From: "James Wynn" 
Subject: RE: (urth) Typhon, Sev, Silk
Date: Fri, 14 Mar 2003 11:08:06 -0600

Non-theologian Crush swims beyond his depth....


Andrew Bollen gathers wool responding to Roy and Matt Weber:
"I'd not be surprised to find that Wolfe regards Christ as something of a
wimp, and I'm pretty sure he regards the pre-Horn Silk in the same way..."
AND
"If lethal self-defense and the slaying of evil prison warders & tyrants are
un-Christian acts, then it seems he still has a long way to go in his
imitation of Christ by the time the story draws to a close."

Crush responds:
The Jesus of the Gospels fulfills the role of the Messiah as suffering
servant and sacrificial victim. This is because, in the theology of
sacrifice in all religions, the victim **gives** itself willingly for the
petitioner. This is still seen in Bull Fights which of course are not much
as far as fights go but are more of a pageant sacrifice with the religious
significance stripped away. A bull that uses cunning to take out the
matadors and picadors is considered by Bull Fight fans guilty of the
equivalent of unsportsman-like conduct. For an example of this, see the book
"Eyewitness to History" for the 1950s news article on a bull that insisted
on figuring out how to win a bull fight - the crowd became quite angry and
considered the bull a cowardly spoiler.

HOWEVER
Christian theology recognizes another coming of the Messiah (Orthodox Jewish
theology as well if one removes the word 'another') that is not meek. This
is the coming expressed in many of the Old Testament Messianic texts, Paul
in a Thessalonians letter and John in Revelation. So maybe Severian is a
**kind** of Second Coming.

And what then is Silk?
:)

-- Crush





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