medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
I saw Agora in the theater. Since I was teaching Early Western Civ this semester, I decided to offer students a little extra credit if they went to it, and about 30% of my students took me up on it. It proved a useful frame of reference for the Roman part of the course. The only problem is that too many of the students came away thinking that Hypatia had discovered the heliocentric theory. A number of my students were quite upset to discover that early Christians could be extremely violent and intolerant.
Andrew E. Larsen
On Nov 22, 2010, at 6:46 PM, Dr Jim Bugslag wrote:
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> Last weekend, my wife and I rented a recent movie that some listmembers might be interested in. It is a Spanish production, in English, called Agora. It is set in late 4th-century Alexandria, which by some reckonings, anyway, puts it in the early Middle Ages. Through the magic of computerized animation, the late-antique city of Alexandria is recreated in predictably impressive fashion. Yet, all this digital effort is not, as usual, just the scene of some larger-than-life battleground. There is a modest level of violence, but it is all street fighting between rival religious groups. What I found very interesting about this treatment is that it was not, as one might expect, simply championing the eventual winners of the contest, the Christians. The fictionalized account, in fact, revolves around a real, if shadowy historical figure, a female philosopher named Hypatia, whose combined religious tolerance and interest in science receives the most sympathetic treatment in the film. I know not how historically accurate it is, but the portrait painted of Cyril of Alexandria was certainly less than sympathetic, as was that of the Christian "mob". But so was the portrait painted of the followers of Serapis. And there were, as well, sympathetic characters, and crises of conscience, among all religious groups. Rather than championing a particular faith, the film attempted to focus on issues such as religious tolerance and intolerance, and the relation between reiigion and science, religion and politics, religion and society - with some fascinating resonances of contemporary religious concerns. We thought it was quite well done, but I'd be interested in what other listmembers thought of it, particularly those with a better grasp of that early period. The CD we rented also contained an interesting documentary on the city of Alexandria, an added bonus!
> Cheers,
> Jim
>
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