Thought about it…

Back in May, a contest for a new group- blog “Itellectuelle” was announced. The hostess, Marla Swoffer requested that this not be debated on her blog, but to take it to our own. So I am. better late than never!

The gist of it was this:

Who: Open to evangelical women who are secretly C.S. Lewis wannabes
What: Submit something (approximately 500 words) you’ve never blogged or published which demonstrates you’re a deep thinker with a strong orthodox Christian faith

OK, I wasn’t sure what an “evangelical” woman was but, I love C.S. Lewis, I have a blog, I’ve never been published, I think I have thought some thoughts through deeply, and I also consider myself a strong orthodox Christian!

As I blogged earlier however, that not being an “evangelical” was a big deterrent to participating in the contest.

Ms. Swoffer explains in the comment section:

quasi, hmm…I know my description is sketchy, but yeah, I mean Protestants who read the Bible as the inspired infallible Word of God–generally not mainline denominations (at least not in these parts). Reformed is even better, but I’m not going to make it that narrow.

As I blogged earlier, it seems to me once you’ve cut out 2 of the big 3 branches of Christianity (Catholic and Orthodox) and welcomed just a sliver of Protestantism (evangelical)… seems to me you’re narrowed it pretty well by then!

Nonetheless, I guess if someone wants to have a an exclusive contest and group blog they should have the right to do it. My biggest suggestion would be then to make the EVANGELICAL PART the headline and downplay the rest of it, since that seems to be the biggest requirement for membership.

Last week though I was browsing over on the Martha Martha blog (a very fine blog indeed!) and saw that this issue had come up over there. That got me thinking about it all over again.

The first thought that popped into my mind was C.S. Lewis wouldn’t have been allowed to participate in this contest (even if he were a she) because Mr. Lewis was Anglican. Never mind the attraction he had for Catholicism, he certainly WAS NOT a 21st century, Evangelical prostestant!

Then in the comment section I read perhaps one of the reasons Catholics were not included:

One last thing, I do appreciate the intellectual and spiritual heritage/legacy of Catholics (Chesterton is a favorite as is Brother Lawrence, among others), but it seems to me that Catholics (prior to the Reformation) discouraged people thinking for themselves, i.e. only the clergy had access to the Bible.

sigh… that simply amazed me! OK well, wouldn’t a deep thinker have perhaps thought on that a bit more? I mean who prior to the Reformation AND the creation of the printing press, had a bible? It’s not like you could go down to the local bookstore and pick one up! They were not mass produced in soft cover!! They were meticulously copied BY HAND – works of art really. And it took years to produce one. So of course after that much time and effort it makes sense that the only place you would be able to find one would be in a church or a university.

Not that the common Christian man or woman would care anyway, because they COULDN’t READ!!

The first books to show up in print shops were bibles and religious tracts. The next books to attract publishers were the “humanist” texts brought back from Byzantium by the Crusades, and other texts of antiquity but there was little or no printing of new ideas.

Many people went into the printing business and went right back out again. The reason was that the distribution of books was poorly organized. The market was there, and the potential for filling the demand, but the transport and control and “advertising” mechanisms were not in place.

In addition, there was still a low literacy rate in Europe. Most people did not know how to read at all. But non-literates were still affected by the book trade because the elites, who controlled society, were affected by books. And people who could not read still had access to book culture because there were traveling raconteurs who stood in the market and read from books as a means of making a living as entertainers

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But lest the Catholic church be accused of keeping the little man down, I would point out another little tid bit of history- those beautiful stained glass windows in the churches were a way of telling the bible to the people, so that people could hear the stories and have the windows and the art work to remind them of what they learned. The rosary too was a way of helping the people remember and go through the life of Christ – again very biblical.

Pennie at Martha Martha does handle this all very graciously and well, and her remarks are what made me think on this… er deeply once more!

The new Intellectuelle blog can be found here.

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