Two spiritual practices: meditation; prayer. Two kinds of prayer: addressing a particular supernatural being (god, saint etc); calling out to the unknown. Anyone might do the latter some time. There is a good example of an agnostic prayer in a hard sf context near the end of The Quincunx Of Time by James Blish.
Surprisingly, Dominic Flandry prays at least twice. I have previously remarked that he addresses his murdered fiancee in the Cathedral where they were to have been married but does not consider that he receives an answer. He must be the first to pray to St Kossara, even before her canonization. Earlier, he had prayed:
"O God Who is also unreal, a mask we put on emptiness, be gentle to her."
-Poul Anderson, Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight Of Terra (New York, 2012), p. 432.
That is not bad - but, of course, Flandry has Poul Anderson writing his thoughts for him.
On a personal note: is it a natural response to personify, address and thank the source of energy, light and life, the local solar source, if not a remote cosmic source?
Kossara prays several times. She asks the members of the Trinity to receive, absolve and shine and Mary to comfort. She also refers to "...Mary who fled to Egypt..." (p. 467). Thus, a character in a novel refers to a story in a scripture. I think that the latter is just a story. As I understand it, "I have called my son out of Egypt" (Hosea 11.1) referred to God's calling of his collective adopted son, Israel, out of slavery in Egypt. The author of Matthew's Gospel interpreted several passages, including this one, as prophecies about the Messiah. Therefore, he wrote a story about the family fleeing into Egypt so that they could then return from it. This contradicts Luke's story of Joseph and Mary taking the baby at the appropriate time to offer him in the Temple. The Nativity and Infancy stories are what, in a different context, we would call alternative origin stories.
5 comments:
Hi, Paul!
I think what we see in Flandry's prayers is a wistful desire that he too, along with Kossara, could believe in God. In other words, Flandry was one of those agnostics or atheists who were not dogmatic about their lack of faith or insultingly offensive to believers in God. And, of course, you may recall how I commented on Anderson's poem "Prayer in War" made me wonder how much of an agnostic he was, at least in his later years.
And I don't see any necessary contradiction in St. Joseph taking the BVM and the infant Christ to Egypt when comparing the infancy narratives in Matthew and Luke. For one thing, Herod the Great certainly had the cruelty needed to kill either Our Lord or the Innocents. Simply recall how he killed two of his own sons! But I would need to reread Fr. Raymond Brown's exhaustive commentary THE BIRTH OF THE MESSIAH to adequately comment or object.
Sean
Sean,
I also am not certain. What I think is: Matthew and Luke wrote independently; Luke assumed that the child would be taken to the Temple for a purification (?) ceremony soon after being born (kind of similar to going to a church for a christening); Matthew wrote his story of an immediate flight into Egypt and staying there for some time, thus during the period when the child would normally have been taken to the Temple. Thus, two different accounts of early childhood (I think).
Paul.
Sean,
Laptop is failing so I might have sporadic contact for a few months.
Regarding Obama saying Islamic State not Muslim (which means "Muslim"!), whenever atrocities are committed in the name of a religion, some people say, "That's not Muslim/Christian etc," whatever the religion is. I think we have to recognize that, historically, religious motivations have included both compassion and hate, the best and the worst, + there are violent passages in the Bible as well as the Koran. Saudi Arabia beheads people, including, I am told, one recently for "sorcery." Maybe we can agree on some humane values that are common to religious believers and secularists. (Sorry in advance if I do not respond promptly for a while.)
Paul.
Sean,
Sorry. "Muslim" means "Islamic"! They are two adjectives from the same noun. I really was in haste before, expecting the computer to die at any moment.
Paul.
Hi, Paul!
Good, we agree that "Muslim" and "Islamic" refers to the same thing.
I'm sorry, but I don't agree the Bible can be used the same way Muslims use the Koran. As a Catholic I would point out there is not a single word in the New Testament commanding Christians to kill, enslave, or conquer all non Christians. And I freely admit there are plenty of bad Christians, past and present. And the Koran DOES have savage texts like that. As for the OT, again, no text there commands the Jews to conquer all who are not Jewish. The Koran's commands are open ended and global, the Jews only conquered a small land sometime around 1200 BC.
My view remains that Islam is a cruel and barbaric IDEOLOGY, not simply a religon. There is too much in the authoritative Muslim sources: the Koran, Hadiths, Sharia, the major Muslim schools of law/theology, etc., to make me think otherwise.
Let me say once I am NOT saying all Muslims as PERSONS are brutal fanatics. I am convinced many are perfectly decent persons. My quarrel is with what their "religion" teaches, not them.
I also think the so called Islamic State beheaded poor David Haines to mock PM Cameron, to make him look weak and indecisive. Even, perhaps, to nudge Scotland into secession.
And every day that passes without Obama DECISIVELY striking down the IS strengthens that barbaric entity and makes Obama look weaker and weaker. His feckless half hearted half measures simply will not work!
Sean
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