Re: OT: Effective Living

as a descendant of (english) indentured servants, i say let those freaking idiots burn in hell until the end of time.

until you understand the concept of "social death" (Dr. Orlando Patterson, Harvard) that underlies the institution of slavery, you can't understand the significance, and limits, of the role of "freedom" in western culture:

---

http://www.booknotes.org/transcripts/50140.htm

...
PATTERSON: Oh, I'm talking about Western Europe,
 primarily -- what we mean by it today. The central area, of
 course, in the Middle Ages and before would have been
 what's now France -- mainly France and Spain, Italy and
 Greece, until it was conquered, of course, by the Turks. But --
 so that region -- England, Western Europe and later, of
 course, it includes the extensions of Western Europe. There's
 one other important aspect of the story which -- to complete
 the sort of picture, so to speak, and it's something that
 happened in the midst of this large-scale slave society of
 Rome, which was very important for our story. And you know
 what that is? It was in this hothouse of slavery and freedom
 that Christianity really emerged as a world religion. And
 that's another surprising aspect of the work for many people,
 because in trying to answer the question, why did it become
 so -- why did it capture the mind and imagination of the West,
 the heart and soul of the West, one has to understand the
 nature of Christianity and how it originated. That it originated
 in this large-scale slave society of Rome and that the really
 important early Christians were freedmen, these same people
 who cherished so much this ideal of freedom. 


 And what did Christianity do? In a way, it used the
 experience of slavery and freedom as a metaphor for
 expressing its most important religious ideal, namely
 freedom, spiritual freedom, which we call redemption. Well,
 you know what the word redemption means. I mean, in Latin
 -- from the Latin, it literally means to buy someone out of
 slavery, literally. And in Pauline theology, what you had was
 a simple interjection of the outward experience of freedom.
 He uses a powerful metaphor to explain sin as a form of
 spiritual slavery and salvation as a form of spiritual
 redemption. That is buying someone out of slavery. So really,
 Christianity became the only religion, the only great religion
 -- in this sense it differs from Judaism, Islam, from all other
 great religions -- the only religion which had at the center
 creed the idea of being free -- that's spiritually now. And it is
 true. 

...

---

http://www.depaul.edu/~religion/bhispw99.htm
-
http://citd.scar.utoronto.ca/CLAB41/CLAB41.html
-
http://www.wholeearthmag.com/ArticleBin/278.html

regards,
ep

On 30 May 2001, at 10:37, Diana_Duncan_at_ttpartners.com wrote:




> 

> Isn't that sort of like Taoism?  Accept your lot, there must be good in it

> somewhere...

> 

> Also, it seems to be the basis of many major religions to essentially never

> ask why.  So, I guess it's a pretty popular philosophy.

> 

> (Oh no, I feel a discourse by Eric coming on...)

> 

> Diana Duncan

> TITAN Technology Partners

> One Copley Parkway, Ste 540

> Morrisville, NC  27560

> VM: 919.466.7337 x 316

> F: 919.466.7427

> E: Diana_Duncan_at_ttpartners.com


...


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