Faith Meets Life: A history lesson on church and state
Canada is not a country rooted in African, Asian or Middle Eastern traditions. It is a country rooted in European traditions. The ways in which Canadians tend to think about and practice a range of things can easily be traced back to Europe.
The Canadian form of government might be the most obvious example. Canada's parliament, for instance, is modeled after England's. Similar connections appear for many other aspects of Canadian life. Think of our system of courts and the role of law. Consider our technologies, farming methods and the development of crafts and trades. In all these areas we have borrowed heavily from European, especially English, but also Dutch, French, Italian and German traditions.
Patrick Henry Reardon, senior editor of “Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity,” draws attention to the coronation of Charlemagne on Christmas Day, 800 in Rome.* Charlemagne was the grandson of Charles Martel. Charles was famous for having defeated Muslim forces, which for almost a century attacked and overrun much of Europe from the early days of Mohamed onwards. In 732 he stopped them in the Battle of Poutiers/Tours. Charlemagne on that Christmas day was made emperor of Western Europe.
Reardon considers Charlemagne the “Father of Europe” for several key reasons. First, he created education. He brought scholars from England and other places together. They were immediately put to work organizing and copying ancient classical and Christian texts. Libraries and schools were established throughout his empire and history texts were chronicled. Treatises on music, architecture and theology were written and collected. Technologies, such as the horseshoe (I know, it's no MP3 player) and padded harnessing for horses were invented. Innovators came up with new methods of crop rotation increasing Europe's food production.
Second, Charlemagne helped the Christian tradition to firmly take root throughout his empire. Schools were established at many monasteries and cathedrals. Along with the writing of commentaries on the Christian Scriptures, Christian poetry was composed. The visual arts flourished under his rule. Charlemagne created a relationship between political heads and Christian leaders. Pope Leo III crowned him on that Christmas day.
The church helped the emperor and the emperor helped the church. Missionaries were able to work in hostile territories because of the protection Charlemagne provided. At the same time, he and the church worked out an arrangement where the organized church, and to a significant degree, became independent with respect to the political structures of the empire.
In this last regard, Charlemagne helped create a relationship between religion and politics that never appeared in the Islamic world that he rejected. This is important to recognize today, as we try to understand two areas of 21st century life: our North American assumptions about the role of church and state, and the difficulty in separating religion from today's political movements in Islamic societies.
Michael Veenema was once a chaplain at the college. This column draws on Reardon's article, “The Crowing of Charlemagne,” in Christian History and Biography, Winter 2006.
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.
The Canadian form of government might be the most obvious example. Canada's parliament, for instance, is modeled after England's. Similar connections appear for many other aspects of Canadian life. Think of our system of courts and the role of law. Consider our technologies, farming methods and the development of crafts and trades. In all these areas we have borrowed heavily from European, especially English, but also Dutch, French, Italian and German traditions.
Patrick Henry Reardon, senior editor of “Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity,” draws attention to the coronation of Charlemagne on Christmas Day, 800 in Rome.* Charlemagne was the grandson of Charles Martel. Charles was famous for having defeated Muslim forces, which for almost a century attacked and overrun much of Europe from the early days of Mohamed onwards. In 732 he stopped them in the Battle of Poutiers/Tours. Charlemagne on that Christmas day was made emperor of Western Europe.
Reardon considers Charlemagne the “Father of Europe” for several key reasons. First, he created education. He brought scholars from England and other places together. They were immediately put to work organizing and copying ancient classical and Christian texts. Libraries and schools were established throughout his empire and history texts were chronicled. Treatises on music, architecture and theology were written and collected. Technologies, such as the horseshoe (I know, it's no MP3 player) and padded harnessing for horses were invented. Innovators came up with new methods of crop rotation increasing Europe's food production.
Second, Charlemagne helped the Christian tradition to firmly take root throughout his empire. Schools were established at many monasteries and cathedrals. Along with the writing of commentaries on the Christian Scriptures, Christian poetry was composed. The visual arts flourished under his rule. Charlemagne created a relationship between political heads and Christian leaders. Pope Leo III crowned him on that Christmas day.
The church helped the emperor and the emperor helped the church. Missionaries were able to work in hostile territories because of the protection Charlemagne provided. At the same time, he and the church worked out an arrangement where the organized church, and to a significant degree, became independent with respect to the political structures of the empire.
In this last regard, Charlemagne helped create a relationship between religion and politics that never appeared in the Islamic world that he rejected. This is important to recognize today, as we try to understand two areas of 21st century life: our North American assumptions about the role of church and state, and the difficulty in separating religion from today's political movements in Islamic societies.
Michael Veenema was once a chaplain at the college. This column draws on Reardon's article, “The Crowing of Charlemagne,” in Christian History and Biography, Winter 2006.
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.
