re-birth Re: pynchon-l-digest V2 #2256

[Doug Millison]

Christianity's promise, regarding the end times, and building on Old
Testament prophecy (see Isaiah), is a new heaven and a new earth, not a
trip back to Eden. Christianity's vision of history thus is neither
cyclical nor linear, but more like an ascending spiral.  This is true at
the cosmic level, re the end of the present age, as well as on the personal
level, where "rebirth" or being "born again" during this lifetime is said
to usher in a higher level of spiritual development and contact with God,
and later comes the change  with death and the resurrection of a new kind
of body, not the same old body from this life (thanks Terrance for that
passage from St. Paul).   This would appear to be on Dixon's mind as he
grows older in M&D.


"Morris"
>You forgot re-birth.  And for this to be a cycle with one revolution one
>would expect the end to approach the starting place.  This might be
>considered the case on the grand scale, where Original Paradise is
>eventually restored.



Doug Millison - Writer/Editor/Web Editorial Consultant
millison at online-journalist.com
www.Online-Journalist.com