Chapter 45: Angels

[Terrance]

Otto wrote:
> > What is **official** Christian doctrine?
> >
> 
> The one that tells us that a guy called Jesus of Nazareth has been "nailed
> to a tree for saying how great it would be to be nice to people for a
> change" (D. Adams, HGG, 15), that Angels are free from sin.

The idea that Angles are free from sin has been hotly debated for
centuries. 
What Angels are, what they do, when they  are present or were present on
earth, if they are sexual beings or not, if they eat, shit, dream, die,
so on, has been argued about from the Primitive Church to today. 

Most Christians believe in some sort of angels, but that's about where
their agreement ends. We know that the RC the elder either believes in
guardian angels or at least believes in the didactic or instructive
validity of angels because he tells the kids that it's possible that
they were wafted back to the dock after their masts were all destroyed
in battle, by a guardian angel. Guardian angels have been hotly debated
over the centuries and I suspect that Pynchon, who has always included
Angels in his tales, is also playing on the more recent interest in
angels by the secular postmodern Americans (I believe Dave Monroe posted
on this phenomenon). 

Now, it's a very complex story,  but by way of analogy let me try to say
something about it. I  was raised in two churches. These are both
Christian Churches,  but they different views of Angels. 

This is in part owed to the fact that they do not share all the the same
texts,  or better said (I'm deliberately avoiding the term and names
here) do not place the same emphasis on the same texts.  

"recognizing or "emphasizing" or not "recognizing or emphasizing" a
book(s) that has many Angles in it and in which angels are very
important actors, or in which angels are engaged in certain acts or are
said to have particular attributes, characteristics or powers, may
inform the dogma and doctrine as concerns angels in the these separate
churches. 

The RC has been traveling about, living with all manner of Christian
people and non Christian people. He has been reading lots of books and,
like a church father or a scholar, or more likely a missionary or Jesuit
of his time, he has been studying the texts and attempting to reconcile
some of the apparent conflicts he encounters both in the texts and in
the "sacred and profane"  activities of the peoples he ministers. He is
very excited by all this and he is very troubled later by the Deism that
come to, in his opinion, dominate in America. 

The RC would find ample support for his claims about Angels in the
Bible. We find in the bible angels that have sex, sin, eat, drink and so
on. 
No farting, but he could find this too, in lots of texts. In fact,
defecation and farting was an obsession of many a monastery and they did
not fail to include farting angels in their texts. 


> 
> >
> > Anyway, there is sin in heaven, angels can have sex, eat, drink, sin.
> > Don't trust that movie DOGMA, it's only hollywood, like the Ten
> > Commandments. And of course, being Angels, when they fart they can blow
> > entire cities off the map, their shields are as large a the moon and
> > their arrows longer than the red trees of California, their machines
> > make A-bombs look like toys.
> >
> 
> So I've never heard of a farting Angel and what's the use of machines in
> Heaven? Very confusing.


The machine too is common enough in religious texts, angels and even
Jesus Christ, man machines and drive devils into hell. Great wars were
fought in heaven and in hell. And when authors write about angels making
war they make them into heroes, bigger, grander, more powerful, having
incredible machines of war. 


> 
> >
> > Good place to find all this is in the bible.
> >
> 
> I doubt that. Can you give me the textpiece with the farting Angel?

Yeah, but I'll need some time. 


> 
> >
> > As below and above and all around with guardian love, moma said there
> > would be angels.
> >
> > The RC read lots of books across the comparative religion spectrum.
> >
> > Here is one he read:
> >
> > The Wandering Scholars
> > By Helen Waddell
> >
> 
> I doubt that too but it seems to be an interesting book with a nice cover
> illustration:
> http://store.doverpublications.com/0486414361.html
> 
> Otto

Not the cover I have. like that one.