who's Christian?

[Doug Millison]

I've seen this sort of claim made regarding Pynchon and religion many times
over the years.  But I wonder, has anybody who makes this claim ever gone
through Pynchon's texts and actually tracked the various ways that Pynchon
deals with religion and discovered that in fact it's a wash, that Pynchon
keeps a strictly neutral position vis-a-vis religion, neither endorsing it
nor opposing it?  

On the other hand, I've seen quite a view critical studies, written by
scholars who have in fact taken the time to go through P's texts and study
closely what he does with religion, and those studies come out pointing to
Pynchon's very particular views vis-a-vis religion,  as evidenced in his
writing. Terrance has studied quite a bit of this stuff and has mentioned
quite a few books and papers in this regard.

I suspect this "Does not endorse, and does not oppose" stance has taken on
the status of received wisdom, an idee fixe, something like a myth that
seems to be accepted and circulated without question among some Pynchon
readers, and that it doesn't withstand the test of reading Pynchon closely
with regard to religion.

-----Original Message-----
From: CyrusGeo at netscape.net 
[...]
Does not endorse, and does not oppose.