Since at least the time of
Socrates, there has been tension between religion and the state and within
religious denominations. Sometimes this
tension has played out in violence and even open warfare, by political
restrictions, by argument alone, but sometimes by formal trials. Many of the arguments have played out in trials and
their results, have been crucial in the history
of the West. This SDG will explore some
of the most important of these trials.
The
discussion each week will deal with the historical background, the biographies
of the main participants, the issues at stake, the trial itself and the
religious and political results. Discussions
will include questions such as these: Can traditional religion and religious
reformers accommodate each other?
What role should religion and religious leaders play in government? Are the interests of formal religion and the
state ever identical? When does dissent
become insurrection? What happens when
someone concludes that his obligations to the State conflict with his
obligations to God? Is religious uniformity in a society important to the society's cohesion?
We will not use a core book, but there are many, many materials on all
of the trials, both on-line and in books. Anticipating that most SDG members will concentrate on on-line sources, a number are included below. Numerous other on-line sources will also be suggested. In addition, five superb plays are included in order to see how skilled playwrights bring large ideas down to a human scale.
1. Socrates:
Conscience vs the State
2. Roman Trial of Jesus: What were the issues for the Romans? For the Jews?
For Jesus’ followers?
3. Joan of Arc:
When is defiance heresy and/or treason?
4. Thomas a Becket and Thomas More:
Conscience vs the State, again, in two eras of English history.
5. Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms: Does faith and/or opposition to practices of
an established
church justify fracturing a settled society?
6. Galileo & Giordano Bruno vs the
Vatican: Can traditional religion be
reconciled with reason/science?
7.
Disputations of Paris, Barcelona & Tortosa:
Can “true” religion be decided by debate?
8. Spanish Inquisition: How can religious uniformity be
preserved? Should it?
9. Spinoza’s
Excommunication: May God be re-defined
without heresy?
10. Salem Witch Trials and Witch Trial of Kepler’s mother: How does religious hysteria start? Can it be
controlled?
Should anyone be punished for allowing it?
11. Oscar Wilde: Should behavior deemed deviant by religion be
penalized by the State?
12. Scopes
Monkey Trial and Roe v. Wade: Can the
Bible or other accepted ideas trump science?
13. Mordechai
Kaplan’s Dismissal from Orthodox Judaism:
When is religious banishment justified?
14. “The
Trial of God,” a play by Elie Wiesel: Should God be judged responsible for evil?
All of the following are on-line materials, except where noted. The numbering corresponds to the numbering of the 14 topics.
1. famous-trials.com; reasonandmeaning.com
2. facts and details.com/world--facts, not religion
3..Shaw's play Saint Joan; sourcebooks.fordham.edu-trial transcript; history.com/news/joan-arc
4. Eliot's play Murder in the Cathedral; britannica.com/biography
7. jewishencyclopedia.org/articles; jewishwikipedia.info/7_disputations; The Medieval Culture of
Disputation by Alex Novikoff
8. newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Spanish_inquisition;Mel Brooks film History of the World Part I
9. reformjudaism.org; commentary magazine.com; philosophytalk.org/blog/spinoza
10. Miller's play The Crucible
11. Film "Wilde"; famous-trials.com/wilde; branchcollective.org/ps_article
12. Lawrence & Lee's play and film Inherit the Wind
13. americanjewisharchives.org; the kaplancenter.org; jewishjournal.com/rosners
The foregoing are examples of bibliographic material. Since all of these trials are well known, there is much additional material on line and in plays, and I would expect the Coordinator and the individual presenters to develop it. While there is no "core" book, that will not impede SDG members from learning about each of the trials. Plays and movies dramatize the issues and make the issues more personal.
The recent schisms in the United Methodist Church over female leadership and in the Baptist Church over the literal truth of the Bible are evidence that the conflicts between religious uniformity and independence of thought are still with us. Those conflicts and the proper place of religion in a society should provoke interesting debates.
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