Are We Disturbed?

 

Are we disturbed?!  I can almost hear Maximus in the arena (Russell Crowe in “Gladiator”) twirling around and shouting after his blood-spilled battle, to ask all of us: “Are you not entertained?”  Rather, “Are you not disturbed?!” Are we?

Do we have to conform in thought and speech?  Isn’t it okay if we disturb someone or some groups? Or, do we insist we should act as judges at Salem witch trials?  We know what happened to those “witches:” condemnation, abuse, torture, and agonizing death.

Banning books or words because they disturb us does the following: “Opponents of bans argue that by restricting information and discouraging freedom of thought, censors undermine one of the primary functions of education: teaching students how to think for themselves. Such actions, assert free speech proponents, endanger tolerance, free expression, and democracy.”  On the other hand, proponents of banning do have some valid points.  This is a very controversial and politically-divisive topic.

What follows is part of a 2018 article written by Robert Sarwark: The Catholic Index of Forbidden Books: A Brief History.  I provide it here because historically our Church has been threatened by opposing points of view on numerous aspects of our faith.  

(begin) The Index Librorum Prohibitorum was a list of books banned for lay Roman Catholic readership. Officially – though the Church was never fully explicit in its means of prosecution of such rules – any individual who dared read any books included on this list risked excommunication and, thus, spiritual damnation…the Index was definitively compiled Church-wide starting around 1600 and semi-regularly published in Latin (and, later, in translation) by the Vatican starting in 1632.

The process of deciding which books were to be included was regulated in accordance with various canons (religious laws) regulating the Church’s official policies on printed literature. Before they were consolidated into one master serial publication, various subsets of the Church such as the Universities of Paris and Louvain and the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions had independently published their own indices of forbidden books throughout the sixteenth century. Finally, after almost 400 years, as a result of the reforms promulgated by the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), the Index and its official mechanisms were officially decommissioned in 1966…

As any bibliophile worth their salt knows, Johann Gutenberg invented the movable-type printing press around 1450, allowing for, soon afterwards, the mass dissemination of books, pamphlets, broadsides (posters), and other printed materials. Without the printing press, for example, the “99 Theses” of Martin Luther (1517) would have to have been copied out by hand, a process that takes exponentially longer to complete than the labors of a well-staffed print shop. 

Simply put, neither Lutheranism nor Protestant Christianity in general may have ever spread without the printing press. As Protestantism took hold in countries such as the Netherlands and England by the 16th and 17th centuries, independent printers and publishing houses did as well. Much to the Vatican’s chagrin, published works were no longer under the control of the Catholic Church and its monasteries full of quill-pen-wielding scribes and copyists. By about 1500, the dam of information and documentation of all kinds, which we nowadays take for granted, had just begun to spring its first major leaks. (end)

I read many books providing useful perspectives about our religion and faith.  Some challenge the status quo.  Some would upset parishioners because they offer attractive alternate interpretations of biblical readings and even our Liturgy.  I find it all fascinating and useful.  I am not disturbed.  I’m just better informed and better able to understand Catholicism and Christianity in general, especially about our relationship with Jesus and with other faiths.

Are you disturbed?!

Deacon David Pierce