|
|
Article: CHRISTIANITY AS ANTIQUITY AND THE CATHEDRAL OF THE MIND.
- Article from:
- Quadrant
- Article date:
- December 1, 1998
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 Quadrant Magazine Company, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
Christmas is an ancient feast in the calendar of Western civilisation. Indeed, its roots are pagan and antedate Christianity itself. Wryly commenting on its tendency to become a mere commercial saturnalia in our time, Tom Lehrer quipped a generation ago that it "gives us a chance to reflect on what we all most sincerely and deeply believe in: I refer, of course, to money." Perhaps it might better be used to reflect on the sheer antiquity of Christianity and to ask, against the background of its antiquity, what it is about it that we all most sincerely and deeply believe. For it makes at least figurative claims on what we believe about ourselves as human beings; claims ...