The final lecture of the course considers Christianity as “the ever-adapting religion,” asking what elements remain constant within allits historical changes.
Religions are ever-evolving ideas and practices, and like rivers, which are broadly similar and recognizable even over spans of time, can never be practiced or experienced the same way twice.
We read different texts for different reasons, regardlessof the subject.
A useful analogy here might be the idea of having a conversation with a text. Much the way you'd have dramatically different conversations with your family versus your friends, your teachers, or a stranger in line at the store, you'll approach each particular in a different way based on the various contexts in which both they exist and the contexts which you bring to them.
Every work of art can be read, according to Eco, in three distinct ways: the moral, the allegorical and the anagogical.
Umberto Eco indicates that every work of art can be read in one of three ways: - moral, - allegorical - anagogical
Compare this to early Christianities which had various different readings of the scriptures.
Relate this also to the idea of Heraclitus and the not stepping into the same river twice as a viewer can view a work multiple times in different physical and personal contexts which will change their mood and interpretation of the work.
After Alexi McCammond was named editor in chief of Teen Vogue, people discovered and recirculated on Instagram old anti-Asian and homophobic tweets she had written a decade earlier, while still a teenager.
Should people be judged by statements made in their youth or decades prior? Shouldn't they be given some credit for changing over time and becoming better?
How can we as a society provide credit to people's changed contexts over time?
This can be related to Heraclitus' river.
You would think it would be a good thing for the young readers of Teen Vogue to learn forgiveness and mercy, but for the New Puritans, there is no statute of limitations.