Post by newburydave on Oct 31, 2012 18:43:59 GMT -5
It seems to me that this problem only occurs if you are trying to write the story in our real life universe which is covered by the Bible as its divine revelation.
If you do a totally allegorical story universe, such as Lewis did in Narnia, then you can have the savior/creator be any sex, race or creature that you want to make it/her/him. The challenge here is to make the Soteriology (theology of savior hood) and the social/religious system a consistent analog of the truth as it is in Jesus.
My co-Moderator over in the sandbox has written a series of novels in which females are the dominant sex and thus the savior has to be a female. She allegorically mirrored our own world in that there was racism based on skin color (shades of purple) and a rigid class system.
It was a very ambitious writing project aimed, by her own statement of mission, to explore women's issues. I've not read all of the novels but she did a very meticulous job setting up the social, political and geographical "map" upon which the action was played. While I was reading the installments that I had access to I found it very engaging (even though I'm a dumb man) and a well told story.
IMHO the key to an effective allegorical universe, salvation story is to extract the essential truths about Jesus creation of the universe, interaction with man and his redemptive death then build them into your alternate world Soteriology. Unless you write mostly by direct inspiration this requires a lot of Theological spade work to make it correct enough to be effective.
I started work on a splinter universe story in which the "Savior" is the Avatar of the One and All (the Eternal God) represented by the current Clan leader of the chief clan of the circle of light. The story world is reversed from ours in that Spirit and Soul are predominant and the physical nature is a danger which they keep minimized by imbibing poison. That project is currently stalled.
Harmonizing the Soteriology in this splinter universe with Biblical Soteriology is the challenge that I have to wait before the Lord to draw out.
I guess I would ask what is your purpose in wanting a female Messiah? (maybe I missed the answer when I skimmed the discussion to date)
Write on Bro.
SGD
dave
If you do a totally allegorical story universe, such as Lewis did in Narnia, then you can have the savior/creator be any sex, race or creature that you want to make it/her/him. The challenge here is to make the Soteriology (theology of savior hood) and the social/religious system a consistent analog of the truth as it is in Jesus.
My co-Moderator over in the sandbox has written a series of novels in which females are the dominant sex and thus the savior has to be a female. She allegorically mirrored our own world in that there was racism based on skin color (shades of purple) and a rigid class system.
It was a very ambitious writing project aimed, by her own statement of mission, to explore women's issues. I've not read all of the novels but she did a very meticulous job setting up the social, political and geographical "map" upon which the action was played. While I was reading the installments that I had access to I found it very engaging (even though I'm a dumb man) and a well told story.
IMHO the key to an effective allegorical universe, salvation story is to extract the essential truths about Jesus creation of the universe, interaction with man and his redemptive death then build them into your alternate world Soteriology. Unless you write mostly by direct inspiration this requires a lot of Theological spade work to make it correct enough to be effective.
I started work on a splinter universe story in which the "Savior" is the Avatar of the One and All (the Eternal God) represented by the current Clan leader of the chief clan of the circle of light. The story world is reversed from ours in that Spirit and Soul are predominant and the physical nature is a danger which they keep minimized by imbibing poison. That project is currently stalled.
Harmonizing the Soteriology in this splinter universe with Biblical Soteriology is the challenge that I have to wait before the Lord to draw out.
I guess I would ask what is your purpose in wanting a female Messiah? (maybe I missed the answer when I skimmed the discussion to date)
Write on Bro.
SGD
dave