FelixPax
06-27-2009, 06:56 AM
Is it a sheer coincidence "The Children of the Light" in the Wheel of Time series, happen to be similarly named as a book written in 1944(?) by one Reinhold Niebuhr, a theologian, "The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness (http://books.google.com/books?q=The+Children+of+the+Light+and+the+Children +of+Darkness&client=firefox-a)"?
Which leads me to wonder if the character of Galad Damodred is RJ's application of Niebuhr's belief system into the Wheel of Time?
Oddly enough, Barrack Obama claimed this same Reinhold Neibuhr was/is his favorite theologian to the journalist David Brooks in a recent five page length PewResearch.org essay (http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1268/reinhold-neihbuhr-obama-favorite-theologian)....
Niebuhr is a "yes, but" guy. His favorite words are "paradox" and "irony." He is a 1940s liberal and that's why there is the big debate between liberals and neocons because a lot of neocons say they are 1940s liberals. What I like about him is that he believes what he believes passionately, but with a sense of humility.
Why are there Niebuhr revivals? Niebuhr is the person we turn to for balance. We turn to him when things get out of hand. He is a critic of the left's utopianism and he's a critic of the right's tendency to deify our own country. His critique of original sin I think applies neatly at different times to both the right and the left in our politics. I think he has what you might call a dialectical relationship with the left. He reacted against the social gospel not because he opposed the economic or social programs of the social gospel but because he had a different understanding of human nature. He thought liberals had too optimistic a view of human nature.
His next big political turn was in the late 1930s, when he broke with his pacifist friends [at] The Christian Century and formed another magazine called Christianity and Crisis to argue that we needed to go to war against Hitler and Nazism. And then he made his mark again in politics, with a liberal anticommunism that made him one of the founders of Americans for Democratic Action with Arthur Schlesinger Jr.
...
Niebuhr argued that some of the greatest perils to democracy arise from the fanaticism of moral idealists who are not conscious of the corruption of self--interest. And in his assertion, which might usefully have guided us during our debate over the war in Iraq, Niebuhr warned, "A nation with an inordinate degree of political power is doubly tempted to exceed the bounds of historical possibilities, if it is informed by an idealism which does not understand the limits of man's wisdom and volition."
...
Arthur Schlesinger wrote in The New York Times magazine in 2005, an essay in which I think Schlesinger successfully claims Niebuhr back for the liberals. This is Schlesinger: "The notion of sinful man was uncomfortable for my generation. We had been brought up to believe in human innocence and even in human perfectibility. This was less a liberal delusion than an expression of an all-American DNA." Yet, Schlesinger said, this notion became absurd for liberals when they confronted the evils of both Nazism and Stalinism. "The belief in human perfectibility had not prepared us for Hitler and Stalin. The death camps and the gulags proved that men were capable of infinite depravity. The heart of man is obviously not OK. Niebuhr's analysis of human nature and history came as a vast illumination. His argument had the double merit of accounting for Hitler and Stalin and for the necessity of standing up to them." And I think that is at the heart of The Irony of American History.
I did quick search at The Thirteenth Depository blog regarding the Children of the Light organization. But I didn't find a linkage to Reinhold Niebuhr philosophy to the character of Galad Damodred and the Children of the Light. Am I the only one to see this sheer coincidence?
So who is one representative of the Children of Darkness, in the WoT? The so-called Prophet of the Dragon Reborn, Masema Dagar who tries destroying all laws & creates major chaos in Ghealdan. Interestingly enough, we do not know where the Prophet is now; however Murandy seems like the safest place for him to head (same for Fain too) & cause for more chaos.
Which leads me to wonder if the character of Galad Damodred is RJ's application of Niebuhr's belief system into the Wheel of Time?
Oddly enough, Barrack Obama claimed this same Reinhold Neibuhr was/is his favorite theologian to the journalist David Brooks in a recent five page length PewResearch.org essay (http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1268/reinhold-neihbuhr-obama-favorite-theologian)....
Niebuhr is a "yes, but" guy. His favorite words are "paradox" and "irony." He is a 1940s liberal and that's why there is the big debate between liberals and neocons because a lot of neocons say they are 1940s liberals. What I like about him is that he believes what he believes passionately, but with a sense of humility.
Why are there Niebuhr revivals? Niebuhr is the person we turn to for balance. We turn to him when things get out of hand. He is a critic of the left's utopianism and he's a critic of the right's tendency to deify our own country. His critique of original sin I think applies neatly at different times to both the right and the left in our politics. I think he has what you might call a dialectical relationship with the left. He reacted against the social gospel not because he opposed the economic or social programs of the social gospel but because he had a different understanding of human nature. He thought liberals had too optimistic a view of human nature.
His next big political turn was in the late 1930s, when he broke with his pacifist friends [at] The Christian Century and formed another magazine called Christianity and Crisis to argue that we needed to go to war against Hitler and Nazism. And then he made his mark again in politics, with a liberal anticommunism that made him one of the founders of Americans for Democratic Action with Arthur Schlesinger Jr.
...
Niebuhr argued that some of the greatest perils to democracy arise from the fanaticism of moral idealists who are not conscious of the corruption of self--interest. And in his assertion, which might usefully have guided us during our debate over the war in Iraq, Niebuhr warned, "A nation with an inordinate degree of political power is doubly tempted to exceed the bounds of historical possibilities, if it is informed by an idealism which does not understand the limits of man's wisdom and volition."
...
Arthur Schlesinger wrote in The New York Times magazine in 2005, an essay in which I think Schlesinger successfully claims Niebuhr back for the liberals. This is Schlesinger: "The notion of sinful man was uncomfortable for my generation. We had been brought up to believe in human innocence and even in human perfectibility. This was less a liberal delusion than an expression of an all-American DNA." Yet, Schlesinger said, this notion became absurd for liberals when they confronted the evils of both Nazism and Stalinism. "The belief in human perfectibility had not prepared us for Hitler and Stalin. The death camps and the gulags proved that men were capable of infinite depravity. The heart of man is obviously not OK. Niebuhr's analysis of human nature and history came as a vast illumination. His argument had the double merit of accounting for Hitler and Stalin and for the necessity of standing up to them." And I think that is at the heart of The Irony of American History.
I did quick search at The Thirteenth Depository blog regarding the Children of the Light organization. But I didn't find a linkage to Reinhold Niebuhr philosophy to the character of Galad Damodred and the Children of the Light. Am I the only one to see this sheer coincidence?
So who is one representative of the Children of Darkness, in the WoT? The so-called Prophet of the Dragon Reborn, Masema Dagar who tries destroying all laws & creates major chaos in Ghealdan. Interestingly enough, we do not know where the Prophet is now; however Murandy seems like the safest place for him to head (same for Fain too) & cause for more chaos.