One upside to the whole Pope Benedict-remarks-about-Islam thingie (you can go elsewhere to get it analyzed, condemned, and/or defended) is that, for the first time in... well, ever, a Byzantine emperor is in the news. As a longtime fan of Byzantine history, it's cool and exciting to hear Jon Stewart say Manuel II Paleologus.
The Byzantines really deserve more attention, BTW. The history is fascinating, the characters riveting, and the scandal delicious.
3 comments:
You have to admire a culture that managed to be so relentlessly, savagely puritanical and yet so decadent.
Have you ever read John Julius Norwich's history of the Byzantine Empire? It doesn't get much respect from academic circles, but it manages to encompass quite a bit and be very interesting.
I like the way you put that, Chad! "Relentlessly, savagely puritanical and yet so decadent" is a good way to describe Byzantium.
I've never read JJN's full work, just dribs and drabs.
So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you? 13: Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. 14: If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. 15: For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. 16: Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. 17: If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them. 18: I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but that the Scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me. 19: Now I tell you before it come, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am he. 20: Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me; and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. John 13:12-20
Post a Comment