From: Stephen Lauf
To: design-l@lists.psu.edu
Subject: Re: why building another church (any kind)...
Date: 2003.08.18 17:59
Patrick, allow me to clarify my "building another church - in protest(ant)" post.
After all the recent 'talk' here about the enormity of the present St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican (remember the first St. Peter's Basilica was 'built' by St. Helena, whose feast is celebrated today within the Roman Catholic Church), I began to wonder how such an enormous undertaken becomes accomplished, and that is when I remembered Luther's 95 Theses. I first read the 95 Theses a few years ago online, and I was surprised at all the references to the building of St. Peter's. Construction of the basilica was funded (partly, I assume) by the Vatican's selling of indulgences--
Indulgences alleviate the time one has to spend in Purgatory (if that's where one winds up), thus quickening one's arrival into Heaven. For example, I remember from catechism class that saying the Hail Mary prayer is worth an indulgence of three years (or something like that). In the early 1500s, while the old St. Peter's was being demolished and the new one was going up, Roman Catholics throughout Europe could buy Indulgences (maybe $10 got you 10 years indulgence), and the money was to fund the construction of the new Vatican basilica
--and Luther "protested" against this, thus essentially initiating Lutheranism ("building another church") and Protestantism in general.
(for me at least) It is ironic (and worth remembering) that the physical building of one great church at the same time brought about the establishment of a 'protestant' church.
The epilog excerpt from Homo Ludens was included because Martin Luther personifies completely the spoil-sport, thus giving credence to the whole spoil-sport notion.
In no way did I intend to advocate the building of another church now.
Howard, in his "A Revolution in Electric-Based Power...," appears to appreciate the "lesson" of Luther/the spoil-sport, and relates this to the workings and sustaining of democracy, and I have to agree with him.
That said, wouldn't it be great if radical change today could be brought about by simply posting a 95 point theses on the door of a church!
[Well, it wasn't exactly just the posting of the Theses. The Vatican made the huge mistake of selling the Indulgences in the first place. Plus Luther did subsequently work hard at evangelism, e.g., translating the Bible from Latin to German--the first such translation ever into a modern vernacular.]
The more things change, the more they stay the same?
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