An
(unintended) religious theme this morning . . .
SANTIAGO
DE COMPOSTELA & St. JAMES: Most readers will (surely) know that
Catholics (all Christians?) believe the risible tale of the bones of
this saint putting themselves in an un-crewed stone boat in which then
sailed its way from Jaffa to the coast of Galicia, before being lost and
miraculously found a couple of times, and then installed under the
city's first cathedral. Painful as it is to note, hundreds of
thousand have been coming to Santiago for a thousand years to honour
“St James' remains”. The Muslims among them are gratified to see that the statue of him has large lilies in front of it, so they won't
be upset at the sight of his lance piercing a Moor and his horse
trampling several more (Geddit?) under foot. But I digress. If one
were to challenge the Vatican on this, I suspect they'd admit to a
slight reservation that the bones really are of the saint. But one thing
they certainly won't(can't) deny is that the Church has made a
killing from this utterly irrational - not to say daft - belief. And still does. If only
because the Pope regularly announces a Holy Year, during which
pilgrims can get even more of their sins forgiven. Where is our
modern day Luther when we need him? Or her.
CATHEDRAL
ART: Liverpool's Anglican cathedral is a stunning work of
architecture, in the region's wonderful red sandstone. You can see
several fotos here. One, you'll notice, is of a pink neon sign above
one of the doors. This is the work of the (in)famous (con)artist,
Tracey Emin and it reflects an obsession of the Anglican authorities to
stay(get?) in touch with the common people. Extraordinarily common in
the case of Emin of course. God help us. Assuming (s)he exists.
ARTCHITECTURE:
By coincidence, yesterdayI read this (Ruskin) definition of this in,
of all things, the latest edition of Private Eye: Architecture is the
art which so disposes and adorns the edifices raised by men, for
whatever uses, that the sight of them may contribute to his mental
health, power and pleasure. Against this, the creation of modern
architects, writes Piloti, don't offer “the deeper pleasures of
architecture: the disciplined organisation of mass and material in
response to gravity; the expression of interior organisation within a
coherent aesthetic system; and delight in the texture and colour of
building materials. All that can be usefully said of them is about
the sophistication of their glazing details and gaskets and how well
or, usually, badly they meet the ground." Tracey Emin is not an
architect, of course. And, for some of us, she's not much of an
artist either. But she's been a good investment, I suspect. And the
art world – with all its forgeries – has always been about little
other than money.
SIRTING:
No, not yet another English gerund taken over by Spanish but a new
approach to dieting. It involves eating a lot of (dark) chocolate and
drinking quite a lot of red wine. Not to mention concentrating of
sirt foods. So, superficially enticing.
WORDS:
Talking of the Salem witch trials and the documents they threw up,
here's a couple of words we no longer seem to use:-
- Disrelish: To have a distaste for; dislike.
- Flatigious: 1. shamefully wicked, as with persons, actions, or times. 2. heinous or flagrant, as with a crime; infamous.
It's also
noteworthy that the word 'backward' in the late 17th. century seemed
to mean something like 'reluctant'. Logically, the opposite of being
'forward'. Shame we've lost that sense. Except, I guess, as in “He
was backward in coming forward”.
FINALLY .
. . . The Presidenta of the Galician Xunta is upset because some
non-believing local mayors won't 'respect tradition' and recognise
the validity of the St James farrago in the imminent investiture
procedures. Possibly kissing the casket containing “his bones”.
In return, the mayors have said they'd be quite happy if there were
equal respect for rationality and if religious beliefs were not
privileged over others. Seems eminently reasonable to me. But others
will, differ, of course. Believers tend to assume they have the moral
high-ground. Not to mention exclusive access to the truth. But 'What
is truth?' said Pilot, and departed.
Piloti and
Pilot in the same post. Quite an accidental achievement . . .
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