Some Personal Thoughts on J.R.R. Tolkien’s Short Story: LEAF BY NIGGLE

Introduction

In a previous post [ https://peterkazmaier.wordpress.com/2023/02/20/some-personal-thoughts-on-tim-kellers-exposition-of-matthew-chapter-11/ ], I talked about the significant beneficial influence Tim Keller’s podcast had on me in 2022 and now in 2023. In another recent podcast, Keller introduced me to a short story of Tolkien’s that I had not read before: LEAF BY NIGGLE.

This story was especially poignant for someone who is a writer and sometimes wonders “if all this work that goes into writing a story is worth it.”

A word of caution. My thoughts on this story contains spoilers, so perhaps you’d like to stop here and read the story before you continue.

 

Study Guide for COVENTRY 2091. Part 5. Chapters 16-18

The First Plot Twist

To Keep My Stories Moving I Generally Introduce Two Plot Twists

A plot twist is a sea change for the characters and the trajectory of the plot. Almost everything is not the same after the twist occurs. In this story, the assault on Coventry lets Jacob, Hanna, and Zeke discover the real, hidden Coventry which has until now remained secret while the surface Coventry was kept up as a front.

Chapters 16-18

Correcting a Potential Misunderstanding

As I thought about some of our group discussions, I thought, perhaps in writing, I had given readers the wrong impression about the Peace, Order, and Good Government (POGG) Tribunals. As I imagined Canada in 2091, I did not envisage that the POGG tribunals would replace all legal functions, but rather this unique innovation from 2051 conceived to solve the problem of sentencing huge numbers of people quickly, would be kept alongside the regular court system. In other words, it was so useful to the government (and to well-connected, powerful officials like Connaught) that the tribunals were quietly kept active for subversives that the government wanted to send to Coventry with a minimum of fuss and publicity. That’s why Jacob was surprised when he found himself at the tribunal rather than at the regular court he was expecting.

Was this a misunderstanding you encountered in the early chapters of your reading?

Chapter 16

In Chapter 16, Jacob and his two friends have to decide whether or not to stay in Coventry. I faced many writing questions as I imagined how Coventry would function, given that the population consisted of many disparate groups that likely had different customs, articles of faith, and couldn’t even agree on holidays. How would I keep them from fighting among themselves? I settled on the idea of the Swiss Canton, where each cavern would be its own canton and make many of its day-to-day rules. So if Seventh Day Adventists wanted Saturday to be the day off, in their canton their bylaws would set that day aside.

What do you think of this solution? Could it work?

As Christians we try to find a balance: grace and works, freedom and law. When forced to decide on a governing formula, what would we select? One way to think about this is to think about governance and law in three domains:

1. Laws that must be on the books to prevent serious crime and protect citizens. These would be laws against murder, theft, and physical violence.
2. There should be no laws against how you dress, cut your hair, or what Christmas decorations you put up etc. These are questions of taste and personal preference and have a minimal impact on others and so should not be legislated.
3. In between these two extremes there is a very broad area where there may not be any laws, but society regulates them by social censure. For example, in the 1800s, if a man ran off and left his wife and children destitute, he pretty well couldn’t show his face in his home town again because his reputation was destroyed. As I imagined Coventry, I imagined a society that had the middle domain as large as possible i.e. few laws on the books, yet social censure could inhibit behavior that was thought by many to be deleterious.

Do you think this could work? Why or why not? What kinds of social censure ought to be permitted?

Chapter 17

In Chapter 17 we get a glimpse of the technology and society that Coventry has developed. In solving the problems of living underground when one has abundant, clean energy, one encounters many of the problems encountered in the Biosphere2 project, in space flight, and in space colonization.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Biosphere-2

What technology would they require to live underground? Have you ever heard of Biosphere 2? What do you know about it? Does anyone know what led to Biosphere 2’s failure? Do you think this plan of underground safety is a permanent solution or a temporary one?

Chapter 18

In Chapter 18 we find out that Coventry has long realized that their underground solution was, at best, temporary one. Eventually they would be overrun. We find out they have established a giant floating city in the upper atmosphere of Venus and also, along with two other “coventries” sent three starships to Alpha Centauri. Only one ship completed the journey. A big problem with interstellar travel is the relativistic time distortion. Alpha Centauri is “close” by interstellar distances, but even a phone call to Alpha Centauri is impractical. It would mean you would have to patiently wait for over four years to receive a message. In most of SF, one overcomes this with a faster-than-light (FTL) drive and FTL communication. I chose to use something I imagined for my first series (The Halcyon Cycle), a plant called a Travel Oak, which makes use of a contradiction (or inconsistency) between relativity and quantum mechanics. This speculation fascinates me, but if I were to discuss it, likely your eyes would begin to glaze over, so I won’t delve into it too deeply.

How does a Travel Oak work? What other technology(ies) does Coventry require to make this scenario plausible? What surprised you about the Venus colony and the planet Canaan? Why Venus and not Mars?

Study Guide for COVENTRY 2091. Part 4. Chapters 8-15

Rousseau’s Plot

Genre Plot Stereotypes

I had earlier said that I write books that I wish someone else had written, but never did. For SF, one reason for this are plot stereotypes that are very common. Two common Science Fiction background assumptions are:

1. Since all religions in general and Christianity in particular are superstitions, they will be destroyed by scientific enlightenment. Curiously, the final demise of Christianity is slated to occur a few years after the SciFi book is written.
2. Since all religions in general and Christianity in particular are superstitions, serious religious people and Christians are anti-science and as Luddites oppose science whenever possible.

I don’t agree with the view that Christians are anti-science. Consider the following questions. Why did the age of science develop in Europe? Why not China, Egypt, India? Do you think Christians are anti-science? Why or why not?

What social developments in our Post-Modern culture might be anti-science? If you have trouble thinking of any, think about what science as an activity needs to be productive and successful.

Chapters 8-15

Being sent to Coventry was a hardship and a persecution. Can you think of any ways God turned it into a blessing?

In the Old Testament there have been instances of judgment by enslavement or captivity.

Terrible as the enslavement of the Hebrews was in Egypt, do you see any hidden blessings there?

Were there any hidden blessings in the Babylonian Captivity?

Have you ever experienced God taking a terrible or stressful time in your life and turning it into a blessing? If you’re willing, why not share with the group.

Rousseau’s Plot

What do you think is going on with Rousseau and his cronies?

Why is he recruiting newer inmates into his circle?

Any guess to what’s coming next?

Supplemental Reading for Further Thought

“It’s a lot like Nature’s [Nature is perhaps the world’s most prestigious science journal] change to the meaning of “ethics” — once meant to protect individuals from overreaching scientists, the concept has been broadened to prevent research that may hurt someone’s feelings.

Canada already lags behind many other industrialized countries when it come [sic] to health research and the creation of new drugs. The problem will only deepen if researchers have to factor social justice into their pursuit of the truth.”

Jamie Sarkonak. National Post, Sept 22, 2022.

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/jamie-sarkonak-when-science-goes-woke-people-will-suffer

Study Guide for COVENTRY 2091. Part 3. Chapters 4-7

The Founding of Coventry

Special thanks to a friend for her help with the counseling content of the next chapter(s)

When I first wrote about the sessions between Giesbrecht and Jacob, I was primarily driven by a desire to fill in Kraiser’s backstory, reveal some of Jacob’s character, and, in an unobtrusive way, present some of the details of the founding of Coventry.

I have no expertise in counseling. A friend of mine was very helpful in removing some of the obvious counseling missteps in the dialogue. However, I could not implement all of her advice, so I expect many aspects of the dialogue are likely “sub-best-practice.” These deficiencies are mine.

Chapters 4-7 The Founding of Coventry

As a writer of fiction, I’m supposed to “show not tell,” but sometimes my showing can either be too obvious or too subtle. So some of my questions have to do with my show-not-tell success.

Why do you think Jacob’s nightmares began to surface now, years after the traumatic deaths of parents and siblings?

It’s been a long while since I read Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. I think the dystopia I’m imagining is much more along Huxley’s line than Orwell’s in 1984.

Do you agree or disagree?

One theme here: when God is working to repair us, things often get worse before they get better.

Is this generally true? Have you experienced this in your own life?

Books, especially fiction, have played a significant role in my life. Here I’m relating to George MacDonald’s Curdie children books.

Has anyone read them?

Plausibility of the events leading to the 2051 peaceful protest

It’s important to the success of the story that this peaceful protest and subsequent government reaction is plausible.

Part of the political background to this peaceful protest was the assumption that politically, governments in Canada are chosen and maintained by the votes of the urban population, while the protest was fueled by the sentiments of the essentially disenfranchised (they can vote, but their vote never makes a difference) rural population.

Is this plausible?

Even today, do you think the views of urban voters and rural voters in Canada are sufficiently different to set this kind of dichotomy? Why or why not?

What was the imaginary drug Cerebretocin-21 in the story? Why do you think some were strongly in favor of its use and others strongly opposed?

Was the government’s response reasonable to the unpopular Cerebretocin-21 protests?

Without digressing too far into the arguments in favor or against the justification of the recent Trucker’s Convoy to Ottawa, when it happened, were you surprised by the determination of the convoy participants to stay the course? Were you surprised by the government’s response? Why or why not?

Any other thoughts on the backstory plausibility leading to the founding of Coventry?

Another question relating to the story line in Coventry 2091: we have had many hours of testimony and thousands of pages of documentation released by the ongoing Public Order Emergency Commission (POEC) which has shed the light on government thoughts and motivations leading up to the imposition of the Emergencies Act last February.

If you have been following some POEC revelations, have these revelations made the Coventry 2091 plot more or less plausible? Why or why not?

I think, it’s fair to say that most Christians, particularly in a democratic society that expects her citizens to participate in governance, feel a tension between obedience to the government, support of freedom, support of justice, and yet not letting political action become our substitute for building Christ’s Kingdom.

How do you resolve this tension in your life?

How do you relate to Christians who have radically different views on resolving this tension?

Study Guide for COVENTRY 2091. Part 2. Chapters 1-3

Facilitators Notes for Part 2

In our discussion, we covered Parts 1 and 2 in a single session. There was more than enough discussion to fill two hours (our planned discussion time).

One of the questions that came up during the discussion: “Was the protest that led to the founding of the Coventry Penal Colony motivated or inspired by the Freedom Convoy that took place in Canada in January and February 2022?”.

The simple answer:  The chronology of the writing of Coventry 2091 makes that connection impossible.

• Coventry 2091 was published in June 2021, a full 6-7 months before anyone, including me, even heard of the Freedom Convoy.
• The events in Coventry 2091, thought to occur in 2049-2051 were imagined before my previous book, The Dragons of Sheol was published in June 2019.
• This connection is simply one of those coincidental things that happen as one does one’s best to imagine the future.

The Opening Chapters of Coventry 2091

My hope about our discussion

When paddling your kayak in a channel in a strong wind, it’s not enough to point the boat’s bow toward your destination, since the wind will blow you off course. You have to take the wind into account by paddling against it just enough to reach your goal. The assumptions made about the future in this book and others in this genre are like the wind blowing us off course (unless the wind comes directly from astern—unlikely). Let’s focus on how we change our paddling rather than thinking about changing the direction of the wind.

What is the Coventry 2091 “What if?” Question?

Most Science Fiction, particularly if it’s extrapolated from the present, begins with a “What If …” question. So does Coventry 2091.

What if, in 2051 in Canada, a politically unpalatable, peaceful protest occurred that was so extensive and enduring that the government had to take extraordinary measures?

The Coventry 2091 story is set some forty years later.

Are there any other “What if” questions embedded in the extrapolation from your reading of Speculative Fiction as well as Coventry 2091?

Chapters 1-3

When writing fiction, it’s important to make the fictional invention plausible enough that the reader isn’t constantly saying “no way!” or “I can’t believe that would happen!”

How plausible do you find the back story leading up to the founding of Coventry Penal Colony and its operation? Do you think it could happen in Canada? Why or Why not?

What do you find least plausible in the back story resulting in the non-violent protests in 2050 and the founding of the Coventry Penal Colony? Why?

At the end of Chapter 3 (pages 18 and 19), Jacob, Hanna, and Zeke talk about the difference in teaching between their brief experience at Coventry and their public education.

How do you see our public education (at all levels) changing and if you were to look into your crystal ball? How will these changes affect future generations of students? How will these educational changes affect Christian students in particular?

How do we change our paddling, as it were, if we:

• Saw changes in our educational system that we found very disturbing and deleterious?
• Concluded that our children or grandchildren were no longer adequately prepared for life through their education?
• That the educational system increasingly becomes more antagonistic to Christianity?

Study Guide for COVENTRY 2091. Part 1. Introduction to Speculative Fiction

Introduction to the Coventry 2091 Discussion Question Series

I was privileged to be invited to facilitate a discussion group on my most recent novel, Coventry 2091. I thought there might be readers who could benefit from the time I invested in crafting questions for the discussion. I hope this proves to be of value.

The group I facilitated was interested in discussing the implications of the world view that under-girds much of the world-building and character development. Many of the questions were designed to encourage that particular type of discussion by the group members. I was not always sure how active and far reaching the discussion would be. In practice, I covered two parts in each session. If the discussion in Part 1 by your group requires more time, it’s easy to end after one part and reserve the second part for the following session.

Introduction to Speculative Fiction

Speculative fiction is a general term encompassing both Science Fiction (itself a broad term) and Fantasy. The easiest way to understand them is to look at some concrete examples:

• DUNE by Frank Herbert is Science Fiction
  • Has anyone read it or seen the movie?
  • Any characteristics of SF you can identify?
• THE LORD OF THE RINGS by J.R.R. Tolkien is Fantasy
  • Has anyone read it or seen the movie?
  • Any characteristics of Fantasy you can identify?
• HARRY POTTER by J. K. Rowling is a subcategory of Fantasy that some call Urban Fantasy.
• OUTLANDER by Diana Gabaldon is a Time Travel novel, but also a Romance and Historical novel.
• Dystopian novels such as 1984, BRAVE NEW WORLD, and A HANDMAID’S TALE are Speculative Fiction because they are set in the future (future at the time of writing).
• Are there any other books you have enjoyed, that, on reflection, might be Speculative Fiction?
• Given the examples we discussed, any thoughts on a comprehensive definition of Speculative Fiction?

So, you might be reading Speculative Fiction without knowing it.

Why Do I Write Science Fiction/Fantasy?

There are a number of reasons:

• There are books I would have liked to read, but no one has bothered to write them yet. So, I had to write them.
• Most SF books are based are based on a Materialist world view. When I read them I don’t truly feel “at home” in them, and often wish there were books more in line with what I believe.
• I read a lot of SF in high school and university and these books helped kindle my love of science. I would like to connect with that age group of readers, who normally don’t care what an old guy thinks, but might read a story by an old guy if it were well-written enough.
• Did anyone else read Science Fiction and/or Fantasy in high school and university? What made you stop (if you did)?

If you were to write a novel, what would you write about?

On Tim Keller’s Essay THE FADING OF FORGIVENESS

Tim Keller, is a writer, speaker, and a minister at a New York city Presbyterian church. He is also very ill. Yet, despite his challenges he wrote a profound essay on forgiveness on Comment.org [https://comment.org/the-fading-of-forgiveness/].

In the introduction entitled OFFENDED BY FORGIVENESS, Keller cites many examples where the younger generation has moved from forgiveness to retribution. Indeed forgiveness is seen as an enabler of injustice.

“the emphasis on guilt and justice is ever more on the rise and the concept of forgiveness seems, especially to the younger generation, increasingly problematic“

Tim Keller https://comment.org/the-fading-of-forgiveness/

Keller then goes on to show, in a segment entitled OUR THERAPEUTIC CULTURE, that even when “forgiveness” is tolerated, it is only tolerated in a therapeutic sense … if forgiveness is of positive benefit to the victim of the injustice.

“forgiveness is either discouraged as imposing a moral burden on the person or, at best, it is offered as a way of helping yourself acquire more peaceful inner feelings, of “healing ourselves of our hate.” “

Tim Keller https://comment.org/the-fading-of-forgiveness/

The Amish of Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania

As a counterpoint to our culture’s intolerance toward forgiveness, Keller cited the example of the Amish families whose children were shot and killed by a gunman in October, 2006. The gunman then committed suicide. The families of the wounded and dead children immediately reached out to the family of the deceased gunman, as Keller put it, “expressing sympathy for their loss.”

“Within hours members of the Amish community visited both the killer’s immediate family and his parents, each time expressing sympathy for their loss. The Amish uniformly expressed forgiveness of the murderer and his family.”

Tim Keller https://comment.org/the-fading-of-forgiveness/

The Bottom Line for Me

The sacrifice of forgiveness is not optional for me. It may not always work right away, or ever, but it is the only route to healing and reconciliation. The primary purpose of forgiveness is not a way to make me feel better or to combat hate I may feel toward those who have wronged me (although it may well do that as a by-product), it is my minor participation in Christ’s reconciling work on the cross. His forgiveness is offered to all–but not all accept it. Yet the sacrifice  and offer has been made regardless of the acceptance.

In Keller’s words …

“Christians in community are to never give up on one another, never give up on a relationship, never “write off” another believer and have nothing to do with them. We must never tire of forgiving (and/or repenting!) and seeking to repair our relationships.“

Tim Keller https://comment.org/the-fading-of-forgiveness/

I Urge You to Read Keller’s Essay

In my personal reflection on Tim Keller’s essay, I only spoke to the high points that caught my attention. There is much I did not talk about. For example, Keller has very practical actions around forgiveness and unpacks our cancel culture in an incisive and thoughtful analysis. I urge you to read his essay in detail.

Check out Peter’s books at the Toronto Public Library

The Rise of Science, Part 2. From Aristotle to Newton

In my previous posts, I discussed two critical questions about the rise of science in Europe in the 1400 to 1700 hundreds:

• Why there?
• Why then?

Let me begin with a older message by The Meeting House in the Greater Toronto Area that I watched on March 1, 2022 on YouTube  (see Footnote), After describing the message, I will then show how it relates to the rise of science.

The message was part of a series entitled REASONS TO BELIEVE, and in this case was delivered by a guest speaker from Australia, Jerrod McKenna. It has nothing to do with science per se, but dealt with differences between the Greek view (the New Testament was written in Greek) and the Jewish view (most of the Old Testament was written in Hebrew) in understanding and interpreting the holy writings. Here are two figures adapted from the notes I took as I watched.

Figures 1 and 2

Figure 1 Greek Thought: Searching for the Perfect Principle

Figure 2: Hebrew Thought: Apparent Factual Contradictions and the Mystery of God

In Figure 1, the circle with the cross-hairs in the middle and the X at the center, represents the Greek view. The Greeks, valuing perfection, were always looking for the one perfect principle that unified. This is also the goal of science. Believing that these unifying principles exist is a major impetus for the search leading to their discovery. However, what happens if the “perfect principle” is not only imperfect, but wrong? The impetus that spawned the search for the perfect principle now becomes an impediment to changing it. When the data point arrives that destroys the beautiful law, one can always say, “Let’s put that data point in the filing cabinet until we know more. I’m sure with more data and more thought, it will eventually fit. After all, all my lectures and my reputations are built on the beautiful principle. If I claimed the principle is disproved, what would I teach?”

In Figure 2, the Jewish or Hebrew view is expressed, according to McKenna. The circle has two X’s on the periphery, representing two teachings or data points which are paradoxical, hard to reconcile, and from some perspectives, contradictory. Inside the circle is an area that could he termed “The Mystery of God.” In other words, one may encounter truths which are both true, but hard to reconcile (perhaps only at the moment). One can live with that because we are not God and cannot expect to understand everything. In other words, the Jewish view allows for uncertainty in the explanations. These are theological statements. How do the apply to science?

From Aristotle to Newton

Figure 3 Aristotle’s Law of motion illustrated (see hyperlink link below)

A thorough description of Aristotle’s laws of motion has been presented:

https://kaiserscience.wordpress.com/2016/10/21/aristotles-laws-of-motion/

The key one for our discussion is summarized in the figure above. Aristotle believed that natural state of terrestrial objects was no motion. In other words, to keep an object moving, one had to apply a force. This law is supported by observation a thousand times a day, by anyone who cares to look. You throw a stone, shoot an arrow, or kick a soccer ball, it moves for a while, slows down, and eventually stops.

The data that destroys the perfect theory usually comes before the new explanation comes. One has to live with knowing the theory is wrong and broken before one can describe what will replace it.

Aristotle’s laws of motion were seen to be incorrect, before the correcting explanations became apparent. Observing the four large moons of Jupiter clearly showed objects which did not come to rest. Galileo showed that some falling objects fall at the same rate independent of density. Quantitative estimates on how an object should behave were also not explained by Aristotle. But it took until the brilliance of Newton and his laws of motion, before an explanations emerged that overcame the problems.

Speaking as both a student and a tutor, I think one of the great failings in teaching science has to do with the false perception which leaves the student thinking that every question has been answered, and every science problem solved. It is much better to train the student to live with not knowing, or at least knowing that the principles we teach and talk about is likely fatally flawed, and we don’t yet know what the correct answer.

Summary and Final Comments

The philosophical climate in Europe in the 1400-1700 hundreds was precisely the climate necessary for the emergence of modern science:

• The Greek view of the perfect principle gave the impetus for finding a unifying explanation for data.
• When data came along that destroyed a well-established theory, the idea of The Mystery of God enabled scholars intellectually to realize the theory was wrong well before a better theory came along. Belief in The Mystery of God made it intellectually possible for them to say, “I really don’t know the correct explanation at this time. I know what we believed before was wrong. There are some things we may never know.”
• When a scholar is in a position where a much-beloved theory is discredited, yet no explanation has yet arisen to provide the new principle, one needs a bedrock of philosophic thought that allows this uncertainty to exist.
• The ability to say: “I don’t know” or “I no longer believe I know” is the scholar’s only sure defense against Confirmation Bias which makes it nigh impossible to dethrone a beloved, discredited explanation.
• The vivid imagination of pagan culture, which was carried over was an aid for rethinking explanations.

This discussion began with a book review of Peter Kreeft’s BACK TO VIRTUE. I hope this example was useful in understanding Kreeft’s and Meyer’s points in answering the question about the rise of science in Europe:

Why there?

Why then?

Footnote added: The messages in the WE BELIEVE series, at the time of writing, were no longer available on YouTube. If they become available again, I will add a hyperlink for the reader’s convenience.

 

The Rise of Science in Europe and the Important Questions: Why There? Why Then?

Haleakala Observatory

Preamble

As a science fiction writer, I enjoy science fiction cinema like Stargate SG-1. But inevitably the secular worldview that presumably captures the ideas of the screen writers and perhaps of the actors intrude on the plot. In Season 1, in the episode entitled ENIGMA, Captain Carter tries to explain why another civilization SG-1 has just met is more technologically advanced than earth’s. Carter glibly states that since we had the Dark Ages, where religious dogma stifled the development of science, another culture which did not have their own Dark Age, would have superseded  us.

Is Carter right?

I don’t think so. Kenneth Scott Latourette’s A HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY. BEGINNINGS TO 1500, describes what is often called the Dark Ages as The Great Recession AD 500-950. This time period corresponded to the collapse of the western Roman empire, the rise of anarchy, and the loss of the protection and peace that the legions had provided. In Asimov’s Foundation series, he postulated a similar Dark Age, as the Trantor empire collapsed and the psychohistorian, Hari Seldon, established a colony at the fringes of the galaxy to reduce the Trantorian Dark Age from 30,000 years to 1000.

Referring to the Roman Empire Dark Age, Latourette points out Rome, although possessing an empire of the largest geographic extent on earth in 500 AD, was far from the only empire on the planet. In AD 500, Rome was rivaled by the Persian Empire, the Gupta Empire in India. China was also a force even though it was “in a long period of division, civil strife, and foreign invasion.” Not only has Carter wrongly characterized the meaning of dark age, but also did not understand that much of the learning, literature, and history of Rome and the empire was preserved in the monasteries.

However, Carter’s assertion about the stifling of science, really raises two important questions about Europe:

Why there?

Why then?

In other words, why the enormous advances in mathematics, physics, and chemistry in the 1400s and onward in Europe? Why not Persia? India? China?

If you want to hear a very succinct discussion of these questions, I suggest this five minute video … https://www.prageru.com/video/are-religion-and-science-in-conflict-science-and-god

Peter Kreeft’s book also provides valuable insights. Read my previous post below.

My Previous Post

I have previously published my review of Peter Kreeft’s excellent book, Back to Virtue. In this post I wanted to provide a more personal view of how the book changed or perhaps broadened my thinking. At one point, Kreeft talked about how Christianity brought together the best of what Hebrew, Greek, and pagan thought and tradition had to offer. This is depicted in the diagram below (reworked to capture my own musings on this important idea from a similar diagram in the book).

The Hebrew Foundation

If one reads the New Testament, one can’t help but notice how Christianity is grounded on, and grew forth from Hebrew history, revelation, and practice. All of the very early Christians were Jewish. The Old Testament is cited again and again in the New. Even the Christians called out of Greek and pagan backgrounds were steeped in the Greek translation of the Old Testament. When Paul spoke in 2 Timothy 3:16 about “all scripture,” he was primarily referring to the Old Testament.
Jesus had to be born into Jewish society because they had a high view of God: his Oneness and His creation of the world out of nothing. Had Jesus been born in Athens, as pantheists and polytheists, they would have happily put Jesus alongside Zeus and so missed the whole point of the incarnation. The shocking incredulity of the Jewish mindset to the incarnation was absolutely necessary for us to get the message and import of what was taking place.
This Hebrew ground or environment for the incarnation did not come without cost or loss. As far as I can tell from my reading, the first century Jewish people were remarkably free of idolatry. A by-product of this achievement was a complete lack of development of some of the arts such as sculpting and painting because they were too closely associated with idol worship. Kreeft helped me realize how this temporary omissions were build back in to the Christian community after the significance of the incarnation and resurrection of Christ were recognized.

The Greek New Testament

The use of Koine Greek (the lingua franca of the Mediterranean and Middle East) as the language of the New Testament had profound consequences. Not only did it bring the Good News in the common language of the Roman Empire, but it could make use of the nuances of language and thought brought into Greek by Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. So for example it enabled the distinction between the old nature (flesh – sarx) from body (soma), drawing a clear distinction between Gnosticism and Christian teaching by putting a high value on the body as well as the spirit (Gnosticism values only the spirit). It also made God-guided reason an important way of testing truth claims and made reason an integral part of understanding teaching.

Pagan Imagination

When viewed as a religious system, pagan polytheism was simply a branch of pantheism. But pagan practice had given rise to stories, plays, and poetry that showed a wonderful imagination and a longing for truth. Here again, it seems to me Christianity was able to keep the good. Much if not all of the ancient literature was preserved by the Church as the Roman Empire collapsed and the anarchy of the Dark Ages replaced it. The use of imagination as an engine of the written arts and also of science has played a significant role and life of the church.

So What Does This Mean to Me?

Kreeft’s analysis and synthesis has allowed me to see a number of things in a new way. Here are some of them:
1. God is always working toward the summum bonum, the greatest good.
2. Sometimes because of our weakness and frailty, we miss out on some things as the Israelites did as they were learning to avoid idolatry and so gave up some of the arts. These temporary omissions are part of our growing process.
3. In the end all genuine good comes from God and we as his people are not wrong to seek it. You cannot go far wrong if one truly seeks the good.
4. My own Christian walk is founded on my personal interaction with the Lord Christ through His received word and His Spirit. Imagination and reason play an important role in that interaction.

Note Added on “Reason”

In The Philosophy of Thomas Aquinas, Kreeft points out the differences in the way the word “reason” was used by Aquinas and how it’s used by modern philosophers. Aquinas and other ancients used reason to denote knowing, judging, as well logical processes such as inductive and deductive analysis. Modern philosophers, according to Kreeft, tend to use it only in the third sense.

The Dystopian Political System in THE HALCYON DISLOCATION

When I was planning the plot for The Halcyon Dislocation, an essential element was the development of a dystopian political system for the isolated, dislocated University of Halcyon. In particular, the political system, to the outside observer, would look like a functioning democracy with regular, honest elections, opposition parties, and even new grassroots parties that objected to the status quo.

However, the system is rigged so that these fledgling opposition parties almost never rise to power since it takes a very long time to gain a following, and even if they do, they will find the new party membership and the incessant government propaganda has turned them into another version of the older parties that they were supposed to supplant. Hence nothing has changed except possibly the ruling party’s name.

The reader might ask, “Why do we need such a new, elaborate political system. Man’s history is replete with tyrannical regimes which used propaganda and force to beat down opposition, often for long periods of time?”

I would answer that those systems all have several fatal flaws which this modified dystopian quasi-democracy circumvents.

First of all, using power overtly to suppress dissent means the dissent goes underground and the government receives outward compliance until the opposition gains sufficient momentum that people begin to believe a regime change is possible. Then allegiances change very quickly.

Secondly, suppressed citizens are smart enough to see what is going on and they will not be fooled even if the penalties force them to comply outwardly. They are essentially slaves in their own country and will serve and work halfheartedly at best. It will lead to a general malaise.

The Aberhardt Principle

A key element of the Halcyon quasi-democracy is the Aberhardt Principle, named after the professor on staff who wrote about it. In this approach for making societal change, one sets up a system where everyone is encouraged to speak their mind so the sociologists can measure how effective the advertising, propaganda, education, and entertainment activities have been in changing people’s minds about key issues. The focus is on changing people’s minds against their will by repetition, multiple lines of influence, and long exposure to the multi-media message. The rate of time-dependent change of people’s minds determine how quickly the agenda-setters in the Halcyon quasi-democracy can implement their social changes.

So, even though grassroots opposition parties form, by the time they get to power (if they ever do), they will find not only has their new party changed their outlook, but sufficient time has elapsed that the electorate now fully endorses the new sociological innovations that the old grassroots membership opposed.

Concluding Comments

This is not a political blog and I draw no inferences to past, present, or future systems which might resemble this Halcyon University dystopia. I merely point out, through this imaginative exercise in plot development, that it is possible to develop a political system that has honest, regular elections, allows citizens to share their political views with some freedom, and yet is totally tyrannical and constrained even though the programmed social innovation happens on a multi-year timescale to allow for Aberhardt-style attitude adjustment.

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