[Serious] The Humanities

[Belacqua]

This is the first time I've heard of 'Only possible with Christianity' version of the romances, that are also nonreligious in nature.

If you believe in some kind of Infinite Universe theory, I suppose you could imagine that Courtly Love and other medieval values could evolve out of Mithraism. Or whatever. 

In the universe we have, those things were rooted in and evolved out of Christian values. The Middle Ages were so thoroughly soaked in Christian thinking that its ideals were taken as givens. 

Again, if you compare Medieval literature in Europe with that of non-Christian countries the differences are clear. Look at Sanskrit epic or the Tale of Genji. Or, again, any Greek epic or tragedy.

The Tale of Genji could only have been written in a culture where Buddhist views of the world are predominant. This is clear despite the fact that neither the narrator nor any character spells out "and this is what the Buddha teaches."