Showing posts with label history. Show all posts
Showing posts with label history. Show all posts

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Ancient History Today

"We have taken an oath to God before we took one before you..."  Maurice, Theban Legion officer

What's a bit of ancient history, anyway? Who cares? Well there was the time of the Roman Legions; going backward in time to about 280 CE--that's the end of the second century, the Roman empire extended for thousands of miles beyond the city-state of Rome. The Romans inhabited large swaths of Europe, including Germany, France and England. They didn't make the time to invade Ireland. Perhaps they thought the Irish unworth their efforts.
They've left many, many remnants of their culture and ideas to the West today. This legacy includes our modern languages and religion. So there. We've now easily returned to 2012, or about 1,800 centuries after the Theban Legion.

Here the story has interest: The Roman legion recruited from Thebes in Upper Egypt consisted entirely of early (Coptic) Christians. In 287CE they were mobilized to assist with putting down the rebellious Gauls (parts of present day France). They arrived at the place of present day Martigny,  near Lake Geneva, Switzerland. Ordered into battle at that place, they joined with the other soldiers who were making offerings and sacrifices to their gods of the eve of battle. The Thebans refused to take part in this event.

Declared insubordinate by the Roman commanders, they suffered under them. When they persisted in their refusal, the commanders took action against the Theban soldiers who would not participate in a religious ritual they held against their conscience. Therefore one of every of their ten were taken by lottery and put to death. Still the Thebans exercised their free conscience and free will. Soldiers they may be, Christians as well-- they continued to refuse. The Roman commanders were baffled. Was not their absolute power and authority--even unto death sufficient to motivate these men?
Was their issue simply a religious cause, or did they have a greater sense of justice? Historic tradition records the words, in part of at least one of the men, their commanding officer, Legionnaire Maurice who made statements on the Copts behalf: We are soldiers, true, but we are also servants of the Christ. We cannot oppose God our Creator; we will oppose all our enemies... we rather die innocently, as martyrs for our cause. 
According to historic tradition, all 6,000 of the Coptic Thebans were slayed that day for insubordination. Today no one easily recalls the names of those in power that day at Martigny yet the name of Maurice and the Christ live on.
History's a funny thing, isn't it?

Monday, July 5, 2010

C.S. Lewis, Apostle to the Skeptics

"By the very act of arguing, you awake the patient's reason; once awake, who can foresee the result?" C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

Chad Walsh writing in his delightful 1949 apology, first serialized in the Atlantic Monthly magazine, later published in book form has much to say about the genius of the Irish author, Lewis whom he likens to Saint Paul. No "Christian apologist in the English speaking world today is as much talked about and argued about as C.S. Lewis." So it remains today, 50 years later.
At Oxford university, England the young Lewis studied the Classics. While there he seemed "a gifted student with a bit more imagination than average," writes Walsh. A favorite author of the young Lewis was G. K. Chesterton. At age 30 he joined the Anglican Church of England. In 1933 Lewis published Regress, a volume which brought him notice.

And now we rejoin him at the Screwtape Letters' apology by Chad Walsh. With the publication of the "Screwtape Letters starting in 1941, Lewis was a surprise to everyone." Walsh describes the book as a "neat turning the tables on everyone... the writing from the viewpoint of Hell--put the shoe on the other foot; he [Lewis] charged the secularists with intellectual fuzziness. And the secularists-- those who had a sense of humor--read the book for a good natured laugh."

In the course of 31 letters, His Infernal Excellency finds "numerous occasions to warn Wormwood that Reason and Thought are menaces to the purposes of Hell. 'The trouble about argument is that it moves the whole struggle onto the Enemy's ground." Wormwood as Lewis conceives, is not to clarify or reason with one, but to confuse, to befuddle. Some have called this the 'divine lie.' In another passage in the book, Hell is mentioned as having made Wormwood's job all the easier by encouraging 'evolutionary' European thought . This, says Screwtape gives the 'invisible agents' of Hell an excellent opportunity to whisper suggestions to them "while their minds rattle around an intellectual vacuum."

Later he writes that "no one except specialists read old books... In this way, the present period of history is cut off from other periods, and there is little danger that the characteristic truths of the past will correct the typical errors of the present." Ultimately, Lewis, in the voice of Screwtape, has much to say about Faith. Despite his view of Faith, Lewis does not see that, for the most part, Faith is set apart from Reason, unlike most scholars of his time. Lewis insists that Reason is the key to every enduring Faith.