I wonder if any thought has been given to how organised religion evolves. Given that Islam was founded in 622 AD. If we compare our own religion in the 14th century with Islam now are there not paralells. Our church was engaged in brutal practices including torture and cruelly devised execution. It treated unbelievers including the Jews and Cathars abominably killing hundreds. The ghetto was part of daily life in the Papal States et al Is it possible that as the earthly practice of any religion evolves it simply goes through a period of zealotry, cruelty and intolerance
You can’t divorce religion and society. Any religion will be influenced by the society around it, and vice versa.
At the time the Catholic Church may have been involved in “brutal practices including torture and cruelly devised execution”, these were also the norm for the surrounding society at that time. Society and religion influence each other, for better or worse. The doctrine of “Papal Infallibility” for example came about partly because the surrounding society seemed so threatening to the Papal States at the time. Had there been less of a feeling of being isolated, the doctrine would probably not have arisen at that time.
If you consider Moslem extremism right now, many of the ISIS fighters were probably bloodied in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya and all the rest of the places where violence has become endemic. They haven’t just popped out of a social and political vacuum.
Prior to the Civil War, slavery was accepted in the southern US states and the churches at that time supported it. Slavery was the accepted norm in the surrounding society.
Aparthied in South Africa had the imprimatur of the Dutch Reformed Church which formed the spiritual home of the Afrikaans people. But it was also the accepted social norm in that society.
They go together. That’s why St. Paul was such a theological revolutionary. He was a Jew, a Pharisee’s Pharisee, and as a consequence he would have grown in a social setting of religious exclusion from Gentiles. But he was prepared to jettison the Mosaic baggage pretty much entirely, and in that sense resist being influenced by his social background.
On the other hand, without his Jewish training, he would never have had the theological background to act as a bridge between Judaism and Christian outreach to the Gentiles.
The Church didn’t invent the internet. That’s a social invention. But we’re using it for religious purposes. Fifty years ago the sort of discussion we’re having here would have been unthinkable.
It’s a two way deal. Society and religion influence each other at all times.
