Luddite essay: faith, deeds, gnosis, GR WAS Re: OK 2b Luddite?

[pynchonoid]

Upon further reflection, the social justice wing of
the Christian movement traces the requirement of faith
*and* deeds to Jesus Himself, who taught that the two
great commandments are to love God (faith) and to love
your neighbor as yourself (deeds).  

At the risk of losing too much of Pynchon's nuance,
but for discussion's sake:  The world of GR is one in
which love of death/technology/rocket has displaced
faith in and love of God; and where, instead of loving
one's neighbor, people, acting through their
government/military/corporate agents,
hurt/torture/kill each other, in some cases using the
same factory system that, Pynchon says in the Luddite
essay, reached its high point of development in the
Nazi death camps.


--- pynchonoid <pynchonoid at yahoo.com> wrote:

> I guess the point is, the belief that faith alone is
> all it takes for salvation comes quite a bit before
> Luther's time, in the history of the development of
> Christian theology.  It must have been common in
> early
> Christian times, as reflected in James 1:  if people
> hadn't been believing something like that, there
> would
> have been no need for the author of James 1 to tell
> them that faith alone isn't enough, to teach that
> faith *and* deeds are necessary. Whether  any
> particular reader has faith in any of this as an
> article of religious belief, that's another
> question. 
> I don't see what's wrong with encouraging people to
> help other people when they need help, no matter
> what
> the source of that advice might be, religious or
> otherwise.
> 
> Faith, deeds - and gnosis, direct knowledge of the
> divine, as taught by Jesus and others (Buddha, Rumi,
> etc.), as parodied in GR by a faith in the
> possibility
> of escaping imperfect Earth and the trials of this
> life into space,  through analysis and control,
> using
> technological extensions of human capabilities. 
> Pynchon plays with it all.
> 

=====
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