Non Angli sed Angeli

     Rome, early in the seventh century, A.D., has been reduced from the queen city of the world to a cow-town.  It still has a Senate, though its functions are at best those of a town council.  What it mainly has is a bishop -- the bishop of Rome.  If anybody is going to see to it that food supplies are distributed and the sick are tended and public buildings do not fall into worse disrepair than they have already fallen, it will have to be the bishop.  And that, of course, is not to mention his spiritual guidance of Romans everywhere, from north Africa to Farthest Ireland.  So you have to choose a capable and holy man.

     You choose a monk named Gregory, who feels so unworthy of the burden that at first he declines, he runs away -- as did his predecessor in episcopal avoidance, Gregory of Nyssa.  Finally he agrees, and with some embarrassment (and a great deal of Christian wisdom and humility) writes to explain why he went into hiding, understanding that the role of bishop is to be the unworthy slave of Christ and His people: to be the slave of the slaves of God.

     At roughly the same time, in the East, a merchant among the caravans has seen a vision in a cave, and has declared himself the final and perfect prophet of the one God.  Financed by his wealthy wife and protected by a powerful uncle in Mecca, he preaches to the traders and the pilgrims there -- for Mecca is already a pilgrimage site, where Arabs come to pay homage to a large cubic meteorite and to the panoply of gods to which the cube is dedicated.  Naturally, local merchants are not happy, since their livelihood depends on the pilgrim trade; so there are several armed skirmishes.  When the wife and uncle of this Mohammed die, the leaders in Mecca cut a deal with him: he will leave the city and go to Yathrib, and the people there, for their part, will submit to his Law.  Not that the people of Yathrib have agreed to this.  When Mohammed arrives there, he is opposed by the nine tribes that make up the city: six pagan, and three Jewish.  He seizes control, and orders the assassination of the tribal leaders.  The Hadith records that he laughed aloud as their heads were laid at his feet.  Muslims begin their calendar with this trek to Yathrib.

     Back in Rome, Pope Gregory one day sees a band of captives led to the block for sale.  They are tall and fair-skinned and, what strikes Gregory's eye most particularly, blond.  Moved with pity and curiosity he asks who they are and where they have come from.  "They are Angles," comes the reply.  "Not Angles but angels," says Gregory.  He determines to send missionaries to the lands of the north, the most prominent among them the bishop Augustine, later known as Augustine of Canterbury.  When Augustine arrives among the pagans of Anglia and Kent he writes a letter to Gregory, asking him what he ought to do about pagan shrines (where human sacrifices may have been performed).  Gregory's letter (preserved in Bede's history) would provide the template for Christian missionary work ever after.  Do not tear down those shrines, he said; but cleanse them.  In other words, Gregory saw that all people have a natural intuition of God, and that therefore the object of the Christian missionary is to do what Paul attempted for the Athenians in Acts.  You show them that in an imperfect way, no doubt tangled with considerable sin and error, they already know something of the Lord.  If your name is Boniface, you may chop away at the Germans' sacred totem, but at the same time you show them the Tree that really is worthy of their devotion.  Tertullian's famous rhetorical question, "What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?," would be repeated around 800 by the Irish Alcuin, exasperated that the monks still loved the tales of the old Germanic heroes.  "What does Ingeld have to do with Christ?"  Apparently quite a lot.

     Having reduced Yathrib to his sole control -- the place now named "Medina" or "The City" -- Mohammed returned with an army to Mecca, in no mood for nonsense.  He took the city by force, assassinating the leaders of its single tribe, the Quraysh.  For the next four hundred years -- really from that time until now, if you omit the interruptive flowering of Islamic heresy that coincided with the Arabic discovery of the ancient Greeks -- Muslims in their conquests would provide the implicit answer to their version of Tertullian's question.  Absolutely nothing.

Comments

[Patrick O'Hannigan]

Thank you for that, Mr. Esolen. Just what some of us needed going into the weekend!

[MOB]

Indeed. It's refreshing to read such candid and historically informed commentary. Sadly, this is very much the exception. Here is an announcement I just received today from St. Edwards University, a Catholic university in Austin, TX:

The Institute of Interfaith Dialog and St. Edward's University presents

LIVING TOGETHER
Through the Legacy of Abraham

Islam and Christianity have many common aspects and few differences. Both believe in God, Prophets, Angels, The Afterlife and Holy Books. All Muslims believe in Jesus and the Virgin Mary. Many moral and legal principles are the same. Thus any conflicts between these two religions is due to misundetanding or exploitation for political or other purposes. This Conference takes up the similarities and differences and explores interreligious dialog between Muslims and Christians in their attempt to live together.

Date: Saturday, February 25, 2006

Time:
3:00 PM Conference
6:00 PM Reception
7:00 PM Keynote Address
8:00 PM Panel Discussion

Location: St. Edward's University, Main Building, Maloney Room 3001 South Congress Avenue, Austin, TX 78704

See attached flyer for more information. (living_together.jpg)

Please RSVP at austin@interfaithdialog.org by February 23th.

[James Redden Jr.]

I would agree with the sentiment expressed here that Islam has a checkered past when it comes to violence - that it's not necessarily the religion of peace that many (though not all) on the secular and religious left make it out to be.

Nevertheless, doesn't Christianity also have a checkered past when it comes to violence? What about the inquisition? The many forced conversions throughout Europe and the rest of the world? The burning of pagan temples (especially during the early days of the Christian Roman Empire)? What about Hypatia and the angry Christian Alexandrian mob that tore her to pieces?

I know that many of the accusations made against Christianity by secularism are charicatures, but there's no denying that we have erred and strayed like lost sheep many a time when it comes to violence. I just don't understand this need felt by many on the religious right to throw stones at other houses when we should be focusing on the defects of our own. Instead of pointing the finger at others, we should take a good look at ourselves, repent, and walk humbly with our God.

[Scott Walker]

"Living together" indeed. Ask any Orthodox or Copt in the Middle East, or any Protestant in Pakistan about how living together actually works in practice wherever Muslims are in the majority. Hint: there isn't a lot of "interfaith dialog" going on. The willful stupidity of the Kumbayah crowd never ceases to amaze.

[Scott Walker]

And James Redden Jr, where in the blue blazes did you come up with the "Christian Right" shibboleth? There is no mention of politics in the original post nor in any of the comments following...except yours.

[Tony Esolen]

Dear Mr. Redden,

You have to get hold of some better histories.

For the first thousand years since its founder died a shameful death, there are no instances of Christianity spreading by the sword. In the second millennium, notably after its conflict with Islam, Christianity bears the blot of the Teutonic Knights' campaign in Lithuania. In general, conversions were not forced -- because such conversions are null. A glance at who Jesus was usually sufficed to rein in the dangerous zealots.

I will ask a question I have asked here before: show me a single instance, in Islam (or frankly anywhere outside of Judaism and Christianity), of someone like Damien of Molokai or Jean de Brebeuf or Matteo Ricci or Cyril and Methodius or Theodore of Tarsus or Patrick or Boniface: someone who, often alone and at great risk, travels to an alien land, without arms, to preach the word -- or to build a hospital, or a school, and then preach the word. Julian the Apostate himself complained that Christians took better care of the poor pagans in Rome than the pagan population themselves did.

Do not mix up what increasingly secular nation-states did with what the Church encouraged or did. The Inquisition is a case in point -- which one? whose? where? You may be surprised to learn that that particular abuse was of quite limited scope, even in Spain.

Ah, the burning of the library at Alexandria ... laid to the charge of Christians. That makes no sense. The North African culture had been thoroughly Christian for centuries. What author in that library had not been consulted by Augustine, Tertullian, Clement, Athanasius, Jerome? But that library burns down in the seventh century, after the Muslims -- the largely illiterate Arab Muslims -- seized control of Alexandria. You have the wrong culprit.

Same Muslims, by the way, who used the Parthenon to house ammunition. A stray shell hit the place, and that's why it's in ruins now. Same Muslims who recently blew up that colossal Buddha in Afghanistan. Same Muslims who, under Shari'a law, forbid the repair of Christian churches. As for Christians, well -- I have no idea what pagan temples you are talking about, really. The Pantheon still stands, as a Christian church. The baths of Diocletian were converted into a church. Of course, by that time the entire populace of Rome had converted to Christianity; there is no record of any residual pagans putting up any resistance. Probably the only thing that preserved those buildings, during the 1000 years when Rome was Nowhere and people cobbled the marble for building materials, was their use as Christian churches.

It will not do to play make-believe about Islam. The problem is not with Islamic sinners who violate the Koran and the Hadith. The problem is with Islamic faithful who follow the Koran and the Hadith.

[James Altena]

Dear Prof. Esolen,

While agreeing with your general point, your citation of history needs some correction. You write:

"For the first thousand years since its founder died a shameful death, there are no instances of Christianity spreading by the sword."

And: "Do not mix up what increasingly secular nation- states did with what the Church encouraged or did."

Would that the two could be separated so simply and neatly, when the two were so often inextricably intertwined! Even when the state had its own motives for war, the Church sadly often encouraged it to advance what the Church saw as its own aims. Some examples of wars before 1000 AD that the Church endorsed as means to spread the Gospel against paganism and heresy:

1) The extended campaigns of conquest by the Salian Franks against the Visigoths and other Germanic adherents to the Arianism spread by heretical Bp. Ulfilas, beginning with the conversion of the Merovingian king Clovis to the see of Rome c. 496, and lasting through the final defeat of the Lombards (who maintained both Arian and Roman bishoprics) by Pepin the Short and Charlemagne, ending 774 AD.

2) The campaigns by Charlemagne against the Saxons (some 18 over 30 years!) and Avars throughout the later 8th c. AD.

3) The various 10th c. AD campaigns by the early Saxon rulers of the Holy Roman Empire against the Magyars, Wends, Sorbs, and other pagan peoples on the empire's frontiers.

4) Likewise, the Byzantine empire's ongoing wars with the Bulgars during the 8th-9th c. were supported by the patriarchs of Constantinople as crusades against infidels and (later, in disputes over establishment of a separate Bulgar patriarchate) heretics.

Well established standard general histories covering these topics include works by: Edward James (on the Franks, Merovingians, and Charlemagne); G. Barraclough, J. Fleckenstein, and T. Reuter (on the HRE); G. Ostrogorsky, A. A. Vasiliev, and J. J. Norwich (on Byzantium).

So, "the first thousand years" must be pushed back to "the first five hundred years" to be accurate. Your main point still stands, however. Despite deplorable deviations, for which all Christians must repent but which did not appear until centuries after its founder's death and resurrection, Christianity has been spread primarily by peaceful means. This has no counterpart in Islam, whose founder resorted to the sword from the beginning and has been imitated by his followers ever since.

[Judy Warner]

Victor Davis Hanson has an excellent article on National Review Online, mostly on the political nature of the conflict with Islam. This paragraph is telling:

"The deluded here might believe that the divide is a moral one, between a supposedly decadent secular West and a pious Middle East, rather than an existential one that is fueled by envy, jealousy, self-pity, and victimization. But to believe the cartoons represent the genuine anguish of an aggrieved puritanical society tainted by Western decadence, one would have to ignore that Turkey is the global nexus for the sex-slave market, that Afghanistan is the world's opium farm, that the Saudi Royals have redefined casino junketeering, and that the repository of Hitlerian imagery is in the West Bank and Iran."

[Tony Esolen]

Mr. Altena,

Thanks for your careful response. Again I think a distinction or two must be made. You are right about the German battles against the Magyars, culminating in their climactic defeat at Lechfeld. But the Magyars were invaders pressing from the east -- the Germans did not seek them out.

The orthodox Christian treatment of heretics, while not always exemplary, demands a separate analysis; it is a very different phenomenon, with different concerns. You and I no doubt would prefer Ambrose's excommunication of the emperor Theodosius for his massacre of Arian Christians in the east. It does seem at least notable, however, that Nestorian Christians, though taxed by the Byzantine emperors, were otherwise left alone. Nothing else explains the astonishing extent of their influence in the east. And consider that 150 years after Arianism was condemned, an Arian Christian, Theodoric, ascends the throne of the empire in the west. (Arianism itself spread by peaceful means.)

The Pope called for help against the inroads of the Lombards, and in calling for this help he had to give recognition to Pepin which otherwise he would have preferred to withhold. It isn't clear that this was an offensive war; nor is it clear that the Avars were sought out by Charlemagne. The German tribes, after all, lived by a combination of seminomadic herding, minimal agriculture, and marauding (they did by land what the Vikings did for many centuries by sea). We are not talking here about the devastation of an ancient civilization stretching from Spain to the Red Sea.

But you are right about the confusions and bloodshed that result when the state co-opts the Church. (In this regard you were kind not to mention the 2nd millennium Conquistadores; though even there the priests often found themselves fighting against the depredations of secular rulers.)

[Dan Reed]

I'm always amazed with the willingness of people in the west to discount their own culture and history while giving the benefit of the doubt to every other tradition. I think there is a fundamental difference between western Christian culture and Islamic culture, which is you can see if you engage in a quick thought experiment:

Imagine that a Muslim nation was the preeminent military power in the world, and it invaded and occupied a Christian nation for reasons similar to those that motivated us to invade Iraq. Imagine over 100,000 of that Muslim nation's most conservative young men living in that Christian nation and defending its citizens for years. Do you think that those men would convert the native population to Islam? And do you think, furthermore, that the government of that nation would condone, promote or condemn these efforts?

[James Kabala]

Dr. Esolen's posts are magnificent, of course, except that the question "Who burned down the Library of Alexandria?" seems to be a knotty problem that even professional historians cannot figure out. Of pagans, Christians, and Muslims, Muslims are regarded as the least likely suspects.
Articles on the subject can be found in the following places:
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01303a.htm (from the century-old Catholic Encyclopedia, and therefore hardly likely to suffer from pro-Muslim bias)
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/3517 (by well-known historian Bernard Lewis)
http://ehistory.osu.edu/world/articles/ArticleView.cfm?AID=9 (by some guy I never heard of, but it seems reliable)

[Omar Al-arabi]

"Imagine that a Muslim nation was the preeminent military power in the world, and it invaded and occupied a Christian nation for reasons similar to those that motivated us to invade Iraq"
Well the Muslim nation WAS the pre-eminent military power and overcame the Superpowers of the day.. and, contrary to what seems to be implied in some of these posts, many more people coverted to Islam willingly than by coercion.
As for the poser above, well no leader of the muslim nation at the time when it was at the zenith of it's power (contrary to the poor examples we have today!)would have had the greed or baltantly covetous designs of the perpetrators of the invasion of Iraq. The motives are all too transparent for those who choose to see!

[Joe Long]

Hmmm...the US has, at various times, occupied Germany, Japan, and chunks of Asia...and given them back, peacefully. What Muslim conquest in all of history has been voluntarily relinquished to its native society...?

"The Muslim nation?" Sorry, I missed that nation. What was it, again? Do your refer to the Caliphate? It expanded as far and as fiercely as its power allowed - as indeed, your doctrine required it to. Unless I misread the Koran badly, you are required to try to kill or subdue me - surely you understand that leaves the West precious few peaceful options.

I would like to believe that Islam does not wish to destroy my society and religion, or continue to expand by conquest, but I see no rational path to that conclusion.

Nor does American greed seem to be very well served by our war in Iraq. I have my skepticism about our current goals and methods - I don't see how we can hope to have democracy flower in an Arab culture based on clan ties, for instance. But if simple greed were the motivator, we could just take the oil - by force, with relative ease. Certainly more easily than we can try to keep all of the factions in mind and balance all of their interests, in the creation of a new government probably doomed to collapse into another vicious, short-sighted Middle Eastern kleptocracy before the decade is out.

[Omar Al-arabi]

I don’t know quite why you go on the defensive about the US’ record in “giving back” what it has occupied. This was not an attack on the US, but rather a commentary on your current leadership. You yourself have said you have doubts about the current goals and methods of the US administration; and in any event, the most important conquest you have NOT given back to its native indigenous population is America itself! Surely the treatment of the American Indian has to rank as one of the least palatable of the excesses in your society.

Your attempts at dismissing the achievements of the Islamic civilization don’t do any justice to your arguments nor do they reflect the realities. Islam brought civilization and science to a backward and relatively ignorant “West” who were hell-bent on killing one another and where the Church was trying the likes of Galileo and Copernicus as heretics for daring to suggest the earth wasn’t at the centre of the cosmos!

As regards your query on interpretation, you have certainly misread the Koran. There are many instances of the faithful being exhorted to tolerate the “foreigner” and respect your “foreign neighbour.” The overall message in the Koran is to have respect for everyone except where you are attacked. Even in war there are strict guidelines and rules of engagement which forbid any abuse of non combatants, women, children and even plants!

No my friend, I am NOT required to subdue or kill you.

Islam has no desire or need to destroy your society or religion It is the fastest growing religion.. and we are certainly not running around forcing it down anyone’s throat at the moment.. are we?.. I presume you are Christian, so I will merely point you to the Sura or Chapter called Mariam (Mary) for you to see the respect Islam has for Mary and Jesus (Peace be upon them both.) There are many more instances and also of reverence for Abraham Moses and ALL prophets who preceded Islam.

You are quite right in your commentary on the sad state of the Middle East and the dreadful leadership there. Democracy is not for the area. You cannot just transplant what you think works for you into a totally different culture and expect it to take root, let alone flourish.
As for greed not being best served by the war in Iraq, hindsight is a great thing.. unfortunately for the gung ho neo-cons, they got it completely wrong.. they thought the grateful Iraqis would be out on the streets throwing flowers at the "liberating heroes" Didn't quite work out that way though, did it? As for just seizing the oil.. get real! how do you propose to do that?

During the Caliphate there was a system in place which worked pretty well.. it was called Shura (consultation) and the ruler was required to consult his flock and be available to justify his actions He could also be removed if he didn’t toe the line; judging by recent history, perhaps some of that sort of accountability wouldn’t be too badly received in the West either!

[Joe Long]

Omar, it is a good thing to have this conversation, I think, but my suspicions are very deep. Are not the Koran's more warlike instructions later in the text, thus superseding the earlier ones? What is "jihad" if not the duty to fight me? And for all the grand words about the Koran's restrictions on warfare, why are Moslem leaders reluctant to repudiate terrorists - including suicide/homicide bombers in Israel, and the 9-11 attackers? Why do Moslem crowds celebrate acts of mass murder in their streets? American soldiers who break the laws of war are put on trial, imprisoned, their careers ruined, their names disgraced; suicide bombers who break the Koran's laws to murder innocent Jewish children, get splendid celebratory funerals and their families get money from Arab organizations as a reward.

Mankind has always been at war - there's hardly a nation which isn't on land conquered from earlier inhabitants. The wars with the American Indians were long and bitter, and there was wrong on both sides. Indian atrocities hardened the American settlers' consciences considerably - a factor our current enemies would be wise to take into consideration. And the fact remains that the United States did not keep Iraq - or Kuwait - after the first Gulf War, nor have we taken and kept an inch of foreign land since 1899, despite being drawn into one foreign war after another and campaigning successfully time after time - we are content with our living space. What we are not content with, is the existence of the threat of events like 9-11.

Omar, I hope peace is possible with the Islamic nations, but I have to doubt it - unless it is peace enforced by fear of our superior military force and our willingness to use it. That is tragic, but if you see another way, do let me know.

[Omar Al-Arabi]

Hi Joe, It certainly is better to talk than to hurl abuse at one another! It is a pity some other bigots don't find enough tine to go and actually engage people of other faiths to find out what they are really like.. I bet none of the people who rant on at Islam and Muslims on these pages have never actaully spoken to anyone who is one!

Anyway, to your questions..You have thrown enough at me to fill several vlolumes! But I shall try to answer as well as I can. The order od verses in the Quraan does NOT indicate their relative importance.. their sequence is not chronological. Each verse was revealed in response to an event, and your allusion to more warlike commands would most likely be from the period when the idolators were being particularly unpleasant to the Prophet and his followers. The overall message of Islam is to try and be better than your enemy to win him over.. however, if he persists then you are entitled to hit him with all you can muster.

Jihad.. what an abused word! Jihad literally means striving or resisting (temptation for a start!)It is anything that will please God.. so if it is defending his Prophet and religion against an act of aggression, so be it. In most cases though, it is a personal thing not giving way to your baser instincts, alleviatig someones suffering, teaching your children to be better human beings etc etc. It certainly does NOT mean go out and kill as many people who do not belong to your faith as possible!

The question of suicide bombings, terrorism etc is a complex one and as you so eloquently put it, " there was wrong on both sides" One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter!

The American Press (and many successive administrations) seem to be strangley incapable of reporting anything Israel does in anything other than positive terms, the blatant disregard for UN resolutions, the illegal occupation and annexation of Palestinian land, launching missiles (American supplied ones!) at civilian targets and the list goes on... I do not., repeat NOT condone blowing civilians up.. no matter who does it. Too many innocent civilians have already died.. Palestinian as well as Jewish! Mostly women and children.

The view the man in the Arab street has long been that for the past fifty years or so America supplies it's client state Israel with the military hardware and moral support to allow said client state to do whatever the hell it wants to the Palestinians in the full knowledge tht the US has and will continue to protect it from even being rebuked by the United Nations.. and so the hatred festers and continues to grow. and when 9/11 happened, harsh as it may seem, many saw it as Americas's comeuppance.

Killing yourself by strapping exposives to your body canot be an easy thing to do.. Life surely is more dear than that? What drives someone to such acts? mental imbalance? desperation? a combination? Not an easy one.. it is important sometimes to try and understand the underlying reasons for this phenomemon. have an abilty to look at the picture from the other guy's window..

Joe, I am sure that we can get to talk sensibly and not be at each others throats.. all it takes is a bit of goodwill on BOTH sides. and it will NEVER be a peace enforced by fear of superior militaty force.. or your willingness to use it! Surely that little theory has been ground into the dust from Vietnam onwards? No the only way forward is through mutual respect and that occasionally involves eating humble pie and putting ones hands up and saying I'm NOT always right.
Peace to you and yours. Omar

[AndryKXL]

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