Re: BANANAFISH digest 209
Rebecca McCallum (remc@uhura.cc.rochester.edu)
Wed, 14 Jan 1998 12:56:15 -0500 (EST)
>Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 02:22:19 -0500 (EST)
>From: Fluxis <Fluxis@aol.com>
>To: bananafish@lists.nyu.edu
>Subject: 7's, 6's, and 5's.
>Message-ID: <3031d509.34b9c4ac@aol.com>
>PS- Has anyone else besides me ever read "The Way Of The Pilgrim?" The
>tiny
>green book that Franny had? Any thoughts?
>-ecas
Yes, I read "The Way of The Pilgrim" when I was in high school, but not in
any kind of Salinger context. I grew up in a fairly religious Greek
Orthodox family, and The Way of the Pilgrim was just one of those books
that my mom had lying around. It's a great book. I think there are a lot
of devout Orthodox people who still read it, not just crazy Salinger fans
like ourselves. :)
I think it's kind of interesting that we Salinger folks refer so much to
eastern religious and philosophical thought, but The Way of the Pilgrim is
actually a Christian tale. I don't really know enough about Orthodox
theology, and I certainly don't know as much as I'd like to about eastern
religions, but my gut feeling is that the Orthodox church treads a nice
middle ground between western christianity and eastern mysticism. The
writings of some of the early Desert Fathers (christian monks from the
first few centuries A.D., living and writing in seclusion in the deserts
of north Africa) include some pretty interesting stuff. Is there anyone
out there who has more of a background in theology who could tell us about
similarities between Orthodox and eastern thought?
- Rebecca