 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Religious Tolerance and Intolerance from Antiquity to the Middle AgesJune 7, 2008
Siphnian Treasury, Delphi, ca. 530 B.C.E. In the West, notions of religious (and even political and social) tolerance and intolerance have been shaped by the peculiar circumstances of history: the rise and spread of monotheistic religions, religious wars, the development of nation states, and the establishment of Enlightenment and liberal ideas. In today’s world, we frequently understand tolerance as something more than indifference (to quote W. Somerset Maugham), and as something linked to fundamental rights and liberties. In our seminar, we’d like to examine the term in its pre-modern context, to explore the manner in which the ancient Greek, Roman, and medieval European worlds viewed and experienced different forms of religious worship and belief. We’ll start with the Greeks, and consider how Greek polytheism meant, in practice, an absence of bigotry, largely because the Greeks felt that their gods were universal, even if they went by other names in other places. We'll continue to reflect on the Greek world as we turn to the fifth century B.C.E. age of the Sophists -- with its fascination with cross-cultural differences, and its invocation of nature/culture binaries to explain such differences -- to consider the manner in which Herodotus and his contemporaries understood the divine. We shall see that Herodotus's tolerance extended far beyond “indifference”: it found expression in his intense interest in the religious beliefs and practices of numerous different communities, Greek and non-Greek, and in his conspicuously open-minded approach. This becomes especially apparent as we examine his representation of Delphi as the site of human-divine interactions. Next we’ll ask how well our concepts of religious tolerance and intolerance apply to the Roman world. The Roman elite regarded as normal the worship of a variety of deities in a variety of ways, and so accepted a wide range of religious activities; on the other hand, they despised or even condemned certain forms of religious expression that did not conform to their ideas about proper behavior and social organization. The spread of Christianity, however, introduced a new model of religion, in which religious tolerance and intolerance became vastly more important. Finally, we’ll turn to medieval Christendom to consider how Christians in the Middle Ages related to the Jews. In the famous formulation of Augustine of Hippo, the Jews were unwitting and unwilling “witnesses” to the Old Testament origins of Christianity and Christ's fulfillment of biblical prophecies. At the same time, long-standing Christian traditions associated Jews with the “murder” of Christ and the coming of Antichrist at the end of time. Thus the notion of preserving the Jews as “living letters” of God's law competed with a sometimes irrational impulse to destroy them as enemies of the true Church. This deep-seated medieval ambivalence toward Judaism was never resolved, persisting even as the Middle Ages gave way to the early modern world. Topics and Speakers Before Bigotry: Greek Polytheism and the Absence of Prejudice Through the Lens of Delphi: Understanding the Divine in the Fifth Century B.C.E. Religious Tolerance and Intolerance in the Roman World Christendom as World Order Tolerance and Intolerance: A Panel Discussion Time and Cost 9:15 a.m.-5:15 p.m., Saturday, June 7, 2008. The tuition is $120.00 ($105.00 by May 28). The optional lunch is $10. Scholarship tuition for teachers is $60 ($52.50 by May 28). 10 contact hours for 1 unit of renewal credit. For information about lodging click here. Co-Sponsored by the General Alumni Association. |
