Joan of Arc can be taught about in a non-religious context — it was a pivotal period in Western European history, and Joan’s betrayal, trial, and execution was at least as much a geopolitical act as a religious issue. Joan of Arc has been a powerful symbolic figure in Western culture and nationalism for five hundred years, and an immensely popular figure. Joan wasn’t even formally recognized to be a saint in the Roman Catholic Church until 1920..For that matter, how could you teach European history without mentioning the church? The purely geopolitical role of the church was huge. (Separation of church and state was a peculiarly American innovation.) Also, in the Dark Ages the only islands of preservation and scholarship for the culture and civilization of the ancient world were the Catholic monasteries and universities; without them, the Renaissance couldn’t have happened..Ignore the role of religion in who we are, and how we came to be this way, and you end up knowing nothing.
Kvasir42 Premium Member over 12 years ago
Does she go to school at San Dimas High, with Bill and Ted?
PShaw0423 over 12 years ago
Joan of Arc can be taught about in a non-religious context — it was a pivotal period in Western European history, and Joan’s betrayal, trial, and execution was at least as much a geopolitical act as a religious issue. Joan of Arc has been a powerful symbolic figure in Western culture and nationalism for five hundred years, and an immensely popular figure. Joan wasn’t even formally recognized to be a saint in the Roman Catholic Church until 1920..For that matter, how could you teach European history without mentioning the church? The purely geopolitical role of the church was huge. (Separation of church and state was a peculiarly American innovation.) Also, in the Dark Ages the only islands of preservation and scholarship for the culture and civilization of the ancient world were the Catholic monasteries and universities; without them, the Renaissance couldn’t have happened..Ignore the role of religion in who we are, and how we came to be this way, and you end up knowing nothing.
revisages over 12 years ago
that history must have seemed archaic