medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
> >I don't know if I am alone in this, but I am heartily sick of the
> >Shroud of Turin - genuine or fake. The use of relics to bolster faith
> >is a bit like attempts by some conservative Christians ( I will not
> >use the "F" word!) to seize upon "evidence" from archaeology to
> >"prove" the truth of the Bible.
>
> No, you are not alone. The constant resurrection of "academic debate"
> (and not so academic debate) is tiresome and belittling, as well.
I can certainly understand such feelings, but I wonder whether we can learn something
further from this string. In the extreme lack of consensus on this issue -- not to mention the
heated level of debate -- what we have here is a "discourse", i.e. a range of positions based
on different religious and/or ideological dispositions, rather than a single all-encompassing
"position" that defines our contemporary social situation. It strikes me that, when anything to
do with the thaumaturgical is involved, such a discourse is the normal state of affairs, not just
now, but traceable back to the earliest recorded Christian writings on relics, holy places,
eucharistic concerns, etc. Some historians, however, are all too ready to reduce the situation
in, say, the Middle Ages to a one-dimensional, single-position issue that can be easily stated
and communicated, rather than to try more laboriously to reconstruct historical discourses.
Was there ever a time when *everybody* believed *exactly* the same thing about the Shroud
of Turin, or any other relic, for that matter? I do not believe there was. There is now a
tendency, I am beginning to believe for, particularly practicing Christians who study the
Middle Ages (but in fact everyone who does so), to ascribe to it a sort of retrospective
orthodoxy that validates current beliefs and that, concurrently, ignores -- or even denies --
inconveniently unorthodox ones. It may even be impossible to have anything like a
*disinterested* debate on such a passionately considered issue! But if one keeps one's cool,
it can perhaps still be instructive for all concerned.
Cheers,
Jim Bugslag
**********************************************************************
To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME
to: [log in to unmask]
To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask]
To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion
to: [log in to unmask]
In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask]
For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html
|