OK...all done with Gregory of Tours and the Franks.
I wish that this book was included in Doug Wilson's Omnibus II. I would love to read any of his guys discussing the particularly medieval Catholic perspectives of this book.
There is a good deal of mysticism and superstition in the medieval Catholic view of every aspect of life.....disease, war, marriage and sexuality, government, everything.
The world was a very different place, unrecognizably hostile in comparison the one we know today in North America.
Gregory sees the world in distinctions of black and white which are really uncomfortable for our society.....In Gregory's view, anyone who took the side of the church against the very evil opponents of (what called itself) Christian culture was good and Godly.
Gregory really brushes under the rug all sorts of bad behavior in men who defended the position of the pope, or who made a stand for the church. Anger, pride, arrogance, even murder are overlooked so long as the individual in question was on the side of the church. Not exactly what Christ taught!
So I left the book thinking about how we should deal with error in the church. And then on Sunday, Julian Freeman spoke on this very topic. And Jon had some good thoughts too. ( I love to hear what these guys have to say.)
And the good ideas these men shared can be summed up with the thought that we need to check what's preached, taught and even batted about idly in the church and that we must check it against scripture. That we are given the full compliment of scripture and there's no excuse if we don't know it....it's available to us. That we who are saved are given the Holy Spirit as well, and we are to listen to his promptings and not grieve him with disobedience. That we need to examine ourselves to see where we are embracing errors of our own. And that we are to just be very thankful for all Christ has done for us, and that we must study Him and know Him and learn how to understand what He has done for us.
That there is no temptation so great that there is not a way of escape.
This is good news!
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