(no subject)

[noahgibbs]

So hey, question for all you readers of Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel series, Jews, and Jewish readers of the Kushiel series...

As part of her alternative-theology-slash-alternative-history, she has a major upheaval in Europe that pretty much stops the Catholic church from happening. The folks who wind up in "I Can't Believe It's Not France" (tm), aka Terre D'Ange, believe in the One God of the old Jewish religion... But the D'Angelines are an offshoot, certainly no more similar to Judaism than Islam is. They're also pretty definitely not Christian. They acknowledge Judaism, but it's background for the parts of their religion that they actually pay attention to.

The Jews are still around, but they're not what you'd usually think of as Jewish. Specifically, Jesus (called Yeshua ben Josef) has been accepted universally by the Yeshuites, who are thus all messianic Jews. They even use the word "Moschiach" when referring to him, which is either the same word the modern, real-life messianic Jews use or close enough that my lack of Hebrew can't distinguish :-)

What this means is that in her world, when a major politic upheaval took place in central Europe and a new nation and religion were formed, Catholicism didn't happen and the Jews all became Yeshuites (messianic).

So, I ask my readers: if you're Jewish, do you find that idea realistic? Offensive? Both or neither? If you're not Jewish, feel free to speculate. We're mostly Californians here. If we can't get huffy and offended on somebody else's behalf, who can?

Comments

[vito-excalibur.livejournal.com]

Not really, it's established at the beginning of the story that it's very hard to get from Terre D'Ange to Alba; more to the point, you see eventually in the story that if you actually go and see him there's no doubt on the matter. People think he's mythical in the same way that they thought rhinoceroses were mythical; there was no photography, sound recording, etc., so conveying proof could be more difficult.

The series does get more god-ridden in the third book. It's one of the things I didn't like. But I still thought it was a good & satisfying ending to the trilogy.