Religion spread by the sword.
The phrase “by the sword” is telling. A recent review of Aeschylus’ “The Persians” highlighted his sympathy for the enemy, though the Persians were known as a mercenary army. The story showed two ways in which our society has removed presence from the encounter of cultures. Beheading, for example, where one is forced to personally strike a fierce, bloody blow to a victim whom one has looked in the eye and smelled the sweat of is portrayed as barbarous. Death by bunker-busters delivered from 20,000 feet, oblivious of collateral damage, or rockets fired from a sponsor’s high tech helicopter at a home or vehicle at someone you will never meet are portrayed as civilized. The commitment and involvement of the two styles of contest, the ancient and the modern, are of a different order entirely. And so are the results.
There are two types of wisdom absent in the Modern context that are present in Medieval and Ancient. The courage and skill required in hand to hand combat require accessing dimensions of ultimate reality unknown to technological killing. Ultimately there is some recognition, based on experience of becoming one with the opponent, of fusing his being with yourself. That is why world literature is so rich in material exploring the essence of these encounters. That is why warrior training occupies such an important place in the spiritual disciplines of humanity. Modern combat on the other hand, while sometimes physically violent, falls short of the level of engagement of a sword fight by orders of magnitude.
Aeschylus' play reminds us of another missing ingredient. The theater of Dionysius required citizens themselves to reenact the events of history and mythology in order to re-experience the emotions of the participants and to access the wisdom originally revealed so that society as a whole might gain spiritual growth. Contrast this experience of the community, present for the performance in person, everyone at one time having played a part in the performance, the performers practicing for a year leading up to the performance, with our modern involvement with historical events: detached, processed, and spun to a degree of meaningless remoteness, or exploited to the ends of corrupt administrations. Add to this great poets' lending emotional insight, spiritual depth, and aesthetic quality under the influence of community scrutiny and competition for excellence. What do modern states offer in place of this other than propaganda and cynical manipulation pitched to an ignorant audience? Again, and order of magnitude of difference in engagement, presence, and wisdom.
