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SPIRITUALITY
A major undercurrent theme in the Chronicles of Empire series is that of spirituality, and works from a number of aspects including fate and personal revelation. Every event and consequence is treated as having meaning, and even the pains and misfortunes of any characters have a purpose and eventual resolution.
A main and obvious focus for the topic of spirituality occurs in conversations between characters, usually involving Erin. At first Erin's doubts of faith leads him to ask the highly educated Jerith as to his views on the Book of Law and the Book of Faith, Jerith surprising Erin not only by his knowledge of such subjects, but also by Jerith speaking of the allegorical need for a person to open their eyes from material blindness to spiritual sight. This is a lesson that Erin is unable to take too much to heart, partly because of Jerith's insistence on thinking around scripture, rather than within it, and partly because Jerith, for all his learning, leans too easily into sweeping statements and generalisations that Erin disagrees with the assumptions of.
However, the most spirituality orientated individual of the volume Gathering is Ali. Ali expands on Jerith's earlier assertions regarding spiritual blindness, reinforcing the notion of the limitations of the human mind to comprehend realities that are vastly inaccessible, such as the meaning and mind of God, which Ali declared was, is, and always shall be, unquantifiable to humanity. Ali then continues his narrative, using many analogies, to then explain something of how his own insight and revelation may apply to understanding whatever the limited fraction of existence a human mind may be privy to. Ultimately, Ali describes an introduction into the Concept of God, and what this may mean and applies to, arguing his point by illustrating his own view of the origins of human recognition of the spiritual, elaborating on how the complex patterns in nature demonstrate the principles of design and creation in the universe around them. Ali then goes on to explain on how every culture views the same universe and works of God, but how each culture defines their own perception of God according to the individual needs of their own people and culture, Ali focussing upon doctrinal similarities rather than the details of theological disagreements between faiths.
Erin, for all his interest however, is unable to think beyond the bounds of his own religious training, doubts concerning his own faith and apprehension at his coming Presentation and subsequent and expected Ordination clouding his mind with even more questions than he himself can answer, or accept answers of. |
