{"id":1489,"date":"2016-06-29T20:31:48","date_gmt":"2016-06-30T00:31:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pilgriminstitute.org\/blog\/?p=1489"},"modified":"2019-04-13T21:52:26","modified_gmt":"2019-04-14T01:52:26","slug":"my-characterization-of-mary-elaine-swanson-by-james-b-rose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pilgriminstitute.org\/blog\/my-characterization-of-mary-elaine-swanson-by-james-b-rose\/","title":{"rendered":"My Characterization of Mary-Elaine Swanson by James B. Rose"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Characterizing Mary-Elaine Swanson (1927-2011)<\/p>\n

And her book,<\/p>\n

\u201cJohn Locke \u2013 Philosopher of American Liberty\u201d<\/p>\n

Nordskog Publishing, 2012<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

By James Rose, President, American Christian History Institute<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

My characterization of Mary-Elaine<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Quickened by the research and remarkable testimony of Verna M. Hall, American Christian Historian, Mary-Elaine Swanson (nee Adams) devoted her spiritual and intellectual gifts for the last fifty years to documenting the Christian history and character of the men and women God used to advance individual liberty and self-government in America.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Equipped with a background in journalistic writing and research, fluent in French, and enriched with a unique English heritage, Mary-Elaine has lectured and written on the history of freedom and civil government as Vice President of the American Christian History Institute, Resident Scholar for the Mayflower Institute, Chief Biographer for the Foundation for American Christian Education, and Guest Lecturer for the Pilgrim Institute.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 She wrote concise biographies of the character and contributions of nearly eighty historians from Simon Adler and Clarence Alvord to John Witherspoon and Rev. John Joachim Zubly. Her life and works are examples of American Christian scholarship and insistence upon accurate, honest representations of man and government.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Mary-Elaine wrote two comprehensive biographies: The Education of James Madison \u2013 A Model for Today (1992) and John Locke \u2013 Philosopher of the American Revolution (Nordskog Publishing, 2012). These two works alone cited over 160 individual historians, confirming her commitment to thorough research and devotion to primary sources.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Among the cherished personal recollections of this beloved sister in the Lord is my first impression of her, in 1958, over 50 years ago. She was Co-Chairman of a Study Group on the Historic Origins of the Constitution<\/em> held monthly at the Women\u2019s City Club in downtown San Francisco. A lively, quick witted, articulate discussion leader, she was gifted with a capacity to frame questions that compelled one to reason carefully from first principles and to quickly learn that any error in the premise would lead to an error in the conclusion.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It is with great joy that her friends and associates celebrate Mary-Elaine Swanson\u2019s life of Christian scholarship and her love of learning and teaching America\u2019s Christian history and government and, in the spirit of the Apostle Paul, to REMEMBER \u201cwithout ceasing (her) work of faith, and labor(s) of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the sight of God our Father; knowing brethren beloved, (her) election of God\u201d. [1 Thessalonians 1:3-4]<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Why her book is so important<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This book is important to understanding the roots of American liberty because, (1) for 150 years prior to the War of Independence, \u201cthe great Mr. Locke\u201d was the most quoted author on political philosophy in Colonial America. (2) In particular, the Clergy paraphrased large sections of his Second Treatise on Civil Government. And, (3) Locke was the primary exponent of the philosophy of the Law of Nature and natural rights in Colonial America.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The reader will also learn to value the influence of John Locke on three revolutions occurring in three different continents (only one revolution<\/em> was defensive and a true return to base) and his extraordinary influence on three American Declarations of liberty and law.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Furthermore, it is important that conscientious citizens rediscover and understand the historic and Biblically reasoned roots of the vocabulary of liberty<\/em> which John Locke and the Founding Fathers used to articulate and advance Constitutional liberty \u2013 words and phrases such as conscience, self-government, property, law and liberty, natural law, natural right, Law of Nature, revolution, toleration and voluntary union, among other terms.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Contemporary textbooks and news commentators unlearned in the historical standards of reference once used to define and maintain individual liberty, reveal the degree to which we are ignorant of the influence (and blessings) of the Bible on American political thought. This book will help correct that error.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The author was committed to reason and writing from historically documented primary sources on or written by John Locke as well as dedicated to an unashamed conviction in God\u2019s Providence \u2013 the \u201cProvidential approach\u201d to history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Characterizing Mary-Elaine Swanson (1927-2011) And her book, \u201cJohn Locke \u2013 Philosopher of American Liberty\u201d Nordskog Publishing, 2012 \u00a0 By James Rose, President, American Christian History Institute \u00a0 My characterization of Mary-Elaine \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Quickened by the research and remarkable testimony of Verna M. Hall, American Christian Historian, Mary-Elaine Swanson (nee Adams) devoted her spiritual and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,104],"tags":[10,67,23,9],"class_list":["post-1489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-americas-christian-history","category-blog","tag-americas-providential-history","tag-american-christian-education","tag-liberty","tag-principle-approach"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pilgriminstitute.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pilgriminstitute.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pilgriminstitute.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pilgriminstitute.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pilgriminstitute.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pilgriminstitute.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1489\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pilgriminstitute.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pilgriminstitute.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pilgriminstitute.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}