MDDM Chapter 44 "a haze of green Resurrection" (441.2)

[Terrance]

jbor wrote:
> 
> Terrance wrote:
> 
> > I don't think Dixon
> >> "looks for HIM in Mason" at all, or that the conversation indicates a
> >> Christian impulse driving Pynchon's text.
> >
> > Dixon says he looks for God in Mason. Bottom of page 38.
> 
> Not quite. 

Not quite what? The text engages his POV. 

The text does engage Dixon's point of view here: Mason is a
> "member of the Church of England,-- that is, the *Ancestor of Troubles*,--".
> Dixon asks himself whether, "erring upon the side of Conviviality, he will
> decide to follow Fox's advice, and answer 'that of God' in Mason". The
> phrase is apostrophised in the text for a reason, surely, the reason being
> that it is quoted verbatim from George Fox.
> 
> Fox's advice: "Walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in
> every one." (_Journal_, 1658; ed. by J.L. Nickalls, 1952, p. 346)

I'm not sure if this the Fox text Dixon has in mind, but it's Quaker
dogma anyway. 

"Altho' Dixon is heading off to Sumatra with a member of the Church of
  England,-- that is, the Ancestor of Troubles,-- a stranger with whom
he
  moreover but hours before was carousing exactly like Sailors, shameful
  to say, yet, erring upon the side of Conviviality, will he decide to
  follow Fox's Advice, and answer, "that of God" in Mason, finding it
soon
  enough with the Battle on all 'round them, when both face their equal
  chances of imminent Death." M&D.38-9

Recall that George Fox belonged to the Church of England, his parents
raised him in
  the Church of Englan, but Fox began his career as a preacher 
agitating against
  the Anglican Church, which he believed, remained too close to Roman
  Catholicism. He would sometimes attend Anglican
  sermons, after which he would stand up and give counter-sermons. He
  would preach on the streets.    He was  thought to be madman or a
mystic.
 He preached against the bible puritans. He was tossed into Prison. 

   

  So, Dixon here is thinking of Fox's Journal, specifically, I think,
his address
  to the Ministers.  



  Dwell in the power of life and wisdom, and dread of the Lord of life,
  and of heaven and earth, that you may be preserved in the wisdom of
God
  over all, and be a terror and a dread to all the adversaries of God,
  answering that of God in them all, spreading the truth abroad,
awakening
  the witness, confounding the deceit, gathering up out of transgression
  into the life, into the covenant of light and peace with God.

         --GEORGE FOX  

  Launceston Jail, 1656, To Friends in the Ministry


  The basis of George Fox's teaching was the belief that each soul is in
  religious matters answerable not to its fellows, but to God alone,
  without priestly mediation, because the Holy Spirit is immediately
  present in every soul and is thus a direct cause of illumination. From
  this central belief flowed two important practical consequences, both
  essentially modern; one was complete toleration, the other was
complete
  equality of human beings before the law.


  Fox  felt that the Spirit which had guided the fathers was waiting
still
  to lead forward their children: that He who spoke through men of old
was
  not withdrawn from the world but ready in all ages to enter into holy
  souls and make them friends of God and prophets.

And if we have any doubts about Dixon's mind we should also look to page
43 where this Quaker principle is being discussed as Dixon is trying to
be a Friend to Mason. 

  "But Quakers are a bit matier, the idea being to look for something of
  God in ev'ryone...?"

Dixon looks for god in Mason and he finds HIM.