One of the joys of retirement is learning for fun. One of my blanks is early medieval history, so I am doing a University of the Third Age course on Medieval History.
We are now well through the autumn term, so I thought it would be a good thing to make a note of the main things that I have recently been made aware of. Not all relate to Medieval History.
- In the early Christian church there were lots of different beliefs
- What was actually included in what we now know as the bible was a distillation done many centuries later.
- In many ways early Islam was more tolerant than early Christianity.
- The modern state of Israel was not what the UK 1917 Balfour Declaration expected. Jewish homeland yes, Jewish state, no.
- Many of the Jews in modern Israel may not be descended from the Jews of old!
- Many Arabs hate the West as our track record is poor.
- Religions have a lot to answer for over the centuries.
