"Though he had never been distinctly religious, Dick joined the Episcopal Church in 1963. Sutin cites two major factors in this conversion: first, the insistence of his wife, Anne, and second, a bizarre vision of a demonic face in the sky: "It was immense; it filled a quarter of the sky. It had empty slots for eyes-- it was metal and cruel and, worst of all, it was God." This bizarre, stress-induced vision was a major inspiration for The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. In the Episcopal Church, Dick may have hoped to find a more positive image of God than his horrific hallucination offered him. Regardless of what Dick was looking for in the Episcopal Church, he found theological doctrines that fascinated him; the miracle of transubstantiation also became a central theme in Palmer Eldritch." -- Pink Beams, p. 74-5
That makes sense of a few things I'd been wondering about. Interesting.
It occurred to me today that many of these sf/f writers are adult converts...
Anglican/Episcopalians:
Philip K. Dick, James Blish, Susan Palwick, C.S. Lewis, Cordwainer Smith, Elizabeth Moon.
Also Gene Wolfe (Catholic), John C. Wright (some variety of Christian), Zenna Henderson (Mormon to Methodist) and Mary Doria Russell (Judaism.) And Walter M. Miller, too, though he later left Catholicism.
Thursday, August 02, 2007
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2 comments:
I'm confused by one of your remarks. Doesn't the Episcopal Church reject transubstantation, even referring to it as a "damnable doctrine" in the collection of historical documents at the back of the Book of Common Prayer? I forget exactly which document, but it was a 19th century document and I read it myself.
See here for example.
Well, I was just quoting what McKee had to say. I imagine that Anglo-Catholics believe in transubstantiation, or something close to it. Perhaps it was with the Episcopal church that Dick first came into contact with historic Christian theology.
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