as a descendant of (english) indentured servants, i say let those
freaking idiots burn in hell until the end of time.
until you understand the concept of social death (Dr. Orlando
Patterson, Harvard) that underlies the institution of slavery, you
can't understand the significance, and limits, of the role of
freedom in western culture:
---
http://www.booknotes.org/transcripts/50140.htm
...
PATTERSON: Oh, I'm talking about Western Europe,
primarily -- what we mean by it today. The central area, of
course, in the Middle Ages and before would have been
what's now France -- mainly France and Spain, Italy and
Greece, until it was conquered, of course, by the Turks. But --
so that region -- England, Western Europe and later, of
course, it includes the extensions of Western Europe. There's
one other important aspect of the story which -- to complete
the sort of picture, so to speak, and it's something that
happened in the midst of this large-scale slave society of
Rome, which was very important for our story. And you know
what that is? It was in this hothouse of slavery and freedom
that Christianity really emerged as a world religion. And
that's another surprising aspect of the work for many people,
because in trying to answer the question, why did it become
so -- why did it capture the mind and imagination of the West,
the heart and soul of the West, one has to understand the
nature of Christianity and how it originated. That it originated
in this large-scale slave society of Rome and that the really
important early Christians were freedmen, these same people
who cherished so much this ideal of freedom.
And what did Christianity do? In a way, it used the
experience of slavery and freedom as a metaphor for
expressing its most important religious ideal, namely
freedom, spiritual freedom, which we call redemption. Well,
you know what the word redemption means. I mean, in Latin
-- from the Latin, it literally means to buy someone out of
slavery, literally. And in Pauline theology, what you had was
a simple interjection of the outward experience of freedom.
He uses a powerful metaphor to explain sin as a form of
spiritual slavery and salvation as a form of spiritual
redemption. That is buying someone out of slavery. So really,
Christianity became the only religion, the only great religion
-- in this sense it differs from Judaism, Islam, from all other
great religions -- the only religion which had at the center
creed the idea of being free -- that's spiritually now. And it is
true.
...
---
http://www.depaul.edu/~religion/bhispw99.htm
-
http://citd.scar.utoronto.ca/CLAB41/CLAB41.html
-
http://www.wholeearthmag.com/ArticleBin/278.html
regards,
ep
On 30 May 2001, at 10:37, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Isn't that sort of like Taoism? Accept your lot, there must be good in it
somewhere...
Also, it seems to be the basis of many major religions to essentially never
ask why. So, I guess it's a pretty popular philosophy.
(Oh no, I feel a discourse by Eric coming on...)
Diana Duncan
TITAN Technology Partners
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...
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