domingo, abril 10, 2005
Industry scale worship
In just 26 years of pontificate, Karol Wojtyla has proclaimed no less than 482 new saints and 1337 blessed men and women to be objects of public cult and idolatry.
He has, thus, revamped a well known model of manufacturing symbols to keep the faith up, mainly in the newly conquered evangelic territories, where most native cultures have developed complex totemic beliefs related to natural/material representations of transcendency.
The difference to his predecessors relies more in statistic data than in practice, for the Church has always incorporated pagan folkways to make its ranks grow, alongside with political influence.
This sainthood rush has also served a complementary purpose. By canonizing "holy" biographies across the world, Wojtyla brought worship at home. That is to say, the new saints proceed from the most diverse geographic origins and are no longer an eurocentric privilege, they are closer to local populations and ensure a tighter control from the See.
A bit like post-mortem silent preachers who teach remote newborn christian indigenous how the Church wants them to behave, by following THEIR saints example, of course.
If we compare the oldest institution worldwide with a big corporation, let's assume that Wojtyla has done a damned good job in identifying what a lousy faith market was asking for: MEDIATIZATION and a broader offer.
He has, thus, revamped a well known model of manufacturing symbols to keep the faith up, mainly in the newly conquered evangelic territories, where most native cultures have developed complex totemic beliefs related to natural/material representations of transcendency.
The difference to his predecessors relies more in statistic data than in practice, for the Church has always incorporated pagan folkways to make its ranks grow, alongside with political influence.
This sainthood rush has also served a complementary purpose. By canonizing "holy" biographies across the world, Wojtyla brought worship at home. That is to say, the new saints proceed from the most diverse geographic origins and are no longer an eurocentric privilege, they are closer to local populations and ensure a tighter control from the See.
A bit like post-mortem silent preachers who teach remote newborn christian indigenous how the Church wants them to behave, by following THEIR saints example, of course.
If we compare the oldest institution worldwide with a big corporation, let's assume that Wojtyla has done a damned good job in identifying what a lousy faith market was asking for: MEDIATIZATION and a broader offer.
# posted by Camarada Staline @ 10:07 da tarde 
