Speculative Catholic was kind enough to steal - er, I mean, reproduce ;) - part of my post, attracting a 'thanks but no thanks' kind of reaction...
I'm not sure what to make of the silence here - maybe I've scared everyone off with the merest thought of such heresy! Well, you can all come back, I'm not about to do that just yet. Although I do find the idea interesting.
The first question that occurred to me after 'What if Christ had not been crucified?' was 'Would the Roman Empire have fallen?'
Robert Silverberg explores this possibility in Roma Eterna
, but from the perspective of Christ never having been born; he supposes that the Exodus failed, leaving the Hebrews a barely noticed minority among whom a great prophet never rose, and never started Christianity.And you don't see anyone throwing bricks at him, do you? I guess it must be safer to just take Christ out of the equation than to wonder what he might have done differently.
I'm just thinking aloud here, please ignore me if I continue to offend. :)
8 comments:
I read a quote somewhere once in a very unlikely place, like a concordance or bible commentary, that flew into an uncharacteristic flight of fancy about Jesus' lament for Jerusalem.
It said that if He hadn't been rejected by the Jews, then Jerusalem would have been the centre of Christianity, and that the Holy See would be there today.
Or something. I've never been able to find the book since.
Hey there; I've been following along a bit for the past month or so and thought I'd de-lurk (especially since I'm writing Christian sff myself). You have some interesting ideas LOL but I'm enjoying most posts anyway. Or maybe because of?
I'm not offended, I'm just clueless.
Come to think of it, I too read a story once which was set in a non-Christian, non-Jewish alternate future. It was pretty cool now that I think of it. The main characters end up finding a fragment of Jeremiah or some such, and we learn why everything is so unfamiliar in their world - the Jews were never freed from Babylon.
That future was fairly dark.
I also remember a story where someone learns to talk to people in the past, and somehow contacts Ghengis Khan as a young man, persuading him to convert to Christianity and conquer the Muslim world.
And another where a young Mohammed goes to the Byzantine Empire, converts, and conquers Asia for Christianity.
Personally I don't think conquerers are doing the cause of Christ much good, but they were interesting story.
Nothing like a good cry for attention, is there? :)
And as for Elliot being clueless, I guess that may be a reflection on the quality of my ramblings...
Not at all! I'm just a slow thinker sometimes. I didn't really connect 'alternate history sci-fi' with your 'alternate life of Christ' idea until this post.
BTW, didn't you mention enjoying Iain M. Banks' books at one point? Could you recommend any?
I guess as good a place to start as any is the first of the Culture novels, Consider Phlebas, although I think I'd rate Excession as my favourite of the series.
Outside of the Culture, I'd recommend Against a Dark Background if you fancy something a little, well, dark.
Thanks!
I posted about your alternate Christ idea, BTW.
Post a Comment