Theos-Talk Archives (November 1997 Message tt00222)

I agree fully with KP Johnson's remarks appended below.

Daniel

>The gist of the remarks made by people defending several
>different historical figures as "beyond criticism" would, if
>carried out in practice, totally prevent any objective
>scholarship at all. The whole point of studying history and
>biography is to *understand* people, the whole complex mixture
>of light and shadow that we all, great and small, manifest. To
>denounce as evil any criticism of anyone perceived as "great"
>by some partisan faction seems to amount to saying "I don't
>want scholars to analyze, weigh, evaluate this person.
>Anything less than absolute adoration (or total silence) is
>unacceptable." That would lump the majority of writers who
>have ever written about HPB, Besant, Leadbeater, the Ballards,
>ad infinitum, into the same category of "wicked denouncers of
>departed great ones." But very few of them were out to
>denounce anyone. They were all, with a few exceptions, simply
>doing their best to understand them. I salute them all,
>including the ones whose conclusions I mostly reject. They at
>least made a creative effort to share their understanding of
>the nuances and complexities of history. That's a lot nobler
>than dividing the human race into three categories: "great
>ones," those who "malign" them, and those who "defend" them by
>bitter attacks on the "maligners."