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Angels considered as an Air Force

[ by Charles Cameron — when not dancing innumerably on the heads of pins ]
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I responded to a question from David Ronfeldt today by saying I don’t know of a book that offers a “a sustained, point-for-point, systematic, thorough comparison” between earlier Christian and contemporary Islamist religious violence.

I do share his concern for point-for-point comparisons, however, and this one popped up as I was working on my response to David:

SPEC angels rank clairvaux

These two quotes are abstract, indeed metaphysical, I know, and don’t deal with human-on-human violence as such — but the DoubleQuote they form is nevertheless a point-for-point comparison, and the very exactness of its counterpoint gives it the sort of power the best haiku have, I believe, offering us wit in brevity, multum in parvo, small is beautiful.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 12th, 2015 at 4:18 am and is filed under Charles Cameron, christianity, david ronfeldt, Doublequotes, Islam, mathematics, quant & qualit, scriptures, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

2 Responses to “Angels considered as an Air Force”

  1. Cheryl Rofer Says:
    September 12th, 2015 at 1:55 pm

    One of the comparisons I have thought of, as ISIS destroys historical monuments, is destruction of the monasteries in England under Henry VIII.
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    Bare ruin’d choirs…

  2. Charles Cameron Says:
    September 12th, 2015 at 7:32 pm

    I indeed regret the destruction of the monasteries, but feel compelled to admit that my college at Oxford, Christ Church, was founded by Cardinal Wolsey out of the proceeds. The college chapel itself survived the destruction — now doing double duty as an Anglican cathedral:

    The Cathedral stands on the site of an ancient Saxon Church, founded in the 8th century by Saint Frideswide, the Patron Saint of Oxford. Though nothing now remains of this church, a saxon cemetery lies under the cathedral cloister, discovered in 1985.
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    The present building was constructed in the last quarter of the 12th century as the monastery church for a community of Augustinian Canons.
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    The monastery was called St Frideswide’s Priory, and inside the church stood an ornate shrine on which were kept the relics of the saint. Pilgrims visited the shrine throughout the Middle Ages, including Catherine of Aragon, who, in 1518, came to pray for the birth of a son.
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    In 1524, just prior to the General Dissolution of the Monasteries, Cardinal Wolsey gained permission from the Pope to close down St Frideswide’s Priory in order to use the land to build a vast new college for the university. He had planned to include a new chapel for his ‘Cardinal’s College’ but died before the building was completed so the old monastery church was retained. When, in 1546, Henry VIII moved the first Bishop of Oxford into the church, he created a unique institution, ‘Christ Church’, for it’s chapel is also the Cathedral for the Diocese of Oxford.

    Luckily, the “late birds” of Henry VIII and Cromwell’s destruction were mostly pensioned off, only a few of the most obstinate were executed. Even so..

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