Tales of the Parodyverse >> View Post
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Post By
HH

In Reply To
Visionary

Subj: Re: It's a very moving story, Indeed.
Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2010 at 04:22:36 am EDT
Reply Subj: It's a very moving story, Indeed.
Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2010 at 11:39:21 am EDT (Viewed 1 times)



    Quote:
    I'm rather agnostic when it comes to religion, but when exposed to the right sermon I often find myself greatly moved. The themes behind Christianity are quite powerful, and sadly many of them remain as revolutionary today as they were 2000 years ago... We've yet to really master empathy, forgiveness and compassion, or to accept that we could be loved even when we do not love ourselves.


There's a constant in the human condition that keeps us in that recurruring need to rediscover certain things about outselves.


    Quote:
    I do wonder if this is at least partly due to organized religion becoming *too* organized. Ritual worship can often strike me more as a task than a time of contemplation. It becomes a duty, and like many such duties, one expects to be rewarded for the time one puts into it. "I've gone to church every weekend, so I'm going to heaven" becomes as complicated as it gets for some people, and the idea that the message is the reward gets lost. (It certainly doesn't help when a church service is about as engaging as a Monday morning office meeting that goes overly long).


Indeed it doesn't. One thing that gets masked about the very early church was that it was as much a social revolution as, say, the hippie movement of the 1960 - and remarkably similar in some ways with its communal lifestyle and golden optimism, and in the backlash it provoked.


    Quote:
    I think a fictional prose approach like the one you took for this story is quite valuable, as a result. It breaks the reader from the ritual observance of the story, and offers a chance to reengage the themes and messages of it. Additionally, it encourages them to challenge the assumptions within it, to question whether the author got it "right". In this case, it also allows us to make connections between ourselves and the characters from the gospels, which encourages us to see how the messages could be implemented in our own lives.


I was in church on Good Friday and I found my attention wandering. I planned out the story while I was there. or maybe my attention wasn't wandering and I was doing what i was supposed to do.

The thing I was trying to get a in the postscript was that I realised I wouldn't hesitate - and haven't hesitated - to try and draw feelings and truths out of events I know to be fictional, such as the Arthurian legends, Greek myths, and even Robin Hood, so why should I feel a taboo about drawing on events I believe to be actual? Hopefully people can approach the work at their own level from their own background and still find something that entertains, provokes, or encourages.



    Quote:
    Well done, and a happy Easter to you and yours.


Thanks. Likewise.






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