Safehold Theology and the Reveal

PeterZ wrote:Totally agree. Sort of suggests that there will be more massively bloody wars following such discussions, eh? Those sorts of wars are what David indicated would follow defeating the G4.

Well, something could be done on large timescale...

I don't know how. Showing up the inconsistencies between the Writ and Testimonies on the one hand and the documents from the Brotherhood and SSK would be one tack. Another is the simple, ongoing revelation of how much corruption "God's" Church has had, how it behaves as a secular tyranny, and that the Church of Charis is a viable alternative and its moral superior.

The main problem is, that the Safeholdian society never actually think about the possibility of more than one religious doctrine. They aren't accustomed to the very idea, that some OTHER doctrine - that does not match the Holy Writ - could possibly exist. For them, any such attempt would be outrageous heresy. Even Church of Charis would not be able to comprehend, if someone just came and claim that the Shain-Wei was the good "guy", and the Langhorne was bad. At the very least, they declared him mad; very probably they would be forced to execute him (although definitely not by the Shueller's Punishment)

What Safehold really need, is the more divergence in main religious doctrine. Let's not forget - the CoGA and CoCH diverge about the application of the doctrine, but not in the doctrine itself!

And i think, the Sisterhood of Saint Kohdy could help.

Let's recall this:

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=6193


And THIS could be pretty usefull! This is the rethinking of the main doctrine, supported by the actual evidences like the diary, but it do not deviate from the basic doctrines so to become outright heresy.

The religious position of Sisterhood could be used as the basis of new, alternative religious doctrine, that would diverge from the main. Of course, neither the CoGA nor even CoCH would approve such "doctrinal rethinking", but they (well, at least CoCH) would not have basis to proclaim this as a heresy.

So, we would have the alternative doctrine that would not be considered as heresy, but would diverge from the main doctrine enpugh to stimulate more rethinking, more attmpts not to take the "Holy Writ" literally, but to analyse it. And the idea that there could be more than one doctrine would be implanted in society. And the eventual revelation would go much easier (but still not easy) in this scenario.

Please stop posting unmarked spoilers. Mark your spoilers!

SWM wrote:Please stop posting unmarked spoilers. Mark your spoilers!

Sorry.

SPOILER


Before we involve the SSK too deeply, we had better wait for a snippet or two to see what Merlin and Nynian tell them and how they react to a real seijin in their midst...although with my luck we'll be sloughing through the snow with BGV next snippet!

As for the religious question, the key is, "how do you deal with gods that fail?" Already, the widespread application of the book of Schueler is well on its way to being discredited as people come to grips with the horror of where it has led. Does this truly represent a god of love that the rest of the Writ describes? There is a fairly straight line between dicrediting part of the Writ and discrediting the whole thing. In fact we have textev of people on the TL side who are obviously very uncomfortable with what has been going on but then have to tell themselves that it must be ok since it's in the Book of Schueler. My own belief is that the law of God is written on the human heart.

Then there is the question of how God is being represented. Can a corrupt hierarchy absorbing a huge portion of Safehold's wealth living inside the temple in outrageous luxury while in the spring of the year the bodies of the poor are collected after freezing outside of the heat vents of the temple claim be be representing God at all?

Then there is the question about the war. If God is so adamantly opposed to innovation, why is Charis winning the war. If God is really on the church's side of the Jihad, why doesn't God intervene against the heretics?

The responses to all of this will run the full gambit from openness to change to complete denial. What looks like the dark to some will be a beacon of hope to others.

Two things are certain. One is that the consensus that Nimue found when she first woke up in that cave is shattered and can never be restored. Secondly when theology clashes with reality, it is theology that bends...eventually if not right away. That is to say that if the answers people were taught no longer order people's lives and explain the world in useful ways, people will eventually seek out answers that do.

Don