Emmanuel Carrère On the Origins of Christianity

Discussion about the New Testament, apocrypha, gnostics, church fathers, Christian origins, historical Jesus or otherwise, etc.
Post Reply
Secret Alias
Posts: 18362
Joined: Sun Apr 19, 2015 8:47 am

Emmanuel Carrère On the Origins of Christianity

Post by Secret Alias »

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/ ... ristianity

A question haunts this book, and it is surely the secret reason that Carrère wrote his biography of Philip K. Dick: Is Christianity just science fiction, a “branch of fantastic literature”? He can’t leave Dick alone, partly because Dick was a writer of fantastic literature who eventually came to believe that God was speaking directly to him, as he had spoken to men like Moses and Muhammad. For Dick, God supplanted the extraterrestrials. In a speech in France, late in his life, he told a bemused audience of sci-fi fans that he’d “had direct contact with the Programmer,” as Carrère puts it. There are certain atheists who have no compunction about dismissing fervent believers as victims of delusion and hallucination. But Carrère’s book about Dick vibrates with a profoundly uneasy respect.
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
User avatar
spin
Posts: 2146
Joined: Sat Oct 05, 2013 10:44 pm
Location: Nowhere

Re: Emmanuel Carrère On the Origins of Christianity

Post by spin »

Secret Alias wrote: Wed Jul 12, 2017 8:51 pm...vibrates with a profoundly uneasy respect.
Many biographies leave the susceptible reader with a profoundly uneasy respect, be their subjects football players, CEOs, politicians, or oddball writers with little style but a few interesting ideas. This respect is mainly packaging. Shakespeare has Hamlet ask about the actor: "What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba?" The biographer, like the actor, let's you know in profoundly uneasy terms.
Dysexlia lures • ⅔ of what we see is behind our eyes
Post Reply