How Much Religeon Should Be Discussed In Our Public Schools?

[marylandblue]

243. My original comment: "no part of medieval history turns on knowing the first important sacrament."

So let's unpack that. I've taken several college level courses in European History, Christian History and one in Western Religion. So I am not talking from total ignorance, but from the knowledge I gathered from those course. And of course, European History and Christian History have been closely intertwined for the last 2,000 years. I never disputed that, and I am sorry if you got the impression that I was.

First, I was responding to the original post on the question of whether a question about the first important sacrament is relevant to a high school level medieval history class.

Second, I am holding that medieval history begins after the disintegration of the Western Roman Empire, and ends around 1400 with the aftermath of the Black Death and the rise of humanism. So really I didn't have the Reformation in my mind, being over 100 years after the end of the Medieval period. Of course, periodizing history is arbitrary, but the dates I am using are commonly accepted.

Third, in those courses I took, very little time was taken up with sacraments in Medieval Europe. Of course it was important to the people living then, but from a historical perspective, they didn't really matter much. By that time, there was little theological debate over them, no wars were fought over them, etc. A lot more time was spent on the role of the Pope vs. Kings vs. Bishops vs. religious reformers like St. Francis. For ordinary people, they spent some time on the social role of the church as the source of community, education and news. None on details of what people actually did in Church, like engaging in Sacraments.

Fourth, I did take a course in the Reformation. It started with the late Medieval Church and of course spent a lot of time on Luther. And at that point we did cover the Sacraments, but only from the perspective of Luther rejecting the traditional seven, and it only took up part of one lecture. If they discussed the "first important sacrament" I don't recall it.

In my Western Religion class, we did cover the sacraments of course, as well as the difference between Protestants and Catholics. Maybe we covered the first important one, but that was a long time ago so I am not sure. Still would not be out of place in a course like that.

So based on all that, I stand by my assertion that you don't need to know the first important sacrament to understand Medieval History. And I agree it could come up in Reformation History, but I'd argue that at level of detail in a high school class, it's not that likely and it would only matter as part of a long list of theological disputes that occured in the Reformation.