The Divine Invasion by Philip K. Dick


Lest God Forget

One of the central issues in Christian theology is the way in which the divine and the human can plausibly be combined in Christ. Once it was decided dogmatically that Christ was divine, the theological discussion turned to his two ’natures’ existing in one person. The resolution of this then raised the question of whether the two natures implied two ‘wills’. The controversy subsequently cascades into a series of doctrines and heresies. Monotheism was supposed to simplify things. Christianity is nothing if not intellectually complex.

So lots of theological loose ends about Christ, even today. And there are at least two aspects of Christianity’s inherent complexity that have never been fully explored. The first is the reason why YHWH of the Old Testament would find it necessary to send himself in physical form to live as a human being. He had after all been present in his emanation as Sophia, or Wisdom, and participating in human life for some time (as Dick casually notes). The rather slapdash theory of the Atonement, that the sacrifice of Christ was necessary because of the immensity of evil in the world, is an obvious divine own goal. It was after all God who created the evil. And he tried to wipe it out with the flood once before and failed. So this strategy of upping the bet smacks of some desperation. No, Atonement doesn’t hack it.

Second, there are further attributes of Christ aside from his general nature and will which are as yet unexplained. In particular his memory seems to be an obvious theological sticking point. According to the Gospel of John, Christ was in on the creation. And according to the Apostle Paul, he was the vehicle of creation who was meant to give the whole caboodle to his Father at some future point. But in the other gospels, Jesus seems to have forgotten entirely about the rather pivotal role in the history of the universe. A lapse that no one before Dick seems to have noticed.

Dick has connected these two missing links, as it were, in this marvellous tale of the Re-Incarnation, the first attempt (or second, counting the flood) having failed rather obviously in not ridding the world of evil. The perennial question is ‘why?’ What went wrong such that things have since his appearance been as screwed up as they ever have been? And what’s all this business that Paul was pushing about an imminent second coming? Why not get the job done in one visit? We’d expect as much from the plumber; why not God who also charges premium rates?

Dick’s theological hypothesis is that YHWH is, or is becoming, a bit forgetful. It could be that divine dementia threatens. The strain on the sacred cerebrum is undoubtedly intense, if not infinite. A bit of occupational therapy and determination of whatever the correct heavenly dosage of Haldol was for YHWH apparently took a bit longer than Paul expected.

This situation is problematic, according to Dick’s hypothesis, because the universe only exists to the extent that it is a memory in the mind of God. If that memory is in jeapordy there is a clear rationale for otherwise drastic action. This is theological creativity at its best and certainly superior to the bulk 0f professional theological thought. This concept represents much more than Einstein’s metaphor for the laws of nature as the buried thoughts of God. Einstein didn’t mean it; Dick does. It is the world’s existence as God’s active memory which is at stake. If God forgets, even momentarily, the whole thing pops out of existence as suddenly as it popped in. Suck on that for a bit of relativity, Albert.

Hence the real role of Christ entering into creation - to make sure that God keeps us all in mind, and therefore in existence. The Old Testament divine emanation of Sophia (aka the Holy Spirit to Christians, and Pallas Athena/Diana to interested pagans) is inadequate for the job because he/she/it has no memory, only eternal thoughts. The Spirit just has to carry out instructions; history is demarcated to other members of the Trinity. And who knows but that there are many matters on the divine agenda more important than the continuing existence of the universe. Memory is a specialised job calling for very specific talents. Only one man for the job, obviously.

So Paul the Apostle was indeed correct; Christ’s mission was to save the world, quite literally. But although Paul remembered, Christ forgot. Both his eternal past and his intended future got a bit blurry, suggesting, perhaps, an inherited divine genetic defect. Or perhaps the job takes practice (accounting, therefore, for the second coming). Fortunately YHWH’s memory did not completely fail him (or us) in the interval between the Roman massacre of the final Jewish stronghold of Masada (when YHWH was forced into exile in a distant star system) and the present day (or rather the present day of the future when star travel has become technologically feasible).

Dick’s cinematic revival has more or less the same cast of characters as the original stage-production - the pregnant virgin, the stand-in father, the same prophet from the original cast, Elijah (a bit older but once you’re past 4000 who’d notice); as well as a chorus of worshipping followers and evil assassins. The Christian-Islamic Church (Elijah is a saint for both) is no help of course, aligned as it is with the global Communist Party as The Adversary, that is to say Satan, of old.

So the dramatic tension builds with clear biblical gravitas. Can the invading forces re-establish the power of YHWH in the evil zone? Will YHWH resist the temptation to nod off during the crucial scene? Can the new Emanuel remember his lines? On the more serious side, would it really be so hard for Christ just to forget the bad bits that keep recurring to YHWH and keep the rest (Just sayin’)? There’s at least as much action as Star Trek and much more theological wit.

View all my reviews