"'Theology will scare the savage off who'd gladly hear Christ's simple words of love, while Joshua's more fitting for a soldier...'" (p. 142)
"Jennifer breathed something which caused him to straighten, fiery-visaged, dry-mouthed, and resolute as a Maccabee." (ibid.)
I have read some Christian propaganda giving advice on how to evangelize members of other religions. Thus, the Sikh scripture, the Granth, is a collection of hymns so give them the Psalms etc. Poul Anderson's Sword-of-the-Lord Gerson thinks that Joshua is appropriate for soldiers. I suggest the Bhagavad Gita but my reading of scriptures is not confined to the Bible.
Joshua is about conquest whereas the Apocryphal Maccabees, to whose title characters Sword-of-the-Lord is compared, are about national defense and self-determination.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And Chunderban Desai, in THE DAY OF THEIR RETURN, recollected meeting a Merseian who inquired about the war chants to be found in the "Rig-Veda."
I read a bit of the Sikhs scriptures, the Granth, and was not impressed. Albeit that might have been because it was a translation. But, as hymns, I find the Psalms of the OT more impressive.
Prince Rupert also seems to have thought the book of "warrior Joshua" appropriate for soldiers, not just Sword-Of-The-Lord!
Ad astra! Sean
Note that the Hebrews of Exodus are refugees from slavery in Egypt and desperately need a place to live.
Nobody is going to -give- them one; certainly not one where they could rule themselves. It's been a very long time since there was any really vacant territory in that part of the world.
Quite understandably: I wouldn't.
So it's kill or be killed.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I missed that point, one I should have thought of, that the desirable territories had already been staked out. So, of course nomadic invaders like the ancient Jews would kill, because to not do so meant they would be the ones getting killed.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: that's the way it is more often than not.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
And I don't really expect that pattern to change.
Ad astra! Sean
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