Dominion: A Missing Thread

St.Ann teaches Mary to read

This is a peaen of praise for Tom Holland's godmother, Timothy's mother and grandmother Lois and Eunice and all those other holy women and men who have maintained and spread the cantus firmus of Christian faith, at home, in the school room, in religious houses and universities since the beginning.

Search the index of Dominion in vain for education, school, or university; yet you would have no doubt of Tom's love and appreciation of his godly, teacher, godmother; nor would one doubt the debt he owes to the educational establishments for his formation as an historian.

Dominion makes a case for Christianity having shaped modern thought so thoroughly, that even those strands that are most hostile to Christian faith have their roots in it. Very convincing it is too; but leave me thinking, "Yes, but what is Christianity?"

Much of the history of Christianity -  as seen in the lives of  Christian kings, princes of the Church, crusades and the burning of those with whom one disagrees  - is grossly un-Christ- like.

When Christianity came to Anglo-Saxon England, the pattern of kingship adopted was that of King David. Like David, Anglo-Saxon kings were war lords who stove against those who wished to supplant them. Un-edited, the psalms provided a suitable sound track for the reality of their lives. On the positive side, the psalms nudged kings towards justice and righteousness.  But only in their failure,  as in the defeat and death of the Kings of East Anglia Sigberht and Edmund, at the hands of the Mercians and Vikings respectively, did their rule resemble that of Christ the King.

Meanwhile, Anglo-Saxon ladies, who had long accepted a role of peace-weavers through dynastic marriage, extended their range of peace-weaving by founding and staffing royal monasteries. Similarly, the long established pattern of fostering of children/young people in the royal households of allies or potential foes, led to children being place in and educated in monasteries (sometimes in neighbouring kingdoms e.g. Sigberht was educated in Francia).

Education was key to the Conversion of England. The Angel/Angles story about  Gregory the Great may or may not be true; but we have documentary evidence, in the shape of a letter, in which Gregory instructs the steward of one of his French estates to purchase Anglian slaves, so they could be educated and spearhead the mission he had in mind. 

Augustine established a school in Kent. Felix established a school in East Anglia. In his last letter to his former student, Egbert who was Bishop of York, the Ven. Bede turns again and again to the need for education, the responsibility of bishops to be teachers, to live what they teach and to ensure all Christians are taught.

I am not an historian, my knowledge is limited, but think an history of education ought to have room for the scriptoria of Anglo-Saxon nuns, Mother Julian, St. Ann teaching St. Mary to read,  pioneer women teachers; missionary schools;  and Malala Youfaszai's observation that a woman who is educated is something that frightens misogynist fundamentalist.

Christianity, no less than Islam,  has more than enough misogynist fundamentalist .