"'...the first real knowledge of the universe and the first strong ideal of liberty.'"
-Poul Anderson, The Shield Of Time (New York, 1991), PART SIX, 1990 A. D., p. 434.
- and that our history, guarded by the Patrol, will:
"'...at last take us beyond what our animal selves could have imagined.'"
-ibid., p. 435.
I would have preferred a straighter route to such an end. However, let us not just hope but act to bring it about.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
You keep saying "medieval" church and state conflict, but that conflict has never truly ended an continues to rage globally in varying degrees. The Catholic Church and many Protestants endures harassment/persecution in many parts of the world, from secularists trying to force nuns to pay for abortions in the US to vicious persecution in Maoist China or many Muslim nations. Tyrants feel threatened by the Church's refusal to yield to Caesar what belongs only to God!
Anderson was right, tremendous consequences flowed from Matthew 22.15-22. The resulting conflicts between Church and states helped lead to philosophies of ordered freedom and the limited State.
Where I disagree whit what Anderson had that Danellian saying is that we will somehow transcend "animality," our Fallen nature. And when push came to shove Anderson agreed, as he stated in one of his letters to me, saying human beings were either incompletely evolved chimps or Fallen.
Ad astra! Sean
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