Wow! Marvelous, JD. There are so many people on Substack with major intellects—I know a few things and ‘feel’ many more, but never at this level of narrative integration. <Hum, what exactly does that mean?…Well, it sounds good!>
So you mean to say that the faith weakened after the fall of Rome but then recovered to create the crusading zeal of the 11th century? And that the Reformation weakened the faith, but it recovered in time to fuel the English Civil War and continetal Wars of Religion?
That's a bit fuzzy. Those are both very difficult events to pin down, the "fall" of Rome and the Reformation were both extremely drawn-out processes. I don't think Martin Luther or Jan Hus or John Calvin or their followers were motivated by a lack of Christianity. Charlemagne based the legitimacy of his crown on the Church's authority because he knew the people of Frankia were intensely devoted to their faith and the clergy who held all administrative power after the Empire's governing structures finished breaking down. If anything these events brought strength back to the faith after a long, slow delcine into worldly corruption and torpor.
I really like how you've drawn a line through early paganism and its resistance to Christian mores being the foundation of Liberalism. It does a good job explaining why Liberalism struggled to take off in Spain and other places which were more fully converted.
I am curious, though, about your claim that Christianity came back "weaker" after the fall of Rome and the Reformation. How do you square that with the long periods of intense religiosity in the 11th and 17th centuries?
A stong habit is integrated into how life works. A weakening habit fades into the background, but at a certain point the mind and body rebel and ithe havit reasserts itself woth renewed vigor. If life becomes unstable, the habit can become totemic because it orovides a marker of stability. The decay of a habit is a trend line, and, like all trend lines, it is the average extraction of extreme petuerbatuons to show the general flow of information/power/system dynamics, etc.
Wow! Marvelous, JD. There are so many people on Substack with major intellects—I know a few things and ‘feel’ many more, but never at this level of narrative integration. <Hum, what exactly does that mean?…Well, it sounds good!>
You are most kind, sir. Thank you!
AS A CONFIRMED EPISCOPALIAN I RESEMBLE THAT FACT! (pardon mois, just tryin all caps for E A ffect.)
as a 64 yr old father of five and grandfather of ten i do worry.
So you mean to say that the faith weakened after the fall of Rome but then recovered to create the crusading zeal of the 11th century? And that the Reformation weakened the faith, but it recovered in time to fuel the English Civil War and continetal Wars of Religion?
That's a bit fuzzy. Those are both very difficult events to pin down, the "fall" of Rome and the Reformation were both extremely drawn-out processes. I don't think Martin Luther or Jan Hus or John Calvin or their followers were motivated by a lack of Christianity. Charlemagne based the legitimacy of his crown on the Church's authority because he knew the people of Frankia were intensely devoted to their faith and the clergy who held all administrative power after the Empire's governing structures finished breaking down. If anything these events brought strength back to the faith after a long, slow delcine into worldly corruption and torpor.
I really like how you've drawn a line through early paganism and its resistance to Christian mores being the foundation of Liberalism. It does a good job explaining why Liberalism struggled to take off in Spain and other places which were more fully converted.
I am curious, though, about your claim that Christianity came back "weaker" after the fall of Rome and the Reformation. How do you square that with the long periods of intense religiosity in the 11th and 17th centuries?
Think of it like a habit:
A stong habit is integrated into how life works. A weakening habit fades into the background, but at a certain point the mind and body rebel and ithe havit reasserts itself woth renewed vigor. If life becomes unstable, the habit can become totemic because it orovides a marker of stability. The decay of a habit is a trend line, and, like all trend lines, it is the average extraction of extreme petuerbatuons to show the general flow of information/power/system dynamics, etc.