History of Christianity

[SolomonVII]

The second video spends a good deal of time on American Christianity, and notes how in America religion has entered the market place of ideas. Ministers have to consciously or unconsciously sell their faith in competition with others.

Rather than seeing that 'disunity' as a proof against Christianity or Protestantism, competition might actually be seen as advancing the revolution of the Reform, and putting the truth claims of any faith to the real test, inasmuch as the ones that offer the answers to the individual Christians looking for answers, are the faith traditions that are rising to the top.

It also notes how Catholicism is lurching into the modern world, first mostly in reaction against modernism and Americanism, but now recently in deep reflection upon the role that traditionalism has played in the Holocaust.
Eastern Orthodoxy does not get much of a mention after the fall of Constantine, except to mention Russia as the Third Rome.

 

[Sean611]

Thanks for sharing these videos LiberalAnglicanCatholic, I look forward to watching. It may take me a few days, but I will be sure to give my thoughts when I finish.

 

[SolomonVII]

The alliance of Church and State was not always bad.

The Byzantine Empire protected Christianity up until its fall.

The video points out how the popes encouraged the formation of a Second Emperor(Charlemagne) in order to gain some independence from the Emperor of the East. It also takes note of how this was a direct affront to the first Christian model, based on a one God, one Emperor symbolism.

 

[Targaryen]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG55ErfdaeY

First side note: I love the vlogbrothers and specially John Green! lol Thanks for sharing that video ChristsSoldier!

Second of all: The christian model of One God,One Emperor was an afront to Byzantines true, but more an afront to it's then seemingly stronger model of Empire then that of the West.

Rome too was a certain in it's own attmempts of superiority concerning the Primacy of Rome in the Church, that is the case throughout the church's history as much as matters of faith, the issue of power.

 

[GratiaCorpusChristi]

I made a very general observation, that the alliance of church and state dramatically changed the churches.

To the point where some would no longer view them as such.

Carry on.

No, you blamed Constantine specifically. You can't go back and claim you didn't write things that you did in fact write. One of the advantages of a message board.

 

[squint]

No, you blamed Constantine specifically. You can't go back and claim you didn't write things that you did in fact write. One of the advantages of a message board.

It's a great point to observe the blend. So what?

 

[SolomonVII]

A possible inconsistency in this history series is the claim that it was Irish monks that preserved 90 or 95% of all the ancient learning, and the subsequent claim that it was Moorish Spain that was the source of this knowledge for Europeans.

 

[MoreCoffee]

A possible inconsistency in this history series is the claim that it was Irish monks that preserved 90 or 95% of all the ancient learning, and the subsequent claim that it was Moorish Spain that was the source of this knowledge for Europeans.

History is always way more complicated than a 6 hour presentation makes it out to be. The truth is that the Irish did preserve a great deal of Latin culture as well as their own Celtic culture and it is also true that the Muslims in Spain contributed a great deal to Spanish knowledge and culture.

 

[~Anastasia~]

History is always way more complicated than a 6 hour presentation makes it out to be. The truth is that the Irish did preserve a great deal of Latin culture as well as their own Celtic culture and it is also true that the Muslims in Spain contributed a great deal to Spanish knowledge and culture.

Input and correction is appreciated ... I plan to go back and watch the series in a couple of days when I should have more time. I think I am about ready to learn more about these things. And it's not always easy to "unlearn" so I'd rather have decent sources to begin with.

 

[SolomonVII]

History is always way more complicated than a 6 hour presentation makes it out to be. The truth is that the Irish did preserve a great deal of Latin culture as well as their own Celtic culture and it is also true that the Muslims in Spain contributed a great deal to Spanish knowledge and culture.

History is more complicated than any story can be made to give an accurate representation of it, either in six hours or sixty times six hours.

90 % of the knowledge being preserved in Ireland leaves 10 % of the ancient knowledge coming from other sources.

In the retelling of the story of what is foundational in western civilization, understanding those numbers give perspective.

 

[MoreCoffee]

History is more complicated than any story can be made to give an accurate representation of it, either in six hours or sixty times six hours.

90 % of the knowledge being preserved in Ireland leaves 10 % of the ancient knowledge coming from other sources.

In the retelling of the story of what is foundational in western civilization, understanding those numbers give perspective.

Of course it is also possible that the percentage of preserved knowledge is very much less than the total amount of knowledge in a given culture and it is also possible that the Irish contribution was geographically constrained so that knowledge and culture in Spain was less touched by Ireland than by Moorish Spain. Right?

 

[SolomonVII]

Of course it is also possible that the percentage of preserved knowledge is very much less than the total amount of knowledge in a given culture and it is also possible that the Irish contribution was geographically constrained so that knowledge and culture in Spain was less touched by Ireland than by Moorish Spain. Right?

In which case the Irish monks did not so much preserve the knowledge for Europe, since it would just be happenstance that it was later discovered tucked away in the monasteries after Europe already came across the knowledge from other sources.

That is to say that the Irish monks would have played no role at all in that kind of scenario.
Therein lies the contradiction.

The analogy would be that Columbus is credited with discovering the New World for Europe, and not the Vikings. Even if it is historically true that the Vikings surely did sail to North America, even as far as Minnesota, it is as academic as the Chinese discovery of the pacific coast of British Columbia.

 

[GratiaCorpusChristi]

In which case the Irish monks did not so much preserve the knowledge for Europe, since it would just be happenstance that it was later discovered tucked away in the monasteries after Europe already came across the knowledge from other sources.

That is to say that the Irish monks would have played no role at all in that kind of scenario.
Therein lies the contradiction.

The analogy would be that Columbus is credited with discovering the New World for Europe, and not the Vikings. Even if it is historically true that the Vikings surely did sail to North America, even as far as Minnesota, it is as academic as the Chinese discovery of the pacific coast of British Columbia.

However, the preservation of the ancient heritage in the Irish monasteries absolutely DID have a major impact on European history. Their preservation of the Platonist tradition played a major role in the development of theology and the cultural history of Europe more generally in the age of Charlemagne. There's a reason the foremost theologian of that age was called John Scotus Erigena.

What was really different was the arrival of Aristotelean texts from the Reconquista of Moorish Spain and the 1204 Sack of Constantinople. Those are a different thread from antiquity that was recovered later and led to the twelfth century renaissance and the beginnings of scholasticism in the thirteenth century. (of course, more accurate texts from both traditions wouldn't be recovered until the Renaissance, both through direct transmission from the fall of Constantinople and through the development of textual criticism).

In any case, the Irish preservation of ancient texts in the Platonist tradition had a major impact on the civilization and culture of the Carolingian court at Aachen, which in turn was formative for the development of France and Germany.