(urth) Oannes
David Stockhoff
dstockhoff at verizon.net
Tue Mar 20 06:48:52 PDT 2012
On 3/20/2012 9:36 AM, Gerry Quinn wrote:
> *From:* Lee Berman <mailto:severiansola at hotmail.com>
> > Given my observation, I am suggesting that Wolfe also sees an
> evolution in the Judeo-
> >
> Christian deity and uses the Sun Series as a fictional way of
> illustrating how it
> >
> might work. I really could be wrong on that, I know. But I think it is
> possible.
> I would say, rather, that Wolfe takes for granted that our views of
> the Divine evolve, and it is part of the backdrop of the entire series.
> Just as the oldest stories of our ancestors can be told as well
> against a hi-tech background (Wolfe goes out of his way to demonstrate
> this) so the various conceptions [I am using the ‘mental conception’
> sense] of God find echoes throughout the future. (Wolfe goes out of
> his way to demonstrate this also, and of course the events themselves
> of New Sun and to some degree Long Sun reflect certain Judeo-Christian
> stories.)
> I don’t think he has any particular hang-ups about whether
> Christianity survives in its current form, or any theological issues
> regarding the flooding of Urth. Those aren’t what the books are about.
> Certainly in the places and times we visit there is no indication that
> Christianity in its current form is practiced.
> Insofar as the actual storyline of New Sun strongly reflects
> traditions associated with Christianity, it would actually have been
> extremely difficult to write New Sun and have Christianity in any way
> prominent, even if Wolfe wanted to do that. As I noted before, it
> would be like having Jesus running around in Narnia – it would make
> the tale quite impossible to tell. In Long Sun and Short Sun, he is a
> little freer to insert Christian symbology, and he doesn’t hesitate to
> do so, with several rather direct references identifying the Outsider
> with the God of Christianity.
> Which is not to say that all dogmas associated with the Outsider, if
> indeed there are such dogmas, would necessarily be agreeable to the
> Vatican of the Dawn Men. Our views of the Divine will continue to
> evolve, just as (in much of the world anyway) they evolved from pagan
> conceptions to Christianity.
I agree. I don't see how an evolving deity could be anything but an
evolving perception of that deity. Plainly, that has always fascinated
Wolfe.
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