Dear all,
As I have received several reminders both on and off the list, including a
well deserved personal reminder that I cannot expect rules to be followed
if I don't follow them myself, it seems that I should take on a more
administrative pose again and ask that we, including myself, cut all
current or planned threads which could give the impression that it is *not*
the primary or even exclusive purpose of this list to discuss medieval
religion from historical and scholarly points of view.
Sylvan, this list is not a forum for defending current views or politics of
the Church or of other religious communities or institutions, nor is it a
forum for attacking them. In our contributions we are free, as scholars and
students of medieval history, to correct misrepresentations of the past,
and we may occasionally see the need to point out that there is a current
agenda behind such misrepresentations, but in doing so we should strive for
a style of dialogue which gives the members of the community in question a
chance to consider and accept our argument.
Josef, your proposal to discuss the (historical) possibilities or
impossibilities of a certain current agenda "reclaiming the mindset of the
Fathers" is not totally unrelated to the topic of this list. Yet, on the
other hand, such a discussion might easily lead to the sort of controversy
where historical scholarship of the past is overruled by present religious
or other concerns. As we want to avoid controversies of this kind, please
let us rather drop this thread.
Pat, everybody is free and invited to discuss non-Christian medieval
religions on this list. Nobody so far has objected to including them, and
just in case that anybody will object be assured that the list-owners will
take care of the matter and will inform the objector that discussions on
this list are actually *not* confined to Christian or even to Roman
Catholic religion.
This is still a very good list and so we can afford a tangential thread (or
a little conflict) from time to time, but it seems now about time to avoid
tangential threads for another while.
Yours,
Otfried
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Otfried Lieberknecht ([log in to unmask], http://www.lieberknecht.de)
D-12163 Berlin, Schoeneberger Str. 11, tel. ++49 +30 8516675
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