Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: iadt1kr@prism.gatech.edu (J. Kenneth Riviere (JoKeR)) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: This Present Darkness Message-ID: Date: 5 May 91 02:14:39 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology Lines: 57 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu My brother and his new wife gave me This Present Darkness and were wildly enthusiastic about it. When I read it I found that it was somewhat interesting as a fantasy novel (I read fantasy novels regularly) but I had serious problems with its theology. One thing that bothered me about it was the hero pastor's ("The Praying Man") pursuit of sinners. At one point he gave a brief description of his view of his calling as a pastor and one of his top priorities was to punish sinners or condemn sinners or some such thing (I don't have the book with me right now to get the exact phrase). This bothered me since we are instructed to "Judge not lest ye be judged". There is also the point that he took steps to expell a member from his congregation. It seems rather presumptuous to believe both that we are sin-free enough to be able to cast the first stone and that we know enough to pick which sinner to expell if we are perfect enough to judge since we are all sinful creatures due to the fall of Adam. Besides that, it is the sinners who need to hear the word of God, isn't it? How are we following in Jesus' footsteps if we refuse to embrace sinners (while hating the sin) when He repeatedly associated with those who needed to hear His word rather than speaking only to the righteous? Another point that bothered me was the simple-minded picture presented of most people being either good or evil. There were some people in the book who were shown to be uncertain about what they should be doing, but most of the people who were not good and incorruptable were actively EVIL. I don't doubt that there are people who actively pursue evil ends, but my view of the world is that most people are trying to do good but simply aren't able to consistently do the best thing or even determine what the best thing is. This narrow view that the faithful few have THE answer and all others not within their select group are not just mistaken but actively possessed by demons is the kind of paranoid delusion which can easily lead to fanatical extremes which can be detrimental to spiritual growth (or so it seems to me). In this vein, the scene wherein the the newspaper publisher meets with the bad pastor (literally demon possessed) and the author has this EVIL man speak words of tolerance for others deliberately makes the implication that such tolerance of others is clearly EVIL. This is not a message which I can accept easily. I am not a regular reader of this group and I suppose I am opening myself up to being flamed for daring to criticize this "inspiring" novel, but this book has troubled me since I read it and I am hoping that this discussion in this newsgroup will help me to be in a better position to discuss this with my brother when I tell him why I didn't find it as inspirational as he and his wife did. I may or may not respond to future responses to this posting, whether posted or emailed, but I will try to read this group for the next few days to see if there is anything new of interest on this topic. -- J. Kenneth Riviere (JoKeR) Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332 uucp: ...!{allegra,amd,hplabs,seismo,ut-ngp}!gatech!prism!iadt1kr ARPA: iadt1kr@prism.gatech.edu