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Religious history is largely out of fashion today. That is unfortunate. The current crop of historians has latched onto 'class, race and gender' to explain away every dimension of human existence. When that methodological trinity fails to yield enough insights, academics turn to 'identity' and the 'other' to explicate movements across time and space (i.e. Americans in the Cold War perceived the Soviet Union and Communism as the 'other' - a diametrically opposed system (atheism and collectivism) - and thus sought to eliminate or contain the socialist threat through proxy wars and influence operations to preserve its way of life). However, these approaches are simply not capable of addressing the larger intellectual movements of world history. If a 21st century American or European desires to understand the overarching contours of his or her world, then it is necessary to look at the past through a broad paradigm. A perfect starting point would be to briefly study the hierarchical origins of the Christian Church, its anti-hierarchical 'Reformation' and the profound legacy of its internecine struggle on our times.
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Upon the death of Jesus of Nazareth in approximately 30BC, his band of followers traversed the Near East and and preached their radical interpretation of Judaism. Jesus was the messiah, and he had died for the sins of humanity. Most Jews rejected the message outright. By the end of the first century, Christians had begun to collate accounts of Jesus and the origins of their movement, and the synoptic 'gospels' (Matthew, Mark and Luke) were canonized. Some years later, the next generation of believers turned a once fragmented and theologically disjointed movement into a hierarchical organization, and Tertullian (155-222AD), a Carthaginian pagan until the age of forty, was a significant figure in creating the rigid ideological structure of the later Church.
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Most likely trained in the law, Tertullian proceeded to use his highly polished rhetorical skills to combat 'heresy' or skeptics of the faith. In his treatise On the Witness of the Soul, he proclaimed that the truths of Christianity were innate in all people, and denial of the faith was either due to obstinacy or a wilful desire to reject God. In Prescription Against the Heretics, however, Tertullian made a world history altering claim. Non-believers, whether orthodox Jews or pagan subscribers to the Roman or Greek pantheon, often dismissed the 'evidence' behind the divinity of Jesus by noting the various inconsistencies and contradictions in the gospel accounts. In response, Tertullian made a strikingly bold assertion. Because the Church had preserved the scriptures over several decades in an unbroken line of apostolic authority, pagans did not have the requisite interpretative skills necessary to make judgments on the sacred texts. Thus, any non-Christian argument was akin to sophistry and wholly invalid. Only Church authorities possessed the hermeneutic ability to relay the gospels accurately. For the next fourteen centuries, his reasoning was largely accepted - until the arrival of the printing press and an obscure monk named Martin Luther (1483-1546).
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By the 16th century, the Church had become corrupt. It was far more interested in accumulating worldly power than practicing the teachings of its leader: sacrifice, charity, forgiveness and redemption. Although being a Doctor of Theology was not necessary to notice the massive disjuncture between the asceticism preached by St. Paul and the materialistic character of the papacy, Luther had indeed earned that degree and became a professor at the University of Wittenberg. After years of study and soul-searching, Luther incited one of the greatest (if not the greatest) revolution in human affairs by posting a memo, famously known as The 95 Theses on the Castle Church door in Wittenberg on 31 October 1517.
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Justification by Faith
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His defiance shook both Europe and the Church. His questioning of the sale of 'indulgences', a purchasable certificate issued by the Church to individuals wishing to be exonerated from sin and guaranteed a place in heaven, led to a wholesale firestorm of criticism against Church practices. For example, how could the Church justify building St. Peter's Basilica from the meager wages of the poor? As Luther gained instant notoriety and support around the Continent, his belief in 'justification by faith' rocked the Church hierarchy. Luther now aimed to demolish the longheld Tertullian notion that Church authority could essentially never be challenged. According to him, the Church had been in error from the beginning. People could not in fact be saved by the Church but only by the grace of God through faith. Hence, the relationship between God and Man (and Woman) is personal and requires no intermediary.
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Confined to Wartburg Castle (1521-22) as punishment for his rebellious and heretical pronouncements, Luther used his time to throw another dagger into the heart of the Tertullian-grounded institution. He translated the New Testament into German from Greek. As a result, those fortunate enough to be literate (i.e. laity) could then interpret the scriptures on an individual basis and further erode the primacy of the Church canon.
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What epoch-shattering phenomenon was operating beneath the surface? The origins of modern democracy. Rather than continue to be guided by a privileged few as prescribed by Tertullian, power was in the process of being transferred to 'the many' or the 'the people'. It is no accident that Charles I was beheaded only a little more than a century later in the English Revolution. The seeds of enlightenment had been planted, and the fall of Tertullian Christendom and monarchy became an inexorable occurrence. Questioning authority in the public sphere became a staple of European existence again, and the last remnants of the 'Dark Ages' were finally disappearing.
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The progress of mankind can be measured by our ability to discern reason from ignorance. While each generation must redefine the balance between civic duty and liberty, the ebb and flow of history between Tertullian, Luther and the rise of democracy can serve as a model of struggle, courage and conviction for any engaged citizen of the world.
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Ultimately, whether its Thomas Jefferson against George III, Marx against Hegel or you against your boss, history - as life - is determined in large part by a battle of ideas.
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J Roquen
