The Da Vinci code

[inked]

Offend anyone? Nahhh!

On a serious note for those interested in the relation of TDC to history, I commend this review and the actual text mentioned if you care for history and Christianity or Christ:

http://www.eppc.org/news/newsID.1622/news_detail.asp

Now, for Elfhelm!

I commend to your perusal THE VICTORY OF REASON: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success by Rodney Stark, University Professor of the Social Sciences, Baylor University. His PhD is from the University of California, Berkeley. I think you will find it helpful in this regard. The introduction alone is an education in how Christianity laid the basis for western advancement and was its chief resource and architect.

Marx, whose suffragettes you mention (meaning I am sure the American version and not the literal sufferers of his in Communist Russia), is mentioned within the first page as extolling the virtue of capitalism over the indolence of humanity prior to that point. My point is that the status of women considered as economic entities, which is your point, was allowed and enabled and enfranchised to accomplishment by the same. Let me know what you think of the idea.

You have a lot of confusions. Hence, to pique your interest and to challenge the common view, I will type out a pertinent excerpt:

"During the past century, Western intellectuals have been more than willing to trace European imperialism to Christian origins, but they have been entirely unwilling to recognize that Christianity made any contribution (other than intolerance) to the Western capacity to dominate. Rather, the West is said to have surged ahead precisely as it overcame religious barriers to progress, especially those impeding science. Nonsense. The success of the West, including the rise of science, rested entirely on religious foundations, and the people who brought it about were devout Christians. (xi) ...

...freedom was also essential... .

To sum up: the rise of the West was based on four primary victories of reason. The first was the development of faith in progress within Christian theology. The second victory was the way that faith in progress translated into technical and organizational innovations, many of them fostered by monastic estates. The third was that, thanks to Christian theology, reason informed both political philosophy and practice to the degree that responsive states, sustaining a substantial degreee of personal freedom, appeared in medieval Europe. The final victory involved the application of reason to commerce, resulting in the development of capitalism within the safe havens provided by the responsive states. These were the victories by which the West won. (xiii)"

Interested?

I would, contra Elfhelm, assert that parallel progression is in fact a causative relationship economically and socially. Women were elevated in direct parallel to these economic events. And for support, I would turn to a feminist history of chess: THE BIRTH OF THE CHESS QUEEN: A History by Marilyn Yalom. To quote the flyleaf intro: "In a lively and engaging narrative, Yalom draws parallels between the birth of the chess queen and the ascent of female sovereigns n Europe... . Further, she shows the connection between the chess queen, the cult of the Virgin Mary, and the cult of Romantic Love, all of which influenced European societies for centuries to come." Marilyn Yalom is a senior scholar at the Institute for Women and Gender at Stanford University.

Now, Elfhelm, please do not take me to say that either of these scholars would endorse my points precisely as I make them. I merely point out that far from being the beknighted source of all oppression as commonly falsely assumed and asserted, Christianity is the agent which allowed these changes to occur in society and science. And it is evident in so apparently innocuous a pasttime as chess (which, by the by, was forbidden by Islam and Christianity at various times in both's histories).

But, read, think, and let me know your take.