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Wednesday, December 31, 2003
 
Take that, Monotheism!

Classicist Mary Lefkowitz, writing in an NYT article on the most overrated and underrated ideas of 2003:

Monotheism

In their most extreme forms, monotheistic religions are deeply intolerant. If there is only one right way of doing things, every other way is wrong. If we are good, others are evil. By contrast, the ancient Greeks and Romans welcomed new gods into their pantheon and worshiped them alongside the old. They had no crusades or jihads. The Roman authorities threw Christians to the lions because they mistook the early Christians' intolerance for seditiousness. They did not seek to kill them because they rejected the Christians' God.


(Lefkowitz, as I recall, was a prominent member of the Classics establishment to oppose Black Athena.)