Moment of insight?
Dec. 4th, 2008 11:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tree_and_leaf*is hit by intellectual oncoming train*
You can view the Christian concept of sanctity as a meme or memeplex (in the Dawkins sense, not the internet); not just the evolution of the complex, but the functions which holiness and the saints perform in affecting the beliefs and behaviour of believers (saints are at least partly there to create more saints, to put it crudely). What's more, I think it can even be made to work in a theologically satisfying way which doesn't sacrifice the importance of grace, because at times grace can work like the concepts with in a meme/ memeplex.
Why the devil didn't I think of that before? Especially as it's rather late to replan the thesis on that basis now... (and why am I struck by this while trying to throw something together for supervisor, who will probably think I'm thinking too theologically again?)
Of course, I may be fundamentally misunderstanding Dawkins' idea, but I must chase this up (and start with Drout's book on memes and tradition, since I'm not a biologist.) But I think there may be something to go at there.
You can view the Christian concept of sanctity as a meme or memeplex (in the Dawkins sense, not the internet); not just the evolution of the complex, but the functions which holiness and the saints perform in affecting the beliefs and behaviour of believers (saints are at least partly there to create more saints, to put it crudely). What's more, I think it can even be made to work in a theologically satisfying way which doesn't sacrifice the importance of grace, because at times grace can work like the concepts with in a meme/ memeplex.
Why the devil didn't I think of that before? Especially as it's rather late to replan the thesis on that basis now... (and why am I struck by this while trying to throw something together for supervisor, who will probably think I'm thinking too theologically again?)
Of course, I may be fundamentally misunderstanding Dawkins' idea, but I must chase this up (and start with Drout's book on memes and tradition, since I'm not a biologist.) But I think there may be something to go at there.
