TR . . sure Gaddis is christian in perverse way (shade of gray)

[Michael Bailey]

>
> problem being that CR at first glance is goshawful boring...and the
> guy seems like a goshawful goody-goody, a lot like Aunt May...
> maybe they grow on you?
>

that's overstated, of course.

the CR opens with the guy saying how he's always been good and chaste
(suppressing the reflex to condemn this as anti-sexual, need to
remember that this also means that he doesn't rape or whoremonger and
a girl or boy would be safe with him from every form of abuse except,
perhaps, long lectures) --- and that he is super-concerned with life
after death.  So he starts thinking things through with this overt
purpose and this pretty much leads to all the adventures to follow,
right? a-and his enthusiasm is somewhat endearing...

whereso, in TR in Chapter 1 we start off with a death and Reverend
Gwyon never really addresses this head-on, but employs a scattershot
solace in various traditions and drinking - but his uncertainty is
somewhat endearing too, in a different way

so right there is an interesting contrast

there are probably more things in CR worth knowing in conjunction with
a read of TR (not to mention that reading both, one appreciates the
latter work more)

for instance, this bit about chance:

http://www.compassionatespirit.com/Recognitions/Book-8.htm
8.2 -- Genesis.

Then the old man proceeded to say: "I saw you bathe in the sea, and
afterwards retire into a secret place; wherefore observing, without
your noticing me, what you were doing, I saw you praying. Therefore,
pitying your error, I waited till you came out, that I might speak to
you, and instruct you not to err in an observance of this sort;
because there is neither any God, nor any worship, neither is there
any providence in the world, but all things are done by fortuitous
chance and genesis, as I have discovered most clearly for thyself,
being accomplished beyond others in the discipline of learning.2

"Do not err, therefore: for whether you pray, or whether you do not
pray, whatever your genesis contains, that shall befall you."

Then I Clement was affected, I know not how, in my heart, recollecting
many things in him that seemed familiar to me; for some one says well,
that that which is sprung from any one, although it may be long
absent, yet a spark of relationship is never extinguished.3 Therefore
I began to ask of him who and whence he was, and how descended....

(and then the Christians refute him at great length, but dig how
Clement feels kindness and affection and kinship toward the guy)