I have liked Patrick Wyman's (no relation) history podcasts, The Tides of History but kept avoiding listening to the one about inquisitions and witch-hunts, as I thought that a topic a secular historian would be most likely to say something that would torque me off. I needn't have worried. I had one largish quibble about his neglecting to even mention the growth of science paralleling the intensifying belief in witches, but it was otherwise very fair. I learned a few brand-new things, and greatly filled out my knowledge of some aspects I had only partially known.
I have liked every episode I have listened to. Wyman was a PhD candidate at USC when he decided that being a history populariser sounded like a lot more fun than being a specialist whose work would be read by only a very few. He also has an MMA site, surely unique in the academic history biz. Though Andy Warhol liked Big Time Wrestling, and bsking and her husband follow WWE, so you never know.
It’s not as unusual as the stereotype suggests. A friend of mine is a Ph.D. in philosophy who is also a Strongman in the open superheavyweight class. He got me into doing Strongman competitions with him sometimes (I am a mere masters middleweight); and I know several martial arts. It’s rare, but it’s not so rare that we don’t all know examples.
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ReplyDeleteThe Inquisition/Heresy/Witchcraft episode was interesting. A few tidbits: witch hunting was more wild and lawless in protestant lands. The link between "witchcraft" and "heresy" in the Maleus theory was a very subtle distinction about whether they worshipped Satan as a god or not. The judge could easily get the desired answer.
ReplyDeleteAnd earlier eras of Christendom had attempted to discourage both witchcraft, false accusations of witchcraft, and belief in witchcraft--or at least in some manifestations of it.