(urth) Wolfe as Heretic

[JBarach at aol.com]

In a discussion of Wolfe's views of other gods, it might be helpful to  
factor in "When I Was Ming the Merciless."  All my books are in boxes right  
now, alas, so I can't look up the passage, but maybe someone could find it and 
 quote it to push this discussion along.
 
The passage I'm thinking of is the one where "Ming" talks about the Spirit  
of Yellow.  The Yellows all bring trophies of war and present them to the  
Spirit of Yellow at the shrine they've built.  Now of course there is no  
such thing as "the Spirit of Yellow." It's something that they've just made  
up.  It's a nothing in itself (just as much as "team spirit," I  suppose).  
 
But, Ming says, when you start to do that -- when you start to pay homage  
to something like that -- ... and here's where my memory breaks down.  He  
says something like: When you start to do that, the thing you're worshipping 
and  paying homage to takes on a new quality and becomes real.
 
Please, please: Someone find the passage and quote it.
 
But here's how that relates to the Bible.  In some passages, the Bible  
indicates that there are no other gods.  There is only Yahweh.  All  the other 
idols are nothings.  But at the same time, the Bible indicates  that those 
who worship these idols are worshipping demons and those who eat at  the 
table of the false gods is communing with demons, as really as those who eat  at 
the Lord's Table are communing with the Lord and with His people, becoming  
one bread, one body, with Him.
 
A man cuts down a tree and fashions it into an idol and bows down to it and 
 worships it.  What is it?  Well, one answer is: It's a hunk of wood,  
carved a certain way, and nothing else.  And that's a true answer, which  leads 
the prophets to mockery: You cut down the tree and part of it you burn to  
cook your food and the other part you worship.  How ridiculous!  But  at the 
same time, when you do that -- when you bow before the idol -- you are  
communing with demons.  There's something real out there that attaches  itself 
to the idol in terms of your worship of it.  And that, it seems to  me, is 
what Ming is talking about. 
 
Add two more things:
 
(1) The angels are called "gods" in the Bible.  While that is disputed  
when it comes to, e.g., Psalm 97 or Psalm 8, these psalms are quoted in Hebrews 
 1 and 2 in connection with angels.  Some of those angels are rebellious  
angels, which we now call demons.  But some of the angels are faithful  
angels.  So not all of these "gods" are evil by any means.  The  various nations, 
the Bible says, were ruled by various angelic beings, one of  whom is 
Gabriel, who is good.  He isn't God, but he is good and he is a  ruler and can be 
called a "god."
 
(2) Many of the things that people have worshipped are simply creatures or  
aspects of life, and not necessarily bad.  Aphrodite is the goddess of  
love.  Love can become an idol and can be pursued idolatrously.  If  you 
worship love, if you make romantic love your highest ideal, etc., you are an  
idolater, even if you don't bow to the image of Aphrodite.  But love is not  
evil.  God is love.  So if you put love in its proper place, under  God, it 
ceases to be an idol and becomes something good.  (Charles  Williams, following 
Dante, would speak of romantic love, too, as something  designed both to be 
enjoyed and to lead upwards to the love of God.)  These  created things are 
great in themselves, but they are not God.  If they are  treated as God, 
they are demonic and evil.  If they are put in their proper  place under God, 
they are good.
 
And so, in Long Sun, the goddess of love is redeemed.  And in There  Are 
Doors, the paganish pursuit of love is presented as something that might, in  
the end, lead to something good.
 
I'm sorry this is so rough.  Perhaps someone else (with the texts in  front 
of him/her) can flesh this out a bit more.
 
John
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