Saturday 1 October 2016

The One And The Many

Carl the Wanderer says:

"'...the Goths are not a people of the Book. They would offer to Christ in his lands, they often do. But you never offer to Tiwaz in his.'
"'No, for God has forbidden that we bow down to any but him. It is only God the Father who may be worshiped. To the Son, let men give due reverence, yes; but the nature of Christ -' And Ulfilas was off on a sermon." (Time Patrol, p. 403)

Two points:

pagan preparedness to offer to Christ as against Christian unpreparedness to offer to Tiwaz;

Ulfilas, Christian but Arian, does not recognize the Son as equal to the Father - there always were alternative Christianities.

A pagan chief says:

"'...I know your God is strong to give victory...And so is Moon Woman...Some of my people have taken the water-blessing of your Eagle People skylord, He of the Cross, and the crops haven't suffered, so the land-spirits don't mind. I'd make Him sacrifice too, but His priests and priestesses say He won't have those who don't forsake others.'"
-SM Stirling, Against The Tide Of Years (New York, 1999), Chapter Twenty-Three, pp. 385-386.

Christian clergy cannot accept converts who still offer to Sky Father but nor can they prevent Sky Father's children from offering to Christ and incorporating him into their pantheon, like some Hindus, Anderson's Maurai and the Reservation dwellers in Brave New World.

Your humble blogger prefers Hindu-pagan inclusiveness and invokes "Whatever gods may be," including Indra because the Vedic pantheon would have been known to Gautama before he became the Buddha. But the gods, if any, are, like us, parts of the One.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Since I believe only ONE God exists, it would quite simply be wrong for any Christian to worship gods like Tiwaz or Moon Woman or any Hindu gods because they don't even EXIST. Given that, it makes perfect, logical sense for Christians to ask possible converts to repudiate all other "gods."

And, yes, as a Catholic, I certainly disagree with the heretical Arianism of Ulfilas! (Smiles)

Sean