Geologists recently claimed that we are entering a new planetary epoch called the Anthropocene. The power of humankind has become breathtaking. that task seems clearer today and more urgent. In the midst of all of this, Pope Francis urges us to build bridges, not walls…. With so many accusations, in so many walks of life, sometimes it is difficult to discern between the facts and lies. Some people describe the ‘Diabolos’, as the divider or the slanderer. We live in an age of division and rancour. With rumours of schism and criticisms of the Pope, it is worth remembering that one of the marks of true renewal, according to Yves Congar, is that it is in communion with the whole Church. I have been reflecting on some of the resonances. Christianity spread around the world through communication and connection. At this time I also created a PowerPoint foil with a version of the Runic stone where Harald held a cellphone in one hand and a notebook in the other and with a translation of the runes:īluetooth Special Interest Group, wishes to unite different devices in the way the tribes were united by Harald Bluetooth. Harald had united Denmark and Christianized the Danes! It occurred to me that this would make a good codename for the program. Modern short-link radio technology was developed in Lund in Sweden in 1989, but named Bluetooth by Jim Kardach of Intel in 1996, who explains the story in a blog on Tech History: Undoubtedly, some of the unity was brought about by conquest and force but after his conversion, according to lore, Harald had an uncanny ability to bring people together in non-violent negotiations. His initials H ( ᚼ ) and B ( ᛒ ) in ancient runes, may look familiar to you, in fact, you may have glanced at them several times today! As well as constructing the oldest bridge in Scandinavia at Ravning, he also united various tribes as did Alfred. He is remembered as a great King and a bridge builder in multiple ways. The baptism is recorded in this magnificent gold altar plate from the 12th Century. He was baptised around 960 by ‘Poppo the Monk’ after Poppo allegedly had passed through a ‘Trial by Fire’ to prove the power of his God was most powerful. Historians think that Harald had a prominent bad tooth … hence t he name, ‘Bluetooth’. The King in Denmark was Harald Bluetooth. With Christianity came learning and writing, which mystified the Vikings who dismissed this as sorcery at first, but came to understand its significance, not least as a reliable way of disseminating orders. As told in the Saxon Chronicles of Bernard Cornwall, it was a time of uniting disparate kingdoms and the Birth of England. This has been dramatised by the fascinating Netflix series ‘The Last Kingdom’ which covers the partial Viking Conquest of Britain and the fightback of the Christian King, Alfred the Great. I think particularly interesting is the gradual emergence out of a violent pagan culture, into the unifying and eventually pacifying force of Christianity. As we also know they did a lot raping and pillaging. These incredible navigators landed in N.America 500 years before Columbus. Not least the history of Denmark and the impact of the Viking Age (793-1066). The DSA was much more influential than Isaac’s treatise in the thirteenth century in reformulating Augustinian thought about both reason and affectus prior to the impact of Aristotelian thinking about the intellective soul.I was in Copenhagen for the first time last week and was fascinated by many things. Their dismissal of its authority has influenced a scholarly tendency to downplay the originality of how its author responds to the ideas of Isaac of Stella about both reason and affectus in the soul. While the De spiritu et anima (hereafter DSA) would be widely circulated in the thirteenth century as a work of Augustine, this attribution was questioned by both Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas. 1100–1169), in which he says he is responding to questions raised by his friend, Alcher, and the De spiritu et anima, a text which expands on Isaac’s Platonizing ideas about the soul with arguments indebted to Augustine. 1085–1148), was thinking about what the Song of Songs could reveal about longing and desire in the human soul.ĭeserving particular attention are two treatises about the soul, the De anima of Isaac of Stella (c. 1110–1167), whose ‘affective anthropology’ is the focus of an important monograph by Damien Boquet.Īelred, however, was only extending ideas already developed by Bernard of Clairvaux (1190–1153), who, together with his friend, William of Saint-Thierry (c. The figure most well-known for theorizing affectus-in the sense of inclination or what in German is called Affekt-at least in terms of friendship, is Aelred of Rievaulx (c. Affectus and affectio, however we translate these words, became key concepts in Cistercian thought in the twelfth century.
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