Side Chapels And Poul Anderson

I mentioned here and here that, when I meditate in a side chapel (in fact the Parr Chapel) of Kendal Parish Church, I sit beside the tomb (see image) of the grandfather of the sixth wife of Henry VIII. She was Catherine Parr. In Poul Anderson's The Corridors Of Time, time travelers fly above England during the Queenship of Henry's second wife, Anne Boleyn.

When I meditate in a side chapel of the Jesuit Catholic Church of St Wilfrid in Preston, I sit before a statue of St Francis Xavier, "the Apostle to the East," who converted many Indians and Japanese and died before he would have entered China. Poul Anderson's extra-terrestrial character Axor has converted to Jerusalem Catholicism, has been ordained in the (fictional and ironic) Galilean Order, has taken the name "Francis Xavier" and travels through the known galaxy not in order to convert other aliens directly but in order to find evidence for a non-human Incarnation in the belief that this would vindicate Christianity. Historical Jesuits and fictional Galileans include scientists. (There is a Jesuit biologist in James Blish's A Case Of Conscience.)

In the Hindu Temple in Preston, I sit beneath images of gods including Krishna who is revered by Athelstane King in SM Stirling's The Peshawar Lancers. I also respect the Krishna of the Bhagavad Gita as the teacher of karma yoga, the way of non-attached action. Thus, even day trips to Kendal or Preston generate subject matter for blogging.