QUESTION: Marty, you’ve stated that each faith has undergone some schism. That suggests that governments have additionally seen splits and even civil wars. Is that this what Socrates has uncovered that unity can’t exit in ant group setting?
Greg
ANSWER: There have been main upheavals in faith, such because the Byzantine Iconoclasm, a profound spiritual and political disaster that rocked the Byzantine Empire for over a century (with two most important phases: 726–787 and 814–842 AD). Whereas the act of placing Christ’s picture on coinage by Emperor Justinian II (c. 692 AD) was a extremely important and a controversial occasion that intensified theological debate and foreshadowed the approaching battle, it’s not thought of the starting of Byzantine Iconoclasm. Nevertheless, the Muslims had been utilizing the Byzantine coinage till this occasion. That’s what prompted Islam to start to problem their very own coinage.
Then there was the Nice Schism of 1054 in Christianity between the East (Orthodox) and the West (Rome). Sunni-Shi’a divide, which originated in a succession disaster after the demise of the Prophet Muhammad in 632AD. Martin Luther (1483–1546) was the Catalyst for the Protestant Reformation when he nailed his “95 Theses” to the door in 1517AD. Judaism has skilled main ideological fractures and the gradual emergence of distinct actions, significantly within the fashionable period. Buddhism has a transparent historical past of main schisms, usually formalized by councils. Hinduism is inherently pluralistic, so “schism” is much less relevant. Daoism in China break up primarily alongside liturgical and lineage strains. The foremost schism in Shinto is a fashionable, politically engineered one. Sikhism skilled a significant, definitive schism after its tenth Guru. We discover that religions have break up as we see politically in nation-states.
To me, this demonstrates that there’ll ALWAYS be a division amongst nations for politics is much more divisive. If religions break up, the division of a nation into teams of political beliefs is way more doable than faith.
