Course talk:Carey HIST501/Project 3/Callixtus II

Thank you for sharing about this Pope-- it is frustrating when there is so much about their personal life and character known for us to read into-- I had a similar issue with mine though like this pope, what we do know, is that these were men of influence and wealth before their papal careers began. obviously i understand that culturally for that historic period there are reasons for this (literacy being something more of the upper classes for one thing!) but it still give me pause to reflect-- are the voices we choose to lift up as leaders in congregations today privy to a similar pattern? Your pope like mine was caught up in the power struggle between the papacy and the emporers---are we caught up in the same things today? Guilty of politicizing the gospel? Making it a tool for leveraging power? It is easy to slip into I think and for me, like many of our studies on these "great men" of history, it inspires me to pursue and encourage others to walk humbly and shame the powerful in this way, rather then seeking to become an institutional powerhouse.