John,
I'm afraid that we have been mixing metaphors, chronologically speaking. As
my brother Ed has pointed out,
Islam had its period of greatness-800 years ago.
Christianity was as intolerant as Islam is today-800 years ago.
Today, the part of the planet traditionally recognized as Christendom is
wealthy, free, and tolerant. Today, much of the Islamic world is violent,
profoundly intolerant, and agonizingly poor and ignorant by any comparison
with the modern West. They hate the West not because we're mean to them, or
because of what some Frenchmen did a thousand years ago. They hate us
principally because they envy us.
Joe Erkes
PS I thought that my commentary regarding the reasoning behind Augustine's
concept of the "Just War" was self-evident. I'll summarize it briefly.
Throughout the history of Christianity, even in Augustine's era, the focus
of religious teaching has been interior (not exterior) growth. The question
"how can you reconcile the commandant that 'Thou shall not kill' with your
participation in a state sponsored war?" has been around for a very long
time and has been extensively treated in scholastic philosophy, particularly
in the study of ethics. The ever-constant answer to that question over the
centuries has been that participation by Christians in war is OK so long as
the war is a "just war".
In summary, those religious teachers were focused on improving men, not
governments. They were clarifying the distinction between moral and immoral
wars for the benefit of their students, not making an argument for a
religious Jihad. To interpret the remarks of Augustine and Aquinas
regarding the "just war" in the "Jihad" context is to misread history badly,
I'm afraid.
***************************
> From: "John S. Quarterman" <jsq@quarterman.org>
> Reply-To: sinclair@quarterman.org
> Date: Tue, 06 Aug 2002 13:55:45 -0500
> To: sinclair@quarterman.org
> Subject: Re: 14 July 1099
>
>> Sinclair and John...
>>
>> I have a few brief comments regarding your interesting exchange of posts on
>> Jihad and Holy Wars.
>>
>> (1) In today's parlance, a "holy war" is a war launched for religious
[ Excess quotations omitted. ]
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