From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Thu Nov 16 1995 - 06:09:19 EST
At 10:51 PM 11/15/95, Edgar M. Krentz wrote:
>Sorry about that, Carl :-(. Some of us unreconstructed liberals just think
>there was a modicum of human involvement in the process of writing. I know
>that you fundamentalists don't like to think that way, but facts are
>facts--even if they would involve a woman author. Do you allow at least
>raising the question?
>
>Ah, me! How these religious battles do tire one out. I hope your reference
>to the Magna Mater does not involve believers in all that her priests
>underwent-- shades of Lucretium 1. "Tantum religio potuit ...." It's good
>to know some still do take their religion seriously. I hope you noticed
>that I called the habit "pure." So far no one has challenged that!
>
>Pax tecum (please note: not POX)
A modicum, huh? Yeah, I think so too! And I like that phrase, "unreconstructed liberals"--I'm sick of this business of having to defend liberalism as if it were anathema. I had a brief correspondence with the occasional "apologist" poster Daniel Hedrick who keeps asking preposterous questions to get ammunition to use against "enemies of the gospel"; once I made a point of making clear to him what my own perspective is, he wrote back asking if I could really feel any confidence in the fate of my soul. I've had extensive correspondence also with Ken Litwak over approaches to Biblical text, but although our differences diverge over a vast gap, there's mutual respect, at least, and I think that Ken is becoming more adjusted to the diversity of views and the need to define his own stance over against them rather than simply denouncing them.
No, I was not thinking of the Magna Mater--not Cybele, at any rate. The awesome poem I always think of in connection with HER, however, is Catullus 63, "Attis"--and it seems to me that Origen's "devotional self-castration," if that's the right phrase for it, comes closer to the first ritual act of novice devotees to Cybele than anything (that I know about, at least) done at the infamous "Re-Imagining" or "Re-Imaging" conference which has caused more headaches in my denominaton [PC(USA)] than anything since the 1960's Angela Davis controversy.
I just couldn't resist tossing that out yesterday, if only to see whether anybody had an inclination to scratch that itch. I hope my "emoticon" adequately signalled my non-serious intentions.
Peace (not _pace_), cwc
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