In discussing Barbarism and Christianity I have actually been discussing the Fall of Rome.
Interpretation
The quote connects the concepts of barbarism and civilization to the historical fall of Rome, highlighting the cyclical nature of societal development.
Edward Gibbon's quote reflects on the complex relationship between civilization, represented by Christianity, and its contrast with barbarism, suggesting that the decline of the Roman Empire was not merely a political event but a profound cultural and moral shift. Through this lens, Gibbon invites us to ponder how societies evolve and devolve, and the factors that contribute to their rise and fall, emphasizing the lessons that can be drawn from the past.
In practice
This quote could be used in a lecture on the impact of religion on societal development.
It was Rome, on the fifteenth of October, 1764, as I sat musing amidst the ruins of the Capitol, while the barefooted friars were singing vespers in the Temple of Jupiter, that the idea of writing the decline and fall of the city first started to my mind.
I will not dissemble the first emotions of joy on the recovery of my freedom, and, perhaps, the establishment of my fame. But my pride was soon humbled, and a sober melancholy was spread over my mind, by the idea that I had taken an everlasting leave of an old and agreeable companion, and that whatsoever might be the future date of my History, the life of the historian must be short and precarious.
And the winds and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators.
The first and indispensable requisite of happiness is a clear conscience.
Many a sober Christian would rather admit that a wafer is God than that God is a cruel and capricious tyrant.
The theologian may indulge the pleasing task of describing Religion as she descended from Heaven, arrayed in her native purity. A more melancholy duty is imposed on the historian. He must discover the inevitable mixture of error and corruption which she contracted in a long residence upon Earth, among a weak and degenerate race of beings.
He is a true fugitive who flies from reason.
Actual life was chaos, but there was something terribly logical in the imagination. It was the imagination that set remorse to dog the feet of sin. It was the imagination that made each crime bear its misshapen brood. In the common world of fact the wicked were not punished, nor the good rewarded. Success was given to the strong, failure thrust upon the weak. That was all.
We are the children of our landscape; it dictates behavior and even thought in the measure to which we are responsive to it.
An anxious unrest, a fierce craving desire for gain has taken possession of the commercial world, and in instances no longer rare the most precious and permanent goods of human life have been madly sacrificed in the interests of momentary enrichment.
It is the greatest good to the greatest number of people which is the measure of right and wrong.
If your goal is to avoid pain and escape suffering, I would not advise you to seek higher levels of consciousness or spiritual evolution.
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