Wednesday, October 28, 2026

It is the 28th of October 2026. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

300 years ago today, the British public was introduced to a fictional traveler: Lemuel Gulliver. Behind the fictional traveler was an imaginary author, and behind the imaginary author was one Irish priest whose name would become synonymous with satire: Jonathan Swift.

 

Gulliver’s Travels was released on this day in 1726- and there was some controversy from the outset. Benjamin Motte published it anonymously- it seemed to him far too scandalous to have a priest seem to acknowledge or affirm what seemed like attacks on religion and culture. Motte also knew that the news of this work would spread quickly and could be pirated. And so in the fall of 1726 he had 5 different printers working on the text such that it would be available in two volumes on this day.

 

It has been edited and adapted over the years- I knew it first as a Mickey Mouse cartoon, and many of us are familiar with the land of the Lilliputians- very small people that make Gulliver seem like a giant. But the story goes on- it includes the land of Brobdingnag- this is where giants make Gulliver seem like a little person.

 

Gulliver travels to a floating island in the sky, Laputa, and to its subservient island below, Balnibarbi. In contrasting life amongst giants and little people, and life in the sky and on the ground, Swift seems to be targeting human pride. It’s theological parallel is that of 200 years prior: Erasmus’ “In Praise of Folly”. On their faces, both works seem to be misanthropic- pointing out the “folly” of human wisdom. But both works are highlighting the hubris of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. The “yahoos,” a word coined by Swift, looked like Humans but were so debased and led about by their own appetites that they began to look downright savage to the race of Houyhnhnms- a species that looks like horses (and whose name is onomatopoeia for the sound the horse makes) and are, in fact, the more civilized of the creatures. This inversion, as well as the attack on the philosophers of Laputa, make for interesting social commentary, but haven’t always made the adaptations that focus more on “what would it be like to be a giant or little person amongst the opposite size.

 

Swift's most forward attack on the church and how she handles controversies comes about in the story of the eggs amongst the Lilliputians. Some are big-enders, and others are little-enders. The “end” refers to the end of the boiled egg which is cracked first. As the story goes, all good people broke the big end first. Until a royal child cut his finger doing so, and thus it was decreed that the little end be broken first. This led to six rebellions, an emperor killed, and an emperor deposed, thousands of people executed, and exiles sheltered by a rival empire. All of this because of the interpretation of a text that was said to have taught the practice of breaking the egg on the “Big End”.

 

Gulliver discovers the text at hand that has led to the egg controversies- it read: “That all true believers break their eggs at the convenient end.” The joke is that the text being fought over seems to have been misinterpreted in the first place. Who determines the “convenient end”? Is it up to the individual? A ruler? The clergy?

 

Swift had already engaged in religious satire with his “The Tale of the Tub” two decades earlier- in it, three brothers representing different Christian traditions argue over how best to read their father’s will and use their inheritance. While Swift himself was a priest in the church of Ireland- and thus part of the Anglican tradition he knew where to poke his own church as well as the Catholic and other Reformation traditions.

 

Swift's most famous satire outside of Gulliver might be A Modest Proposal… an attack on how the poor were seen by the wealthy in Ireland.

 

If you know anything beyond Gulliver’s Travels and A Modest Proposal, it might be that Jonathan Swift was the first to approve his cathedral singers' participation in a small production to aid Irish Orphans… something performed by a “club of fiddlers on Fishamble Street”- it was Handel’s Messiah.

 

Today we remember the man who once made a proposal that the rich eat the children of the poor, to helping launch a beloved Christmas masterpiece to the work he is primarily known for, which poked fun at human pride and criticized the follies of some Christians- he was Jonathan Swift, and his Gulliver's Travels was published on this, the 28th of October, 300 years ago in 1726.

 

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and another story that seems to sometimes be misunderstood on its face from Matthew 19:

16 Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”

17 “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”

18 “Which ones?” he inquired.

Jesus replied, “‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, 19 honor your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’”

20 “All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”

21 Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

22 When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 28th of October 2026 brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who prefers his eggs deviled and his choirs angelic- he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who might like deviled eggs more than just about anything… send me your favorite recipes… I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.