Wolfean theologies

David Stockhoff · 05 Feb 2009, 15:41 · from 2009-February.txt.gz

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From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (David Stockhoff)
Date: Thu, 05 Feb 2009 10:41:43 -0500
Subject: (urth) Wolfean theologies
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Right. And for the Man vs Divine crux to really work, we do have to assume the concept of the OTC as Man + Divine, not just Man. 

Severian is 99% just Man. And that 1% is plenty enough divinity.

Per my last post, I can now frame some concrete arguments as to why Severian does not even make it to the level of Arian christ. But I still think it's an interesting comparison (it eliminates the awkward SoG factor, for one thing). 

He is Man only, and he is a Healer, but he is incomplete (or, plainly, ironic) in other ways. He is a Torturer, not tortured. He considers himself a poor student, not a Teacher, and that seems accurate. He is a King, but not a fisher of men. He is probably even more immoral, especially, than even he admits to being. And so on. 

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Message: 1
Date: Wed, 04 Feb 2009 17:39:20 +0000
From: "Son of Witz" <sonofwitz at butcherbaker.org>
Subject: Re: (urth) Wolfean theologies
To: "The Urth Mailing List" <urth at lists.urth.net>
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This is all very interesting.
I don't understand how there can be only one interpretation of Christ, especially argued by Catholics, who are considered Heretics by the oldest, most traditional and unchanged Christian Church, The Eastern Orthodox.
And even then, Christ's Divinity is EXEGESIS.  It's in the Creed, and it's the Catholics that changed the creed and caused the Great Schism.

I don't need to argue it any more though. Severian is as Christ as it gets in New Sun. if that helps me understand it, fine. If one needs to call him Christ Like in deference to dear Jesus, fine.  The line from Wolfe outside of BotNS that means the most to me is that he wanted to explore the "implications of his faith"  We're supposed to pick up the cross and become Christ-like.  Mystic Hermetic Cosmic Christians would say you have to become CHRIST. not "like" him.  And between Severian and Horn, you've got two characters who BECAME the myth that inspired and motivated them. talk about exploring the implications of some cosmic event on a personal level.
This is beautiful stuff here, and hair splitting between Christ & Christ-like is sorta off the mark. It's only exegesis.  For me, the text renders a sort of temporary divinity to him. but in my view, everyone is always also divine, and Severian just got a real glimpse of it as he was used, by the hand of God, at a much higher level than most of us are.  But I think one of the most major points I get from reading between the lines on Jesus's story is that we're all crucified on the crossroads between base & divine.

~SonOfWitz

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