To justify...

(writing from old account) Ori, the best argument "justifying the ways of God to man" in BOTNS is not a quick quotation I can pluck out--although Severian, whose meditations I do not ignore while reading the book, says some pithy stuff. This strike me as the Dave Barry version of THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV: "Dear reader, is there a God? -Fyodor" Gene Wolfe wrote 5 books, not a brief essay solving the problem of evil. Wolfe's a great writer, but he hardly managed to "justify the ways of God to man" in 100 words or less (or even in the whole thing--conclusive arguments are generally not the work of fiction). Where in BOTNS does it say "Don't make no theological interpretations of all this, folks?" As to evidence of the survival of the Gospels/Christianity--why, surely the hieros have some reason for making their wicked plot resemble in so many details and miracles the story of Christ? They must have a bootleg copy of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John lying around to steal from.