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tree_and_leafMysteriously tired, having had difficulty sleeping - and then, once I achieved it, over-sleeping. This is not ideal, as I'm going camping with the Cubs over the weekend, and starting with a sleep-debt is, to say the least, sub-optimal.
However, last night I did listen to the first half of the Big Finish audio "The Council of Nicea" (written by Caroline Symcox), which I think is very nearly my favourite Doctor Who thing ever, because - as you will have guessed - anything which combines theology, devious plotting, and Five - is guaranteed to get my vote.
I admit that there were points when I wondered why Five was being such a theological fanboy (still, much less head-desky than Ten's moment of inexplicable Easter smugness in "Planet of the Dead"), but, as he points out to Peri, it is a moment of enormous historical significance, for good or ill (good AND ill?) Peri's total cluelessness about the theology of it all is entertaining.
Doctor: Peri, even in your day, the creed they'll agree here will be recited every Sunday in churches all over the world!
Peri: Well, at the church I got dragged to as a kid, the pastor never talked about anything like this!
Doctor (sotto voce): Not an Episcopalian, then.
I liked the scene in which the Doctor, who has been given an invitation to the Council, talked the guard into letting him take his "assistants" in with him.
Doctor: They're my assistants. My... clerks.
Guard: But they're women!
Doctor: And was the Lord himself not helped by many women? And doesn't Paul write commending Phoebe as his fellow servant of the church, and ask the church at Rome to assist her in her work?*
Guard: Er, if you say so. (sotto voce) Christians and their crazy ideas....
I was also, possibly inordinately, amused by Constantine, explaining the difficult theological-political situation to the Doctor, with the dark comment "And bishops aren't the worst of it!"
I do like Erimem, her guts and her sense of justice, though her plan to rally the people of Nicea in support of Arius is clearly going to result in failure and probably substantial amounts of nastiness.
Arius is characterised as heroic, pensive and thoroughly likeable (which the historical record more or less supports), while Athanasius appears to be attempting to assure the triumph of orthodoxy by sending out assassins, which seems a bit much even for the patristic period. In fact, though the Council overwhelmingly backed the homoousion position (that is, that the Father and the Son are of one substance, and the Son is not a created being - 'consubstantial, co-eternal'), the Arians bounced back, Arius returned from exile, and Athanasius spent most of the rest of his life dealing with Arian opponents, being at one time exiled himself. Constantine is well-written - he's ruthless and devious, probably a nasty piece of work, but one who's also an efficient politician.
It would be nice if, having had a clear explanation of Arianism, we could have someone explaining the other side in one of the next two episodes... well, a girl can dream.
Anyway, despite the fact that I am very much not an Arian, I love this play very much (and I am tempted to point the various Doctor Who loving clergy of my acquaintance at it...)
* Rom: 16 1-2.
However, last night I did listen to the first half of the Big Finish audio "The Council of Nicea" (written by Caroline Symcox), which I think is very nearly my favourite Doctor Who thing ever, because - as you will have guessed - anything which combines theology, devious plotting, and Five - is guaranteed to get my vote.
I admit that there were points when I wondered why Five was being such a theological fanboy (still, much less head-desky than Ten's moment of inexplicable Easter smugness in "Planet of the Dead"), but, as he points out to Peri, it is a moment of enormous historical significance, for good or ill (good AND ill?) Peri's total cluelessness about the theology of it all is entertaining.
Doctor: Peri, even in your day, the creed they'll agree here will be recited every Sunday in churches all over the world!
Peri: Well, at the church I got dragged to as a kid, the pastor never talked about anything like this!
Doctor (sotto voce): Not an Episcopalian, then.
I liked the scene in which the Doctor, who has been given an invitation to the Council, talked the guard into letting him take his "assistants" in with him.
Doctor: They're my assistants. My... clerks.
Guard: But they're women!
Doctor: And was the Lord himself not helped by many women? And doesn't Paul write commending Phoebe as his fellow servant of the church, and ask the church at Rome to assist her in her work?*
Guard: Er, if you say so. (sotto voce) Christians and their crazy ideas....
I was also, possibly inordinately, amused by Constantine, explaining the difficult theological-political situation to the Doctor, with the dark comment "And bishops aren't the worst of it!"
I do like Erimem, her guts and her sense of justice, though her plan to rally the people of Nicea in support of Arius is clearly going to result in failure and probably substantial amounts of nastiness.
Arius is characterised as heroic, pensive and thoroughly likeable (which the historical record more or less supports), while Athanasius appears to be attempting to assure the triumph of orthodoxy by sending out assassins, which seems a bit much even for the patristic period. In fact, though the Council overwhelmingly backed the homoousion position (that is, that the Father and the Son are of one substance, and the Son is not a created being - 'consubstantial, co-eternal'), the Arians bounced back, Arius returned from exile, and Athanasius spent most of the rest of his life dealing with Arian opponents, being at one time exiled himself. Constantine is well-written - he's ruthless and devious, probably a nasty piece of work, but one who's also an efficient politician.
It would be nice if, having had a clear explanation of Arianism, we could have someone explaining the other side in one of the next two episodes... well, a girl can dream.
Anyway, despite the fact that I am very much not an Arian, I love this play very much (and I am tempted to point the various Doctor Who loving clergy of my acquaintance at it...)
* Rom: 16 1-2.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-24 10:49 am (UTC)