I'm gonna ask the question....

[Ian Livingston]

The Catholic Encyclopedia is available in much more portable format
here: http://www.catholic.org/encyclopedia/
It's a great resource.

On Tue, Apr 12, 2011 at 1:56 PM, Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at verizon.net> wrote:
> On 4/12/2011 4:08 PM, Erik T. Burns wrote:
>>
>> A very common reaction to religious chatter!
>
> A touchy subject for sure.  More so in America than Europe, where religion
> is mostly a museum piece (except for new entrants). Correct me if I'm wrong.
>
> Where I live religion isn't a very big factor.  There are a few
> Episcopalians but they keep quiet about it.
>
> I sort of got  interested in early Christian history a long time ago.  Don't
> claim to know that much, but back in the 50s when I was in a TB sanatorium
> run by the Maryknoll  sisters one of the good ladies provided me with books
> from the little library they had there.  The selection was limited but one
> of my favorites was the Catholic Encyclopedia.  She brought it to me volume
> by volume.  The books were heavy but she was a husky girl. What a stormy
> past the Church of Rome had had.  Perhaps Gaddis had a similar experience to
> help develop his interest.
>
> P.
>
>
>
>> On Apr 12, 2011, at 20:44, Charles Frederick Abel<cfabel at sfasu.edu>
>>  wrote:
>>
>>> Hogwash.
>>>
>>> On 4/12/11 12:45 PM, Paul Mackin wrote:
>>>>
>>>> On 4/12/2011 1:29 PM, Ian Livingston wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> Setting aside personal faith and claims to religious orientation, I
>>>>> would say anyone educated anywhere in the West after about 500 CE is
>>>>> Christian, at least in their thinking. Watching Western Buddhists
>>>>> loudly proclaiming that they are Buddhists and nothing else, while
>>>>> they set about reducing everything to binary terms of good and evil is
>>>>> downright comical. Even if by some miracle (!) someone made it through
>>>>> some occidental education w/o hearing the Jesus myth, their teachers
>>>>> (and theirs and so on) were taught by the same system of thought. It
>>>>> will take millennia, not just generations, to get past Constantine's
>>>>> endowment to Europe.
>>>>>
>>>>> Thus, it doesn't really matter, does it? It just is.
>>>>
>>>> I hadn't read your post yet when I pressed send for my latest but my
>>>> thinking is much along the lines of yours.
>>>>
>>>> P
>>>>>
>>>>> On Tue, Apr 12, 2011 at 9:48 AM, Erik T. Burns<eburns at gmail.com>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> And I'm going to be difficult and ask those
>>>>>>> gaddisites who may know not to answer....
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I'm going to answer because my answer is "I don't know".
>>>>>>
>>>>>> And to be honest, I don't care.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> There is a man in _T R_ who proclaims his religion. I am bridled from
>>>>>> revealing it, but it is funny.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> A-and as far as I am concerned, that's Gaddis' religion: comedy.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> etb
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Tue, Apr 12, 2011 at 3:35 PM, Mark Kohut<markekohut at yahoo.com>
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> And I'm going to be difficult and ask those
>>>>>>> gaddisites who may know not to answer....
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Spoiler.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Let's see what the reading brings.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> So far, I'd say he's anti-Christian BUT it has
>>>>>>> been said of John Milton, Christian, he was on
>>>>>>> Satan's side in his major work.....
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> And then there is Gaddis Eliot love----
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> ----- Original Message ----
>>>>>>> From: Richard Ryan<himself at richardryan.com>
>>>>>>> To: Pynchon-L<pynchon-l at waste.org>
>>>>>>> Sent: Mon, April 11, 2011 10:10:34 PM
>>>>>>> Subject: I'm gonna ask the question....
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> ...since we're all begging it: is Gaddis a Christian author?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>> Richard Ryan
>>>>>>> New York and the World
>>>>>>> ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
>>>>>>> Thanks to everyone who saw VTM's new production!
>>>>>>> www.kingstheplay.com
>>>>>>>
>>>>>
>
>



-- 
"Less than any man have I  excuse for prejudice; and I feel for all
creeds the warm sympathy of one who has come to learn that even the
trust in reason is a precarious faith, and that we are all fragments
of darkness groping for the sun. I know no more about the ultimates
than the simplest urchin in the streets." -- Will Durant