(urth) An Old mystery ...

[Son of Witz]

>
>On 12/4/08, Son of Witz <sonofwitz at butcherbaker.org> wrote:
>>
>>
>> I have said AGAIN, and AGAIN that I'm NOT saying Severian IS JESUS.
>> if you haven't got that, I'm not sure I should bother trying to explain it YET AGAIN.
>>
>> ~witz
>>
>
>All I'm saying is that I don't think Severian brings about an
>apocatastasis, and if he did, it wouldn't necessarily make him
>"Christ-like."

Fine, but don't misstate what I'm trying to say.
I've made it very clear I'm trying to distinguish some principle of Christ abstracted from Jesus.


So, are there a lot of other mythological characters that:
have a second coming (Concilliator to NewSun)
Raise the dead, heal the sick, turn water into wine, die and are resurrected.


we can't really speak to Jesus's second coming because it hasn't happened, whereas the Concilitors HAS.

Sure, the Christian notion of the Apocalypse involves Salvation of Humanity, which Severian clearly has NOT brought about.  I've used the word Apocatastasis because it indicates a dramatic return to primordial conditions.
one definition of the word I find is this:
"(Gr., apokatastasis)   1. the hope in all things reconciled   2. the original gospel   3. orthodox christian theology that eventually all go to heaven   4. universalism   5. rendering certain translations, conceptions, and doctrines of "forever" and "hell" to be inaccurate. "

which seems to be how you might be reading it.

But I'm coming at it from these definitions:
Apocatastasis or apokatastasis (from Greek: apo, from; kata, down; histemi, stand - literally, "restoration" or "return") 

and:
Apocatastasis (pronounced /??po?k??t?st?s?s/) is a Greek word (?????????????) meaning either reconstitution or restitution[1] or restoration to the original or primordial condition.[2]

Severian DEFINITELY restores things to a primordial condition.



Again,
this story is sort of a microcosm of much larger ideas. It does not completely illustrate every idea of Christian theology.  I'm sure glad it doesn't either, because we already have the bible.