Ori Hammer and Tongs

I agree with Ori in some ways, in particular re the inexcusability of many of the Increate's actions, such as the immolation of the Commonwealth's people that Ushas may arise. But Ori, aren't you approaching the matter of whether the Hierogrammates serve the Increate or themselves rather unsubtly, with a curiously RELIGIOUS hammer-and-tongs zeal? Surely a striking attribute of Catholicism, in contrast, is its theological subtlety, its emphasis on the mediation of all Divine influences through sacraments, priests, etc.; so why not aliens? Wolfe is hardly going to show us the Increate giving Tzadkiel his instructions for the day; such a process is necessarily presented by remote implication only. =====

Nicholas Gevers:

Hmmm ... well, you may have a point. I'm not a Catholic, and so I've never had to reconcile myself to the worldly actions of an institution which I believe to be holy. As I wrote in a previous post, perhaps that is the "bridge" which some readers bring with them to the book and some others don't. As a result, then, if you do not believe that crimes on the material plane are exculpabale or even laudatory on the metaphysical plane, then TBOTNS serves equally well as a critique of such an institution as it does a defense for those who do. Ori