Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Guest&nbsp; 85555" data-source="post: 8493325"><p>lol I am not denying that link. Obviously the Roman empire was christianized. And, as a practicing Catholic, I am very aware of the 'Roman' part. But I also would never read "Roman Catholic" as meaning you are supposed to be an advocate of the Roman empire, or ignore its crimes. But my point is it is very hard to grow up say, reading the New Testament every sunday, and not not view the Roman empire as oppressive. That doesn't mean you can't also see its legacy and its achievements. Like I said, you can juggle multiple things in your head. You can be impressed by Rome, admire its literature, see the cleverness of its military tactics, without needing to endorse how those tactics were used. And there is plenty of room for augmentation and discussion. When people look at a society like Rome and the impact it had, they are going to take different positions on how much it gave to the world versus how much it took away. I think the best history is when we don't get dragged down into overly black and white moralizing and take a more nuanced view so we can analyze it more clearly (especially when we are taking about stuff that happened thousands of years ago).</p></blockquote><p></p>