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A review by anotherpath
The Chemical Wedding by Christian Rosencreutz: A Romance in Eight Days by Johann Valentin Andreae in a New Version by John Crowley
4.0
One of those Alchemical (but really Christian) texts that gets mentioned quite often everywhere. It's short and a fun read.
John Crowley suggests this is the first Science Fiction novel. I think it's more of an Alchemical expansion of Jesus' Bridegroom parable from Matthew.
The purported author said later in his life that he thought the tract was ultimately silly, which I agree with. It is silly. It shows the silliness of the Christian theology as it was taught to me. From a crowd of hundreds, only nine men are worthy of salvation! God is constantly testing and punishing you for your shortcomings! Grace isn't earned! God withholds from most, and punishes the majority! I'm not one to say that this is wrong, and that this God doesn't exist, he may, he's just not worthy of worship if this is his method. And I'll take eternal damnation in order to tell him so.
If it's a parable for Earthly enlightenment, I can accept the one in a hundred success rate, but for salvation, I just cannot accept a God that burns the chaffe from the wheat. How can a father burn his child eternally and be good? Also this God is a book burner, and that's lame.
So yeah. Silly. But with some really vivid imagery that kind of sits with you in the way childhood indoctrination does. At one point CR is chained up in a mass of men (Earth) who will scramble over one another for a momentary respite, unwilling to help or coordinate with one another, since they're all stuck together.
"The world's determined to be cheated," he said, "and can't listen to those who want to help."
Apparently it can also be read as a defence of the Gospel of John, at least according to Wikipedia's really poorly written article on it, which is about as informative as a fart.
John Crowley suggests this is the first Science Fiction novel. I think it's more of an Alchemical expansion of Jesus' Bridegroom parable from Matthew.
The purported author said later in his life that he thought the tract was ultimately silly, which I agree with. It is silly. It shows the silliness of the Christian theology as it was taught to me. From a crowd of hundreds, only nine men are worthy of salvation! God is constantly testing and punishing you for your shortcomings! Grace isn't earned! God withholds from most, and punishes the majority! I'm not one to say that this is wrong, and that this God doesn't exist, he may, he's just not worthy of worship if this is his method. And I'll take eternal damnation in order to tell him so.
If it's a parable for Earthly enlightenment, I can accept the one in a hundred success rate, but for salvation, I just cannot accept a God that burns the chaffe from the wheat. How can a father burn his child eternally and be good? Also this God is a book burner, and that's lame.
So yeah. Silly. But with some really vivid imagery that kind of sits with you in the way childhood indoctrination does. At one point CR is chained up in a mass of men (Earth) who will scramble over one another for a momentary respite, unwilling to help or coordinate with one another, since they're all stuck together.
"The world's determined to be cheated," he said, "and can't listen to those who want to help."
Apparently it can also be read as a defence of the Gospel of John, at least according to Wikipedia's really poorly written article on it, which is about as informative as a fart.