(urth) Typee, incidentally

David Stockhoff dstockhoff at verizon.net
Fri Nov 12 16:00:15 PST 2010


You may be right that Wolfe sees polytheism as naturally more tolerant 
of complexity than monotheism, and maybe even Catholicism more so than 
Protestantism---Protestantism is certainly more rigidly dualistic as 
well. I am not sure about esoteric vs exoteric beliefs within Catholicism.

Boethius is responsible for much of the habits of medieval Christian 
thought. One of his ideas is the wheel of fate; another is that of a 
Platonic higher power, divine Providence. I suppose there might be a 
whiff of secret knowledge there along with the ancient Greek ideas, but 
Boethius was not a Gnostic.

I mention him because he tried to reconcile the horrible things that God 
did or allowed or knew about in advance but did not prevent, with God's 
love for all men. This is a basic problem that the earlier church did 
not have so much trouble with because everyone knew the world was not 
inherently wicked but it was generally controlled by "Caesar," who did 
not know God. Boethius wrote the Consolation of Philosophy while in 
prison for treason he was innocent of, and was eventually executed, so 
evil was a stark reality for him. But Theodoric was Christian.

When the entire known world was Christian, including the emperors, then 
they had a problem. The whole world became fundamentally wicked for 
many, and eventually (within another thousand years) the focus of 
salvation shifted from earth to the afterlife. Boethius's idea that a 
higher power drew us on toward it, struggling through a lesser, fallen 
world, became the general Christian belief through the Middle Ages. It 
is therefore fairly fundamental to Catholicism as we know it, as far as 
I can tell.

You should definitely stop watching Dan Brown movies! ;)

On 11/12/2010 4:23 PM, Lee Berman wrote:
>
>> David Stockhoff-However, as far as I can tell this is a very Catholic view---God works
>> in mysterious ways, etc. Wolfe only changes it by giving it a galactic scope and perhaps
>> a greater emphasis. Everyone needs to read Boethius.
>
> I don't know for sure. I guess it does seem like Protestant sects have more of the rants
> against Satan and all that. But there is more tradition of demonology, angels and saints
> and such in Catholocism. That inherent polytheism might make it a better fit among the less
> educated, less developed populations of the world than the simple dualistic Protestant sects?
>
> Seems like maybe the Catholic Church is hierarchical. The peons are comfortable with their
> folk sense of good and evil but rely on "mysterious ways" or "there's a reason for everything"
> homilies when the real world doesn't cooperate. The more educated, higher-ups in the church seem
> more willing (among themselves) to acknowledge the purpose of evil. Maybe some even decide that
> they themselves are wise enough to partake in evil to do God's Will (or have I been watching too
> many Dan Brown movies? ;- ) )
>
> I hadn't heard of Boethius (surely I am more like "everyone" in this?). But before I looked
> him up I had a suspicion he might fall into what might be called "gnostic" philosophical
> tradition that I am currently trying (with difficulty) to comprehend to further my understanding
> of BotNS. Not sure, but I think my suspicion was right about the B dude.
>
> Anyway, it may be that part of Wolfe's philosophy that polytheistic religions allow for a more
> complex and nuanced understanding of good and evil than these simple monotheistic religions which
> currently dominate the earth. I'm starting to see this principle across the whole Sun series. 		 	   		
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