I love this book. However, on my second reading I had trouble with the following part:

"The religion and civilization which are barbaric and heathenish build splendid temples; but, what you might call Christianity does not."

Is this a slam of Catholicism? Everyone knows that Catholics build splendid temples. But, so did the Reformers.

Any ideas?

Please feel free to post thoughts about one of the great American writings.

Maybe. But pagan isn't necessarily a bad thing. But your post didn't address the issue. What was he talking about?

The Green Dragon said:

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Maybe. But pagan isn't necessarily a bad thing. But your post didn't address the issue. What was he talking about?

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Unsure. And I haven't read it.

Oh. You should. It's fantastico.

The Green Dragon said:

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Oh. You should. It's fantastico.

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If only I wasn't discouraged about the books that I'm
already trying to finish. Lol.

I have 10 on my bedside. It's a problem.

My thought? He's wrong. Yeah, great writer and all, but don't put it past anyone to be wrong every once in a while. The truth never stopped a true artist from trying to make an artistic impression that wasn't 100% truthful.

The Green Dragon said:

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I love this book. However, on my second reading I had trouble with the following part:

"The religion and civilization which are barbaric and heathenish build splendid temples; but, what you might call Christianity does not."

Is this a slam of Catholicism? Everyone knows that Catholics build splendid temples. But, so did the Reformers.

Any ideas?

Please feel free to post thoughts about one of the great American writings.

---

You have to place the quote in context. He's discussing ancient temple structures in Egypt and saying Christianity does not construct similar things. In his mind that's a compliment. It's likely that he doesn't consider Catholicism to be Christianity in the same way as Protestant denominations. That was an extremely common belief until some time after the Civil War.

Beauty is the splendor of truth.

The Green Dragon said:

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I love this book. However, on my second reading I had trouble with the following part:

"The religion and civilization which are barbaric and heathenish build splendid temples; but, what you might call Christianity does not."

Is this a slam of Catholicism? Everyone knows that Catholics build splendid temples. But, so did the Reformers.

Any ideas?

Please feel free to post thoughts about one of the great American writings.

---

He is saying that organized religion (pick your denomination/religious structure) and civilization (pick your political structure) are destructive to the human spirit (barbaric) and destructive to godliness (heathenish) through materialism (building temples). He calls the temples splendid hinting that many times the "temples" built by organized religion (big churches and other fancy religious aspects) and "temples" built by civilization (fancy cars, big houses, expensive clothes) are alluring but without true substance.

He then says true Christianity (as given and lived by Christ) is not materialistic and therefore spiritually fulfilling.

He is warning against materialism, the pursuit of wealth and social standing. He is warning against finding spiritual fulfillment in the material world and social structures (popularity). He is also warning against believing you have found true Christianity and spiritual godliness because the Church you go to is fancy and is attended by fancy people. And that your morals and actions should not be based on the acceptance of those people.

Rather he believes that spiritual fulfillment is found in a simplistic lifestyle and following true Christianity and the Bible.

This is what he was trying to do at Walden Pond.

Note: Even as an atheist myself, I agree with these statements and it is very well written. So much is said so simply. You could talk for hours about the implications of this passage.

Sapper Redux said:

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The Green Dragon said:

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I love this book. However, on my second reading I had trouble with the following part:

"The religion and civilization which are barbaric and heathenish build splendid temples; but, what you might call Christianity does not."

Is this a slam of Catholicism? Everyone knows that Catholics build splendid temples. But, so did the Reformers.

Any ideas?

Please feel free to post thoughts about one of the great American writings.

---

You have to place the quote in context. He's discussing ancient temple structures in Egypt and saying Christianity does not construct similar things. In his mind that's a compliment. It's likely that he doesn't consider Catholicism to be Christianity in the same way as Protestant denominations. That was an extremely common belief until some time after the Civil War.

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edited a couple times after doing a bit more research :

In this country maybe, but I think that is a stretch even here. Globally, the opposite is probably true.

However by 1850 Catholicism was the largest single sect of Christianity in the United States due to immigration. Still is today. I don't personally try to pretend protestantism is a single sect. 70,000,000 Catholics. Next largest group is Southern Baptist at 17,000,000.

I get the point you are making. Just adding a bit off context.

I would say that his thought was extremely biased by his American protestant perspective and ignorance of larger Christianity. I would not say that it was a common thought of the day as 1/3 of all Americans were Catholic, which means probably more than half of all Christians in this country were Catholic. Then I am not exactly sure that you can assume that all protestants and Catholics thought each other were un-Christian. Sounds like a minority opinion the more I think about it.

Now THAT is a neckbeard.

Rongagin71 said:

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Now THAT is a neckbeard.

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My son has one those. Praying the rest comes in.

Very good video. I didn't know much of his work