Poul Anderson's "The Problem of Pain" tells us that the Ythrian New Faith has sacraments, theology, prophets, saints and believers. Does it also have prophetic writings, scriptures? Prophetic and historical texts overlap in the Bible. Two candidates for scriptural status in Ythrian literature would be The Sky Book Of Stormgate and The Earth Book Of Stormgate, two volumes that recount the history of the exodus of a people to a new world. The Earth Book includes "The Problem of Pain," which compares Christian and New Faith attitudes to suffering and death and refers to the Book of Job.
Nicholas van Rijn is a rich man seeking the kingdom of God.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Fr. Brown's massive INTRODUCTION is one of the many books I hope to reread. Despite its somewhat intimidating length!
If the Ythrian New Faith has all the things you listed, it's not unreasonable to think it could have its own scriptures. Anderson plainly did not think it necessary to go into more detail, which is regrettable.
Ad astra! Sean
Incidentally, the "easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle" is a mistranslation.
It's a camel's -hair- passing through the eye of a needle, IIRC, in the original text. Which is still difficult, because camel hair is coarse, but not impossible.w
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Aw shucks and fiddlesticks! THAT takes care of a beloved metaphor! But, since I favor the formal equivalence method of translating the Bible, if the Greek text means "camel's hair," that is how it should be rendered in English.
Ad astra! Sean
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