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Hypatia lived and died as a humanist among religious zealots

Hypatia lived and died as humanist among religious zealots

Hypatia of Alexandria researches the heavens and explores the everlasting questions of our existence when the Church preaches there is no need to probe into the nature of things. She imparts new knowledge to the world when the churchmen counsel women to seek knowledge from their husbands. She tutors Jews, Christians, and Pagans while men of different religions wage wars. Her feud with the Church reaches a climax during a debate with the Patriarch of Alexandria, who believes the Pagan scrolls of the Royal Alexandrian Library prevent the populace from accepting Christianity. “If we torch the Pagan scrolls of the library,” the patriarch proclaims during the debate, “we would uproot the weeds of confusion in God’s New Jerusalem.” “In the Elysian Fields,” Hypatia retorts, “myriad flowers bloom and Truth, like the flowers, is registered in the scrolls of the library. If the half a million nonChristian scrolls are torched, mankind, without a memory, will descend into darkness.” Hypatia’s feud at the dawn of the fifth century CE is our feud too, because her foes under different names are ever-present.