Sanguis Astroism

[JPierreD]

This point of view is something I find at odds with the station of many of the members of the University. Many of the most prominent "students" in the university would not "enroll as students". Nobles the stature of foreign rulers, dukes, heads of prestigious religions, would not become average, ordinary students. They would certainly be brought into the university as respected benefactors, supporters, honored professors, etc. The university would be falling all over itself to bestow any number of honorary degrees on someone with the stature of Mathurin. You wouldn't require him to write the equivalent of a term paper in order to be recognized as a Dean of Theology. And, to be fair, the same could be said for the prophet of Verdis Elementum, or whatever other religion has managed to survive and spread across a significant portion of the island.

I suppose this is an artifact of the guild system, though. Or perhaps the way the guild is run. But when you talk about "we're all equal here", I think you have to remember that some people are more equal than others.

That would be acceptable RP, but it was not what happened. Mathurin decided to enroll and become a student. And then he was called a 'mere' student. Had he refused to join as a student, or had he been invited as a professor or something, then it would have been insulting.

In my non-fictional example of Christianity and Islam, neither is based on Plato. I could probably find you Hindus citing Buddhists with ease; cross-citation in Chinese religious traditions is even easier.

Not really examples of inter-religious theological study from beliefs that do not share a common root.

[Vellos]

Not really examples of inter-religious theological study from beliefs that do not share a common root.

Umm... Christianity and Islam both citing Aristotle or Plato, neither of whom were of either religion, is pretty significant. I suppose you're right; we don't see Christians citing Confucian scholars (well, okay, actually, we did: Nestorian Christianity made a shot at it with some surprising success). But that's probably mostly because they didn't exist side-by-side much.

In every instance where religions existed side-by-side in the Medieval period, cases can be found where they regarded each others' leaders as relevant or even possibly authoritative on spiritual matters. Not necessarily correct, but not simply irrelevant. Not someone that can be written off because we all just have different beliefs about spiritual things and who's to say anyways?

[Heq]

I would add that religious institutions were also more likely to have common ground because for many of them their realm threats were the military infrastructure.  Yes, foreign religions were wrong and evil, but they were also unlikely to challange the idea of theocratic rule.  Powerful civil and military leaders did pretty much constantly.

I may think your religion is loonytoons, but there are solid political-economy reasons to at least pretend to have contact.  After all, we may disagree on the sky being blue, but all religions tend to believe in the importance of religion to the state.

[^ban^]

Umm... Christianity and Islam both citing Aristotle or Plato, neither of whom were of either religion, is pretty significant.

Both Aristotle and Plato's ideas were based around the assumption that 'gods' existed. I don't think the same was true of Confucius.

[Vellos]

Both Aristotle and Plato's ideas were based around the assumption that 'gods' existed. I don't think the same was true of Confucius.

And yet Nestorians in China during the Tang dynasty cited Confucian scholars.

Funny how that works.

Again, the crucial thing to remember is that, in the Medieval context, the religious authorities took each other seriously as learned academics and credentialed experts in what they regarded as a rigorous field. That does not mean they agreed with each other, far from it, but it does mean that simply suggesting that theological issues would have a natural, subjective diversion along cultural lines would have been anathema.

(On a sidenote, I think Aristotle and Plato would object to being characterized as "assuming" gods exist, as they saw themselves as demonstrating that a god or divine power must exist, and other Medievals also did not view themselves as assuming that a god or gods existed.)

[dustole]

BORING!


It is much more fun to poke D'hara!  I like preaching wherever I want to even when the ruler of another country tells me not to.

[Gustav Kuriga]

This ought to be fun...

[Vellos]

This ought to be fun...

Yes indeed.

[Meneldur]

BORING!


It is much more fun to poke D'hara!  I like preaching wherever I want to even when the ruler of another country tells me not to.

And just when Constantine thought that leaving the Regency would allow him to live a nice peaceful Allison-free life...  :P

[Vellos]

And just when Constantine thought that leaving the Regency would allow him to live a nice peaceful Allison-free life...  :P

I'm very interested to see how this whole incident turns out...

I kind of really want to clap Allison in irons.

[Chenier]

Forcing me out of my lazyness, urgh!

[Chaotrance13]

Why do I get the odd feeling Allison is going to get excommunicated (again?)...

[Carna]

Why do I get the odd feeling Allison is going to get excommunicated (again?)...

If Allison gets excommunicated, will Astrum lead a fancy crusade to capture the heretic and place a nice pious priest in her stead? Methinks she'll be arrested before very long though. Local laws and what-have-you.

[De-Legro]

If Allison gets excommunicated, will Astrum lead a fancy crusade to capture the heretic and place a nice pious priest in her stead? Methinks she'll be arrested before very long though. Local laws and what-have-you.

And what if she does? The could torture her, though that isn't likely to play well. The can keep her in prison for a while, then she can go right back to preaching where she wants. Unless she is caught trying to influence the peasants or incite stuff, its not like they can ban her.

[GoldPanda]

I, for one, welcome our new Astroist overlords.

*raises a white flag*

What now, Allison?!

A strange game. The only winning move is to surrender.