alexseanchai | (no subject)

This post is so I can keep talking about my plans for the trilogy The Shining Ones—books tentatively entitled Abraham's Daughter, Mary Mary, and Fatimah the Blessed—without distracting from the conversation in the locked community post where the subject came up. Also so anybody who thinks I'm fucking up with my plans can tell me, so I can change my plans.

So. Arcade Fire's "Abraham's Daughter". How would that prominent female character changing the Akedah affect the history of Judaism? SJ Tucker's "Mary Mary". How would additional prominence to Mary of Nazareth and Mary of Magdala, subsequent to the changes in Judaism of that era, affect the history of Christianity? And I can't not do Islam, that wouldn't be fair, so how would additional prominence to Muhammad's daughter Fatimah and his wives Khadijah and Aisha, subsequent to the changes in Judaism and Christianity of that era, affect the history of Islam? Then, how would the changes in all three religions affect the world of today?

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That opens up all sorts of new and interesting avenues of exploration. I was thinking she'd stay purely human, and the angel would say she'd passed the test and Abraham hadn't (and also give her a damn name), and I'd ponder further implications after reading moar history and moar debate about the Akedah. But I really like your ideas.

I like the idea of her passing the test and Abraham not (especially when you remember that the story is held up throughout ancient Israelite culture as Why Human Sacrifice Is Bad And We Don't Do It, which makes me go o.O when I think about how Abraham was going to do it and would have if God hadn't stopped him). One of the things that fascinates me about the Hebrew Bible (that I think Christians would do better if they remembered) is how often even God's chosen people screw up. A lot of the time, it isn't God working through them as God working in spite of them. Just because one of the Patriarchs did it doesn't necessarily mean we're supposed to approve of it, and the text sometimes makes that clear.

(I have a whole rant about Jacob supplanting Esau and all the treachery there, courtesy of a Confirmation class I taught on the subject once and later got called in to the lead pastor's office for a lecture on why lying and cheating and manipulating are OK if it's all part of God's plan and obviously if the promise continued through Jacob then God must have wanted him to do it all along. And since he was my boss there was a limit to how long I could argue with him and list counter-examples. Judah and Tamar, anyone? David and Bathseba?)

Definitely a lesson Christians should keep in mind, I think. Thanks!

I like the idea of this being all part of a test for both her and Abraham. That'd be considerably different than I was picturing, but it has some interesting implications of its own.