Yeah, that's cool.
What's even cooler is that Catholicism saves the human race from an eternity in hell and brings joy and meaning to life on earth.
LOL, these threads tiltes between the Catholics and Proetestants are getting more edgy lol
I am curious about something. Is this the tradition that one sees up in areas of the midwest,like chicago etc) that have a special Christmas celebration. It escapes me right now but they do something special. I think it involves Candles
Gustavus Adolphus invented a military code of conduct that is the grandfather of our Uniform Code of Military Justice.
That's great!
Now let's all go out and celebrate by voting for Republican candidates on Tuesday. (Remember, Liberals and Democrats go to the polls on Wednesday.)
Sweden's famous Queen Kristina was a friend of Catholicism, too. Right?
I'm a California native, with a Swedish grandfather. His father Svanskog area, mother Hovmantorp/Lenhovda area. Hovmantorp/Lenhovda people reflected in Moberg's books. And ABBA's opera "Kristina från Duvemåla". Fictional character, based on my great-grandmother's half sister.
Give the Saab company mention, since it is not far from Gothenburg, either.
I thought Gothenburg now had really bad slums where rescue workers don't go without police escort. I think Sweden needs a new king to take on a new religion.
Mrs VS
Now maybe they can defeat Islam.
Interesting....
I spent a couple of weeks in and around Gothenburg and thought it had a Dutch "flavor". Many of the shop names seemed a strange blend of Dutch and Swedish. I chalked up to my own ignorance, or perhaps Hanseatic influence.
I used to work with a Dutch guy who said that he was at some sort of North Sea confab, and when people spoke in their national languages they couldn't understand one another but when they spoke their local dialects, they found them mutually intelligible. Who knows?
I also spent about 16 months in Swabia and the image of Gustavus Adolfus is not so rosy there, being as he killed about half its inhabitants during the Thirty Years War. It's a near miracle that G. A. didn't kill Kepler in Prague before he discovered Kepler's Laws. Most people don't appreciate that Kepler's greatest discoveries coincide with a period of intense hardship in that part of central Europe.
Interesting post. I know you've been a Freeper since July, but welcome to FR.
Yes, there were several great military leaders in the Thirty Years War, both Protestant and Catholic, and he was certainly one of them.
On the other hand, it turned out to be one of the most destructive and useless wars in history. First one side got the advantage, then the other, and in the end nobody won. The horrors of the war have been frequently portrayed, perhaps most notably in a contemporary work of fiction, "Simplicissimus."
The upshot of the whole war was to settle on the rule, "Cuius regius, eius religio," or, let the king decide the country's religion. So, they all stayed whatever they were before the whole thing started. Nothing was accomplished on either side. The only practical effect of the war was to give religion a bad name, as intolerant and destructive, and therefore to bring on the French Revolution and the triumph of secularism in Europe. It still resonates today in secularist charges that Christians are intolerant.
For full disclosure we, my wife (the First lady), and I are Catholic. So I guess some of us are still around. ;^)
Having said that, the Volvo engineers working on the Penta project in Tampa are some pretty cool guys, even though half of them are atheist. No matter, they developed a revolutionary boat engine that's awesome. Methinks maybe, just maybe Europe will be able to compete with the U.S. in the future...
...then again, not if Europe becomes EUrabia...
5.56mm
Concerning the cake:
Here's the background (in swedish):
Gustav Adolfsbakelse är en särskild bakelse till minnet av Gustav II Adolfs dödsdag den 6 november 1632. Bakelsen skapades 1880 av konditorn Carl Bräutigam på konditoriet Bräutigams på hörnet Östra Hamngatan/Kungsgatan i Göteborg, Sverige.
Bakelsen känns igen på en silhuett av Gustav II Adolf som pryder den. Bakelsens innehåll kan variera vilket även silhuetten, som ofta är gjord i marsipan eller choklad, kan göra. Modell för silhuetthuvudet av hjältekonungen är en gipsfigur som Curt Arnhult, som öppnade konditori i Göteborg på 1890-talet, köpte av en kringresande försäljare.
Roughly it translates like this:
Step 1: Use a lot of marsipan and chocolate in order to make this wonderful cake.
Step 2: Teach your children that in in other countries people enjoy life
Step 3: Teach your children that in in this country life is built.
One day, The whole of the World will be Swedish.
As a Swedish-American Lutheran, I am proud to call Gustavus Adolphus "the Great" (den Store)! He is a hero of both Sweden and Lutheranism!
Gustavus Adolphus was a great man, but he was no perfect saint. As a young man he fathered a child out of wedlock. But as King David was confronted by the prophet Nathan, so the young king of Sweden was admonished by his court chaplain, Johannes Rudbeckius. And Gustavus seemed to take it to heart, in repentance, faith, and amendment of life.
Gustavus Adolphus was a committed Lutheran, a devout and energetic man. He was troubled to see Lutheran and Protestant lands in Europe being retaken by the Catholic emperor, encroaching northward toward Sweden. This is why he intervened in the Thirty Years’ War. And if not for his daring German campaign (1630-32), all might have been lost. On June 25, 1630--100 years to the day after the Augsburg Confession--Gustavus Adolphus set anchor off the coast of northern Germany.
The Battle of Breitenfeld (1631) turned the tide. A monument there today reads, "Gustavus Adolphus, Christian and hero, at Breitenfeld saved religious liberty for the world."
Gustavus Adolphus made sure that his troops had regular religious services. And so, on the morning of November 6, 1632, before heading into the Battle of Luetzen, the king and his men sang two hymns by Luther, "A Mighty Fortress" and "May God Bestow on Us His Grace." Then they sang what has come to be known as, "Gustav Adolf's Battle Hymn," written by the king's chaplain, Johannes Fabricius. In Swedish the hymn is entitled, "Förfäras ej, du lilla hop”; we have it in our English hymnals (in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod) as "O Little Flock, Fear Not the Foe" (TLH 263/LSB 666) or "Do Not Despair, O Little Flock" (LW 300).
On the campus of Concordia Seminary here in St. Louis, there is a plaque that tells what happened that day: "This Archway is Dedicated to the Memory of GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS, King of Sweden, who gave his life that the Lutheran Reformation might live. Died at the battle of Luetzen, 1632. 'Förfäras ej, du lilla hop!'"
But would King Gustav II Adolf recognize the Sweden of today? Hardly! How the mighty have fallen! Gustav Adolf’s own battle hymn, "Förfäras ej, du lilla hop," is not even included in the current Swedish hymnbook! Too "militant," I suppose. The three things with which I most associate Gustav Adolf--nationalism, Lutheranism, and militarism--all are definitely out of favor in modern-day Sverige.
However, there are glints of sunlight breaking across the gray Swedish sky. A more conservative government has just come to power. And confessional Lutheranism is not dead yet in Sweden. There are some brave pastors and laymen there--I know many of them--still contending for the faith once delivered to the saints. Gustavus Adolphus would be proud of these developments. If you look for them, there are some exciting things happening in Sweden.
