Posted January 24, 2013
I'm not very good at jesus and bibles and stuff. It's a rich mythology (in its expanded version) but not one I've really bothered with.
But I remember a very, very nice tale, that had made a strong impression on me as a kid. So, maybe someone more versed into christian mythology can help me re-identify it.
It's about some dude being cast to hell. And suffering there with all the damned. At some point (spontaneously or on some demand), the God decides to save him, and sends and Angel to go fetch him.
The Angel comes down to the pit, and the guy grabs him, and gets lifted upwards. But all the other damned people see that, and want to get out too. So a whole pack of them jumps and hold into him, as the Angel struggles to lift him out of the pit.
There it gets interesting. In the version I was told, the guy kicks and scream "let go let go you're dragging us down, I am the one to be saved, not you", and he gesticulates so much that finally every one falls down with him too, and nobody is saved.
This is entirely in-line with my own sensitivity and values. But I could imagine the opposed story (all falling back because he accepted to carry the weight of other, non-entitled, people). I wonder if various spins on the story exist, and if the original is truly as it was told to me (which would interestingly redeem some "christian values" to my eyes, even though, as a whole, any value and its contrary can find a way to get labelled "christian" given the richness and ambiguity of that corpus). It's also not trivial : it's a very specific take on serious questions of moral philosophy (roughly, deontologism versus consequentialism), in a debate that is so impossible to solve that most people endorse both contradictory angles on it simultaneously (see star trek hopping from "gotta sacrifice one to save many" to "gotta endanger all to save one"). Still, it's an image that struck me, and that I find very interesting, in a world where sacrificing others for our own individual good seems the most glorified course of action.
So, does this specific tale ring a bell to any of you ?
But I remember a very, very nice tale, that had made a strong impression on me as a kid. So, maybe someone more versed into christian mythology can help me re-identify it.
It's about some dude being cast to hell. And suffering there with all the damned. At some point (spontaneously or on some demand), the God decides to save him, and sends and Angel to go fetch him.
The Angel comes down to the pit, and the guy grabs him, and gets lifted upwards. But all the other damned people see that, and want to get out too. So a whole pack of them jumps and hold into him, as the Angel struggles to lift him out of the pit.
There it gets interesting. In the version I was told, the guy kicks and scream "let go let go you're dragging us down, I am the one to be saved, not you", and he gesticulates so much that finally every one falls down with him too, and nobody is saved.
This is entirely in-line with my own sensitivity and values. But I could imagine the opposed story (all falling back because he accepted to carry the weight of other, non-entitled, people). I wonder if various spins on the story exist, and if the original is truly as it was told to me (which would interestingly redeem some "christian values" to my eyes, even though, as a whole, any value and its contrary can find a way to get labelled "christian" given the richness and ambiguity of that corpus). It's also not trivial : it's a very specific take on serious questions of moral philosophy (roughly, deontologism versus consequentialism), in a debate that is so impossible to solve that most people endorse both contradictory angles on it simultaneously (see star trek hopping from "gotta sacrifice one to save many" to "gotta endanger all to save one"). Still, it's an image that struck me, and that I find very interesting, in a world where sacrificing others for our own individual good seems the most glorified course of action.
So, does this specific tale ring a bell to any of you ?
Post edited January 24, 2013 by Telika
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