Battle of the Beasts (part 2)

In my last post, I started a discussion about the beasts in Torrey. While there are political beasts (Hobbes’ Leviathan) and books that are beasts themselves (Russian novels), I wanted to focus on the five biggest beasts. In my last post I discussed Frankenstein’s monster and Moby-Dick. Both were impressive in size and had unique characteristics. The last three beasts though are even bigger and completely evil. They include two dragons and one huge being. They each stand for the highest evil in their works.

The Faerie Queen Dragon

At the end of Book I of Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queen, the protagonist, Redcrosse encounters the great dragon the Faerie Queen had sent him to kill for Una, the woman of truth. The dragon had captured Una’s kingdom and forced her parents to hide in a high tower. As Una and Redcrosse approach her kingdom, the dragon appears.

The Smudge of Sin: Athanasius and Anselm

God expresses his beauty through creation. There is no doubt of the beauty of the lilies that do not toil or spin. One can only stand in awe when looking up at the night sky full of stars and galaxies. The complexities of even the smallest cells, molecules, atoms, and everything smaller show the immense detail of creation while the world, stars, and galaxies show the vastness of his power. Yet in all of creation, nothing is so unique as man who bears the image of God. He is God’s masterpiece of creation.

Yet something has happened. Anselm of Canterbury writes, “The human race, clearly his most precious piece of workmanship, has been completely ruined” (A, 269).  Sin has contaminated the great masterpiece and ruined it.

Athanasius and Anselm both refer to sin as a smudge on the masterpiece of God.

Athanasius focuses on the incarnation in his work so aptly named On the Incarnation. He delves into the purposes of the incarnation and why it was necessary. As he talks about man’s redemption, he compares it to an artist and an old portrait.