A quick post today – Have to run to town and then Bernie and I get started on painting our bedroom.
I will probably do one more post on Islam. I just completed a chapter in A History of God entitled “The God of the Philosophers”. Armstrong spent lots of pages on Muslim philosophers, then crammed in the Greeks and Latins in the last few. Bernard of Claivaux was one of these. This is my husband’s patron saint. E-gads! He was a really egotistical bad guy in my estimation. A man of power, he dragged a philosopher, Abelard (poor man had Parkinson’s) to court just because he had a different idea about God than he did. “Bernard attacked him with such eloquence that Abelard simply collapsed and died the following year.” Then Bernard, great orator and persuader roused up “the Crusaders to show their love for Christ by killing the infidels and driving them out of the Holy Land.” It seems that Bernard was all head and no heart and under the control of a massive ego. Why does Adolf Hitler come to mind?
Anyway, I will probably write one more blog on Islam. The next chapter in Armstrong’s book is about the mystics. I am a fan of Rumi who was an Islamic mystic and I note that he will be discussed. I can’t wait.