XPost: alt.books.cs-lewis   
   From: hayesmstw@hotmail.com   
      
   On Sun, 09 Oct 2005 17:37:35 GMT, Bree  wrote:   
      
   >On Sun, 09 Oct 2005 17:24:17 +0200, Steve Hayes    
   >wrote:   
   >   
   >>On 9 Oct 2005 09:18:53 GMT, Siwel Naph  wrote:   
   >>   
   >>>> Many people speak as though witchhunting was   
   >>>> "medieval". It wasn't (and isn't). It was, and is, modern.   
   >>>   
   >>>Does that excuse it or absolve medieval Christians of their forms of   
   >>>persecution? The Witchhunt shows that Christianity can, in the right   
   >>>circumstances, become very aberrant. I don't know that Buddhism has ever   
   >>>become so aberrant: you've still not told me whether you think a Japanese   
   >>>Christianity with the same power as Japanese Buddhism would have behaved   
   >>>better or worse.   
   >>   
   >>I've changed the subject line, since seem to have dropped your imaginary   
   >>coutnries completely.   
   >>   
   >>I'm in no position to involve "mediaval Christians" (which ones?) of their   
   >>(unspecified) forms of persecution.   
   >>   
   >>In an imaginary Japan in which people practised mere Christianity, people   
   >>would behave a lot better than historical Buddhists in historical Japan. But   
   >>in an imaginary medival Europe in which people practised mere Buddhis, they   
   >>woould also behave a lot better than historical Christians in historical   
   >>medieval Europe.   
   >   
   >Yes, that's fair. :-)   
   >   
   >How about dropping these idealized, purified 'mere' stand-alones, and the   
   >word 'practise' --  and talking about how Japan might have behaved with the   
   >same sort of Christianity that Europe actually had? And vice versa.   
      
   Too many "what ifs".   
      
   It's one thing to say that in the known history of this world Christians have   
   failed to practise the Christian virtues and Buddhists have failed to practise   
   the Buddhist virtues. But to postulate an imaginary world in which they do   
   practise those vitrtues and then to say that they don't seems a pointless   
   exercise.   
      
   It's one thing to want to have your cake and eat it, but that is like having   
   your cake and not having it.   
      
      
   --   
   Steve Hayes   
   Web: http://www.geocities.com/hayesstw/stevesig.htm   
        http://www.bookcrossing.com/mybookshelf/Methodius   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)