Okay, so everyone remembers Columbus sailed the ocean blue. In drawing from one of my other readings, a couple of other major developments happened that same year. Madeleine touched on them briefly. On January 2, "the armies of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella (who I'm finding out was not a very nice person) conquered the city-state of Granada and restored it to Christendom." Granada was apparently the last Muslim stronghold in Europe.
The other thing that happened came on March 31, when the "Catholic kings," as Ferdinand and Isabella are known, signed the Edict of Expulsion, which in effect, was to rid Spain of the Jews.
What I found so deeply troubling about all of this is Christianity's "track-record" of forceful adherence/inquisition. We talked about the fact that much of Muslim expansion can be attributed to peaceful, VOLUNTARY adoption of the faith. I guess what I find so distressing is that even centuries later, Christianity, inextricably tied to these waves of inquisitions, is still very much a part of American culture.
I took "Way of the Earth" religion class with Delaporte which was a very good class. The class was about how different religious practices have treated the earth. The Catholic Church overtly mistreated mother nature stating that it was necessary to dominate nature and it was all in the name of God.
ReplyDeleteI'm in her (Delaporte's) Women in Spirituality class now. As interesting as it is, and as much as I insist on being well read about matters I have huge issues with, i.e. faith, it's nonetheless, very distressing.
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