Christianity (heterodox)

**Heterodoxy** in a religious sense means "any opinions or doctrines at variance with an official or orthodox position". Under this definition, heterodoxy is similar to unorthodoxy, while the adjective "heterodox" could be applied to a dissident. Heterodoxy may describe beliefs that differ from strictly orthodox views, but don't necessarily imply extreme enough ones to be called heresy. However, due to the nature of religious doctrine, declared heresy and heterodoxy often overlap, especially in christianity.

Heterodox christianity has a variety of positions, such as **Arianism**, which holds that Jesus is a distinct lesser being to god the father, to various fringe ideas on the far side of theologically liberal theology, such as a non omnipotent god, or even a non sentient god. Note that megaten games by their nature have imperfect gods, even including yhvh, despite it also seeming to imply a loosely monotheistic tone, at least in aesthetics or presentation. So ideas relating to an imperfect YHVH are certainly very relevant to it. Perhaps even moreso than classical christian beliefs.

**Adoptionism** is another heterodox belief, which says that the messiah was a normal human who was adopted by god at some point. This being close to the view seen in many megaten games.

There's an endless amount of slightly distinct heterodox views, some more interesting then others, and some not quite distinct enough to warrant discussion. Here we will try to cover some of the most relevant examples. For whom it concerns, process philosophy has been integrated into radical forms of christianity by some radical theologians, and so could arguably fit into this section. But it is closer to a general pantheism, and so will be stored in that section. Likewise, for obvious reasons, Gnosticism can be considered a heterodox form of christianity, but is in its own section rather than being in here.

## Esoteric christianity

Esoteric christianity is a term for the historical heterodox Christian traditions which contained both magic and mysticism. Usually these involved a form of initiation into certain mystical secrets. It is considered to have been somewhat inspired by gnosticism, and contains certain gnostic elements such as reincarnation and inner development. Later ideas such as rosicrucianism, and alchemy were said to emerge as forms of it.

The main goal of Esoteric Christianity is to directly learn the mysteries of God, and to rise to higher consciousness in the understanding of God's relationship to individual consciousness. In Esoteric Christianity, the term theurgy is used for the practice of trying to gain the knowledge of one's higher self, or Inner God, to teach one spiritual truths and wisdom from God that one could not learn from man.

Esoteric christianity involved various mystical practices, notably that of demon or angel summoning, the former of which was called goetia, and the latter of which was lumped in with the idea of theurgy. Various members argued about the appropriateness of certain practices, and whether demon summoning should be forbidden, even if they were bound by the divine names of god.

Esoteric christianity forms a large basis of the law side in game. The high developments in certain esoteric traditions were referred to as magus and adept, which is the term for the magic units of the messians. The entire idea of them making use of magic and demon summoning using the historical aesthetics, as well as the more specific question of whether making specifically use of only angels is preferable ties to it. And the forms of transformation that they seek while still alive blurs the lines between Christian afterlife and esoteric mysticism tradition. As well as aknowledging reincarnation, which exists in their world. Zayin's realization of inner divinity also ties to the idea of mystical accomplishment.

In essence, the law side shows a situation where these esoteric heterodox teachings have overtaken normal abrahamic religion in general. And became mixed into a post-christian paradigm, while still retaining Christian aesthetics. In keeping with the series' large focus on mysticism in general.

The most important form of esoteric christianity to understand is the hermetic order of the golden dawn, seen on its own page.

## Death of God theology

**Death of god theology**, sometimes called **Christian atheism** (though not all forms identify as atheist as such) is a theological position in which the belief in the transcendent or interventionist God is rejected or absent in favor of finding God totally in the world, sometimes after a literal death of God (Thomas J. J. Altizer) or following Jesus in a Godless world (William Hamilton).

Hamilton's Christian atheism is similar to **Jesuism**, which is an interpretation of Jesus as a philosopher rather than a religious figure. Slavoj Zizek is also interested in the idea of christian atheism, seeing Christianity as a fundamentally atheist idea, and at the same time theology as fundamentally necessary for meaningful moving forward in society.

While most christian atheists see God (at least a sentient god, though the word atheism might imply even rejection of pantheism) as something that never existed, and the goal of theology to work out what religion means in this light, Altizer is a well-known Christian atheist who is known for his literal approach to the death of God. He often speaks of God's death as a redemptive event.

He said that God being an archaic primal source could only allow humanity to move forward with its own extinction, since otherwise it would always exist as a focus. And that the concept of fallen angels has a parallel in the fallen or self emptying God. God physically incarnated as Jesus Christ, who on his death remained dead forever. (Note that this is in contrast to Tillich who despite thinking God is non sentient thinks it must be a focus).

Despite being (at least in its literal sense of God literally dying. Obviously most people know of at the very least cultural christianity) a bizarre fringe theology, the idea of christian atheism obviously has a direct representation in various megaten games, most obviously smtii.

Fighting against God is a given on some other endings, but in II, YHVH is still the end boss even on law, after which aleph is still represented as the messiah of the messian church, and the implications are that you are still following and working with its theology, after a literal death of God. This meaning of course that what it is that its religion is is something that can work without the literal presence of YHVH, or which even if he is present (in universes where he is corrupt) focus on him as an absolute has to be moved past in favor of focus on the world of peace in and of itself.

These themes are even more present in the new law route in strange journey redux. In the new route, zelenin swears off submission to the god of law, and kills shekinah who at the time functioned as its embodiment, ultimately talking about how the world was freed from its rule.

Despite this, she still uses christian symbology, upholds the lawful goal of a world of peace, and is an angel. Focus is placed on how humanity cannot rely on god to save them, but have to work to save themselves. Albeit still receiving supernatural aid in the form of zelenin's song, and the sacred light that they created from the schwarzwelt.

IV has similar themes, in which merkabah destroys itself, leaving humans to their own devices, and the conspicuous lack of further divine intervention. Interestingly, note that in II on the end after defeating YHVH, gabriel contrasts humans with herself, pointing out that as an angel she now lacks a specific purpose, whereas humans do not.

Emphasizing the importance of one seeing their own individual value immanent within themselves, and the relation between themselves and others, rather than merely living with the idea of value as only existing when given. Although what it means for angels in that case, and whether they transform into another type of being or what is unknown. In other games, angels are shown as being able to work just fine even in a system without a literal yhvh.

Death of god theologies, either literal or metaphorical, have strong focuses on the immanence of divine meaning, and the urgency of personal action. Viewing reliance on a literal god as a deus ex machina that people often use to make up for personal solving of problems, death of god theologies take the idea of god, focusing on the importance of individuals fulfilling the role they previously ascribed to God.

In the case of christian atheism, it is not purely secularism per say, since the focus is to retain the religious identity and to understand that the goal and practicality of religion is something that must be immanent within nature. But nonetheless rejects reliance on a literal God to make sense of religious practice. Some christian atheists are closer to pantheistic, or panentheistic, but retain the name as a form of strong thematic emphasis.

**The Big other** is a psychological concept that philosopher Zizek says is a core aspect of the motivation for christian atheism. The big other represents in people's subconscious their concept of being judged and the symbolic order of this external to themselves in general. Individual people judge them, but they internalize this as a mental construct of a big judge that they perform for without realizing. This doesn't just have moral implications, but even concepts of being judged for being abnormal or whatnot. They will act and get embarrassed for things even when not seen, under this psychological relation to this big other.

The point of this is that once one realizes that their actions are in relation to this big other they can move on to realizing that there is no big other. This is not about whether an external God actually exists or not. But what it is about is realizing that their internal feelings of self judging are not real. They are the ones internally judging themselves, and this judgement is not objective. It feeling negative does not prove they did anything wrong. And on the flipside their internal big other approving of them does not prove they did anything right.

What zizek says this has to do with christian atheism is that a lot of religious people will subconsciously associate their big other with God, thinking that their feelings of judgement are placed by god. However, on the flipside he says regular atheists may replace this concept with something else, like nature, or ignore it entirely. But christian atheism is a specific way to defeat the compulsion to think one's internal self judgements are objective.

Since one specifically associates their big other with god, who they then note is not real and not judging them. Thus, they not only by framing it this way realize that their internal judgements reflect nothing but their own biases, but this has an added bonus of placing the responsibility of acting for God on themselves, who does exist for real. And thus this creates a more objective mentality through self critique, as well as a call to radical action.

Something resembling this idea of course exists in SMTII, where the angels in the center mentally created a false god to approve of their actions. Unaware (perhaps?) that what they called god was only their inner voices approving of themselves. Not a real objective external power that made their actions actually legitimate by any coherent moral standard.

## Kakure Kirishitan

**Kakure Kirishitan** is a term to refer to christianity as it existed in old japan when it was illegal, punishable by death. Since it was driven underground it had lost contact with the catholic church it derived from, and over time became a syncretic sect, including aspects of ancestor worship of their earlier japanese martyrs, and veneration of kami. Although this is a hazy connection, in-game, since the law side is sometimes seen with amatsukami working with angels, and influenced by a japanese perspective it implicitly has elements of japanese christianity.

In apocalypse this becomes a more explicit aspect of the plot, albeit a subtle one. In an interview for apocalypse they talk about how in the backstory, krishna was behind the crucifixion of the Twenty-six Martyrs of Japan. And was then sealed by a past life of flynn. During the events of game, krishna captures flynn who then becomes crucified by him. Showing a connection of these events. Although little more is made of this, it does show a tie between the in game sides, and the specifically Japanese history of Christianity. Which is notable, because many of the games pass off law as largely an outside force relative to japan.

## Tielhard De Chardin

**Tielhard De Chardin** was a geologist, paleontologist, Jesuit Priest, and philosopher, and is considered one of the most visionary panpsychists of all time. His idea is based on bergson's evolutionary idea, combined with a devout christianity and transcendental ethos. The core of his thesis was a concept of “complexity consciousness” in which matter constantly evolves to more complex and more conscious forms. Simple elements of matter posses low grade consciousness. His work the phenomenon of man was completed during a 20 year stay in china, doing paleontology, and so likely eastern philosophy inspired his ideas. Although his ideas were interesting, they are seen however as overly idealistic, and not necessarily as supported as he imagined. (Note, some of his ideas were expanded on by \*\*frank J tipler\*\* also.

In his mind, all energy was mental in nature. Like spinoza, he said there was a double aspect to all matter, and that there is a within to the without. And matter in general is driven by evolutionary energy that carries it to increasingly complex forms. “Noogenesis” was his term for the increasing becoming of mind, which was the universal process. And spirit was on the ascension while matter by virtue of entropy was on the decline. But that these were the same process. His cosmology sets forth a sweeping account of the unfolding of the cosmos and the evolution of matter to humanity to ultimately a reunion with Christ.

Chardin abandoned literal interpretations of creation in the Book of Genesis in favor of allegorical and theological interpretations. Teilhard's life work was predicated on the conviction that human spiritual development is moved by the same universal laws as material development. Brian Swimme wrote "Teilhard was one of the first scientists to realize that the human and the universe are inseparable. The only universe we know about is a universe that brought forth the human."

**The Omega Point** is the purported maximum level of complexity and consciousness towards which some theorize the universe is evolving. According to Teilhard the universe is constantly evolving towards higher levels of material complexity and consciousness, a hypothesis that Teilhard called the Law of Complexity/Consciousness. Teilhard postulates this process results in an absolute, completed whole, which in his view is the actual cause of our Universe's increasing development. In other words, the Omega Point will exist as supremely complex and conscious, transcendent and independent of the evolving universe.

Teilhard argued that the Omega Point resembles the Christian Logos, namely Christ, who draws all things into himself, who in the words of the Nicene Creed, is "God from God", "Light from Light", "True God from true God," and "through him all things were made." In the Book of Revelation, Christ describes himself thrice as "the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end."

If we want a megaten comparison to this, despite tillich being a christian, the most direct reference comes from **krishna** in iva, who talks about merging all souls together, and even uses the word singularity, which is a direct omega point reference.

Teilhard de Chardin's The Phenomenon of Man states that the Omega Point must possess the following five attributes. It is:

1: Already existing: Only thus can the rise of the universe towards higher stages of consciousness be explained.

2: Personal (an intellectual being and not an abstract idea): The increasing complexity of matter has not only led to higher forms of consciousness, but accordingly to more personalization, of which human beings are the highest attained form in the known universe. They are completely individualized, free centers of operation. It is in this way that man is said to be made in the image of God, who is the highest form of personality. Teilhard expressly stated that in the Omega Point, when the universe becomes One, human persons will not be suppressed, but super-personalized. Personality will be infinitely enriched. This is because the Omega Point unites creation, and the more it unites, the increasing complexity of the universe aids in higher levels of consciousness. Thus, as God creates, the universe evolves towards higher forms of complexity, consciousness, and finally with humans, personality, because God, who is drawing the universe towards Him, is a person.

3: Transcendent: The Omega Point cannot be the result of the universe's final complex stage of its own consciousness. Instead, the Omega Point must exist even before the universe's evolution, because the Omega Point is responsible for the rise of the universe towards more complexity, consciousness and personality. Which essentially means that the Omega Point is outside the framework in which the universe rises, because it is by the attraction of the Omega Point that the universe evolves towards Him.

4: Autonomous: That is, free from the limitations of space (nonlocality) and time (atemporality).

5: Irreversible: That is, attainable and imperative; it must happen and cannot be undone.

Note another smaller smt parallel in that both god and humans seem to create eachother in a way.

## Meister eckhart

**Eckhart von Hochheim** (c. 1260 – c. 1328), commonly known as **Meister Eckhart** or **Eckehart**, was a German theologian, philosopher and mystic, born near Gotha, in the Landgraviate of Thuringia (now central Germany) in the Holy Roman Empire. He was mainly known for his mystical views that considered the godhead an abstract emptiness that exists above the persons of god, and which you can reach union with via contemplative meditation. He was an inspiration on many later groups, such as the theosophists.

**Divine nothing** or **silent desert** is a term used to refer
 to the heretical christian mystic meister echkart's conception of the
godhead. Which is described as the god over god, and of which was said
"The woul wants to penetrate to the silent desert where not a trace of
distinction is to be seen, neither Father nor Son nor Holy Spirit." He
taught that above the tangible persons of god the true essence of the
godhead was in essence describable as empty due to lacking distinction
or properties, with the beings existing only as derivative. Likewise,
beings who existed in the world were seen as lacking substance (called
the pure nothing), because only the power of being associated with god
gives them substance. And it was through these beings that god was given
 identity. Various people interpreted his works in different ways,
depending to what degree they saw it as more or less theistic.

While meister eckhart accepted external worship of god as valid,
he considered that within each person's soul lied an uncreated aspect
that was one with god, and was emanated from this unity. And so
supported a mystcal contemplation which brought you into mystical union.
 This was tied to something he called "disintrest," which was an inner
contemplation and negation of all external forms and concepts until only
 awareness of god remained. Saying that when the soul achieves this, it
loses its concept of self identity, and is in a sense reduced to
nothing. This was not meant to detatch one from the world however, but
ultimately was a path gone through after which one would return, and
utilize this newfound understanding of the divine nothing to act in
accord with morality.

His concept of disintrest resembles that of stoicism or buddhism
in which one's serene detatchment was used not to be apathetic, but to
make it easier to act for others. Likewise, the concept of the divine
nothing in conjunction with the human concept of pure nothing were
compared with the buddhist concept of sunyata, where they were a major
aspect in interreligious dialogue, as well as inspiring many other
traditions like theosophy.

This concept of the divine nothing is relevant to law for various
 reasons. Most notably, in SMTII, you focus on the essence of the empty
god. In the visionary items, zayin is given a paradoxical statement both
 about how there is no god, but that god is everything. Tying to meister
 eckhart's emphasis on both negation and affirmation. And zayin going
against yhvh while preserving the concept of the god over god likewise
shifts the focus to the silent desert of the divine nothing. In later
games like iv the concept of sunyata is used to describe god's nature,
and in nocturne the lawful mentality is more explicitly tied to
emptiness. Likewise, the theosophical concept of god being manifest only
 through avatars in reality that derives from eckhart ties to the
depiction of god in-game as manifested only through limited faces of
god.

## Neo adamism

**Neo-adamism** refers to a series of groups who sought to
restore humanity to the sense of adam's innocence. They had various
practices such as nudism or the rejection of marriage, seeing it as
something that wouldn't exist in an edenic state, and believed they
could restore this state with a sensuous mysticism, referring to
their church as paradise. Although in a downplayed sense, law has
aspects of this in its emphasis of the restoration of humanity's
original state. Notably, in a world of law figures seem to be more
lenient about nudity and relationship arrangements, since in the
world of law it would be structured to mitigate potential negatives.
This being why angels among themselves often don't wear clothes, and
in arcadia, the prototype of the new world people seemed to be
wearing more revealing outfits.

## Japanese-Jewish common ancestry theory

**The Japanese-Jewish common ancestry theory** is a fringe theory that appeared in the west in 17th century as a hypothesis which claimed the Japanese people were the main part of the ten lost tribes of Israel. A later version portrayed them as descendants of a tribe of Jewish Nestorians.

Some versions of the theory applied to the whole population, but others
 only claimed that a specific group within the Japanese people had
descended from Jews. Tudor Parfitt wrote that "the spread of the fantasy of Israelite origin... forms a consistent feature of the Western colonial enterprise", namely that those of christian culture sometimes projected it as a latent seed of jewishness that like the jews of the bible was ready to turn into its more advanced christian nature, in a sense justifying colonialism. And would pass it off to the people as part of an attempt to introduce missionaries. Some tried making ties saying that things such as shingon buddhism were christian inspired, but most implied links had little supporting evidence. That being said, despite this it was a fringe idea that few believed even at the time.

In an interview for megaten they said that this was used as a basis for some of the later games, though it seemed to be absent in many of the earlier ones. The reason for this being that since it is a game about every religion being a little true, reasons to tie them together add to its internal mythos. In raidou II it implies that the amatsukami and angels were working together as part of the same universalist force that wanted to take over anc control different particularist nations. And it depicts the japanese lore of amatsukami taking over japan form kunitsukami as an early version of the later time angels would come and establish a lawful society. Being depicted as a parralel of monotheism being aggressive about wanting to convert other places to itself.

Since the emperor descended from the amatsukami in japanese lore, this implies he was a plant who would later be used to try to turn japan more lawful. Whether he complied with this being unknown. Masakado then who irl rebelled against the emperor is depicted in game as rebelling against the universal forces of law as if this was continuous in plot of a similar struggle.

This gives some context for how the law side functions. It doesn't have enough power to invade and just take over the world. It operates on patience slowly introducing elements it hopes that over time could help bring people over to it. Even if those elements are seen highly in the places, such as amaterasu who is identified in an interview to be a main player of the law side, it doesn't mean that they can just lawify the place. Since the other forces are at play. Similar to new world order type beliefs where the conspiracy is done by those with power, but who don't yet have enough power to make their universalist plan without spending a long time to perfect it. Which is of course also why law itself is depicted using new world order type symbols, and referred to as a conspiracy.

Note this also gives some backstory context. Showing the influence all across the world that stemmed from judaic influence even if not realized. This of course isn't a perfect parallel of real life, but since yhvh often represents not just the jewish god, but universalist forces in general, it is depicting them tied together as something that stemmed from a long time ago, with far back relations. Of course many religions did derive from eachother over time such as zoroastrianism and the vedic religion having some related elements. But that was further back than something as direct as judaism and shinto, which certainly don't have much in the way of connections that are direct. But the backstory context explains a bit more about masakado, seeing your siding with him now as a continued attempt to assert rebellion against authority. Even in iva you use his power to reach yhvh's universe. Adn at the end of Iv he destroys mikado, which is a term for emperor, showing the association. And the amatsukami are subtly yet consistently depicted as on the law side, like the yatagarasu in SJ.

The most visual aspect of this is how some of the tengu figures look overtly jewish, such as appearing with teffilin or kippah or jewish scrolls of holy text. Whether this is meant to imply that these tengu are incarnations of angels or inspired by judaism or what is unknown. Many tengu are law aligned, but not all. And angels are seen using the hama skills. Mem aleph being depicted as a buddhist looking figure (or even the head of yhvh using the number 108) are more subtle associations.

## Paul Tillich - General

**Paul tillich** was a radical protestant theologian of the early and mid 1900s. Though many Christians consider calling him protestant, christian, or even theist is a bit of a stretch. While not professing christian atheism himself, he paved the way for christian atheist theologies based on his non independently sentient conception of God. Nonetheless, he is considered an important theologian by radical theologies, and orthodox theologies alike. Although professing to be christian, his beliefs are more general and philosophical enough that they are not really considered religious so to speak, in the revealed sense, depending on how one define them. He was also one of the coiners of the term transtheism, which his own theology was a example of.

## Paul Tillich - God and Symbols

**Transtheism** is most generally a term referring to any system of thought or religious philosophy which is neither fully theistic, nor atheistic, but is beyond the dichotomy. The basis of tillich's transtheism is panentheistic in a sense, relying on a conception of an abstract “God above god,” saying that traditional conceptions of theism which rely on sentient gods are incoherent, since the ultimate grounding of religious values must be abstract and self existing, rather than relying on the whims of a sentient entity. And so “the absolute” so to speak, what people refer to as the monad, or the highest abstract “God” cannot be an entity. However, different transtheistic systems may however also be regularly theistic, with one or many sentient gods, or agnostic, or lack sentient gods altogether. Many consider it compatible with agnosticism about the concept of sentient gods, and a more general panentheism past this, scaling religious experience down to its practical effects in the world, as well as some metaphysical underpinnings and building theology around this. Tillich has a specific approach to this, but the term is not synonymous with his system.

Obviously this calls to mind megaten right away. Since the idea of the “god above god” that tillich calls the ground of being calls to mind the abstract great will above the gods. And it seems that the religious values are placed above the gods themselves, and even they are in a sense answerable to them. An idea that would be incoherent in classical christianity. Note also that its compatibility with agnosticism about sentient gods relates closely to megaten also, since the religions in-game seem to be able to function just as well when their actual gods are killed or sealed away, implying they have use beyond direct interaction with them.

Combined with the ambiguity of the absolute it implies, its probably the closest to megaten of most religious general identities. For istance, Indologist Hinrich Zimmer applies the term to the theological system of Jainism, which is theistic in the sense that the gods exist, but become irrelevant as they are transcended by moksha (that is, a system which is not non-theistic, but in which the gods are not the highest spiritual instance). Which corresponds to the in game reality that gods can exist, but are not necessarily inherently above you, but fellow partakers in the more transcendent religious experience if you reach their level.

**God above God**. Tillich presents the above-mentioned ontological view of God as \*\*Being-Itself, Ground of Being, Power of Being,\*\* and occasionally as Abyss or God's "\*\*Abysmal Being\*\*". He says that by nature nothing can be known of the absolute save for this aspect, and so this general abstract kind of panentheism is what theology must be based around. He says that when God is understood in this way, it becomes clear that not only is it impossible to argue for or against the "existence" of God, since God is beyond the distinction between essence and existence, but it is also foolish: one cannot deny that there is being, and thus there is a Power of Being. And so the true essence of God is a form of abstract power of being that is not easily definable.

Note that although the absolute itself is not seen as a being, “God” is still seen as active and living due to partaking in the nature of humanity, since human life is part of the life of God. And god lives through the act of creation. God is also associated with becoming or process. Likewise it transcends the god of theism because it is necessarily both immanent partaking in humanity, as well as transcendent. What makes Tillich's ontological view of God different from theological theism is that it transcends it by being the foundation or ultimate reality that "precedes" all beings. Note that the absolute being seen as living due to its relation with individual lives closely resembles the view of the great will in game, which is both a combination of all life, but extends as absolute beyond it.

Traditional medieval philosophical theology tended to understand God as the highest existing Being to which predicates such as omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, goodness, righteousness, holiness, etc. may be ascribed. Classical arguments for and against the existence of God presuppose such an understanding of God. Tillich is critical of this mode of discourse which he refers to as "theological theism," and argues that if God is a Being, even if the highest Being, God cannot be properly called the source of all being, and the question can of course then be posed as to why God exists, who created God, when God's beginning is, and so on. To put the issue in traditional language: if God is a being, then God is a creature, even if the highest one, and thus cannot be the Creator. Rather, God must be understood as the "ground of Being-Itself".

Note however, that although he is one of the ones who coined the term transtheism (another person made it at the same time) it does not refer exclusively to his system, but can also be used more generally.

**Gods and relation to ultimate concern**. Tillich also equates gods with his concept of ultimate concern. An existentialist-ish position in which in some sense your god is what you place ultimate concern in. Tillich notes that even self professed atheists still have an ultimate concern. And that this will be some idea or goal or telos or value that their actions are oriented to. (Note that even though you can existentially pick your own ultimate concern that doesn't mean that all concerns are equally valid. His own point was that there was a right and wrong answer, but that you as a human can pick and aren't pre built with knowledge of any right answer into you). Read this line from the interview. For information about how this relates to the games, see the theism page.

**Divine unity**. human ambiguity is contrasted with divine unity. and divine unity is the judge and salvation of man's estrangement. the holy spirit does represent a unity and relation of the community, but it is warned for people not to merely see humanity as god, since the abstract value of god extends beyond them, and rather they rest on it. Note that as said above God partakes in and lives through humanity in a way that loosely corresponds to the great will being a unified overmind of the minds of existence, but at the same time transcendent to them. In fact, due to the contemporary nature of tillich's works, and the humanistic nature of megaten, its possible that tillich's idea of god is closer to the great will than any classical religion's ideas are.

**Being, nonbeing, being itself** are the three forms of existence, with being itself being the pre existence form of God. God is beyond both essence and existence. and being itself is what revelation reveals. essence is the eternal balance of being and non being or humanity's pre-fall nature (which before reality exist as one). existence is the unbalanced disruption that essentialization is the process of reuniting. god the father is associated with essence, Jesus with existence, and the spirit with essentialization or the path between. or ideal human nature, actual, and the process of redemption. like a hegelian dialectic.

**Trinitarian Symbology**. As a (kind of) christian theologian, tillich says that God should be seen in trinitarian form. God has three aspects in symbolic form, though ultimately they are all one. Note that the division here is in a sense symbolic, to represent various forms of people's relation to God, and not something totally inherently true, in reference to distinct parts of god. But at the same time, some descriptions are better than others, and so he thinks there are existentially more correct symbols to use to describe the reality. Interestingly, since the christian symbol is existentially chosen, he's only christian in the vague sense of thinking that christian theology indirectly happens to be good at corresponding to fundamental truths about God, rather than in a literal way. (For more information about his view on religious symbolism, check the symbols section of general religious concepts)

Tillich says that there are three aspects of God. Corresponding to what people call God the father, you have the ground and power of being. The abstract ground of being that gives rise to reality as a whole. This is in a sense what reality is built on, and so relates to creation. You also have the holy spirit. This is the immanence of values within the world, and orientation to the telos, as well as the divine community, and relation to divine life. (Likewise, the spirit overrides the church, which as a structure is not beyond critique.) It provides an orientation of meaning and being, and a telos or moral framework for beings moving within being. You also have The word of God, or manifest instances of God in reality. This being associated with the christ.

Christ represents in universe existence, the father essence, and the spirit essentialization, or movement from the real in universe (existence) to the ideal (essence). Note that people being imperfect representations of the ideal, and needing to copy them sounds very platonic.

Note of course that messians are not christians and do not seem to use any particularly overtly trinitarian formula.

**Christ**. Note that although Jesus is used as an icon for the Christ, and as such a symbol of the fulfillment of history, note that Jesus as a person despite being seen as a good example was existentially chosen for this symbol, and the divinity is seen as existing within the abstract Christ, which the human Jesus was more a specific instance of channeling the meaning of. And so to avoid false divinity, one must lose veneration of Jesus as an individual into the role of the Christ. The symbol of Christ as a paradox in which the cross symbolizes self negation, and which christ itself represents the presence of the unconditioned within the confines of the conditioned.

The cross and ressurection represent god taking on estrangement, and ultimately overcoming. Christ as well represents the presence of the eternal kingdom in the world. Seeing the eternal present in the world helps people to understand absolute value, and by extension the telos of history. christ is the Central kairos of the world, but there can be others.

He says that christ is the symbol of the final revelation, but through which even other nonrelated revelations can be given meaning. (All this ambiguous terminology is explained below.) God in a sense is channeled when people act in accord with the kingdom / proper values, even though they are not god themselves.

**Messiah.** to tillich, theological symbols develop in four steps. The arise out of religious culture and language, it answers existential questions, it is used to interpret a historical event, and it becomes distorted by popular superstition. For the messiah, it was first a symbol through which god will establish justice, second the present age is understood through comparison to the messianic age, third jesus is received as the christ, and fourth the symbol is distorted through literalism which sees the messiah as a human figure with literal powers. He argues that through these steps the symbol of the messiah loses its paradoxical meaning and the symbol is distorted. but that historical review can help fix this.

Obviously you can see the SMT parallel here. As zayin says in the added scene of II, “god is not good. God is everything.” This can refer to god in the most abstracted sense as the power of being. But in game, at least SJ and IV you have reference to the holy spirit. As a force of ideology and movement of humanity towards the correct path. And so there seems to be two aspects to the abstract “God.” Both the amoral sense, but also the ideological sense they derive lawful ideology from. Which as the ancient of days says about the dispensation of the universe being collective, has to do with an interrelated network and substratum of all life, and acting for it and in tune with it.

Correspondent to the tangible person of Jesus, or work of God you have the tangible avatars of God in-game. Who act as manifestations and representations or faces of the absolute. As zayin says to himself in the added scene, acting as a face in this sense can in theory be done by anyone, since its more of a manifestation of the qualities into the world than necessarily total perfection. And so in the last fight with him he is represented as godly race. Even though he becomes a demon for that scene, the fact that he says this as a human is an indication of how it is described in tillich's system, in which Jesus was in the end just a regular human who acted in tine with the divine word, and became a symbol of it via an existentialist framework.

Note that since Jesus is literally artificially chosen as the Christ in tillich's system, it corresponds to the role of the artificial messiah. Messiahs in game often tend to often be people who merely end up in a role, rather than always being chosen by God. Yet language of them being chosen is often used regardless. Since the christ is the central kairos of history, but Jesus is just someone taking the role existentially, it makes sense in game for the post christian messian religion to use the more general concept of the messiah, and to use as symbols empty crosses rather than ones with Jesus. Since they are not focusing on jesus the individual. Note of course that tillich literally focuses on the mythology of jesus, but only as representation of the christ. So its not a direct translation. But can explain focus on the archetypal symbol rather than the person.

Note also here that this trinitarian format corresponds to how people in megaten see God in general, but with a twist. Here the great will or absolute corresponds to the father, the holy spirit is called the holy spirit, represeting immanent divinity, values and principles of order, the divine community and relation in the world, and the avatars represent the word of god as tangible things present in the world. But here, YHVH, being one of the avatars still corresponds more to the role of Christ in tillich's system, as the divine manifested in the world. This can even explain yhvh's role, and what makes him special even if you take seriously the demons who say he rose to that role rather than having it inherently. He could have existentially took the place and integrated himself in tune with the great will in a way that made him the primary face of god.

## Paul Tillich - General concepts

**Religious Existentialism**. Paul tillich was in a sense a kind of existentialist. He believed that people experiences estrangement from God, and so existed apart form their true fundamental essence. The religious mentality he believed was created by what people defined as the ultimate importance to them. Whatever one defined as their ultimate importance was their god. However, he said there were many false gods, as people could choose anything to be their god. And the proper religious attitude was for them to seek out and find the true essence of God, which was the abstract ground of being, and the logos, or logical structure of reality within it. In a megaten sense the religious aspect of this explains how there can be multiple true religions in one world, as different people simply place as the ultimate metrics different standards. Yet only one of them can be ideologically true in a sense that what they place their faith in is in fact the correct thing to. In this case, his idea of the god above god seems to correspond to the abstract great will closely, and so seems lawful. Though you can obviously interpret it different ways. He also said that there is no such thing as religious existentialism, since everything is in essence a form of indirect religious existentialism.

**Ultimate concern** is to Tillich a synonym for god. Namely, that whatever one's ultimate concern is ultimately existentially becomes their god, and faith is their focus on it. Tillich noticed some faith tended to be more material while other faith was more spiritual. He found that the more physical the object was, the more idolatrous faith was, and the further from an acceptable ultimate concern it was. pride is the self elevation of humanity to the level of divinity by representing partial truths as a full truth. And so criticizing the arrogance of one's views of their self divinity sounds lawful again. So while one can existentially choose anythign as one's god, only the focus on the absolute provided proper context to be the absolute god.

**The protestant principle** is derived from the concept of the protestant reformation, but extends beyond it, as a principle one must always apply to religious identity. Protestantism was interested in critiques of the church from within, not outside. All conditioned reality is subject to critique, and so it is the duty of those within religious tradition to protest and move it forward when necessary, sometimes even dropping content they previously considered core. Since conditioned reality is necessarily imperfect. This can obviously relate heavily to the law ending of II, in which many of the enemies were lawful beings themselves, showing inner refining of the ideology.

**Kairos** is a term tillich uses to refer to god's time, as opposed to human's time. Kairos is a moment in time which is related to the "Unconditioned." When Tillich speaks of the kairos, he speaks of the "Unconditioned." Kairos is the "point in history in which time is disturbed by eternity." But this relates to both time representing a more absolute divine immanence, as well as the fact that things and the right time for them is not up to humans, who must also be patient.

Christ is seen as the central kairos of history, which is a symbol used to sense the immanent vlue and divinity in all others. It is also tied to the idea of grace, understanding that things do not happen entirely under human power or time, and that humans exist in a larger reality. This relates to the same thing his political views do.

**Three processes** are defined by tillich that involve self definition of an individual's relation with the self, as a social being, and to God. He defines these as **self-integration, self-creation**, and **self-transcendence**. or **individualization, participation**, and **transcendence**. There's not much to say about this other than noting people's three identities, as an individual, member of community, and as related to absolute values. And that it unites spiritual concepts with psychological sounding ones.

**Revelation** is grasping of the realities of the human condition. And as an event whose necessity and occurrence cannot be logically deduced. In a sense you can consider it intuitions, or pieces of information which come in their own time. Note that there is nothing supernatural about his definition of revelation. But it places important context to the limits of human reason.

**Symbols** point to the absolute, but must be understood to be symbols, and not the absolute itself. They can change over time, because they are not static. Symbols are both finite and conditioned, but can reveal relation to the infinite and unconditioned. What's interesting is that Tillich sees even Christ, and the forms of God as symbols. And so this relates closely to the megaten idea of some kind of abstract divinity such as the great will existing, but the particulars, and their relation to humanity being shaped by human perception.

YHVH in game talks about how he will return if humans seek him, which parallels a symbol existing when useful to people. Likewise, the fact that the symbols are not static shows how in alternate worlds such as that of nocturne, the goals might better be reached by an alternate set of symbols. This too is in keeping with the existentialist themes.

Note that the idea of a real immanent, yet vague abstract pantheist divinity perceived through religious symbols you see as entities, but which are not quite distinct entities in the literal sense all sounds very jungian. There are a few scholars who have drawn parallels between Tillich and jung.

**Reasoning** Tillich believed that there were two extremes in religious reasoning, that being autonomy and heteronomy. These correspond to the ideas of all truths as human created and constructivist versus the idea that truths were alien and could only be handed down as traditional religion believed. He rejected these both in favor of what he calls theonomy. Reality is built upon the abstract absolute, but human reasoning is needed to rise to reach it.

Theonomy expresses the union of autonomous reasoning with their inexhaustible depth. God being the reason for both the structure and ground of reasoning, and so unites them. But which within existence is somewhat incomplete. Theonomy is not limited to any religion or culture, but is the ground from which they arise.

## Paul Tillich - Morals and Salvation

**Values**. His division of reasoning corresponds to three positions on grounding of religion and values. Naturalism, which he defines as humans being the absolute judge of things, and values grounded in their whims. (Note that this is different from the regular ethical use of the word naturalism) Supernaturalism, which he defines as revelation from above as an abstract force dropped into history. And correlation, in which human reasoning exists to tap into absolute truths, using philosophy and social sciences, and interpret through the lens of religion. The position exists to break the dichotomy between fundamentalism / neo orthodoxy on one side and theological humanism or liberalism on the other. Saying that a unification in which humans understand divinity and value as both immanent, but also transcendent was necessary.

Note that the immanent aspect of value, as the ground is immanent, and related to humanity shows the error with biblical stories of God commanding things that were regularly evil, but them being seen as good. Because if this divine value is immanent within humanity as well, then it can not be withheld for God's commands to override regular morality. This matches of course with the fallible YHVH of II.

**Sin** in a sense is estrangement from gods perfection. It is not solely a result of turning away, but a inherent aspect of human imperfection, since humans are imperfect representations of god's infinite perfections by inherent nature of being limited, and so existence by nature is fallen. But beyond this, it still corresponds to immorality. (Again note the platonist aspect here of material reality as made b the demiurge being an imperfect reflection of the forms). Tillich warns to not declare absolute judgements on people, since that is conflating the infinite with the finite.

**Kingdom of god** is the archetype of the telos (end / proper aim) of history, or perfection. But as a symbol it does not represent an end or final state, but resolution and understanding the telos of history from within it, and living with it it. despite this symbol referring to something beyond history, from god and its ultimate goal. The kingdom of god refers to both to an inner historical telos present in each moment of history, and the trans historical telos that gives meaning to all history, and that is fulfilled in unity with the divine. he notes that historically it was seen as both political, but as having cosmic significance. He says that however it is not necessarily totally communal, but also individual, heralding fulfillment for humanity as individuals. And is not a mere utopia, since it represents individual union to the divine. This has a parralel in his actual political views (shown below) which likewise has one with the law side in-game.

Note that tillich defined reality as teleological, seeing there as being one correct goal for people to seek for. Which seems anti chaotic. But this goal, despite existing in value, is still something that can be freely taken on or rejected. And so it also sounds anti chaotic in the context of a game in which the right side, if one sees it as law is incidentally right, rather than inherently.

**New Being** refers to the end goal of how one is to live. A general term for being united with God.

**Life**. The human spirit is defined as a dimension of divine life by Tillich, defining a kind of connection. Life is both essential and existential. Humans live in the life of God, yet still have estrangement, being separated from perfection by nature of being limited. Note that calling them a dimension of divine life in and of itself gives a hint at the relation being implied.

**Estrangement** is the reality of being separated form god, and meaning. It is the natural state of human existence.

**Essentialization**. is the movement from one's existence, to their inner relation to divine essence. It is the goal of life, and is in a sense self actualization and religious fulfilment, but at the same time taking in a moral interactive identity.

**Salvation** is the reunification of undisrupted essence of God with disrupted essence of humanity, in the process of making itself more perfect. This tillich directly relates to the platonic idea of the ideal forms, as well as aristotelian ideas of essence and existence, and even hegel's system of development of essence. The process of salvation is the same as, or a term for the end goal of essentialization.

**Religious socialism** was seen by tillich as corresponding with theonomy and thus a way to move forward with tangible political life goals. Secular socialism was sen by him as autonomous and so lacked a coherent grounding. He saw it as lacking a spiritual element, and so cold and mechanical / not understanding values. But socialism as a whole was a useful way to move forward relative to conservatism. But that the union of aspects was needed. He rejected however the idea that many religious socialists had at the time, which held that an end of history type event of human fulfillment would ever happen in time, saying instead one must focus on the completeness of eternity.

Thus he was not necessarily defining a perfect end of history socialist state as a necessarily achievable goal, but as an ideal one must take into account when working, and that for the individual has more to do with personal virtue of working towards. This does not mean not to take it seriously in the real world however, but that one must be patient, and work on improving their own life in ways that are beneficial, not try to shoot for something that may not be immediately plausible in the present.

In relation to his idea of kairos or things in god's time, this obviously relates in-game to people making failed lawful states which end up terrible, (in II, literally because they didn't wait for YHVH's command) rather than being reasonable and patient, and waiting for god's time. This obviously relates in general with his ideas of the kingdom of god. (Note that he was not advocating a theocratic state, but rather that saying one's values inherently must influence one's movement forward, and certain balanced mentalities create the right values). As a whole though, association of the kingdom of god with a socialist state, being patient and not rushing it, and saying that regular socialists may have missed the point implies an ideology very close to in-game law.

**Eternal life** is the symbol of transcendence of finitude, and its categorical limits. it also symbolizes unity between history and the divine life itself. Note that this concept was used by him to refer to something that happened within regular life, and its relation to eternity, rather than directly after death. This idea relates though to the kingdom of god, which he saw as the inner historical manifestation of what eternal life was the telos from beyond history that was aiming people to itself.

He did however relate the concept directly to beyond death, and how it relates to purpose. This relates to how despite reincarnation existing, and even heaven, the games seem to imply that fulfillment of purpose in life is something that one accomplishes in this world, rather than waiting for the next. Tillich emphasizes a very this worldly focus.

**Afterlife**. Tillich said that the soul’s immortality is “a weak substitute for courage” that allows people to avoid dealing with the fact that death eventually comes to all people. And said an endless future is without aim, due to nothing giving urgency and is in fact an image of hell rather than heaven. Though at first this might sound like he believed in annihilation after death, his views were a bit more nuanced.

Tillich said that God would retain the memory of our ultimate concern after death, and that nothing which has been created in history is lost, but is liberated from the negative element of existence. History is elevated to eternity. Which parralel's whiteheads ideas of objective immortality rather than subjective immortality.

But eternal life is said to be shared among humanity by him, since the presence of each being is in a sense encoded onto each other. by extension each being has reason to work for the benefit of each other life since they share a single destiny of the kingdom being raised to eternity. But he does not see this as a loss of individuality, but as each aspect of one's being present in he absolute in distinct formats. that this is not loss of individuality has to do with how in god things that seem opposite are united. the eternal life of beings share eachother in essence. In a sense inner and outside historical is interrelated. The ultimate expression of reality is included in, rather than erased by the ultimate.

What exactly he means by this is a little ambiguous. In part of course since he's not saying what does happen, so much as ruling out what he thinks cannot. I.E. the extremes of things being lost in the face of eternity, or the extreme of subjective existence simply having unlimited time to it despite not being naturalistically feasible to him. For a loose comparison you could perhaps compare it to nirvana in buddhism. Which has to do with extinguishing subjective existence (which corresponding to tillich calling it hell, everlasting subjective existence is seen as imperfect in buddhism) in favor of objective existence.

## Fairies

Although it is not an official christian teaching, One Christian folkloric belief held that fairies were a class of "demoted" angels.
 One popular story described how, when the angels revolted, God ordered
the gates of heaven shut: those still in heaven remained angels, those
in hell became demons, and those caught in between became fairies.
 Others suggested that the fairies, not being good enough, had been
thrown out of heaven, but they were not evil enough for hell. This may explain the tradition that they had to pay a "teind" or tithe to hell: as fallen angels, though not quite devils, they could be seen as subjects of the devil.

According to King James in his dissertation Daemonologie,
 the term "faries" was used to describe illusory spirits (demonic
entities) that prophesy, consort, and transport individuals they served.
 In medieval times, it was believed that a witch or sorcerer who had a compact with a familiar spirit to serve them could receive these types of revelations or use them to perform various tasks

The former belief has an interesting parallel with megaten, as fairies of course show up as neutral demons, and even major figures in the bonds ending of iva where danu as a quasi christian neutral figure helps defeat the armies of angels and demons. Though nowhere in the series has it ever been implied that they are angels themselves, or ex angels.

## Ancient aliens

**Ancient aliens** is a concept that presents hypotheses of ancient visitors from space and proposes that historical texts, archaeology, and legends contain evidence of past human-extraterrestrial contact. It claims that many religious texts imply that the figures being mentioned as gods were actually aliens. Such as the story of Ezekiel talking about wheels in the midst of wheels saying that this matches with the modern concept of flying saucers. Sometimes this is combined with modern alien based spiritual beliefs and the idea that salvation as promised by religions is actually a promise from aliens that they will deliver on at some time in the future. A few angel designs were drawn to look like aliens in game for this reason, showing the association that some draw. Regardless, these theories are not considered very credible. More information related to this however on the ufo religions page.

## Messianic Judaism

**Messianic Judaism** is a modern syncretic religious movement that combines Christianity—most importantly, the Christian belief that Jesus is the Messiah—with elements of Judaism and Jewish tradition, its current form emerging in the 1960s and 1970s.

Despite calling itself a form of judaism, it is mainly a form of christianity, albeit with a few heterodox beliefs in keeping with the idea of being closer to judaism. The main part where it diverges from orthodox christianity is that the early christian debate over whether Christians all needed to also be jewish in which the early christians decided on that you did not need to, messianic jews seek to reverse that decision, saying that Christians should also be jews. This meaning that they believe that christians should also follow the old testament laws of moses. Despite this, many jews do not consider it very closely related to judaism, claiming that it is based almost entirely on christian, rather than jewish theology, despite bearing jewish aesthetics.

Messianic judaism may seem at first glance to be a basis for the law side, due to its combination of christian and jewish aspects, and even use of a cross with a jewish star symbol on it. However, these overlaps tie more to the hermetic order of the golden dawn. Its relevance if any ties merely to being part of the modern trend of syncretism in general.

## Vietnamese Syncretic Catholicism / Buddhism

Syncretic Catholicism and Buddhism have coexisted for several centuries in vietnam, due to french catholic influence. There are two primary formats - one that is Catholic-dominant and one that is Buddhist-dominant. Note that both versions are trying to preserve the core teachings of the religion that elements from the other one are incorporated into. It is not a full mixture that freely mixes the metaphysics. (Such a mixture actually does also exist primarily in vietnam in various forms, with its most well known one known as cao dai. Which has its own page on this wiki).

**Catholicized Buddhism**: Yahweh' is a deva, specifically, a Mahabrahma, who once believed he created the world, but later realized he was simply one of the first beings born into this world system; he is a student of the Buddha-dharma. Jesus Christ was a previous incernation of a bodhissatva, though it is often left unclear which one. Like sakyamuni's previous births, this bodhisattva did not teach the path to enlightenment, but still taught a valid path into the heavens. Jesus has since then become enlightened, and so can be followed as a teacher of the dharma.

With freedom to mix catholic and buddhist concepts, since yahweh now points people towards the dharma, and so practices which follow him are a way to be tuned into it. This generally preserves the literal version of the buddhist world system, but says that the elements of christianity were something that took place within it.

**Dharmisized Catholicism** is much less buddhist than the reverse. It uses some similar stuff here and there. Meditation becomes a form of prayer for certain ceremonies. Ancestor worship is also practiced (technically, this is folk religion, but in VN, folk religion and Buddhism are near indistinguishable from each other), but there's no real syncretism of the lore. It just takes on some of the aesthetics.

Obviously catholicized buddhism is something that very much resembles the metagen worldview. This being because the world system in megaten seems to be interpreted mostly dharmically, yet the main figures in many of the plots are christian figures. Which is the general worldview that a catholicized buddhist would see the world as looking like if they integrated it so much that their actual practice was seen as heavily saturated in christian elements but taking place within an ultimately more buddhist world system.

## R M Hare

**R M Hare** is another philosopher not usually associated with process theology, but who wrote an interesting contrasting version of it. In hare's “An Essay in Monism” There are detectable influences from Alfred North Whitehead, Arthur Eddington, and—indirectly—Bertrand Russell's neutral monism); A central notion, initially put to work in relating mind and matter without dualism, is rhythm, which is an activity that unites a thing with its causes and effects. The metaphysics that emerges is one of process rather than substance. The identity of a “rhythm” extends into its effects:

Note that this is a more fringe interpretation of process philosophy, and when he was older hare himself said that his younger process work was of little use, and that he didn't consider himself any longer an explicit advocate of it. But all the same, it is useful for contrast. Although hare did not explicitly relate this to pantheism, he did consider himself a “\*\*Christian empiricist\*\*”, despite not explicitly believing a supernatural god existed. (In practice he claimed that from within the world one could make no claims on one, making its existence irrelevant to the concept of god. Making him more resemble paul tillich, saying that one has to make sense of the concept of prayer from within the natural world). And his worldview did seem to relate to what he considered his general religious mentality. Though his purely metaphysical work is short and has not much content, much less is it often read, Hare's ethical idea of archangels and proles is a heavy basis for the ideology of law, as well as its death-of-god christian tone. So presenting his work to see some of its context can help. (information about his ethics is on the ethics page).

**A rhythm** is a series of occurrences which includes every effect caused by that rhythm; that is to say, a thing's effects, or the energy which it gives off, are just as much a part of that thing's entity as what we erroneously call its “matter”. (For instance, people think of their arms as part of them despite considering their brain primary, but do not consider other causal relations stemming from them as related to their identity when their control over them is similar as to that of their arms).

As Hare recognizes, “This is nonsense if we are thinking of a ‘thing’ as ‘a piece of matter’” (ch. 4, p. 30); but this changes if a “thing” is analyzable as a series of occurrences, for there is then “nothing to prevent the same occurrence being part of several different series.” It is an upshot that “things” extend into one another in a way that might be represented by overlapping sets of concentric circles: (ch. 4, p. 31). The reality (as on certain contemporary views of personal identity) is that a “thing” possesses not a definite boundary, but an indefinite periphery: Within one rhythm certain occurrences are more remote (or more immediate) causes (or effects) than others. That is to say, the coherence is stronger and more obvious at the centre than on the fringe. The more remote causes of a rhythm count for less in the entity of that rhythm than the more immediate causes, and the same is true of effects. That is why in our everyday consideration of rhythms we are content to ignore its fringes and to grasp at the central part.

**Sympathy** When two rhythms prehend one another, their relations can be either friendly or antagonistic. If A influences B in such a way as to fit in with B's rhythm, the two rhythms may be said to be in sympathy. In this case the two rhythms are united in a combined rhythm without losing their rhythmic individuality.

To isolate the body as something separate from our environment, is to regard perception as beginning suddenly when our bodies take part in it. But, as we have seen, cognition is a process extending right from the object to ourselves; and whatever in this process is consciously cognised by us, is cognition … Our cognition extends outside our bodies into our environment; or we may say that our bodies are merely a part of our environment; or better, that both bodies and environment are rightfully parts of our rhythms.

Into this context Hare introduces talk of “value” which is not easy to interpret, especially in light of his later views. He distinguishes value from substance as he has distinguished substance from rhythm, but how rhythm and value relate is less clear: "The “factor” which determines a rhythm from another rhythm is not a factor of substance but a factor of value. A rhythm is an interpretation of the universe according to its own standard of value; that is to say, it regards the events of the universe quoad itself, and as turning towards or cohering to itself, while turning away or being distinct from other rhythms … The same occurrence may have greater value from the point of view of one rhythm, less value from the point of view of another."

This connects with the use of the word “I”, which should not be interpreted as referring to a substance: "I am not setting up an “Ego” which is something distinct from the cognition, something which would exist, even if the cognition did not take place. Things are their actions; the action is the thing. Therefore the cognition is part of me, and I do not exist apart from my experiences. By saying that this cognition has reference to something called “I”, I mean that this event called a cognition coheres in a certain direction; it has a certain value … “Cognovi” implies, not a subject and a verb, but an event cohering in a certain direction, possessing a certain value. “I” am that direction and that value. I do not exist apart from my cognitions, any more than any Rhythm exists apart from its constituent events."

Hare has applied Whitehead's term “prehension” to the overflowing of one man's activity into the life of another. He also envisages an exercise of love and sympathy that gives him entry into another life: The meaning of love is that two persons “get inside” one another, so that the feelings of each become in some sense the feelings of both due to the sympathy of their overlapping rhythms. By Love we see through another's eyes, hear through his ears, run with his feet, handle with his hands; and he does the same with ours … Thus it is through Love that the greatest and fullest extension of our person can be achieved, namely extension into the person of another.

Much later, it was to become a question for Hare whether fully entering into the mind of another is sufficient to necessitate wishing for him what he wishes for himself, or only for forming wishes for what should happen to oneself were one in his shoes. Very much later he was to regret his inability to convey more than “feebly and aridly” supplementary reflections such as these: The quality of mutual love and affection between people, without which our life would have few joys, cannot be had without the right dispositions; and these dispositions, therefore, are the condition of both happiness and morality.

## Giordano Bruno

Giordano Bruno was an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, mathematician, poet, and astrologer, born in 1548. He is celebrated for his cosmological theories, which went even further than the then-novel Copernican model. He proposed that the stars were just distant suns surrounded by their own exoplanets and raised the possibility that these planets could even foster life of their own (a philosophical position known as cosmic pluralism). He also insisted that the universe is in fact infinite and could have no celestial body at its "center". Although the nonreligious often mistakenly hail him as an icon of science standing up to religious dogma, he was not particularly an accomplished scientist, and his theories were more philosophical speculation. Although he is interesting to compare with smt, there is likely no inspiration directly from him.

Bruno believed that there were two natural qualities, form and matter. Form was produced by soul, with all things animated by soul, and all things were individually animate. He also believed tht the universe was infinite in size, and went to infinity in every direction. He believed that the universe in and f itself also had a world-soul, and said that each individual soul had continuity with the spirit of the universe. Since the same laws existed everywhere, he argued that they must come from mind.

He came under flack for his panpsychist (consciousness in everything) views by people who asked him if dead bodies were then alive. And he said no, but their constituting elements were. He also compared earth to a person with rivers being like veins. He believed matter had two modes. Power to act, and subjectivity, which is the mental quality. He proposed that the stars were just distant suns surrounded by their own exoplanets and raised the possibility that these planets could even foster life of their own.

Although he was an Italian Dominican friar, he professed more pantheistic views, and the catholic encyclopedia says that he “believed that Christ was not God but merely an unusually skillful magician, or charlatan, that the Holy Ghost is the soul of the world, (note that in game, the holy spirit is described as an abstract immanent inner strength granting lawful aspect of the great will) that the Devil would eventually be saved.” (note in overcloked amane says that even demons would be saved) Although due to his pantheism, it is unsure in what sense he believed the devil actually existed as a distinct entity. He also brought back the more ancient beliefs of reincarnation, (common in SMT) and believed that Christianity should move to be more like the Egyptian religion. He was also known for intense arrogance and sarcasm, often calling his fellow friars asses for believing traditional catholic doctrine.

He was sentenced to death by the inquisition, on charges including denial of several core Catholic doctrines (including the Trinity, the divinity of Christ, the virginity of Mary, and Transubstantiation). to whom he said “Perhaps your fear in passing judgment on me is greater than mine in receiving it.” He also was said by later writers to have a system which called for a healing of the division between nature and divinity decreed by christianity, seeing them as more overlapping.

In his Lectures on the History of Philosophy Hegel writes that Bruno's life represented "a bold rejection of all Catholic beliefs resting on mere authority." (Although you can tie this to any alignment, the fact that he remained in a religious order calls to mind zayin rejecting the bishop of the center, and later even YHVH while remaining within the lawful or messianic paradigm.)

## Origen Adamantius

**Origen** was a scholar and early Christian theologian who was born and spent the first half of his career in Alexandria. Unlike many church fathers, he was never canonized as a saint because some of his teachings directly contradicted the teachings attributed to the apostles, notably the Apostles Paul and John. His teachings on the pre-existence of souls, (he may have also believed in reincarnation, though no writings of him saying such remain. Which would place him closer to megaten lore) the final reconciliation of all creatures, including perhaps even the devil (the apokatastasis), and the subordination of God the Son to God the Father, were extremely controversial. This universalism has parralels in some games like overclocked where amane points out that the final goal is to save even the demons. Origen has long been considered essentially a Platonist with occasional traces of Stoic philosophy.

Origen speculated that God, before he created our universe, had busied himself with the creation of an endless series of earlier worlds. This matches well with a mixture of christianity with eastern cosmologies like exists in megaten, where YHVH seems to usually be the creator god, but has presided over multiple worlds in time. Although notably, megaten is not clear whether time goes back to infinity or not.

Origen's cosmology is complicated and controverted, but he seems to have held to a hypothesis of the preexistence of souls. Before the known world was created by God, he created a great number of spiritual intelligences. At first devoted to the contemplation and love of their creator, almost all of these intelligences eventually grew bored of contemplating God, and their love for him cooled off. Those whose love for God diminished the most became demons. Those whose love diminished moderately became human souls, eventually to be incarnated in fleshly bodies. Those whose love diminished the least became angels.

One, however, who remained perfectly devoted to God became, through love, one with the Word (Logos) of God. The Logos eventually took flesh and was born of the Virgin Mary, becoming the God-man Jesus Christ. (Which interestingly as well, parralels the in game ideas, especially in II of being able to become a face of God as zayin says in its added scene, and shows up in game as godly race). The diverse conditions in which human beings are born is actually dependent upon what their souls did in this pre-existent state. Thus what seems unfair, some being born poor and others wealthy, some sick and others healthy, and so forth, is, Origen insists, actually in a by-product of the free-will of souls.

Thus, material creation is at least implicitly of a lesser ontological category than the immaterial, or spiritual, and the heavy material bodies that man assumes after the fall will eventually be cast off. Origen, however, still insisted on a bodily resurrection, but in contrast to Athenagoras, who believed that earthly bodies would be precisely reconstituted in the hereafter, Origen argued that Paul's notion of a flourishing spiritual body is more appropriate.

A strict adherent of the Church, Origen yet distinguished sharply between the ideal and the empirical Church, representing "a double church of men and angels", or, in Platonic phraseology, the lower church and its celestial ideal. The ideal Church alone was the Church of Christ, scattered over all the earth; the other provided also a shelter for sinners. Holding that the Church, as being in possession of the mysteries, affords the only means of salvation, he was indifferent to her external organization, although he spoke sometimes of the office-bearers as the pillars of the Church, and of their heavy duties and responsibilities. This matches with the in game fact that church bodies on earth in game were often seen as imperfect and humanly influenced, and were corrected by the angels when they came to earth, and not as a structure considered itself inherently right.

Origen's conception of God the Father is apophatic—a perfect unity, invisible and incorporeal, transcending all things material, and therefore inconceivable and incomprehensible. He is likewise unchangeable, and transcends space and time. But his power is limited by his goodness, justice, and wisdom; and, though entirely free from necessity, his goodness and omnipotence constrained him to reveal himself. This revelation, the external self-emanation of God, is expressed by Origen in various ways, the Logos being only one of many. The Logos is the rational creative principle that permeates the universe. Since God eternally manifests himself, the Logos is likewise eternal. He forms a bridge between the created and uncreated, and only through him, as the visible representative of divine wisdom, can the inconceivable and incorporeal God be known.