[lit-ideas] Geary's Biblical Belt
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 4 Aug 2004 23:29:51 EDT
I quoted:
Pope Gregory the Great (540-604 AD) ascended to the
Papacy just in time for the start of the plague
(his successor succumbed to it). Gregory (who also
invented the ever-popular Gregorian chant) called for
litanies, processions and unceasing prayer
Andy Amago comments:
"I had never heard that the plague started in 540, only that it hit Europe
in the 1300's. I wonder if it was the same plague. I will have to do some
work on this. ... Okay, I did a quick search. Aparently the Bubonic plague
engulfed the Roman Empire from 540 until 592. My error for not knowing this."
Not an error at all! Error is to be _mistaken_ (which you were not).
The point has to do with the pragmatics of _blessing_, but Geary, who calls
himself (or 'hisself') a Bible-Belter, failed to notice this.
If the custom started with the Bubonic Plague, then it's possible that the
original dialogue went:
A: Atchoo
B: I bless you
-- B being the Pope Gregory The Great. "Blessing" is a 'performative', in
the words of J. L. Austin, that can only be 'performed' by those in the power
to perform it (as opposed to, say, "Goodbye", or "Goodnight").
It may be said that God can also _bless_ but it's a human being who says
"Bless you" (in reply to Atchoo), so where does the speaker (who says "Bless
you") find or derive the authority she feels she has to _bless_.
These intricacies of the pragmatics of blessing should be obvious to a
bible-belter as Geary advertises to be. Instead, he swears (that I don't know
what
I'm talking about).
Cheers,
JL
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