Unveiled human nature encoded in ancient theology

I can't get past the fact [as in I keep coming back to] that one little data point of biblical doctrine can be the theme for an entire literary novel. Like as I mentioned once, Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, and the theme of the mother and original sin and death and how we are unclean because our mothers are unclean, from Adam. I had a good quote from Boston's Human Nature in its Fourfold State when I wrote that originally, but I forget it now.

From a past email:

"General Revelation doesn't reveal the Gospel, only Special Revelation does that - BUT - the Reformed theologians point out that once you know Special Revelation then General Revelation *informs* Special Revelation and vice-versa. So, like you say, you can see God's plan in nature and human nature (fallen nature, as you said).

Regarding novelists I used the example in a past post of Faulkner in As I Lay Dying using as metaphor the dead mother in a coffin, stinking, to present the theme of original sin and how no man is clean because we come from our mothers and they aren't clean (I don't have the Biblical quotes at hand).

Artists are at their deepest levels when elucidating these themes from Special Revelation using material from General Revelation.

And there are great lengths for the depth and artistry to go.

This is why 'Christian novels' or 'Christian music' are plastic genres because you don't have to mention Special Revelation directly or obviously. You use General Revelation as material. This is where the world seems more real, or less shallow than explicit Christian culture, yet the most inspired works are inspired because they are carrying themes of Special Revelation."

This is why I use to hunger for these influences too. Because they had these deep, foundational biblical themes in them.

That sentence I quoted awhile back: "...the stark, hard knowledge of unveiled human nature, its esse, encoded in ancient theology, wherein Original Sin held central, axial place..."

I love that, unveiled human nature encoded in ancient theology.

I'm almost through with my current foray into Niall Ferguson's work. I really get the impression that both The Ascent of Money, and then Empire, cover his main themes. They compliment each other as well.

When I read this phrase - unveiled human nature encoded in ancient theology - I think of Boston's Human Nature in its Fourfold State. I also think of the Work [Fourth Way material, found most purely in Ouspensky's Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution {and note: Ouspensky was early in taking down Darwinian evolution} and also his Fourth Way]. As I mentioned in the past, when you read that Boston book you will see the Work in it throughout in remarkable and striking ways. Really quite blatant ways. - C.