Christianity cultural development

Jung s commentary exposes a problem of cultural development in the Christian world and exemplifies the importance of reading archetypal images in their cultural context. 

The Italians had a profound effect on religion. Christianity, for example, gained momentum from the Roman Empire. In Neil s opinion, without the Italian peninsula, we would not have Christianity. Because Islam was an early offshoot of Christianity, there also would be no Islam. Neil speculates, however, that monotheism has been an important factor in modem cultural development, so some kind of Jewish offshoot similar to Christianity would have developed, but this would have depended heavily on the political scene of the Mediterranean at the time. In Neil s opinion, the Italian peninsula has had a greater effect on today s civilization than the Greek peninsula. 

The Hermetic Tradition Represents a Non-Christian Lineage of Hellenistic Gnosticism. The Central Texts of the Tradition, the Corpus Hermeticum Were Lost to the West in Classical Times. Their Rediscovery and Translation During the Late-Fifteenth Century by the Renaissance Court of Cosimo De Medici, Provided a Seminal Force in the Development of Renaissance Thought and Culture. This Translation by G.R.S. Mead Shares 13 of the 18 Tracts. (Retranslated to the Modem by Frater Ego Esse, SOT A). 

It is Arabian alchemy that preserved the traditions and literature of the Alexandrian-Greek alchemists, derived from the Syrians during the long period when the culture of Christian Europe was inhospitable to its development. From such Syrian and Arabian manuscripts as have been preserved and examined, it does not appear that during the centuries of their alchemical activity any very notable additions were made to the practical chemistry known to the ancients of the times of Pliny, Dioscorides or the writers of the Theban papyri. Nor was the development of the theories of matter and its changes in the direc-... 

At Lund University a similar development took place. Many small organizations of the same type as in Uppsala, connected to the different disciplines, were formed around 1860 - one for botany in 1858, one for mathematics and one for philosophy in 1862. They have been described as an answer to the need for forms of teaching other than lectures, and as part of an emerging seminar culture. In 1868 Kemisk-Mineralogiska Sdllskapet (The Chemical-Mineralogical Society) is mentioned for the first time in the university catalogue of Lund." The internationally well-known professor in chemistry Christian Blomstrand became its first chairman, and meetings were supposed to take place one or twice a month, but activities slowly faded away, and soon they were held once a month, and from 1886 only after certain summons. 

I. Ostrogorsky, History, p. 27 "Roman political concepts, Greek culture, and Christian faith were the main elements which determined Byzantine development. Without all three the Byzantine way of life would have been inconceivable. ... 

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