[Fis] THE ROOTS OF MODERN CIVILISATION

Sat Jan 7 23:40:19 CET 2023

Dear Plamen,

I agree that it is important to recognise the value of monastic culture in
the ‘dark ages’ and medieval period, and its continuing influence on
Western culture. As you point out, in many ways the Catholic church is a
continuation of the Roman Empire by other means (a man in a robe sits on a
throne in Rome and issues commands). However, I am unconvinced that this is
the entirely positive thing that you seem to suggest. Indeed, you mention
that “Holland, France and England became colonial powers dominating the sea
trade, yet at the price of slavery and exploiting the native population”,
and slavery was certainly an example set by the Roman Empire. More
generally, the Roman Empire was built on central authority and power, and
the Catholic Church was constructed on these foundations, grafting them
onto the decentralised and contemplative traditions of the early church.

Intuitively, most people within traditionally Christian countries assume,
with Pelagius (c. 354–418), that you get into heaven by doing good things.
But this is not compatible with an imperial church, as you no longer need
priests to achieve salvation, and hence have no authority or power over the
population. Augustine succeeded in winning the argument with Pelagius, and
establishing the doctrine of original sin, which can only be overcome
through the grace of God, which is transmitted through priests. Hence
infants need to be baptised to avoid being condemned to purgatory until the
second coming. This is the doctrinal mechanism whereby imperial authority
was maintained by the church. Unsurprisingly, Pelagius was condemned as a
heretic. It is worth meditating on this a little: “If you live a good life
you go to heaven” is heretical to the Catholic Church. I certainly find the
implications to be horrendous.

As a Welsh person, I am aware of Pelagius because he was a Celt (Wales,
Ireland and Brittany compete for the honour or infamy of being his
birthplace). The Celtic church was monastic (think of the Book of Kells),
and in Wales it was a direct continuation of the Roman church in Roman
occupied Britain. The Welsh church maintained a decentralised, Pelagian
tradition until the annexation of Wales by the English in 1534. So there is
nothing inevitable about the imperial nature of the church.

In 1276 Ramon Llull established a monastic school in Mallorca, five
kilometres from where I am typing these words (see
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.raco.cat/index.php/Contributions/article/download/95275/411648__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!Q0Q_sSUonrpENMyx1ZxV7Z8SpySpGHhSUUeHKZ-ElQjJ_BruzkJxFyJuqlIrOetPYzS054VTEeRHay1ody4PzhdXOVcV$ ).
There, the students (Franciscan Minors) studied Arabic, and I believe also
Greek and Hebrew, in line with Llull’s belief that the three ‘peoples of
the book’ (Christians, Muslims and Jews) could be reconciled through
learning and logical discourse. For his efforts Llull was excommunicated by
the church, and conversion in Christianity and Islam remained linked to
imperial conquest. Current events in Israel, Nigeria, and other countries
are illustrating the consequences of failing to attend to his vision. In
our time I have found Karen Armstrong’s writing valuable in underlining the
common foundations of the major religions.

I believe these examples help us “recognize the patterns that let us down
before and now” which you mention. They help us consider how the Christian
church in general, and monasticism in particular, could have evolved if
Christianity had not taken on the trappings and political imperatives of
the Roman Empire. The benefits of monasticism which you describe could
still have been achieved, and perhaps we could have sidestepped some of the
most noxious manifestations of authoritarian social structures and the
“clash of civilizations”.

On Fri, 6 Jan 2023 at 12:50, Dr. Plamen L. Simeonov <
plamen.l.simeonov at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear Colleagues,
>
> I wish you a HAPPY; HEALTHY AND PEACEFUL NEW YEAR 2023 !
>
> It is my pleasure to announce, -- also on behalf of our generous and
> hard-working host Pedro C. Marijuan who has provided us with this forum of
> wonderful exchange for so many years (Hallelujah!), --  the opening of our
> New Year's discussion session under the topic THE ROOTS OF CIVILISATION.
> that will end on January 31st, 2023.
>
> I am eager and curious to read your ideas. Please feel free to share
> whatever comes to your mind.
>
> Here is the abstract with the focus and some idea we can extract/expect at
> the end:
>
> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>
> THE ROOTS OF MODERN (WESTERN / EUROPEAN) CIVILISATION
>
> INTRO: We are living today in uncertain times with multiple overlapping
> human-made crises which an advanced civilization is supposed to anticipate
> and prevent -- ecology, epidemics, overpopulation, economy with
> disproportional energy and resources consume, cultural and generational
> polarization, even questioning science, moral values and an individual’s
> identity. Furthermore, ideologically led old ghost teachings of division,
> conflict and confrontation among social groups and utopic tech visions for
> remodeling and resetting the world with unpredictable consequences are
> contributing to the overall confusion and wrong choices, thus deepening the
> crises even more. Could we look back at the past for some lessons?
>
> THE MAGISTERY OF HISTORY: There have been many episodes of civilization
> crises along human history. Each one of them has left a "recipe" in our
> collective memory of how to overcome it. Maybe this time things have become
> too complex and multi-faceted, like society itself. Or maybe an evil
> intention is lurking behind? There are so many different aspects at
> multiple levels in social life all over the world that have been
> increasingly challenged by our tunnel vision on technology oriented towards
> more production/profit and less cleaning/reuse/benevolence, away from a
> stable equilibrium (“homeostasis”). They need to be reorganized coherently
> and in a commonly agreeable way, not in one imposed by self-proclaimed
> authorities who got used to changing long established definitions and rules
> of conduct following their own agenda. This takes time, of course, as it
> has always been. What about looking for lessons to learn from the past, or
> at least to obtain some orientation in order to make the right decisions in
> this difficult time? This appears to be more reasonable than starting to
> invent novel directive-guided solutions from scratch deploying not yet
> proven as safe technologies in a trial-and-error fashion. We have an
> intriguing proposal for you. Let us focus on a fascinating period in human
> history and find out how the Western world was rebuilt and reintegrated
> from the ruins of the Roman Empire.
>
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?entryid=1708__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!Q0Q_sSUonrpENMyx1ZxV7Z8SpySpGHhSUUeHKZ-ElQjJ_BruzkJxFyJuqlIrOetPYzS054VTEeRHay1ody4Pzk1mmgcO$ 
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?entryid=1708__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!Rg9EurD0-ICyn68-QPfWNXtUmZH8tNOYk7zRY33Dy7GGR2nVCGcIUyhiRCktmagzi0QscagoZaBpzu6YLWoXVIMjd4Ya$>
>
>
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://aeon.co/essays/how-the-fall-of-the-roman-empire-paved-the-road-to-modernity__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!Q0Q_sSUonrpENMyx1ZxV7Z8SpySpGHhSUUeHKZ-ElQjJ_BruzkJxFyJuqlIrOetPYzS054VTEeRHay1ody4PzgsROsRC$ 
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://aeon.co/essays/how-the-fall-of-the-roman-empire-paved-the-road-to-modernity__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!Rg9EurD0-ICyn68-QPfWNXtUmZH8tNOYk7zRY33Dy7GGR2nVCGcIUyhiRCktmagzi0QscagoZaBpzu6YLWoXVOOlOPg8$>
>
> THE MONASTIC SYSTEM - A GREAT IDEA. A handful of people may be credited
> with the design and realization of this truly civilization project. During
> its golden ages, Rome was defended by more than 200,000 legionaries, but
> after its fall in 466 AD they were replaced by other, more powerful
> spiritual warriors. They gradually covered the fragmented (Western) Europe
> and expanded Christianity through missionaries in the North by a coherent
> space of several thousand Catholic Benedictine monasteries that peacefully
> preserved and cultivated education, technology, economy, medicine, law, art
> and moral values that integrated the wisdom of the classical antiquity (Rom
> and Greece) and enlightened the local communities through the Dark Ages.
> Their success in ameliorating and guiding the human spirit paved the way
> for the urban "cloisters" of universities during the Renaissance Era (XII
> century ff.) where the seeds of science found their fruitful grounds to
> grow. Thus, several major crises, incl. alien invasions, the plague,
> internecine wars and famines were overcome thanks to this new resilient
> social scaffold.
>
>
> In Eastern Europe, the Roman-Byzantine Empire in Constantinople, although
> shrunk through the waves of plague and foreign invasions, survived for
> almost 1000 years thanks to expanding Christianity and culture to its new
> neighbor and rival, but also ally at times in the North, the Bulgarian
> Empire. The latter developed the Cyrillic alphabet during the IX century
> AD, translated the holy books/prayers/songs in their language and began
> disseminating them to the other Slavic people in today’s territories of
> Serbia and Montenegro, Wallachia (Romania), Ukraine and Russia. When the
> Bulgarian 3 kingdoms and Constantinople surrendered in 1396 AD and 1453 AD
> to the Ottoman Empire, the conquered people on the Balkan peninsula
> continued to exist spiritually through a growing network of Christian
> Orthodox monasteries that kept the local communities together and finally
> led them to freedom through the national liberation movements in the XIX
> century.
>
>
> Both Eastern and Western Europe endured those crises, calamities and
> invasions because they maintained firm, sound civilization roots based on
> the monastic system, the universities and schools as education centers, and
> later on industrial corporations. From today’s viewpoint the monastic
> system is analogous to a modern resilient, redundant, fault-tolerant and
> flexibly configurable computer network, particularly with respect to its
> data storage and processing resources, capable of self-diagnosis and
> self-healing, a critical infrastructure per se. If a monastery was
> destroyed or burned, the monks escaped with most of their valuable books
> and artefacts via safe routes to neighboring monasteries, where they could
> be preserved, replicated and distributed again.
>
>
>
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrillic_script__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!Q0Q_sSUonrpENMyx1ZxV7Z8SpySpGHhSUUeHKZ-ElQjJ_BruzkJxFyJuqlIrOetPYzS054VTEeRHay1ody4PznOWZTYZ$ 
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrillic_script__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!Rg9EurD0-ICyn68-QPfWNXtUmZH8tNOYk7zRY33Dy7GGR2nVCGcIUyhiRCktmagzi0QscagoZaBpzu6YLWoXVNiPvsKe$>
>
>
>
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.thebyzantinelegacy.com/boyana-church__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!Q0Q_sSUonrpENMyx1ZxV7Z8SpySpGHhSUUeHKZ-ElQjJ_BruzkJxFyJuqlIrOetPYzS054VTEeRHay1ody4PzvQdQ7ih$ 
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.thebyzantinelegacy.com/boyana-church__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!Rg9EurD0-ICyn68-QPfWNXtUmZH8tNOYk7zRY33Dy7GGR2nVCGcIUyhiRCktmagzi0QscagoZaBpzu6YLWoXVNLujNTC$>
>
>
>
> THE SUCCESS OF THE WESTERN WORLD: Arguably, what we call cultural
> Renaissance followed by scientific and industrial revolutions were an
> evolutive product of medieval society and the era of great geographical
> discoveries in the New Worlds beyond Europe, North Africa and Asia. Quite
> probably, they were only possible thanks to the first missionary
> globalization and peaceful goods exchange along the silk trade route
> following the pattern of the Antique World trade across the territories
> surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. Spain and Portugal brought to Europe not
> only spices and silk, but also fundamental technologies from Asia (gun
> powder, magnetic compass, paper, porcelain), and later on a regular
> maritime trade routes from China via Philippines and Mexico over the
> Atlantic that were active for more than 250 years before Holland, France
> and England became colonial powers dominating the sea trade, yet at the
> price of slavery and exploiting the native population. The further role of
> science and technology in the task of changing Western societies was
> awesome, perhaps with the infamous Cartesian breach between science and the
> humanities, which no doubt has delivered a biased conception of our
> rationality limits and led to awful ideological misunderstandings that are
> absent in oriental civilizations.
>
>
>
> BACK TO THE PROBLEMS OF OUR TIME
>
> And here we are. In a world that again faces illnesses and adverse events
> from their anecdotic treatment to ask: “How is the state of our
> civilization and our roots today? What do we identify with today? Do we
> recognize the patterns that let us down before and now? Do we know what can
> reconcile and heal our multi-facetted society?”
>
> We modestly, as scientists recognizing the societal immune system,
> acknowledge the fact that we have the duty to contribute to recovering the
> system with coherent visions illuminating the "forking paths ahead" (as
> Borges put it). First of all, on our own turf -- the flagrant incoherence
> and misunderstandings around most fields where information and
> communication, meaning and knowledge, as well as collective intelligence
> need to be cleared up and nailed down. We need to clean up our own backyard
> on this planet and evolve to a new level, -- not necessarily a purely
> technocratic one, -- before we set off for new missions in space and
> meeting other civilizations out there.
>
>
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://interestingliterature.com/2021/07/jorge-luis-borges-the-garden-of-forking-paths-summary-analysis/__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!Q0Q_sSUonrpENMyx1ZxV7Z8SpySpGHhSUUeHKZ-ElQjJ_BruzkJxFyJuqlIrOetPYzS054VTEeRHay1ody4PzikhmrPj$ 
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://interestingliterature.com/2021/07/jorge-luis-borges-the-garden-of-forking-paths-summary-analysis/__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!Rg9EurD0-ICyn68-QPfWNXtUmZH8tNOYk7zRY33Dy7GGR2nVCGcIUyhiRCktmagzi0QscagoZaBpzu6YLWoXVHm0PUvc$>
>
>
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/william-shatner-space-boldly-go-excerpt-1235395113/__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!Q0Q_sSUonrpENMyx1ZxV7Z8SpySpGHhSUUeHKZ-ElQjJ_BruzkJxFyJuqlIrOetPYzS054VTEeRHay1ody4PzsPeGCOK$ 
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/william-shatner-space-boldly-go-excerpt-1235395113/__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!Rg9EurD0-ICyn68-QPfWNXtUmZH8tNOYk7zRY33Dy7GGR2nVCGcIUyhiRCktmagzi0QscagoZaBpzu6YLWoXVFp49Ast$>
>
> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>
> With best wishes,
>
> Plamen
>
> ___ ___ ___
>
> *Dr. Plamen L. Simeonov*
>
> Director Research Integral Biomathics
>
> *InBioCe
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.simeio.org/focus/about/inbioce/__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!Rg9EurD0-ICyn68-QPfWNXtUmZH8tNOYk7zRY33Dy7GGR2nVCGcIUyhiRCktmagzi0QscagoZaBpzu6YLWoXVEEpTrC0$>*
>  –
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.simeio.org/focus/about/molbio2math/__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!Rg9EurD0-ICyn68-QPfWNXtUmZH8tNOYk7zRY33Dy7GGR2nVCGcIUyhiRCktmagzi0QscagoZaBpzu6YLWoXVLAU9QzG$>*Integral
> Biomathics Centre
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.simeio.org/focus/about/inbioce/__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!Rg9EurD0-ICyn68-QPfWNXtUmZH8tNOYk7zRY33Dy7GGR2nVCGcIUyhiRCktmagzi0QscagoZaBpzu6YLWoXVEEpTrC0$> *
>
> phone1: +1 (213) 822-7245
>
> phone2: +49 173 7816 337
>
> email: plamen at simeio.org
>
> URLs: https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.linkedin.com/in/plamenlsimeonov/__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!Q0Q_sSUonrpENMyx1ZxV7Z8SpySpGHhSUUeHKZ-ElQjJ_BruzkJxFyJuqlIrOetPYzS054VTEeRHay1ody4PzvXuOqgZ$ 
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.linkedin.com/in/plamenlsimeonov/__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!Rg9EurD0-ICyn68-QPfWNXtUmZH8tNOYk7zRY33Dy7GGR2nVCGcIUyhiRCktmagzi0QscagoZaBpzu6YLWoXVFxcsVTw$>
>
> simeio.org
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://simeio.org/__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!Rg9EurD0-ICyn68-QPfWNXtUmZH8tNOYk7zRY33Dy7GGR2nVCGcIUyhiRCktmagzi0QscagoZaBpzu6YLWoXVAJmPJJ4$>
>   |  ibiomath.org
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://ibiomath.org/__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!Rg9EurD0-ICyn68-QPfWNXtUmZH8tNOYk7zRY33Dy7GGR2nVCGcIUyhiRCktmagzi0QscagoZaBpzu6YLWoXVL21CTW5$>
> |  inbiosa.eu
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://inbiosa.eu/__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!Rg9EurD0-ICyn68-QPfWNXtUmZH8tNOYk7zRY33Dy7GGR2nVCGcIUyhiRCktmagzi0QscagoZaBpzu6YLWoXVKuG-505$>
>
> OurWorldInData.org/coronavirus
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!Rg9EurD0-ICyn68-QPfWNXtUmZH8tNOYk7zRY33Dy7GGR2nVCGcIUyhiRCktmagzi0QscagoZaBpzu6YLWoXVIrAd-Ah$>
>
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://groups.google.com/d/forum/covid-19-therapy__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!Q0Q_sSUonrpENMyx1ZxV7Z8SpySpGHhSUUeHKZ-ElQjJ_BruzkJxFyJuqlIrOetPYzS054VTEeRHay1ody4Pzs1xLNUC$ 
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://groups.google.com/d/forum/covid-19-therapy__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!Rg9EurD0-ICyn68-QPfWNXtUmZH8tNOYk7zRY33Dy7GGR2nVCGcIUyhiRCktmagzi0QscagoZaBpzu6YLWoXVJbJaGR5$>
>
>
>
> Orcid ID: https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2672-4405__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!Q0Q_sSUonrpENMyx1ZxV7Z8SpySpGHhSUUeHKZ-ElQjJ_BruzkJxFyJuqlIrOetPYzS054VTEeRHay1ody4Pzq890hzP$ 
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2672-4405__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!Rg9EurD0-ICyn68-QPfWNXtUmZH8tNOYk7zRY33Dy7GGR2nVCGcIUyhiRCktmagzi0QscagoZaBpzu6YLWoXVLxqtfbK$>
>
> Scopus Author ID: 7006001629
>
> ResearcherID: T-4786-2017
>
>
> DISCLAIMER: This email may contain confidential and/or privileged
> information. If you are not the intended recipient or did receive this
> email in error, please notify the sender immediately and destroy this email
> and possible attachments. Any unauthorized copying, disclosure or
> distribution of the material are strictly forbidden.
>
>
>
> HAFTUNGSAUSSCHLUSS: Diese email enthaelt moeglicherweise vertrauliche
> und/oder rechtlich geschuetzte Informationen. Wenn Sie nicht der richtige
> Adressat sind, oder diese email irrtuemlich erhalten haben, informieren Sie
> bitte sofort den Absender und vernichten Sie diese email und die
> moeglicherweise angehaengten Dokumente. Das unerlaubte Kopieren sowie die
> unbefugte Weitergabe sind nicht gestattet.
> _______________________________________________
> Fis mailing list
> Fis at listas.unizar.es
> http://listas.unizar.es/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fis
> ----------
> INFORMACIÓN SOBRE PROTECCIÓN DE DATOS DE CARÁCTER PERSONAL
>
> Ud. recibe este correo por pertenecer a una lista de correo gestionada por
> la Universidad de Zaragoza.
> Puede encontrar toda la información sobre como tratamos sus datos en el
> siguiente enlace:
> https://sicuz.unizar.es/informacion-sobre-proteccion-de-datos-de-caracter-personal-en-listas
> Recuerde que si está suscrito a una lista voluntaria Ud. puede darse de
> baja desde la propia aplicación en el momento en que lo desee.
> http://listas.unizar.es
> ----------
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listas.unizar.es/pipermail/fis/attachments/20230107/5d2bd081/attachment-0001.html>