What does Babylon have to do with Jerusalem, or A note on the problem of boundaries between the sacred and the secular in the Latin West (late 6th — early 7th centuries)

Abstract

The article deals with the problem of boundaries and nature of the secular in the end of late Antiquity in the Latin West (focusing on the works of Isidore of Seville). The article focuses on the relation between the concept of the secular and the key oppositions of the late antique culture as it reveals itself within the process of defining identity of sacral groups (clergy and monks), instead of looking into the history of the conception of saeculum or searching for religiously neutral phenomena of social reality. This allows the article to overcome the simple perspective of sacralization or draining of the secular in this period. The article argues that, on the one hand, a firm boundary was erected between the secular and the divine, and, on the other hand, in some cases this boundary turned out to be rather permeable. The firm boundary was formed in the process of categorizing and constructing a positive identity of a small group of the saved, which is defined by its mode of behavior, related to its metaphorical political unity (conuersatio). The groups claiming a proximity to God relate the practices, which correspond to it, with their identity. Thus, secular people, secular cares, and secular knowledge come to be characterized by lacking contemplation and proximity to God. The boundary turns out to be permeable, firstly, with respect to knowledge, because the secular knowledge was necessary to read the Scriptures. The secular thereby was not antagonistic to the divine, but could lead up to it. The divine, in its turn, could “correct” the errors of secular knowledge, just as the action of the bishop, which was opposed to the action of secular power, corrected the morals of the secular people in the Neo-platonic spirit.