medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Timothy,
First, thanks for your interesting and kind response.
I feel a bit unsure when we get on to the ground of
'democratized cognitive dissonances', but if you mean
that medieval and modern experiences of identity
conflict/crises were quite different, then I'm happy
to go along with that!
Another observation that occurs to me is that we would
appear to find the encounter with cultural difference
far easier to deal with than our medieval
predecessors. Far from feeling threatened by
difference, we often (though not always) feel
disappointed at the thought that cultural differences
are being worn away (by globalization, etc.).
Medieval encounters with other cultures were far more
likely to cause 'cognitive dissonance'. Conflict and
self-reflection in that sense was perhaps more real
and urgent in the medieval period than it is now.
Scott D Westrem's volume, "Discovering New Worlds"
contains some interesting articles in this light.
Best,
Scott
--- Timothy Ladd <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval
> religion and culture
>
> Thanks to Scott Matthews for the last Constable
> response. This is proving
> very fruitful for my thinking about issues dealing
> with the Reformation and
> religious belief in general.
>
> The following are my very inexpert cogitations:
>
> Scott points out that there are many atheists who
> are not in a crisis these
> days. I think that is true and true because of a
> real shift in our culture.
> The need for a personal God for many has simply
> disappeared. Meaning in life
> does not derive from a Supreme Mind watching over
> them. This is not to say
> that these people are Nietzscheans. By no means.
> They still believe in love,
> beauty and justice.
>
> I had a neighbor who told me in one sentence that
> the sunset is not beautiful
> -- we merely think so, or like to think so. In the
> next minute she was
> telling me about another neighbor who tied up their
> dog to the porch for the
> whole in the middle of winter. She called the cops.
> So beauty was out but
> justice was still in for her. This makes me think
> many atheists today are
> optimistic about a cosmic design but have no time
> for a designer. I find this
> understandable with all the bloodshed over which
> side of the egg should be
> venerated most.
>
> But don't even these happy American or Canadian
> atheists feel some sort of
> chilling bewilderment when one considers the
> scientific theories of the
> evolution of self-consciousness? And have we ever
> been more aware of our
> self-consciousness than now?
>
> In everyday life we believe in cause and effect for
> everything but our own
> minds. We tell ourselves that we are free even as we
> say that others are
> superstitious for expecting virility to come from
> consuming a loggerhead egg
> or tiger testicles. We live in a causally
> deterministic world without Fate.
> And we are not resigned to fate. We are the opposite
> of fatalistic. This too
> brings about a democratized cognitive dissonance
> that one needed great wealth
> and leisure to suffer from in the thirteenth
> century.
>
> No?
>
> Timothy Ladd
> Owosso, Michigan
>
> Graeci habeant sibi sapientiae nomen obscurum
> sed agamus igitur pingui ut aiunt Minerva in
> sermone.
>
>
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