Mr. Murphy,
I haven't read your book yet; however, I hope you emphasized that the various inquisitions were symptomatic of an age when the survival of the soul was felt to be far more important than the survival of the body. Thomas More, for example, was prepared to persecute heretics for the sake of national/ecclesical security but was also prepared to sacrifice his own life for the sake of religious truth. From his perspective, heretics were (in modern terms) like bio-terrorists, capable of doctrinally infecting whole cities. The wrong religion was potentially a deadly contagious disease that had to be severely dealth with.
Today, of course, the opposite is true. Fear and rage isn't triggered by heresy, but by deadly disease, bio-terrorism, threats to national security. Thus a while back, when a border inspector (with no protective gear on) failed to stop an Atlanta lawyer with a dangerous strain of tuberculosis, the nation was alerted and outraged. How subtle and ironic the flow of time can be in regard to carriers of evil!
One wonders how future historians will write about our Abu Ghraibs, our Guantanamo Bay detention center, our methods of torture modeled on the technniques of Egyptian and Soviet Union dungeons, and our methods of military intervention to impose upon Arab populations an elaborate and expensive democratic administration that they never asked for and do not want. Yet we, like the Medieval Catholics, think we know best, irrespective of the number of deaths and wars necessary to achieve, cleanse, and protect "our world order" and ideals. Indeed, how subtle and ironic the flow of time can be in regard to any inquisition for spiritual and/or national "security"!
Mr. Murphy,
I haven't read your book yet; however, I hope you emphasized that the various inquisitions were symptomatic of an age when the survival of the soul was felt to be far more important than the survival of the body. Thomas More, for example, was prepared to persecute heretics for the sake of national/ecclesical security but was also prepared to sacrifice his own life for the sake of religious truth. From his perspective, heretics were (in modern terms) like bio-terrorists, capable of doctrinally infecting whole cities. The wrong religion was potentially a deadly contagious disease that had to be severely dealth with.
Today, of course, the opposite is true. Fear and rage isn't triggered by heresy, but by deadly disease, bio-terrorism, threats to national security. Thus a while back, when a border inspector (with no protective gear on) failed to stop an Atlanta lawyer with a dangerous strain of tuberculosis, the nation was alerted and outraged. How subtle and ironic the flow of time can be in regard to carriers of evil!
One wonders how future historians will write about our Abu Ghraibs, our Guantanamo Bay detention center, our methods of torture modeled on the technniques of Egyptian and Soviet Union dungeons, and our methods of military intervention to impose upon Arab populations an elaborate and expensive democratic administration that they never asked for and do not want. Yet we, like the Medieval Catholics, think we know best, irrespective of the number of deaths and wars necessary to achieve, cleanse, and protect "our world order" and ideals. Indeed, how subtle and ironic the flow of time can be in regard to any inquisition for spiritual and/or national "security"!
Many thanks, Mr. Chichetto for your insight. However, I applaud Dominican Friars nowadays taking part in the March for Life, linked
http://www.dominicanfriars.org/2007/01/23/pro-life-march/
In their earlier years, was their theology affected by the secular model of "Recant or Burn"? We are told that doctrine does not change. Or maybe Respect Life wasn't part of the Bishops' Program.
Joe
This article was fascinating. I thoroughly enjoyed the writing style of Mr. Murphy. I wonder if his book is written in the same vein.
Perhaps I enjoyed it because I recently visited two Vatican archives: the Archivio Segreto and the Archivio Storico "De Propaganda Fide." I was very impressed with the unfettered access I had to some pretty major U.S. Catholic documents and correspondence. I expected a stiff environement - gloves and all. It was nothing like that at all - but similar to Mr. Murphy's description.
I taught one semester of Church history (post-Trent). This article would have been a good one for the undergraduates to read. I agree with Mr. Chichetto since I also had to contextualize the brutality and was looking for this in the article as well.
John