Re: liberation #2
J J R (jrovira@juno.com)
Sat, 21 Nov 1998 09:52:03 -0500 (EST)
> For instance, when I read all these allusions to the
>transcendental
> & to the value of religion in life I think I can begin to detect
> an underlying conspiracy to entrap my interest by what I take
> to be one of those Bible Belt revivalist sects.
>
> Scottie B.
Now, the above statement is probably better directed toward me than
Camille. First off, when we're talking about the transcendental in
Salinger's texts, that has very little at all to do with "Bible Belt
revivalist sects." It usually has to do with, in my opinion, buddhism
and a buddhist reading of the teachings of Christ.
Now, I took issue with this remark--
<<affectations of religiosity are ALWAYS the mark of a third rate mind.>>
because it was bigoted and, well, plain wrong. Affectations of
religiosity were held by Heraclitus (the Logos), Plato (in Whose mind
were the ideal forms held?), Aristotle (the Prime Mover), Moses (gave us
the basis of western morality), Jesus Christ, St. Paul, St. Augustine,
Isaac Newton (the good Doctor was a minister), William of Occam (a MONK
who strongly influenced modern scientific thought), Confucious, the
Buddha, Mohammed, T.S. Eliot, C.S. Lewis, John Donne, George Herbert,
Flannery O'Connor, Dante, Virgil, Salinger himself, the author of the Tao
Te Ching, Mahatma Ghandi, the REV. Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother
Teresa, Michelangelo, probably Homer,...and the list goes on.
The simple fact of the matter is that many of the greatest and most
influential minds in history were influenced by affectations of
religiousity...
Jim
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