Methodologies of targeting – Renaissance militarism attacking Christianity as ‘weakness’

Abstract

Intellectuals in the post-Medieval West, striving for scholarly emancipation, developed methodologies to target so as to free themselves from the dominant Christian, largely Roman Catholic, intellectual tradition. Machiavelli was one such critic, calling for the repristination of pre-Christian classics. Such methodologies are never without an inherent quest for power. Machiavelli developed a Classicist, ‘heroic exemplar’ hermeneutic in order to extol the republicanist, manly, ferocious, imperialist virtues of Rome, vis-à-vis the divisive, meek, caring, justice-seeking, unpatriotic, Christian leaders of his day. He therefore initiated Modern ideological militaristic competitiveness with its mutually suspicious balance of powers practices. This article forms part of a series of articles on methodologies of targeting groups.