Wyrdsmyth

This isn't an argument against the existence of God per se. It is, rather, just a few thoughts I had that may provoke a discussion, in a roundabout way, that involves how our culture has developed, and the role 'God' has had in it.

It occurs to me that there has long been a tension between Classicism and Early Monotheism. I don't know if 'tension' is the right word; that implies a conflict. It as if there are two traditions, of thought and aesthetics, which are both dominant in what we call Western Civilization. On one hand, we have a multifaceted tradition that comes from the Ancient Greeks, the proto-science of the Pre-Socratics of Milesia and Greater Greece (lower Italy and Sicily), Athenian art, politics and philosophy, Hellenism, down to Neo-Platonism and the absorbtion of such into Early Christianity. On the other hand, we have the Hebrew scriptures and their history, down to the time of Christ, and the founding of his Church afterwards.

In the Middle Ages, there is this ongoing dichotomy between the Greco-Roman Classical tradition, and the growing traditions of Judeo-Christianity, Latin Rome and 'Christendom.' But after Constantine, the Nicaean Council, Augustine and Boethius, Classicism takes a pill for a few centuries, allowing the Europeans to focus more or less exclusively on their Monotheism, and killing off or converting the druids and followers of Odin. The debates revolve around heresies, canon, the nature of the trinity, and what patriarch is supreme. And after that, the divisions between East and West become even more apparent, with the separation of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. But even the Greek Orthodox Byzantines, as much heirs to the Classical tradition as anyone, truncate their own 'pagan' roots. In general, the Europe of the Middle Ages is legatee to a slumbering Classical tradition, but leaves it buried. The stories of Hector and Achilles thrill the northerners, and some of the myths live on, in new incarnations, but for the most part, the Classics are forgotten. It is left to, of all people, the Muslim Arabs, to preserve and copy the many Classical sources.

After the Crusades, many of these Classical sources make their way back to Europe. There is a revival of Classicism. Dante works with this 'tension' of two traditions, brilliantly, in his Divine Comedy, mixing the elements of Christian cosmology with pagan mythology. Thomas Aquinas works with this 'tension' in his famed attempt to reconcile Aristotelianism with Christianity. The Classics see a new flourishing in the Renaissance, with a healthy mix of Italian artists and others freely using both Biblical and Mythological themes. A Protestant, John Milton, reached back into the hoary mists to resurrect the Classical epic; and much like Dante, performed a wonderful syncretism of Mythology and Christianity.

And even down to modern times, I perceive this dichotomy of the two traditions, and even now, that 'tension' between them. Not an outright struggle perhaps, but two very different and pervasive roots. There is Judeo-Christianity, and Greco-Roman Classicism. Odd, how so many great minds have taken pains to try to make them compatible, to exist peacably and beautifully side by side. But anyone who's ever read Nietzsche knows how much of a big deal he made out of this 'tension,' in his hands fanned up to a philosophical fire.

[ January 17, 2002: Message edited by: Wyrdsmyth ]</p>