How Much Religeon Should Be Discussed In Our Public Schools?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

157. It's pretty tough to understand European history without knowing something

about the church. You can't understand the politics of the time without knowing how the church influenced European royalty. You can't understand the origins of the common law of England, which eventually became our common law in significant respects, without knowing how the church influenced the law, especially after Henry VIII. Why did Henry break from the church, and what was the result? Why was Archbishop Cranmer important? What was the Restoration and why was it important, politically? Why was Martin Luther important, and not just as a religious figure?

How can you understand the great artists of the Renaissance - Michelangelo, DaVinci and many others - without knowing what they were painting and why? Music as we now know it originated in large part in the medieval church. The great cathedrals were erected to glorify God, but they are also marvels of engineering, and understanding their construction and how things like arches and buttresses and domes were figured out is essential to understanding modern civil engineering and architecture. The church was absolutely central to the development of modern literature, the arts and politics. I don't see a good reason to discuss the Trinity or the Albigensian Heresy in the 7th grade, but if you ignore the influence of the church you won't understand our history at all.