following blindly its edicts. It would be interesting to
know historically over what time period changes occurred in
attitudes toward religion and its components (e.g., bible).
When, for example, did people first start entertaining
seriously the idea that the bible could be viewed as a
figurative document rather than one to be taken literally?
I don't have any references for you, but I can tell you that very early on
the Fathers of the Church insisted scripture *not* be taken literally. As
late as my youth I can tell you that (at least in the Catholic Church) it
was taught that biblical stories required interpretation, and as late as my
mom's youth, Catholics were not encouraged to read the bible without a
priest handy to help you understand what it was telling you...
m
Let me say this about that.
Most changes in attitudes may not be "time driven" but are "event
driven".The catholic church has softened some of its views about planetary
and evolutionary matters because of the preponderance of evidence from
science. Yep,it is true that the Catholic church did not encourage catholics
to read the bible because of a perceived lack of interpretation skills.But I
also think that the church wanted to uphold some of its doctrines which went
contrary to biblical teachings.Just as moslems have a series of sayings from
the Haddid,the Catholic church had Canon Law dictates which supported papal
infallibility,the cult of the Virgin Mary,and so on.As a matter of fact,the
evangelicals have made gret gains in Latin America because they depict
catholicism as being anti-biblical.When the church put a stop to Liberation
thrology in Latin America,orogressive priests like Camillo de Torres of
Colombia left service to the poor a missionary thrust to the evangelicals.
On a hidtorical note it has been hypothesized that all of China could have
been cetholic if the Pope had allowed the Jesuits there to use Chinese in
the mass'
Michael "omnicentric" Sylvester,PhD
Daytona Beach,Florida
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