JeffEngel wrote:It does have the problem that (1) it runs counter to the Writ and the general conservatism of it, particularly to do with technology, and (2) it makes Shan-wei's lures of forbidden knowledge and rejecting Langhorne's teachings under the guise of benefiting oneself and one's people sound like God's plan, so the War Against the Fallen was, in effect, won by the bad guys. That's a painful lot to swallow, even in the face of reality strongly suggesting it may have a point.
But yeah, it would certainly have that much going for it, and reality can sometimes make a dent in religious belief - usually by ushering it out of the way.
There's another theological option to consider though - Clyntahn's suicide cult reading of the Writ. On it, angelic intervention comes eventually, but Safehold will be tempted sorely before that comes. It will be tempted by the alleged sins of the Vicarate into rebellion and apostacy; it will be tempted by Shan-wei's lures, appealing to fallen man's weakness and "better nature"; it will appeal to the sheer desire to live and knuckle under to heretics triumphant on the battlefield. It may well go all the way until Safehold consists of a world of heretics marching on a small, faithful to the last holdout in Zion led by Langhorne's sole true heir, Zhaspyr Clyntahn, expecting fully that nothing but a miracle can save them... when at last the Rakurai cleanse God's world of the unbeliever, Langhorne and the Archangels return in glory, and those few - living or martyred - who never, ever let go his charge are rewarded for their absolute faith in Him.
That one is a mighty stern and demanding theology. It's not going to reveal itself in the world til the very end, but it's a fair reading of the Writ and it's one to motivate fighting on no matter what.
Indeed your alternative theological view has its attractions to the sufficiently faithful and only to the sufficiently faithful. The key problem is that the Writ also requires that God's children act as he would have them act. The CoGA is a religion of works not faith and faith alone. That is the sine qua non of the Inquisition's justification. Whatever the inquisition does to foster compliance to the Writ as it defines compliance is justifiable. Why God's children comply is not as important as that they do comply.
That means that to encourage people to sit back and let God save us all is anathema to the theological foundation of the Inquisition. Human salvation requires humanity to act and earn that salvation. Salvation for humanity needs the Inquisition to guide human activity so that it earns salvation from God. Just as God acted through His archangels to bring about creation, He acts through His Church to prepare humanity to receive His salvation. Letting God do all the work is tantamount to saying their entire raison d'etre does not exist. If human action is unnecessary to human salvation, then the fundamental task of the Inquisition is unnecessary.
