> What you describe better fits a dualistic Manichean view of the world than a Christian one.
Six of one, half a dozen of the other. The morality play was invented by Christians, by the time that happened, Manichaeism was long gone. Personifying evil had long been in the imagination of the peoples of the near-East and it shouldn't be so surprising that it would crop back up in culture.
> Denying it denies the human spirit, and produces a sickly and bland anthropology that inspires no one.
I would argue that the constant drumbeat of Christ-like figures in fiction inspires more eye rolls than attempts to incorporate non-Western moral frameworks into stories. Black Panther is probably the most interesting MCU franchise as a result. Precisely because it reimagines an African nation on technological and economic parity with the West, we get an opportunity to re-examine morality that isn't Christian.
> No great works await us.
I think this is unnecessarily pessimistic and overstates the importance of the divine sacrifice to fiction. If you've just landed on one set of works as the only works to bother trying to enjoy, all you're really accomplishing is snobbishness. The story of Jesus' sacrifice is indeed a great one, and it's mined for fictive influence all the time, but you know what else gets the same treatment? Job. Most of these imaginings of evil God doesn't ultimately stem from gnostic cosmology, but rather from Job. The difference is that in the end, all the adversary's scheming and machinations result in elevating and improving the protagonist.
> You cannot escape morality.
Sure, but you make a worse mistake when you attribute all of it to Christianity. Ethical monotheism is a useful theology, but where it can lead is to justification of slavery and oppression, the antithesis to Jesus' objective.
I enjoy romance anime, and it's very refreshing to observe other cultures' moral imaginings. There's a different storytelling language at play, stemming from Japan's unique blend of natural religion, its own philosophical tradition, and the Christianity that merely influences Japanese thought, it doesn't swim in savior narrative like the West's cultural canon.
And it's pretty far from being "increasingly boring".
> its own philosophical tradition, and the Christianity that merely influences Japanese thought, it doesn't swim in savior narrative like the West's cultural canon.
Really? I see Japanese works with as much if not more savior narrative than western’s.
Maybe you don’t see it due to you mostly consuming romance anime, have you also tried western romance?
Western romance, kill me now. It's the same idiot misogynistic white dude trying to woo the same hotter, smarter, better in every way woman and conquering her into marriage.
Six of one, half a dozen of the other. The morality play was invented by Christians, by the time that happened, Manichaeism was long gone. Personifying evil had long been in the imagination of the peoples of the near-East and it shouldn't be so surprising that it would crop back up in culture.
> Denying it denies the human spirit, and produces a sickly and bland anthropology that inspires no one.
I would argue that the constant drumbeat of Christ-like figures in fiction inspires more eye rolls than attempts to incorporate non-Western moral frameworks into stories. Black Panther is probably the most interesting MCU franchise as a result. Precisely because it reimagines an African nation on technological and economic parity with the West, we get an opportunity to re-examine morality that isn't Christian.
> No great works await us.
I think this is unnecessarily pessimistic and overstates the importance of the divine sacrifice to fiction. If you've just landed on one set of works as the only works to bother trying to enjoy, all you're really accomplishing is snobbishness. The story of Jesus' sacrifice is indeed a great one, and it's mined for fictive influence all the time, but you know what else gets the same treatment? Job. Most of these imaginings of evil God doesn't ultimately stem from gnostic cosmology, but rather from Job. The difference is that in the end, all the adversary's scheming and machinations result in elevating and improving the protagonist.
> You cannot escape morality.
Sure, but you make a worse mistake when you attribute all of it to Christianity. Ethical monotheism is a useful theology, but where it can lead is to justification of slavery and oppression, the antithesis to Jesus' objective.
I enjoy romance anime, and it's very refreshing to observe other cultures' moral imaginings. There's a different storytelling language at play, stemming from Japan's unique blend of natural religion, its own philosophical tradition, and the Christianity that merely influences Japanese thought, it doesn't swim in savior narrative like the West's cultural canon.
And it's pretty far from being "increasingly boring".