medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
When we look at the
> records on both sides and do our best to analyze objectively what happened,
> then I think most people would, as I do, get discusted with them both.
Dear Kerry,
Is it really necessary to get disgusted with people's behaviour in the past? However
far (a debatable concept) we have managed to get at this point is due to our (and
"their") ancestors, of whatever persuasion, having learned at least something from
past mistakes. Not that we have managed to become perfect. Far from it. But
pointing fingers makes it all too easy to foist off all bad points on "them", leaving
one's conception of "us" (whoever one might be) squeeky clean. Many of my
students love to demonize the Middle Ages, totus porcus, because they smugly
believe in the superiority of their own society (which basically amounts to little more
than TV and malls, in their exalted estimation). Here we have a string in which the
focus is more on Christian vs Muslim. They are equally self-righteous, in my view.
It should be humbling that, whoever one is, whatever one's religion, and whenever
one exists (or existed, or will exist), there are evils to correct and improvements to
be made. Being human, we will probably never get it completely right. But one
only has to look to the sorry history of colonialism to see what results from a disgust
with "barbaric" practices -- more barbaric practices, carried out in the name of
righteousness. As has been noted, it is still happening -- on all sides. There must
have been some medieval saint (perhaps Christian, perhaps Buddhist, perhaps ???)
who balanced tolerance of others with an intransigent unwillingness to compromise
their own moral stance (perhaps someone can suggest one), but that, I believe, is
what is worth striving for in such matters. In fact, in all matters.
Cheers,
Jim Bugslag
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