(urth) The Wizard

[Lee Berman]

>Antonio Pedro Marques: I actually find these two [Mo Holkar's] paragraphs 

>excellent in conveying the idea.

 

I agree. And I find Dan'l's earlier, similar post expressing thing almost 

exactly as I would express my own personal views.

 

Clearly, Wolfe is also very aware of the human bias aspect to religious

reporting. But I am continually haunted by his blunt assertions that

he believes the pagan gods to be real. I gather from this he doesn't

just mean that all pagan gods are based on mythologized human rulers. I 

get the sense he doesn't think the ancients were as smart and perceptive as;

we are.  And that when they report on superhuman personages they were reporting 

accurately. Where they saw a god throwing a thunderbolt we might report him as a 

giant alien shooting a ray gun. But it wasn't just some king holding a shiny sword.

 

 

Likewise for the early Old Testament. The events occurring there seem too

aligned with the mythology of other cultures to dismiss one of them as

real and the others as fake.  Like Daniel I think Wolfe is more inclined to

take the words of the Bible at face value than some of the rest of us. This

includes miracles and sorcery and even angels wielding flaming swords.

 

>Daniel Petersen: my passionate response to you is from a
>desire to see a* good reading* of the Bible and theology.  And, brother,
>you should not be 'comfortable' with your reading of the Hebrew Scriptures.
> Of course I see the war and genocide in the Old Testament, but do
>*you*see all the grace and mercy that are there from beginning to end?

 

Don't worry I am very comfortable with my reading and understanding of the

Bible and it sounds like you are too, so that is good. We can discuss it then

without fear of offending.

 

The point I am making is not just that they had war and genocide and human 

sacrifice going on in the OT. It is that these things were reported as being

the result of direct commands from God. God doesn't say "all other gods are

fake". He says he is a jealous god and no other gods shall be taken before him.

 

Yes, He had some nice moments. It was nice when he didn't make Abraham kill his

son and nice how he saved Noah's family and some animals when the rest of earth had

to die. (please forgive a little cynicism ;- )) Yes he was tender and fatherly at 

times. But I don't see how this mix of violence and compassion is much different 

than say Zeus or Apollo. To me the OT God and his emotions smack of superhumanity, 

like a pagan god, more than a pure deity as I see the NT God.

 

 

Perhaps the reality is that the OT/NT change was not in God but in the people who are 

writing the holy books. But I don't think this is what Wolfe is showing in the 

Sun Series. Everything in the Sun Series seems more pagan, pre-Christian earth

to me. There are superhuman and supersized beings who interact directly with humans, and

are thus (unlike The Increate) capable of change and evolution.

 

For example we have Pas, a false god who is broken into pieces and reformed into various

beings associated with the Outsider, a true god.  Sure we see the precursors to 

Christianity on Urth and Blue and in the Whorl. Just as there are Christian precursors 

in Greek, Roman and pagan/gnostic mythology.

 

As Dionysus was precursor to Christ on earth, so I think The Outsider and Silk are

the  precursors to Blue/Urth's version of Christianity. We see the signs that He is 

coming but in the narrative we are given, He has not yet arrived.