The Wizard

Lee Berman · 08 Mar 2012, 12:48 · from 2012-March.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Thu, 8 Mar 2012 07:48:23 -0500
Subject: (urth) The Wizard
Message-ID: <SNT123-W3758C2B58C68F0E5B2AF92CF570 at phx.gbl>

>>As Dionysus was precursor to Christ on earth, so I think The Outsider and Silk are
>> the  precursors to Blue/Urth's version of Christianity. We see the signs that He is 
>> coming but in the narrative we are given, He has not yet arrived.      

>Gerry Quinn: Only if we ignore the clear references to Him, e.g. Palm Sunday. Why would 
>Wolfe have put that in, if he wanted us to think that Christ had not come?  Easier to 
>leave it out altogether, surely?

Well, I answered that before, but apparently not suffiently. I take this as Wolfe's
way of saying that a Jesus-like figure appeared on Urth but it wasn't Christ. The
concept of Christ does not reside in such material items as a cross or palm fronds or
even in the flesh and blood body of a guy named Jesus. This makes some sense if Wolfe
conceives of Christianity to be a principle which is applicable across the unviverse(s),
not just a utility reserved for the human race on planet earth.

If Christ had appeared on Urth in the past, where did He go? Where is the spiritual
salvation He offered? Why is it no longer available to the people of Urth? Why is
Urth left only with remnants of Christianity? Is Christianity so fragile that it could
appear for a while then disappear for 90% of the rest of human history?

Because Urth and the Whorl and Blue/Green so resemble pre-Christian earth, I find it
more cohesive to extend the analogy.  I see Christian precursors in the Sun Series, 
similar to those found in Greco-Roman times, where others see Christian vestiges.

FWIW, I agree making a plus symbol with the hand makes the "sign of addition" closer to
a Christian cross than a swastika. But it still isn't quite the same.

Also, while to me, The outsider does not resemble our Christian God or the Increate in 
his actions (possession, allowing multiple gods and monsters to exist with humans, not 
offering spiritual salvation,etc.) he does more resemble the OT God to me. If we assume 
that the OT and NT God are the same, then I guess He would be trans-universal and the guy
Silk was shown really could have been Jesus Christ. But on earth, not on Urth.

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