(June 23, 2015 at 6:10 pm)Metis Wrote:(June 23, 2015 at 5:51 pm)abaris Wrote: And I'm sure it doesn't have an agenda and fully appreciates the age of enlightenment.
Thank you for the suggestion Randy, I've already read it.
Abaris is half right, it's not a "Catholic work" in the usual sense, it's far more subtly written but the usual contempt and revisionism is still strong there. It wasn't the worst I'd seen but it does basically ignore the fact our culture started in Athens not Rome, it ignores all the acts of violence Catholics conducted against "pagan" libraries and public works. The Catholic Church did preserve a few select texts that didn't offend it's sensibilities, or in the case of Ovid it re-wrote his books to promote Christianity (Ovid was claimed for several centuries to have become a Catholic Bishop...Which is interesting, considering he died in 17 AD in modern day Romania)
They also interestingly ignore all the violence and theft from Orthodox lands by Catholics of Roman artifacts that had been transported to Constantinople and Thessolonikki but now adorn the streets of Venice as war trophies.
I'm glad you have read it.
What did you think the book got right? The universities? The hospitals? The judicial system? Anything?
One other question: Are you REALLY a mason...or was that just humor?