Comments on: What About the Inquisition?

By: Brandon Adams

Brandon Adams — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 20:43:13 +0000

A Christian should feel no need to defend the Inuisition because it was perpetrated by Roman Catholics, not Christians. The Christian should emphasize that the dark ages were dark because the Bible was kept hidden. It was not allowed to be translated into the language of the people. Roman Catholicism is not built upon the foundation of the Bible, so it should not be used as an example of a society founded upon the Bible.
Once the Bible was liberated in the Reformation, civilization was transformed.
To use your analogy, the Roman Catholic church blindfolded Edison, ensuring that he would not invent.
Certainly Protestants are guilty of sin as well, but not to the point of Inquisitions. And as the Bible was allowed to be read by all, the truth of the Bible transformed society.
John Robbins' book and shorter article “Christ and Civilization” is a very good look at this:
http://www.trinityfoundation.org/PDF/200a-ChristandCivilization.pdf
http://www.trinitylectures.org/product_info.php?cPath=21&products_id=166&osCsid=f0ae8a4aab0131bb50cd8dd3265903be
He also publishes a very good tract that you can use as well (the website doesn't have the PDF, and the html isn't formatted correctly, but the printed tract looks good)
http://www.trinityfoundation.org/journal.php?id=214
A former RC priest, Richard Bennett, has very informative discussions of RC persecution
http://www.trinitylectures.org/MP3/A_Brief_History_of_Roman_Church-State_Persecution,_Richard_Bennett.mp3
http://www.bereanbeacon.org/playUtube.php?link=?docid=Rx8PdvOELvY?store=The%20Inquisition

By: Amy

Amy — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 22:16:19 +0000

I totally agree that we have different kinds of problems today. I actually cut out a part of this post in the interest of space, that now I wish I had left in that basically said that we're still not even aware of problems we have that will (hopefully) in time become clear. But in terms of the Church, I doubt you'll see something like the Inquisition again, and at this point one can make less of a connection between Christianity and governments in the West. To the extent that our Christian foundation for human rights erodes, however, because of the introduction of naturalistic, postmodern ideas, you'll certainly see new moral atrocities. A perfect example is my post today on the abortion art. Abortion is a moral atrocity that's certainly on the moral level of the Inquisition, but it seems perfectly reasonable to many people because of their worldview. Society harms people to the extent that it embraces false ideas.
We have farther to go than we realize morally, but in terms of people being able to live in freedom, we're certainly a long way from where we were.

By: Derek

Derek — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 19:52:11 +0000

Tweak the terminology a bit and this is essentially Cardinal Newman's defense of the development of Catholic doctrine. We don't, he argues, discover the full-blown awesomeness of modern purgatory, papal infallibility, etc. in the writings of the primitive church because the complete implications of apostolic teaching take some time to absorb. The early Christians can't be faulted for the learning curve.
But while the beauty of Newman's thesis is that it can't be falsified by the facts of history, I'm not sure yours enjoys the same immunity. Do we really see this overarching moral improvement narrative being played out in societies throughout Christian history? Certainly we've made some improvements in the last 500 years (as you've attested), but on the whole, I'm not convinced Western society today is any morally better off than it was in the 15th century–we end up simply trading one type of moral atrocity for another.
I know you're not implying that the West has somehow finally “arrived.” But do you think any atrocity on the moral level (not necessarily the scale) of the Inquisition is possible today? Or in the future?