why I am not a Hindoo

[Doug Millison]

Pynchon is obviously a deeply religious writer, reflecting his Christian
upbringing.  The man grapples with the fundamental religious texts of the
Western tradition -- Old and New Testament -- weaving them throughout his
work.  He uses the Gnostic heresy as a primary metaphor for humankind's
alienation from existence here on earth and its program of denying the human
in favor of the machine. P's vision of the living earth is in tune with the
vision of the Jewish and Christian mystics, his vision of a continuum of
existence that spans life, death, and after-life lies within the
Judeo-Christian tradition. The masterpiece of his maturity, M&D, reads as
one long meditation on the validity of religious faith and a religious way
of life in the face of godless science and technology. Pynchon exhibits the
questioning and doubt that marks all people of great faith -- if you don't
take God and religion seriously and grant them some substantial reality, you
don't bother to argue or quibble with them, cf. Job. 

Swing Hammerswing 
 It's as clear as
bell, it's right in the novel. Show me how it is
deconstructed. This living earth, this womb of rock, this
Virgin Mary, Mara, marks a radical shift from P's
short fiction (where btw, the Catholic allusions are so
many and so transparent), a shift that once made, drives
all of his works.