One day in early March in a class in world civilisations I pointed out that no textbook writer was ever purely objective and that his particular bias could often be discovered through his choice of adjectives. Among my examples was that of an 'enlightened emperor' of China who, doubting his own religion, invited missionaries of other religions into China to present their beliefs. The class was puzzled. The emperor, I said, might be called 'open-minded' but to call him 'enlightened' -having the light of spiritual truth -when he did not, in fact, believe anything, must mean that the author, if not simply careless, must hold that to believe in nothing was to have the light of truth.
A Severe Mercy
The Barrier Breached
page 130
Sheldon Vanauken
No comments:
Post a Comment