(urth) Severian as reverse Christ (or something)

[David Stockhoff]

Recent lurker, first-time poster. Please excuse any formatting offenses!

As part of blog discussion on another topic, someone sent me a link 
regarding the historical development of Catholic positions on torture:

http://www.rtforum.org/lt/lt119.html

And the following caught my eye (the middle part):


*A1. Tertullian (3rd century).* This early representative of patristic 
thought follows the radically pacifist tendency of not a few Christians 
at that time who tended to take the Gospel's 'counsels of perfection' as 
universally binding precepts. Certainly, in Tertullian's judgment, any 
complicity in torture -- either ordering it or personally applying it -- 
is definitely ruled out for a disciple of Jesus. Arguing that no 
soldier, after converting to Christianity, should continue in the army, 
especially given its pagan character, he asks rhetorically,

"[S]hall the son of peace take part in the battle when it does not 
become him even to sue at law? And shall /he/ apply the chain, and the 
prison, /and the torture/, and the punishment, who is not the avenger 
even of his own wrongs?"^*1 <http://www.rtforum.org/lt/lt119.html#FN_1>*

In similar vein, discussing "what offices a Christian man may hold", he 
refers to a recent case wherein a Church member had the opportunity to 
receive high public office as a magistrate. Tertullian argues that it 
would be morally impossible for this man to satisfy both the Gospel's 
demands and those of Roman law, for that would require him to abstain 
not only from all public pagan sacrifices, oaths, etc., but also from 
"sitting in judgment on anyone's life or character, . . . neither 
condemning nor fore-condemning; binding no one, imprisoning /or 
torturing no one/".^*2 <http://www.rtforum.org/lt/lt119.html#FN_2>* 
These are the earliest known explicit Christian statements on the 
morality of torture.


I have no argument to make here---I merely find the references to 
binding etc.very applicable to Severian. It's almost a summary of his 
daily routine. (Recall that "lictor" means "he who binds.")

Can Christ not be a Christian?

David Stockhoff

> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 6
> Date: Wed, 19 Nov 2008 15:21:06 -0500
> From: "John Watkins" <john.watkins04 at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: (urth) Shadow, Chapter X
> To: "The Urth Mailing List" <urth at lists.urth.net>
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>> B) many Christians would also find the notion of an Exucutioner Christ to be beyond the pale of heresy and think this book was some sort of evil perversion.
> I agree.  I think, actually, that that's one of the more beautiful and
> Christian notions of the book--Severian is very much the Stone That
> Was Rejected.
>
>   
>> And if he's not an analogue Christ, Why is he carrying a cross around for 3 1/2 books?  No one has addressed the ideas about this that I posted in October.
>> http://lists.urth.net/pipermail/urth-urth.net/2008-October/010121.html
>>
>> ~sonofwitz
>>     
>
> Well, I'll have to look at that posting more closely, but Christ
> Himself tells his followers that they all must take up the cross.
> Severian carrying the cross makes him a "Christian" figure.
>
> It's not unlike Tolkien's work, really. Frodo is clearly a "Christ
> figure" in a limited sense--he carries the Ring, which is more or less
> the Cross, his three woundings correspond with Christ's wounds or
> three falls, he makes a great sacrifice, he too is the Stone the Was
> Rejected, etc.  But no one thinks that Frodo is meant to BE Christ in
> the sense that Aslan is meant to be Christ.  I think Severian is much
> more like Frodo than Aslan.
>
>
>   
>



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