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Sometimes authors inject religious messages and may or may not be aware of the resonance later. I was re-reading the appendices at the back of "Dune" earlier today, and one thing it said was that in the future, religious leaders had come together and come up with a singular commandment, "Thou shalt not disfigure the soul".

And for some reason I instantly thought of Bill Clinton. That is to say if he has a soul. ;)

Regards, Ivan

I have yet to read Dune, but now I wish I had. I think that is a wonderful maxim/commandment/saying (what-have-you)!!! And I believe Clinton did not have a soul...or at least, did everything he could to keep from confronting it...for if he had, it would have told him what he was doing to it. That is what will make his day of judgement all that more terrible I should think...indeed, for all of us...having to face the soul we disfigured.

I love it!

Sometimes authors inject religious messages and may or may not be aware of the resonance later

True, I agree...I think it is a sign of the author's 'attunement' to the more universal themes of humanity and spirituality than any particular religious theology. I often tell my husband, who is scoffs at literary 'analysis' (with good reason), that what makes a book 'great' is how universal its ideas and themes and suppositions are.

MadIvan, have you heard of Dorothy Sayers? She was one of the Inklings! She wrote a very good book that discussed how the creative impulse in writers was akin to God's Creative Power and that the 'meaning' of a book was like God creating the Universe etc. God, or Logos, formed the "IDEA"...and Christ became the Manifestation of that IDEA (ie the book) and The Holy Spirit was the Book's effect upon the reader (how we interpret it, how it affects us, how we respond to its message.)

But not once have I ever thought that an author should only write his stories to fit within the historical and symbolic concepts of the Bible. Telling a story is the love and passion that God instills upon an author as a Gift...and the Voice or Holy Spirit that comes from with-out that Gift is just an extension of His Grace and Love.