VV#2 - Power & Prestige... and Values.
How conflicts are not always just about land and resources and wounded egos
Honor & Glory: And a Question of Values
In Part 1, I looked back at my own childhood to remember a time when an encounter with a bully ended up, in some ways, being a good thing, because it marked a clear space in time when I realized that I could get through more difficulty than I thought I could.
And no doubt, dear reader, you too probably have clear memories of an encounter with a bully that may have defined a time in your life as well, no matter how you may have resented them at the time.
But it’s one thing to look back on one’s own life to ponder rivalries and clashes with personal bullies and “villains”, and how those events affected one on a individual level… and it’s another thing entirely to imagine the scale of group rivalries, and even national and international enmities.
And not just clashes over power and honor, but also, in some cases, over the very values that undergird and dominate those ages themselves.
For as history clearly reveals, men do not always go to war solely over issues of power and glory, nor always just for resources or land (although they often do). Nor is it always solely due to wounded egos (however common that may be).
But as it turns out, men also sometimes differ over the very values of what constitutes true decency and honor to begin with. And sometimes, men even disagree on the fundamental issues of who or what exactly should be the proper object of this glory and honor (whether gods or men or idols/values or otherwise).
Yes, sometimes men differ over what is “good” or “bad”, or “honorable” to begin with.
And also… over the importance of their disagreement.
And thus sometimes, disagreements turn into hostilities. And sometimes, these hostilities over the very question of values themselves, which sometimes inspire a range of emotions from shock to disgust between rival groups, can so easily turn into a contagion that then inevitably turns to war.
As it turns out… history (like everything else, it seems) is quite complicated.
But whether men are in arms against each other for the same title and for the same glory within a shared value system of honor, or whether armies and nations and kings seek to displace each other out of disgust and shock over their vastly different values, gods, and culture… one thing seems to remain throughout history:
Namely, that even the disagreements themselves over the most basic of values and priorities (and not to mention, tactics), can end up, in the end, STILL yet serving…
“The Glory of the Story”
And the story of the Bible, and St. Paul in particular, with his famous letter to the Christians in Rome, happens within this very background of peoples and nations at odds with each other, not always so much over land and resources (although that is often the case), but rather over these fundamental questions of values, and who or what is the proper object of honor and glory to begin with.
And not just which god or gods should receive glory, but in the particular case of St. Paul, that one would dare follow a god that had been subject to public humiliation.