Carl reflects:
"If the idols of the Dalesmen were no more than wood and stone, then only the great God of the ancients could really be alive - and he would be more just than the powers of earth and air and fire." (p. 100)
The gifts of God are strown;
The heathen, in his blindness,
Bows down to wood and stone.
-copied from here.
Hebrews and Hindus found opposite paths from polytheism to monotheism:
denounce all idols as only wood and stone;
see God in all things, including wood and stone.
“Truth is one; sages call it by various names,”
-copied from here.
One Hindu teacher, I forget which, visited a temple and saw a mouse eating the food offering in front of a statue. Instead of seeing God in the mouse, the food, the statue and himself, he thought, "This god cannot even protect his food from a mouse," and then taught a pure monotheism free from idolatry like the Hebrew prophets.
Yet wisdom is justified by all her children.”
-copied from here.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I think you should have stressed more clearly that only SOME Hindus found a path "...from polytheism to monotheism." The impression I've gotten is that the vast mass of ordinary Hindus literally believe in the reality of their "gods." Hard, not soft polytheists.
And that is why I consider Hinduism to be the last REAL pagan religion in the world today. I simply CAN'T take the rather pathetic neo-pagans we see now very seriously.
Sean
Kaor, Paul!
I went to a blood drive Friday morning, where a young woman named Astrid took my temperature, blood pressure, pulse, and iron level (I ended up being rejected because my iron level was down below 13 for whatever reason). Anyway, I commented on her name, and said that I had met an Astrid working in a shoe store many years ago, and also tha I had heard of, although not met, Astrid Anderson Bear. She had not heard of Mrs. Bear, but when I told her that this Astrid was the daughter of the writer Poul Anderson, she was familiar with him. Maybe not as obsessive as us, but she claimed to know of him.
So there are other Poul Anderson readers out there.
Best Regards,
Nicholas
Kaor, Nicholas!
Good! I'm glad you met someone who at least knew of Poul Anderson.
I THINK the name "Astrid" used to be largely of Scandinavian origin and usage. And I have read of how that name came into wider, non-Scandinavian use to it being the name of Princess Astrid of Sweden, the first wife of King Leopold III of Belgium. The lady was VERY popular in Belgium and people began giving that name to many of their daughters.
Regards! Sean
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