I am, I have to admit, a
bit of an ecclesiophiliaC, especially where Italy is concerned.
Given a day to wander around any city, you’re more than likely to find me whiling away my time in the peace and quiet of a beautiful sanctuary. In Italy especially, I find that churches have their own historical importance. The stories behind them, why they were built, to whom they were dedicated, the artists brought in to decorate them, are often as fascinating as the works themselves. On a recent trip to Puglia, after being dragged through the fourth or fifth church that day, my friend and travel companion started musing aloud about how he’d break the news to my mum that her youngest son was more than likely going to disappear into the priesthood one day. I’m not though. I love churches for the same reason other people love art galleries and museums. As a proselytising religion, Christianity has always had to amaze people, often done with incredible art and architecture, in a way that my own Jewish religion never has. Synagogues are practical and functional (if very rarely comfortable), and that’s it.
So why not? Well, my problem with Christianity is less about the usual reasons. The illiberal attitude to questions of modern life, the proselytising, the immoral/illegal behaviour of the clergy, these are all issues, but they’re issues on which Christianity doesn’t really hold a monopoly. No, my problem is simpler than that; I’m just a bit squeamish. And that is a problem, as Christianity has always had a bit of an obsession with collecting bits of people and putting them on display, with only a passing interest in whose bits they actually are or how disconcerting it may be to outsiders (and many insiders for that matter). Saint John the Baptist’s head, for example, is simultaneously on display in Damascus, Rome, Amiens and Munich, whilst also being buried in southern France and Turkish Antioch. Quite the feat, even for one as saintly as himself. If a long-lost tribe in the heart of the Amazon were to stick up shrines with body parts of holy figures to worship, we’d ridicule or, more likely, patronise them.
CATHOLICISM AND CORPSES
Ecclesiophiliac Sahar Zivan states plain his views (and qualms) on Catholicism.
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