XPost: alt.books.cs-lewis
From: ahnemann@optonline.net
"Steve Hayes" wrote in message
news:41esd3tv0f7toenmrhc4kga70n75v2pb7o@4ax.com...
> On Thu, 23 Aug 2007 08:37:01 -0400, "AJA" wrote:
>>Is anyone watching Christiane Amanpour's documentary God's Warriors on
>>CNN? Tonight is the Christian segment. Makes one think of Principalities
>>and Powers at work in the world, if not a worldwide psychosis (which may
>>just be the same thing.) And how does one combat the evil territorial
>>spirits or egregore's? If symbolic, these egregores, of something more
>>real happening, I'm feeling helpless in the face of it. Or, are we giving
>>these Powers too much press, too much power, I wonder?
S:
> Too much press of the wrong kind, not enough of the right kind, I think.
> The
> fiction of C.S. Lewis and Charles Williams helps to put them in
> perspective, I believe.
A: True enough! And evil doesn't triumph we are reminded in CW and CSL, if
not Revelation. The press these days is always bad. My 29 year-old son and
his friends say they never watch the news on TV. I think this is a general
trend- and probably a wise one. It has been mentioned that viewership of
news shows in the US is way down from just a few years ago. No wonder. All
murder and mayhem and very little positive. Lewis commented about it being
easier to write mayhem than happiness. Mayhem has been thought to be better
for ratings. One hopes that is changing.
S:> I'm still not sure whether the concept of an "egregore" helps or
> hinders understanding, which is one of the reasons I wanted to discuss it.
> It
> arose specifically in a discussion of the works of H.P. Lovecraft, where
> it
> appears that some people have begun to worship his fictional deities, like
> Yog > Sothoth. Matt Stone introduced the concept of egregores into that
> discussion> to explain the phenomenon. I was just wondering whether the
> concept could help> to elucidate the principalities and powers.
A:Not for me, but I had not heard the term before I read your posts on the
matter. However, in the Ender's Game series the same is treated- that of
coming to worship fictional persons/made deities. I see how it happens.
Thomas Merton has some interesting discussions with a friends, btw, about
same in regards to New Testament stories. False god? It can be unsettling
or accepted as part of the human search for meaning. I try to look at this
kind of thing in that light. Amazing to me, and wonder-full at the same
time.
A: Watching the CNN documentary it's hard not to think
>>that evil Powers are winning, no?
>
S:> I haven't watched the CNN thing, but I still have memories of the Annus
> Mirabilis 1989/1990 when there were pro-democracy demonstrations all over
> the> world, dictatorships were overthrown in Romania and Paraguay, the
> Berlin Wall> was torn down (though of course another one is now being
> erected in> Israel/Palestine). So sometimes evil seems to triumph, but at
> other times it> seems that the Kingdom strikes back.
A: The thing our CW and CSL and others remind us is that the war against
evil is not futile, but necessary, and it never ends. (Even Ender discovered
that.) What is bound on earth is bound in heaven. Mostly, it's the 'little'
day to day wars that are fought unnoticed. We're in a political era, IMO,
where we're painting 'evil' with a hugely broad brush. We've got to be
discerning and very careful about who or what we judge as evil. It hurts so
to be human sometimes, no? (Not like the Buggers who are perfect conduits
for information and always know, and tell the truth.) One has to throw
oneself body and soul under the mercy.
Blessings,
Ann
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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