By "a myth," Everard means a falsehood although he adds that this is a meaningful falsehood. I think that "myth" means a meaningful story, whether true or false. Thus, the Crucifixion, the Russian Revolution and the Galileo Affair are historical events that have become myths - and, around such myths, falsehoods indeed develop. So what happened with Galileo? I will read the relevant chapter in a book by two Jesuits.
I was educated by Jesuits, at the most prestigious boarding school in the Republic of Ireland. Many years later, I learned that this happened only because my parents were unable to afford the Benedictines at the most prestigious Catholic boarding school in England. The Jesuits, the intellectual vanguard of the Counter-Reformation, were second best! In adulthood, and now in retirement, I receive spiritual teaching from the monks of the (Soto Zen) Order of Buddhist Contemplatives, who advise me to meditate and to learn from my own experience but do not require me to accept any doctrines. Poul Anderson, respecting both these religions, presents a Wodenite convert to Catholicism and another to Mahayanism.
While I was at school, my extensive extracurricular reading included a lot of American sf, notably Heinlein, Asimov and Blish, and I specifically remember two works by Poul Anderson, Twilight World and "The Game of Glory." Not yet knowing that the latter was part of a series within a series, I compared it to Blish's single work, "Beep," two space secret service stories. I did think that "Beep" should be novelized but did not suspect that, when it was to be lengthened and published as a single, still short, volume a decade later, it would be dedicated to me!
(Where does Everard quote Stalin asking how many divisions the Pope has?)
4 comments:
Whoa, I've GOT a copy of *The Quincunx of Time*, but I hadn't registered that yours was the name in the dedication. It was a few years back that I last read it fully, as opposed to checking a passage here and there.
Kaor, Paul!
VERY flattering, that the late James Blish dedicated one of his books, even if short, to you! I definitely will have to find "The Quincunx of Time."
And we don't see only Wodenites in Anderson's Technic Civilization series converting to Terrestrial religions or philosophies. "The Troubletwisters" mentions Falkayn thinking that the Katandarans might be attracted to Buddhism, because of it being so much better than their paranoia and fear of demons. And A KNIGHT OF GHOSTS AND SHADOWS mentions the Diomedean Portmaster of Thursday Landing on the planet Diomedes carrying a crucifix, very likely because of himself also being a Christian.
And I do believe Jesus Christ is truly God as well as man, and that He rose literally from the dead after his crucifixion. And that these were not mere "myths."
Sean
Sean,
The Crucifixion is a historical fact. That it was a universal sacrifice is a theological interpretation. The Resurrection is a historical claim.
CS Lewis argued that Resurrection is a myth, not falsehood but meaningful story: Adonis, Osiris, Balder. He argued further that, when God became Man, myth became history. Thus, Christ's Resurrection is both myth and history, according to Lewis.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
True, the universal applicability of the Crucifixion of Christ is logically deduced from the Christian belief in His divinity. And not all non Christians or anti Christians have been willing to concede the historicity of Christ's Passion. Islam, for example, in the Koran, denies Our Lord truly died on the Cross.
I do understand the use people like C.S. Lewis and you have made of the word "myth." That they don't mean it to mean this or that "myth" is a lie. But, the problem is too many DO mean the word like that. And I certainly agree with Lewis' intriguing suggestion, that the Incarnation of Christ as man means myths were becoming history. Lewis' belief: the Resurrection is both myth and history. An intriguing notion, worthy of being pondered over.
Sean
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