by Vishal Mangalwade
The answer came from historian Lynn White Jr.'s study Medieval Religion and Technology. His pioneering research into the his¬tory of technology led him to conclude that it was the Bible that made the medieval West the first civilization in history that did not rest on the backs of sweating slaves.
The first chapter of the Bible presents a God who is a worker, not a meditator. God worked for six days-so must we! To work is godly. The third chapter of the Bible teaches that toil came as a curse upon Adam's sin. Humans became the only species that had to eat of the sweat of their brow. Since toil is a result of sin, salva¬tion includes deliverance from sin as well as toil-from mindless, repetitive labor that requires no choice.
So, why don't Western women haul water or dung on their heads? It is because, while the elite in other cultures used tech¬nology for power and pleasure, prestige and torture, Christian monasteries began developing technologies that liberated power¬less individuals from dehumanizing slavery. Toil is dehumanizing because it forces a human being to do what can be done by an ox, a horse, wind, water, or wheels. [page 41]
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment