On Dec 14, 2004, at 10:45 AM, Michael Scott Williams wrote:

> What makes anyone think Mark Twain has a lock on who God is?  I think
> much can be said about his approach and personal understanding of God,
> but that's all it is -- his personal view.  To take his understanding
> as something we all need to take on as his own goes against Twain's
> own appreciation for being "your own thinker," so it goes --  to
> reason things out on your own.

.................
Mark Twain comes at God in a personal way: speaking to the person that
is God. This is a quality found throughout his creative work relating
directly to the subject of God.  Yes, he engages with ideas and throws
thunderbolts at hypocrisy against God, but in the main he's speaking
directly to God /as a Person/.  This is my take, not as a scholar (I'm
not), but as a literary and creative person, and through reading Mark
Twain and engaging with him.

"[F]or millions of Christians [...] God is no more real than He is to
the non-Christian.  They go through life trying to love an ideal and be
loyal to a mere principle."  -- AW Tozer

Susan Dorman