Notes: Saturday-Tuesday, September 11-14, 2010

Interesting article on Islamic 'Church'-(Super)State doctrine as expressed in an Islamist party's manifesto

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/osamas-one-size-fits-all-islamism/story-e6frg6zo-1225917045865

Interesting to read Ms Neighbour's article while keeping in mind the corresponding Traditional Catholic (i.e. true) socio-political doctrines. There is much in that article which would (or I suppose should) be unobjectionable to a Catholic*. Two key points of disagreement are, however, the Islamist lack of a distinction between the State and the Islamic counterpart to the Church (the true and Catholic doctrine is that there is a distinction but, ideally, not a separation between Church and State) and the apparent Islamic imperative for all the Islamic Confessional States to unite into the one Super-State (in the true and Catholic doctrine there is no imperative for Catholic Confessional States to unite into the one State; on the contrary, it would seem preferable that there would be no 'Universal State' to rival the Universal Church, though of course this would be no problem in the Islamist schema since, as I said, in it 'Church' and State aren't even distinct from each other).

*This should come as no surprise, since in the following syllogism:

Men not just in societies, but also as societies, must profess the true religion.
Islam is the true religion.
Therefore men not just in societies but also as societies must profess Islam.

the conclusion, which is perhaps the core principle of Islamism insofar as it is a body of socio-political doctrine, is false not because of the form of the argument or because of its major premise but because of the minor premise.

"Vocations Crusade for Holy Cross Seminary, Australia"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=33487

An AQ comment on some inadequacies in The Archdiocese's of Melbourne's "Guidelines for Catholic Funerals"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=379206#379206

Transcript of Compass episode "Schools of Thought" on ethics classes

http://www.abc.net.au/compass/s2968581.htm

Interesting CathNews 'blog' which reminds us that any State will have public religious, or at least quasi-religious, rites

http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=23216

The relevant excerpt:

Why do we give more solemnity to the public rites of the nation, rather than the public rites of the Church? This has to do with a movement of the sacred from Christianity to the nation; where public rules and rituals are associated with the nation while private wants and tastes apply to everything else, including “religion”.

There will always be a State religion; it's just a question of whether that religion will be the true one or a false one.

Interesting books reviewed/mentioned in the weekend papers:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/ax-and-oath-life-in-the-middle-ages/story-e6frg8nf-1225915905792
"The Axe and the Oath: Ordinary Life in the Middle Ages
"By Robert Fossier
"Trans. Lydia G. Cochrane
"Princeton University Press, 400pp, $64"

Mentioned on page five of the News Review section of The Sydney Morning Herald on Saturday:

"People Power: The History and Future of the Referendum in Australia by George Williams and David Hume (UNSW Press, $34.95)"

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, A.D. 2010

On the denigration and disappearance of Mediæval history

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24485159-5001021,00.html?id

From Monday’s Sydney Daily Telegraph:

Under proposed Federal Government reforms to be released by the National Curriculum Board, primary-school teachers must devote 10 per cent of their time to history lessons.

Secondary students in years 7 to 10 will have to take an average of 100 history classes a year.

Students in years 11 and 12 will not be forced to study history, but will be encouraged to do so.

Now someone tell me: what is missing from the following list:

Students will learn Australian and world topics such as the early humans, the Roman Empire, the Industrial Revolution, the Eureka Stockade, the Gallipoli campaign, the Holocaust and the Whitlam dismissal.

The 1500 years or so from the Roman Empire to the Industrial Revolution has been skipped! Now it is true that pupils in pre-senior level classes are expected to continue to receive instruction on the Middle Ages, but according to the National History Curriculum initial advice paper (section 49),

History at the senior secondary level typically offers a range of choice of more specialised units that are studied in greater depth. There should be options to pursue more advanced studies in the histories taught in Years 7 to 10. It is proposed that there should be units in Years 11 and 12 in Ancient and Modern History, and Australian History. The Modern History unit should ensure coverage of the full period from 1750 to the present.
(http://www.ncb.org.au/verve/_resources/History_Initial_Advice_Paper.pdf)

So right when pupils are really beginning to think critically about history, the Age of Faith is removed from their consideration. And it is, of course, because the Middle Ages truly were the Age of Faith that the history intelligentsia wants to avoid them. This is already the case in New South Wales, where only Ancient and Modern History are on offer in years 11 and 12. Sadly, the Catholic schools no doubt will be only too happy to go along with this; Professor Romano Amerio described quite well in Iota Unum the denigration of the historical Church that has characterised the post-Conciliar years.

Meanwhile, one sees the Australian Human Rights Commission dismiss the era of Scholastic learning with the following piece of reductionism:

476 – 1453

Medieval Christian theology holds that infidels and barbarians are not entitled to humanistic considerations.
(http://www.humanrights.gov.au/info_for_students/essentials/timeline/index.html)

Whatever ‘humanistic considerations’ means; I could take this to be a classic case of the secularists viewing the religionists on the secularists’ own terms, never the religionists own terms, but that might be reading too deeply into it.

More evidence of the desire to forget the Middle Ages is seen in The Daily Telegraph’s own History pages; seldom does one see an ‘On This Day’ entry from between about the Fall of the Roman Empire and the so-called Enlightenment, unless it’s of some significance to present-day pre-occupations, such as the signing of the Magna Carta or whatever. I suppose there’s just not enough ‘diversity’ to ‘celebrate’ in the era of Christendom.

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of St. Margaret Mary, Virgin, 2008 A.D.