Middle Ages Magic Activities from Religious Point of View Assignment

Middle Ages Magic Activities from Religious Point of View - Assignment Example The Church did not approve of theories that contradicted the official doctrine of the Church. This is because their view of human knowledge is based on a concept of an all-knowing God and a revelation of absolute truth through the scriptures and through the Pope and the senior leaders of the Church. There was no room for theories that were based on principles outside this rather strict set of rules. The whole issue of whether the earth is the center of the universe, for example, was seen as a theological dogma, not a theory or scientific view, and these issues have the potential to cause the whole foundation of Christian belief to crumble if they are challenged and found to be false. That is why the Church resisted any other views. There seems to have been in Medieval times quite a bit of experimentation with these forbidden arts, just as today people read horoscopes, go to see fortune tellers, and have lucky objects at the same time as holding broadly orthodox beliefs in one of the main religions. Old pagan beliefs linger on in symbolic ways, as for example in the Christmas trees, Harvest Thanksgiving services and Easter eggs that we have in Western culture, even though these are symbolic of pagan festivals (Jolly, 2000, p. 1). In this, there is not so much difference between medieval and modern society. The issue of predetermined events and the prediction of human behavior was a very thorny one because it goes to the heart of the Christian doctrine of salvation. It matters a lot, for example, whether a person has free will or not, and whether they freely choose to do good or evil deeds, or whether they are just puppets being manipulated by fate or some demon or other. Christians have a strong sense of being morally responsible for their actions, and relying on God alone, and so many other forces that get in between a man or woman and their god were seen as a bit threat.