Gnostic Wolfe

Dan'l Danehy-Oakes · 04 Nov 2002, 18:35 · from urth-v0211.mbox · original

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From: "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes" <ddanehy at siebel.com>
Subject: RE: (urth) Gnostic Wolfe
Date: Mon, 4 Nov 2002 10:35:42 -0800
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Josh wrote:

> There's one big difference between the Jewish and the=20
> Christian way of looking at things. Judaism says, do the=20
> right thing because it is the right thing to do.=20

Actually, a close reading of the Hebrew scriptures shows
that from end to end, Law, Prophets, and Writings ("TaNaK")
promise blessings for "doing the right thing," from caring
for the widows-and-orphans to maintining cultic purity, and=20
curses for, well, not doing the right thing. The idea of=20
Heaven-and-Hell do not enter into it (well, maybe a little,=20
very late, in that the very latest Writings seem to suggest
a belief that God has care and concern for the dead in=20
Sheol); the blessings are land, prosperity, and descendents,=20
while the curses are poverty, infertility, and death.=20

Interestingly, the religion of the Chapter is much more
concerned with the afterlife than Temple Judaism ever was
-- Judaism, unlike almost all its neighbors, seems to have
been almost unconcerned with the afterlife; Greeks,
Egyptians, and most Middle-eastern religions all had plenty
to say on the subject.=20

> Christianity doesn't really say do the right thing so that
> you will go to Heaven: salvation is a gift of grace, not
> the result of works.=20

Yes/no: this is another of those distinctions that dissolves
when the context is broadened. Faith, which is a gift ("gift
of grace" is redundant ... look it up), is the one and only
way of salvation. But "faith" is actually a very ill-defined
term, and some of the NT writers make it clear that "faith"
does not exist without works, that a real faith produces=20
works in the faithful. One modern writer (alas, I have lost
her name) summed it up in the aphorism: "We are saved by
faith alone, but the faith by which we are saved is never
alone."

Wolfe, I think, would agree; Silk's enlightenment leads to
concrete actions, even if some of them are the result of
his misunderstanding what the God wants from him.

> I have to say that I think that this whole focus on=20
> Gnosticism in the Book Of The Long Sun is sort of a=20
> distraction from the really more interesting things that Gene=20
> Wolfe is doing with these books.

I don't know about them being more interesting, but they
are interesting indeed and there are many, many more of=20
them.

--Blattid

--=20

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