From: Alex David Groce <Alex_Groce@gs246.sp.cs.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: (whorl) Horn "Help"
Date: Fri, 15 Oct 1999 19:15:23 


>>Yes, indeedy-doody. The four gospeleers of the NT come to mind instantly,
>>writing decades, and dubiously, after the death of their biographee. If you
>>throw Thomas in, five gospeleers.
>>
>>-alga
>
>Alga! Talk about slime! ;)
>        Each of us has her/his own view of the origination of the gospels. 
> What matters here is what Wolfe's view is, and it's not what you describe. 
Since BLS and OBW are highly theological novels, its important to assess what 
> the author had in mind....
>        Unless one is a deconstructionist, I guess. Algae is kind of 
> amorphous, so maybe.... ;)

Ah, but as someone actually going through the conversion process right now,
I think formal Catholic position is "sure the gospels were written later, under
difficult circumstances, etc." but that, of course, they overcame this by aid
of the Holy Spirit.  So Wolfe could be giving us an analogous process here--
with "mainframe possession" or something secularly explicable doing the
Outsider's work--which is a favorite Wolfe tactic.  The Dr. Crane hypothesis
COULD hold, but a kind of narrative Occam's Razor makes it seem ridiculous--
if the explanation is just a brain tumor, it's very odd that Silk walks in the
pattern of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

From Father Henry Wansborough, general editor of the New Jerusalem Bible, in
Oxford a few years back I found out that very orthodox Catholics are much more
comfortable saying John was written in 70+ AD than many similarly orthodox 
Protestants.  The historical approach to the Gospels and the Theological
approach aren't necessarily opposed, because Christianity is quite concerned
with historical events--the claim of the Incarnation is a historical as well
as metaphysical claim.  So, perhaps zapping "dubiosly," what Alga said might
match Wolfe's views.  In fact, that the canon had to develop and the Gospels
didn't just instantly appear after the resurrection is part of the Church's
fundamental argument about the Magesterium and Sacred Tradition.


"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32
--
Alex David Groce (agroce+@cs.cmu.edu)
Ph.D. Student, Carnegie Mellon University - Computer Science Department
8112 Wean Hall (412)-268-3066
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~agroce

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