Arkady
President
A few years back I read a comic book series called "Lucifer," by Mike Carey. It's a spin-off of the legendary "Sandman" series by Neil Gaiman. It follows the character of Lucifer in modern times -- the devil from the Bible, but looking like 1980s David Bowie, and with a character more in line with Satan in Milton's Paradise Lost. The thing that's so interesting about the series is that it explores in a very serious way questions having to do with free will, the meaning of life, the problems created by the character of Yahweh in the Old Testament, etc.
Just to give you an example of one of the plot lines, Yahweh decides to leave his Creation -- something that was always part of his Plan, and in doing so he leaves his throne vacant. The two most likely inheritors are the most powerful angels: Michael Demiurgos (Michael the Archangel) and Lucifer Morningstar (Satan). However, neither wants the job. Michael is feeling depressed by God's departure and paralyzed by what he sees as the meaninglessness of Creation in the absence of an ultimate being, while Lucifer despises Creation because the existence of Yahweh's Plan obliterates the possibility of true free will. So, lesser beings start vying for God's throne. At one point, two titans from ancient Greek mythology decide to step into Yahweh's place. To do this, they travel back in time and start acting in the role of Yahweh, since human belief is a key to divine power. It is they, not Yahweh, who drown all the pursuing Egyptians when the Israelites are fleeing Egypt... knowing that this will be remembered as an act of Yahweh and thus will allow them access to his vacated power. It's a clever idea, since it gets at how problematic the character of Yahweh is in the Bible, with his violently destructive temper tantrums that seem more at home with Greek mythology than with the later character of Jesus.
That is just one short story arc in the series, but there are many others that deal in surprisingly thoughtful ways with serious theological problems. For example, at another point Lucifer gets a "letter of passage" from Yahweh (a doorway he can use to exit Yahweh's predestined universe, which is his ultimate goal, because the existence of predestination is something he perceives as an insult to his Will). He uses it to set up his own creation, using the demiurge power of Michael, which he (and eventually Michael's daughter, Elaine) rules over. Some of the most interesting bits involve Lucifer and Elaine doing the "Yahweh Dance" -- learning how to use that kind of omnipotence in a way that permits for individual choice, which may actually be an impossibility. Repeatedly their creations don't turn out the way they intended. Lucifer, for example, who always resented being subservient to God in Yahweh's creation, creates an Adam and Eve with the sole commandment that they may never worship. Sure enough, an angel from our creation slips in, in the guise of a snake, and tempts them to worship Lucifer, which enrages him, echoing but reversing the Eden story. Elaine uses her power to try to create a utopian society, but nearly everything she attempts to do ends up working out horribly, thanks to human free will, which keeps turning her greatest gifts into a curse.
Anyway, I highly recommend the series for anyone with an interest in the fundamental questions, at least if you can handle a hefty dose of blasphemous manipulation of the Bible mythology.
Just to give you an example of one of the plot lines, Yahweh decides to leave his Creation -- something that was always part of his Plan, and in doing so he leaves his throne vacant. The two most likely inheritors are the most powerful angels: Michael Demiurgos (Michael the Archangel) and Lucifer Morningstar (Satan). However, neither wants the job. Michael is feeling depressed by God's departure and paralyzed by what he sees as the meaninglessness of Creation in the absence of an ultimate being, while Lucifer despises Creation because the existence of Yahweh's Plan obliterates the possibility of true free will. So, lesser beings start vying for God's throne. At one point, two titans from ancient Greek mythology decide to step into Yahweh's place. To do this, they travel back in time and start acting in the role of Yahweh, since human belief is a key to divine power. It is they, not Yahweh, who drown all the pursuing Egyptians when the Israelites are fleeing Egypt... knowing that this will be remembered as an act of Yahweh and thus will allow them access to his vacated power. It's a clever idea, since it gets at how problematic the character of Yahweh is in the Bible, with his violently destructive temper tantrums that seem more at home with Greek mythology than with the later character of Jesus.
That is just one short story arc in the series, but there are many others that deal in surprisingly thoughtful ways with serious theological problems. For example, at another point Lucifer gets a "letter of passage" from Yahweh (a doorway he can use to exit Yahweh's predestined universe, which is his ultimate goal, because the existence of predestination is something he perceives as an insult to his Will). He uses it to set up his own creation, using the demiurge power of Michael, which he (and eventually Michael's daughter, Elaine) rules over. Some of the most interesting bits involve Lucifer and Elaine doing the "Yahweh Dance" -- learning how to use that kind of omnipotence in a way that permits for individual choice, which may actually be an impossibility. Repeatedly their creations don't turn out the way they intended. Lucifer, for example, who always resented being subservient to God in Yahweh's creation, creates an Adam and Eve with the sole commandment that they may never worship. Sure enough, an angel from our creation slips in, in the guise of a snake, and tempts them to worship Lucifer, which enrages him, echoing but reversing the Eden story. Elaine uses her power to try to create a utopian society, but nearly everything she attempts to do ends up working out horribly, thanks to human free will, which keeps turning her greatest gifts into a curse.
Anyway, I highly recommend the series for anyone with an interest in the fundamental questions, at least if you can handle a hefty dose of blasphemous manipulation of the Bible mythology.
