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| Galileo on trial |
“We pronounce, judge, and declare, that you, the said Galileo… have rendered yourself vehemently suspected by this Holy Office of heresy, that is, of having believed and held the doctrine (which is false and contrary to the Holy and Divine Scriptures) that the sun is the center of the world, and that it does not move from east to west, and that the earth does move, and is not the center of the world.” (Read more here.)
Galileo negotiated his way out of prison, but in turn was sentenced to house arrest and had to promise to never teach "heresy" ever again.
When I read that now, I'm totally blown away. In my mind this doctrine has almost nothing to do with church or gospel, but back in Galileo's time everything was intertwined. Church, government and everything else was so closely knit that it was practically impossible to separate them. But as time passes, people began let go and focus on doctrine that's actually doctrine and not the cultural appendages. Hindsight is 20/20 and it's so easy for us to look back now and see how ridiculous some of those things are, but it makes me wonder, even at risk of modern day "heresy" what things we treat as doctrine today in the Church of Jesus Christ that people will look at years down the road and have similar reactions to as we do to Galileo's interaction with the Catholic Church.
It can get so tricky and sticky when we talk about what practices are "ok" and "not ok" and there can be areas that are gray to some people and black and white to others, based on upbringing and personal interpretation. My takeaway from all of this is to learn what is doctrine. In the spirit of ad fontes I think it's get back to the basics. What do you guys think are the best ways to make sure you base faith on doctrine and not get caught up in Galileo like situations?
Image credit: http://chnm.gmu.edu/history/faculty/kelly/wciv/science/galileo.htm
Its true that the line between doctrine and culture has often been hazy. I think it's like you said, hindsight is 20-20. I guess we just need to try to improve our foresight to predict what we'll think like this about in the future.
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