A friend is about to lend me one of the "Jesus and the Holy Grail" books. I recorded my own reflections on the origins of Christianity here. This would be excellent subject-matter for time travel fiction. Anderson, with his usual combination of imagination and restraint, touched on the Crucifixion in There Will Be Time and had one of his characters make a single understated comment in the Time Patrol series. Anderson's Knights Templar revere an Abrahamic relic, not anything from the Tomb of Christ. Subtlety is usually preferable.
8 comments:
Hi, Paul!
Because subtlety is usually more HISTORICAL in the real world. We don't have many relics directly associated with Our Lord, aside from the Shroud of Turin and pieces, or possible pieces, of the True Cross. True, the Iron Crown of Lombardy is alleged to have embedded in it one of the nails used for impaling Christ. And the scepter of the Holy Roman Emperors preserved in Vienna is said to incorporate in it the lance which pierced Him. And the Sainte Chapelle in Paris preserve or used to preserve (it's possible the Jacobins of the French Revolution destroyed it) one the thorns from Christ's crown of thorns. And that's about it!
So the suggestion in "Death and the Knight" that the Templars simply venerated a fairly "ordinary" relic makes sense.
Sean
Sean,
I think that carbon dating showed that the Shroud originated in the century when it was first displayed? 12th or 14th, I can never remember which!
Paul.
Hi, Paul!
I'm in haste, so this will have to be brief. No, what I read was that a PATCH sewn onto the Shroud to repair a tear was what was carbon dated. A patch later than the rest of the Shroud.
Sean
Sean,
I googled and found another explanation of why the Shroud may be older than it seems: radioactivity from an earthquake. It seems that there is no consensus.
Paul.
Hi, Paul!
Radioactivity? Interesting! Another point I came across in favor of the authenticity of the Shroud was that it was woven in a pattern typical of first century AD Judaea, a pattern not seen in later times.
I myself personally believe in the authenticity of the Shroud. But my faith does not depend on whether this or that relic is genuine.
Sean
Hi, Paul!
Hmmm, a friend of yours is going to lend you one of the "Jesus and the Holy Grail" books? Stuff like our Lord not truly dying on the Cross, marrying Mary Magdalene, having children, and being the ancestor of the Merovingian kings of Gaul/France? Without any wish to be offensive to your friend, I say this is too ridiculous to take seriously!
Btw, even this sort of ties in, indirectly, with Poul Anderson! Sandra Miesel was co author, along with Carl Oson, of THE DAVINCI HOAX, a book critiquing the many errors to be found in Dan Brown's infamous book THE DAVINCI CODE.
Sean
Sean,
This "Grail" version of Jesus wanted to be the Davidic monarch uniting Jews and Gentiles to resist Roman rule. My understanding of Jesus is that he identified with the Suffering Servant and aimed to initiate the Kingdom through his vicarious suffering.
Paul.
Hi, Paul!
Commenting on your first sentence. What you said reminded me of how many Jews of our Lord's time had similar hopes or dreams. That is, they wanted a worldly, politically and militarily oriented Messiah who would unite the Jews and lead them into conquering their enemies.
While I agree with, as far as it goes, with what you said in your second sentence, it's incomplete. My belief, as a Catholic, is that Christ did and said things which makes sense only if He is God as well as man. I know, you are more skeptical about that! (Smiles)
Sean
Post a Comment