Poul Anderson, Harvest Of Stars, 9, p, 115.
Xuan's supposed precursors:
Plato
Machiavelli
Spengler
Toynbee
Pavlov
Moravec
Tipler
Guthrie growls that:
these brilliant, honest men gave the world treasures;
even Xuan had some good ideas;
their work was perverted, like Jesus' and Jefferson's.
The early Jesus preached the kingdom whereas the later Jesus thought that he was the Suffering Servant so I think that the problem started then. Olaf Stapledon's Neptunian narrator says that Socrates' ideal was dispassionate intelligence whereas Jesus' was passionate worship.
Future history meets philosophy.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Truth to say, I would have disagreed with Guthrie about Jefferson. Of the American founders, I prefer John Adams to Thomas Jefferson. The latter was, IMO, a mealy mouthed hypocrite whose thought contains elements I regard with distaste.
And I disagree with you in thinking there was a discontinuity between the earlier and later teachings of Christ. Rather, what Guthrie meant was that there were bad Christians who failed to live up to the teachings of the Lord Jesus.
Sean
Post a Comment