#WHERE IS BABYLON TODAY FULL#

There is the historical Babylon and the symbolic Babylon. In the narrative world of the WestВЇthat large slice of Greek-Jewish-Christian history once called Christendom and not yet entirely displacedВЇthe name Babylon has a powerful resonance. Without language there is no community, and human beings were created for community. Language is the architecture and building material of the narrative worlds we inhabit. Language is more than words and rules of grammar. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.Д®ver since then human history has been marked by confusion and conflict, with conflict, as often as not, resulting from a confusion of language. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one anotherВ’s speech.В” So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. And the Lord said, в€»ehold, they are one people, and they have all one language and this is only the beginning of what they will do and nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Then they said, в€јome, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.В” And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the sons of men had built. And they said to one another, в€јome, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.В” And they had brick for stone and bitumen for mortar. As men migrated from the East, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. Now the whole earth had one language and few words. The story is found in the eleventh chapter of the book of Genesis: Most Christians remember the biblical Babylon in connection with Babel. Those of us for whom Babylon is a matter of biblical history and religious metaphor should not forget the many Christians for whom Babylon is the all too frightening daily reality. The safety of the remaining Christian communities in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East is a matter of urgent concern for the Catholic Church and has long complicated RomeВ’s diplomatic relations with that part of the world. Most of the Chaldean Christians of Iraq have gone into yet another exile in America, establishing strong communities near Detroit, Michigan, and San Diego, California. Their history of 2,000 years includes 1,400 years of living in uneasy coexistence with Muslims after Islam conquered what had been a Christian society. They are among the oldest continuing Christian communities in the world.

#WHERE IS BABYLON TODAY FULL#

Most of them are Chaldean Christians belonging to an в€ѕastern RiteВ” Church that is in full communion with Rome. They survive, to the extent that they do survive, by paying off Muslim extortionists, who reinforce IslamВ’s reputation for religious tolerance by regularly kidnapping and decapitating Christians who are late in paying up. At the time of the American invasion of 2003, it appears that no thought was given to the Christians, and today their plight receives little more than lip service. Now only 500,000 or even fewer remain, and their numbers are fast dwindling. Until a few years ago, there were nearly two million Christians in Iraq. One notes in passing that there is still today in Baghdad-Babylon a substantial Christian community. Today it is Allah, whose more aggressive adherents are forcing the West to ask painful questions about who we areВЇquestions about our God and our gods. The name Babylon is a Greek form of the original Akkadian name Bab-Ilu, which means В“the gate of god.В” Both literally and figuratively, Babylon has been the gate through which many gods have entered history. Well over two millennia before the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Greek writer Herodotus, who is often called В“the father of history,В” brought the wonders of Babylon to the attention of the West. The ruins of the once famous (and infamous) city are in the suburbs of Baghdad in todayВ’s Iraq. In the course of my research, IВ’ve been delving into the history of the original Babylon and discovering its troubling pertinence to our time.Д«abylon is both ancient history and the stuff of tomorrowВ’s news. It will be a greatly expanded version of the argument set out in an earlier article. IВ’m working away at a new book, tentatively titled American Babylon: Notes of a Christian Exile.

Where is babylon today